ICBA, Astrum IT Academy partner to offer youth capacity development opportunities

The International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA) and Astrum IT Academy, an international IT academy in Uzbekistan, have agreed to collaborate on, among other things, capacity development and knowledge sharing targeting specifically young people.

ICBA and Astrum IT Academy signed a memorandum of understanding to this effect on 23 November 2021 during the visit to the academy by Dr. Tarifa Alzaabi, Acting Director General of ICBA, and Dr. Aziz A. Karimov, Head of ICBA’s Regional Office for Central Asia and the South Caucasus.

The agreement focuses on collaboration in such areas as data-driven agriculture and agri-digitization. It also envisages the provision of opportunities to the academy’s students to engage in ICBA-led initiatives like the ICBA Youth Engagement Society (ICBA YES), which facilitates communication and collaboration between young people in different countries.

Under the agreement, the two organizations will also team up to provide internships to students, develop proposals for capacity development programs, and organize joint conferences and workshops. Moreover, both organizations will cooperate in localizing software solutions into Uzbek and other Central Asian languages.

Developing individual and institutional capacities forms part of ICBA’s mission in different countries. Over the past 22 years, some 8,900 people from 93 countries have benefited from various capacity development programs, including technical training courses, internships, and activities by the Emirates Soil Museum.

Since its establishment in 1999, the center has expanded its network of partners around the world to increase the reach and impact of its programs. It has partners in some 70 countries, enabling it to leverage a vast and diverse pool of expertise to achieve a greater impact on the ground.

Through this partnership, ICBA aims to share its technical know-how with young people in Uzbekistan and other Central Asian countries with an overall goal to support efforts to address local and global challenges related to food security and agricultural production and contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.