[Country Fellowship Program] Rural Community Development(Nigeria): Programming Rural Development – The 2nd Year Course

April 27 ~ May 12, 2017, Seongnam, Republic of Korea

Twenty(20) of policy practitioners and administrators related to rural development from the Federal Republic of Nigeria will participate in country fellowship program ¡®Rural Community Development Capacity Building: Programming Rural Development(Nigeria) - the 2nd Year Course¡¯ to be held in Seongnam, Republic of Korea, from the 27th of April to 12th of May (16 days). Entrusted by the Korea International Cooperation Agency(KOICA), the Korea Institute for Rural Development(KIRD) designed and will implement the fellowship program. Participants are from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development(FMARD), the Federal Ministry of Budget and National Planning, Future Assured Programme(FAP), and several state governments including Anambra, Cross River, Ondo, Lagos, Zamfara and Plateau.

This Rural Community Development Capacity Building Program is one of multi-year fellowship programs provided by Korean government which is started from 2016 and will be continued till 2018, aims to help strengthen the capacity of high and middle level policy practitioners and administrators in strategic planning and implementation for promoting agricultural and rural development of Nigeria.

While the focus of the 1st year course in 2016 was placed in policy development and strategy formulation for promoting rural development, the 2nd year fellowship course in 2017 will highlight strategic programming in major sectors of rural development. Those are coincided with the three(3) learning modules of the fellowship course: (1) Improvement of agricultural productivity and competitiveness; (2) Promotion of Rural Community Development; and (3) Agricultural Marketing and Value Chain Creation.

The participants will have opportunities to study on-site with several study visits and field trips. Along with case study lectures regarding several principal development programs, a number of site visits will be scheduled including Hakil Rural Village, Wanju Local Food Station, Gurye Natural Dream Park, and Imsil Cheese Theme Park as well as study visits to the Rural Development Administration, the Korea Saemaul Undong Center, the Rural HRD Center, etc.

Moreover, attendees are planning to devise solutions for current issues of Nigeria in the target learning subjects. Action Plan will be projected based on their learning of Korea¡¯s development experience from the program. During the course, they will prepare concrete alternatives for problem solving and then when they return home, their plans are expected to be in practice.