College of Agriculture & Natural Resources Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics

Non-AFRE Co-Principle Investigators: Other AEC/ AFRE and MSU Faculty. Tom Zalla and James Bingen (Community Sustainability)

Project Name:            Sahel Master’s Degree Training Program *
Donor:                        United States Agency for International Development
Contract No:              AID/afr-C-1267  USAID Project # 6250926
Account No:               MSU 71-2024
Location:                    MSU Campus (recruitment of students from Burkina Faso, Niger, Senegal, Gambia, Mauritania, Mali, Togo, and Cape Verde)
Duration:                    October 1976-February 1985
Budget:                       $292,270
Documents:              (Click here to view)

Project Goals:           To create the staff and support capability to help select, train, and provide post-graduate field support for Sahelians at the master's degree level in agricultural economics.

Project Plans/Objectives:

•  To assist AID field officers and host governments in the Sahel to identify and screen qualified candidates for the training program
• To arrange adequate English language and economics training programs
• To ensure that the program is suited to the operational requirements of the positions the Sahelian candidates will fill on their return home
• To support the participants in their course work
• To provide on-the-spot field follow-up for the graduates of the program

Cooperating Institutions:      Among the various institutions involved  were USAID Missions throughout the Sahel; Ministries of Planning, Rural Development and Agriculture; universities; a number of research institutes and International Training Program Specialists for Agriculture in the USDA Office of International Training. The countries included Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Chad, Gambia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal.

Project Summary:     In 1983 there were 21 graduates and 9 current enrollees for a total of 30 students in the Sahel Master's program. Of these, 28 were in Agricultural Economics and two in Agricultural Education.

Documents From/About This Project:

• Final Report on Sahel Master's Training in Agricultural Economics (African Development Program - AID/AFR - C - 1267).  April, 1985.  by Lester V. Manderscheid with Patricia Bonnard, Assistant.  Department of Agricultural Economics, Michigan State University.
• Each Agricultural Economics student conducted research that provided the basis for a master's thesis. These theses are shelved in the Agricultural Economics Reference room in Agriculture Hall.   Abstracts and some full papers are downloadable by searching by student’s name in the AFRE “Dissertations, Theses and Plan B Papers” search window.
• USAID Development Clearing House – All Documents From This Project

*This description is adapted from work by Nancy E. Horn, an MSU alumnus from the Anthropology Department, published in 1985 “A Project History of Michigan State University’s Participation in International Development for the period 1951 – 1985”.  See AFRE Emeritus Faculty Acknowledgements