Why Is ARU Needed Now?
In 1998, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said: Today, globalization is affecting all aspects of our lives, from the political, to the social, to the cultural. Only knowledge, it would seem, is not being globalized. In an age where the acquisition and advancement of knowledge is a more powerful weapon in a nation’s arsenal than any missile or mine, the knowledge gap between the rural and urban is widening. This trend must be reversed… Africa is struggling; and it is predominantly rural. Its failure to “catch up” with industrialized countries is, in part, caused by the imposition of western approaches to both development and education on African rural economies. Here’s a typical example of this problem in development: a large international organization sends machinery and sophisticated technical advisers into rural areas to effect agricultural reform. For a while, dramatic increases in food production and other improvements are achieved. But rural people are either not involved or are
