Innovative university cooperation will create green revolution in Africa - 03.11.2008

In the presence of the Danish Queen and the Prince Consort, the Dean of the Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Copenhagen, will sign a visionary partnership agreement with Sokoine University of Agriculture in Tanzania on Tuesday 4 November. The Faculty of Life Sciences wishes to create strong regional centres of excellence that may help solve Africa’s food crises and problems with mass unemployment and poverty through long-term binding partnership agreements with selected universities in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda.

 

Through the new Strategic Partnership Agreement, STRAPA, the involved universities in Denmark, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda for the first time bind themselves at the level of management to combine forces in order to enhance the quality of research and education for the benefit of local communities.

 

STRAPA builds on the cooperation that has taken place through several decades between the Faculty of Life Sciences (formerly the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University) and universities in Africa and that has primarily focussed on the development of research capacity and education of the scientific staff of the universities. That STRAPA is more than the traditional cooperation between North-South is also noted by the Tanzanian Minister for Education, Dr. Jumanne A. Maghembe:

- The Faculty of Life Sciences at University of Copenhagen does no longer come as the extended arm of development aid that “assists” Africa but as colleagues who, on the basis of mutual respect, find joint research and collaboration projects which the institutions seek joint funding for on the global market. This is the first time I hear about such an initiative, and this is clearly something we will give high priority, he says.

 

In connection with the ongoing state visit by Her Majesty Queen Margrethe of Denmark and His Royal Highness the Prince Consort, the royal couple will have the opportunity to take a closer look at Danish agricultural projects in Tanzania. Their visit to Sokoine University of Agriculture in Morogoro includes a forestry seed centre and a seed laboratory both developed by means of Danida funding and support from centres at the Faculty of Life Sciences. They will also witness the signing of the STRAPA agreement between Sokoine University and the Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Copenhagen. The agreement will be signed by Rector G.C. Monela on behalf of Sokoine University and by Dean Per Holten-Andersen on behalf of the Faculty of Life Sciences.

 

In this connection Per Holten-Andersen states:

-STRAPA is a long-term investment which the Faculty of Life Sciences has made because we think that securing the basic needs of the population, such as food safety and health, through strong research environments is a prerequisite for creating stability, peace and democracy in Africa.

 

However, signatures do not do it alone. Therefore, the ceremony in Tanzania is followed up by an open full-day seminar at the Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Copenhagen, on 3 December 2008 entitled ‘Hunger, Health and Hope in Africa’. Together with its STRAPA partners, the Faculty of Life Sciences will present ideas to how the Africa Commission may tackle the food crisis, the unequal trade conditions and the global health problems.

 

About STRAPA:

The Strategic Partnership Agreement partners are:

- Makerere University in Uganda

- University of Nairobi in Kenya

- Sokoine University of Agriculture in Tanzania

- Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

 

For more information, please contact Carl Erik Schou Larsen, Faculty of Life Sciences, tel. +45 35 33 26 59, e-mail: kesl@life.ku.dk