Expected start date:

2017•01•01

Expected end date:

2018•08•31

Institute:

UNU-EHS

Project Status:

Closed

Project Type:

Capacity Development

Project Manager :

Erick Tambo

 The Pan-African University Institute of Water and Energy Sciences (including Climate Change) (PAUWES) is one of the five hubs of the Pan African University (PAU) and hosted at the University of Tlemcen in Algeria. The Pan-African University (PAU) was initiated by the African Union Commission (AUC) in 2008 with the objective to promote higher education, science and technology on the African continent at a high academic level. The focus is on the development of post-graduates, PhD-candidates and applied research. The PAU is guided by the vision of an Africa managed by its own citizens and acting as a dynamic force in the international arena.

In partnership with the German government, the PAUWES institute offers graduate students access to leading academic research and the latest theoretical and hands-on training in areas vital to the future of Africa’s development – water, energy and the challenge of climate change. Supported by cooperation with other institutions of higher education and research on the continent and beyond, the institute also benefits from a professional network of public, private and civil society actors. PAUWES is part of a broad, integrated system of higher education institutions across the African continent which include the PAU institute on the topic of “Basic Sciences, Technology and Innovation” institute in Kenya, the PAU institute on the topic of: “Life and Earth Sciences, including Health and Agriculture” in Nigeria, the PAU institute on the topic of “Governance, Humanities and Social Sciences” in Cameroon and the PAU institute on the topic of “Space Sciences” in South Africa.

The project – “Higher Education Cooperation with PAUWES” funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) through the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) aims to support the development of PAUWES by enhancing its teaching and research activities in water and energy sciences. The United Nations University – Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS), the Institute for Technology and Resources Management in the Tropics and Subtropics (ITT) at the Cologne University of Applied Sciences (CUAS) and the Center for Development Research (ZEF) at the University of Bonn (UB) are partners in a consortium for the implementation of the project.

This project represents the second phase of the Higher Education Cooperation with PAUWES. The first phase (from July 2014 until June 2016) incorporated the support for teaching at PAUWES (through workshops and summer schools, e-learning materials and tools, internship offerings and Msc-theses supervision), the organization of networking events and the linking of PAUWES with relevant partners as well as the exchange of experiences and concepts and the setup of entrepreneurship capacities to enhance PAUWES’ institutional development.

Building on the very successful achievements of the first phase, the second phase now aims to provide targeted support in teaching, establishing links to institutions and administrations as well as companies and strengthening the exchange of staff and students between PAUWES and the consortium partners. A networking conference will be jointly organized to strengthen the links between research and practice in the energy, water and climate change nexus. PAUWES’ institutional capacity building will be further supported and the institute will be integrated into research and capacity building networks in Africa and beyond.

Within the consortium, UNU-EHS is in charge of networking and outreach activities to strengthen PAUWES’ networks and its integration into the African (and beyond) research landscape in the area of energy, water and climate change. Specifically, UNU-EHS will organize activities and events that will focus on applied research and approaches to link research and practice in the fields of water, energy and climate change in Africa.