NICHE projects in search of synergy
In a series of Nuffic NICHE workshops in Egypt, representatives from different organisations come together to share experiences and exchange knowledge. This process is also happening in other NICHE countries. Where can synergy be found?
The NICHE programme in Egypt covers five projects, three in water and two in agriculture. In December 2012 the project representatives, the Dutch embassy and the Egyptian Ministry of Education came together in Cairo for a NICHE workshop organised by Nuffic.
The aim of these country workshops is to stimulate synergies between the projects, so that they operate as a programme, and to focus on making the outputs sustainable. Synergy implies making use of each other’s experience, expertise, strengths and networks and learning from each other’s problems and mistakes.
Egypt is formally no longer a Dutch partner country, which means that no new NICHE projects will be started. As the five ongoing projects evolve, it is important that partners from post-secondary education institutions, ministries, national commissions and NGOs can continue working together, even after the NICHE projects have ended.
Sustainability
Although the partners work in different disciplines, they can face the same challenges in implementing NICHE activities:
- Financial sustainability must be ensured for the new courses that are developed by the institutions in the NICHE projects. Formulating a sound marketing strategy and linking with the labour market is crucial. The Regional Institute for River Transport, for instance, is carrying out training needs assessments to design profiles and career paths and develop practical training materials.
- Institutional sustainability is enhanced by enrolling top management in the project. The Desert Development Centre of the American University is formulating a sound gender policy for the institution which others can also use and adapt.
- Academic sustainability requires support from the Egyptian ministries. The Ministry of Education has rules and regulations for accreditation and therefore collaboration with the ministry is needed from the start, when the institutions formulate new courses and follow their internal procedures. But support is also necessary from the ministries in the NICHE sectors. The Ministry of Agriculture, for example, has selected the Farmer Field School as the extension method to be used throughout Egypt.
The stakeholders are enthusiastic about this exchange of experiences in the NICHE workshop and plan to continue this creative collaboration in search of synergy.
For more information about the projects in Egypt, contact Nuffic or get in touch with the organisations directly.
