GHANA – The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has committed US$15 million for the support of an African supply Chain improvement initiative.
A statement from USAID revealed that the funds will help Arizona State University and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in the Republic of Ghana to create an innovative research and training center to improve African supply-chains.
The new Center for Applied Research and Innovation in Supply Chain-Africa (CARISCA) will train researchers and practitioners.
The supply chain improvement center will also produce new research and translate and apply state-of-the-art research from around the world to improve local supply-chains, particularly in health care and agriculture.
USAID noted that understanding local needs and improving how local products and services move from producers to customers is critical to developing strong, self-reliant economies across Africa.
Through this partnership, the new research and training center help establish Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology as Africa’s preeminent source of expertise on the sustainable management of supply-chains;
The supply chain research center will also be equipped to become a resource for researchers in Ghana and across Africa.
As a research center, CARISCA will drive innovative research and training to improve African supply-chains, particularly for women and the most-disadvantaged customers and producers.
The research center is also expected to leverage the private sector, governments, and civil-society partners to connect African businesses, researchers, and practitioners in supply-chain management to global resources.
USAID works strategically with institutions of higher education to bring ingenuity and innovative approaches to solve critical challenges along the Journey to Self-Reliance.
Higher-education partnerships can build and strengthen scientific research capacity to fill gaps in knowledge and empower governments, civil society, and the private sector in our partner countries to address their own development challenges.
The commitment to support the innovation center is Ghana follows an earlier agreement with Egypt where USAID agreed to offer assistance worth $90 million to the North African Nation.
The assistance was mainly aimed at implementing development projects in eight priority sectors including basic education, higher education, scientific research, technology, health, agriculture, and trade and investment.
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