Institutionally, RUFORUM aims to:
- Strengthen the capacity of locally based researchers who are responsive to farmer needs and opportunities for agricultural innovation within a context of national development
- Promote the retention of this capacity through farmer and employer demand
- Develop collaborative research and training facilities that achieve economies of scope and scale, and thus, make graduate education more “affordable”
- Enhance the participation and voice of women in agricultural research, production and marketing
- Encourage the application of research training and outreach to the reform of policy and development practice.
To achieve the above aims, RUFORUM, through a wide-ranging consultative prioritization and consensus building process among the member universities and other actors from within and outside Africa in agricultural innovation, is implementing 7 strategic goals. The overall guiding principle is proactive engagement with stakeholders in graduate training, research and development processes. Thus graduate training and research are the major generation and delivery mechanisms for RUFORUM outputs.