finished projects

Capacity building in the field of sustainable land use and resource management
the University of Asmara - Eritrea's central educational institute

An important partner for our program is the College of Agriculture and Aquatic Sciences (CAAS) at the University of Asmara. Our collaboration with the CAAS started even before the beginning of the project, with the college taking the initiative to involve the Afdeyu field station systematically in its study courses - first for the purpose of guided study trips on soil and water conservation, and second for student research projects. Starting from this basis, collaboration continually expanded.

Last year our program enabled an assistant at the CAAS to receive a fellowship grant to study for a Master of Science degree in soil science at the University of Aberdeen. The candidate completed his M.Sc. within a year, with honors. He returned to Eritrea despite the war, and has since been working in teaching and research at the CAAS, helping reduce the college's dependence on foreign lecturers. After this positive experience, we decided to provide support for a diploma study in Wageningen (the Netherlands) on the topic of land management, as well as another diploma course at the University of Pretoria, although in the latter case the University of Asmara is paying for most of the costs.

New perspectives for collaboration are beginning to emerge at the Geographical Institute at the University of Asmara. There is a definite need for support. For example, 10 professors and lecturers share the use of one old PC. It is obvious that the effectiveness of research and training is bound to suffer in these conditions. The Institute's management will soon be presenting its proposals regarding further collaboration. The focus is to be on setting up a small core group on the topic of "sustainable land management."