Training is fundamental to IPGRI's work to establish viable national programmes in client countries. The GPA highlighted training and capacity building as a priority action, as almost 80% of the country reports referred to lack of training as a serious constraint in their national programmes.

In 1993 IPGRI and regional partners decided that the most efficient approach for training in the SSA region would be to work in three subregions: southern Africa, eastern Africa and west and central Africa. Focal institutions were identified for each of the subregions: the Department of Crop Science at the University of Zambia, the Crop Science Department at the University of Nairobi and UCA, Côte d'Ivoire. IPGRI assisted by making links with overseas universities and other institutions of excellence which enabled study tours, specialized training courses, sharing of resource persons, interaction of staff from different institutions and provision of key training and reference materials.

Between 1993 and 1996, staff at the University of Zambia received substantial assistance through fellowships, sabbaticals, staff attachments and hands-on training. By 1996 the university had formally incorporated an elective plant genetic resources option into its MSc Agronomy programme. The first three students obtained fellowships from IPGRI (using funds from UNEP) to enroll during the 1999–2000 academic year and early results are overwhelmingly positive. The students have begun research on thesis projects that are directly relevant to genetic resources work in the country. The lecture programme is proving highly effective, with participation by the staff of IPGRI and the NPGRC of Zambia.

At the University of Nairobi, there are a number of relevant degree programmes on plant genetic resources for both undergraduate and postgraduate students. These are offered in the Department of Crop Science, Department of Range Management, and the Institute of Dryland Research, Development and Utilization (IDRDU). The Department of Crop Science, which offers the widest range of both plant and crop sciences, currently has three postgraduate degree programmes that can incorporate a genetic resources component. These are MSc Agronomy, MSc horticulture, and MSc plant breeding including a biometry unit.

In West and central Africa, the first university to develop specialized plant genetics training at the MSc level was the UCA. Studies in the field of plant genetic resources started in the early 1980s at the UCA through collecting and characterization of wild and cultivated yams, mainly supported by IBPGR and later on by IPGRI. Teaching of plant genetic resources started in 1989 as an important component of the MSc of Plant Breeding and Biotechnology. The MSc programme was restructured in 1998 to give an MSc of Genetics with four distinct options: plant breeding, plant genetic resources, animal breeding and genetic resources, and genetics in medicine. Plant genetic resources was then recognized as a full option and institutionalized in the formal curriculum. Since 1989, students from Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, Niger and the Republic of Central Africa have been trained at UCA. Most of them are currently playing very active roles in research and training in their respective national programmes.

IPGRI organized in-country (1996) and regional training courses (Darwin Initiative on ex situ conservation techniques in 1998) jointly with the staff of UCA. A professor of UCA has since joined IPGRI-SSA training staff as an Honorary Fellow and is actively working on strengthening the capacities of the university to deliver high-quality training. IPGRI-SSA has also started the process of identifying a second focal university among the Anglophone countries to reinforce the training capacity in the subregion.