The University of Manchester has marked the launch of its Africa Strategy with a visit to Kenya to celebrate its partnerships with researchers there, which are addressing shared questions as outlined in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).
Visiting from the University is a cross-faculty delegation, including Professor Nalin Thakkar, Vice-President for Social Responsibility, Professor Keith Brennan, Vice Dean for Internationalisation, Professor Samuel Hickey, Head of the Global Development Institute, and Professor Susanne Shultz, Professor of Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation Biology.
At Kisii University, one of the University of Manchester's partners, the delegation will learn more about the medical education, emergency medicine and breast cancer screening research taking place before attending an event hosted by HE Simba Arati, Governor of Kisii County. They will also hear more about the new cancer hospital being built in Kisii County.
The academics will also tour Kenyatta University Teaching, Referral & Research Hospital's cancer and imaging facilities, with aspects of the visit to be focused on genomics, cervical cancer and mental health. A visit to Kitengela is planned, where discussions will centre on clean water, air quality, zoonotic disease and disease transmission.
The University is also collaborating with the Akiba Mashinani Trust (AMT) to reduce food poverty among school children in Kenya by providing meals during the school day.
Africa has a long-standing and growing importance for all three of The University of Manchester's faculties, with the continent being a key focus for its core objectives in teaching, research and social responsibility.
Professor Nalin Thakkar, Vice President for Social Responsibility at The University of Manchester said: "This visit to Kenya reinforces our aim to build long-term, durable partnerships that are equitable and lead to the co-creation of solutions to shared research questions that are important to people in all countries.
"Our Africa Strategy looks to develop resource, capacity sharing and knowledge production, with investment in people and facilities that is impactful on the ground in this region. We stand to learn so much from our partners in Africa, and we look forward to the breakthroughs the partnership will bring over the coming years."
Through this renewed strategy, the University hopes to strengthen its links with Africa and increase collaboration between researchers and educational institutions. Manchester academics are already involved in a broad range of research projects across Africa, in areas such as poverty reduction, improving health outcomes, mitigating the impacts of climate change and advancing conditions for sustainable development. The University wants to see many more co-created projects addressing the breadth of the UN SDGs.
Professor Margaret Hutchinson, Vice Chancellor of the University of Nairobi said: "We will only be able to address many of the shared questions for humanity, as described in the UN SDGs, by working together. The University of Manchester's strategy clearly lays out their approach to co-developing and co-creating research and we are delighted to be one of their partners."
Dr James Mwangi, Executive Chairman of the Equity Group Foundation said: "Philanthropy's important role in supporting the development of people with highly specialised training and generating transformative leaders, can be seen in our partnership with The University of Manchester. It is a natural progression of our highly successful Wings to Fly and Equity Leaders programmes".
The University of Manchester celebrated 200 years in 2024, and the launch of its Africa Strategy aims to place the continent at the heart of the University's move into its third century.
