During the past decade, interest in sweetpotato in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has been expanding, the number of projects utilizing sweetpotato increasing, and the demand for training development practitioners and farmers subsequently rising as well. Sweetpotato scientists at the International Potato Center and national research centres often receive these requests and frequently hold 1-3 day training sessions, drawing on whatever training materials they have or can quickly pull together. The inadequacy of this approach has been quite apparent, but resources to address the problem were not available until now.The funding of the Reaching Agents of Change (RAC) project in 2011 has changed the situation. Jointly implemented by the International Potato Center (CIP) and Helen Keller International (HKI), RAC seeks to empower advocates for orange-fleshed sweetpotato (OFSP) to successfully raise awareness about OFSP and mobilize resources for OFSP projects. RAC also seeks to build the capacity of public sector extension and non-governmental organizational personnel to effectively implement those projects funded to promote the dissemination and appropriate use of vitamin A rich, orange-fleshed sweetpotato. The goal is to see sustained capacity for training senior extension personnel about the latest developments in sweetpotato production and utilization in each of the major sub-regions of SSA: Eastern and Central Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa. Hence, CIP has identified a local institution to work with in Mozambique, Tanzania, and Nigeria to host an annual course entitled: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Sweetpotato. During the first cycle of this course, CIP scientists worked closely with national scientists in implementing the course. During the second cycle, the national scientists will lead the training activities and course management with backstopping from CIP personnel. During the third cycle, national scientists will organise and conduct the course with just financial support from the project. In subsequent years, we hope that the course will have become fully self-sufficient on a cost recovery basis.In developing the course content, a long-time collaborator of CIP, Dr. Tanya Stathers of the Natural Resources Institute (NRI), University of Greenwich, has led the review of existing training material, added in new knowledge from sweetpotato scientists and practitioners, and designed the course with a heavy emphasis on learning-by-doing. Dr. Stathers previously collaborated with CIP, Ugandan sweetpotato scientists from the National Agriculture Research Organization (NARO), and FAO Global IPM Facility in Kenya on a field project which developed a comprehensive Sweetpotato IPPM Farmers Field School manual for Sub-Saharan Africa in 2005. In developing the course, Dr. Stathers has consulted CIP personnel
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