When on September 29, 2022, a Danish delegation entered the office of Prof. George Openjuru Ladaah, the Gulu University Vice Chancellor (VC), it was strictly business, as the host and his guests got down to discuss arguably the most transformative project of the university in a decade.
Although the leading figures from both sides were meeting for the first time, the lack of ceremony did little to hide the sense of celebration and joy that either side felt about the Building Stronger Universities (BSU) project at Gulu University.
Their brief conversation embedded respect, gratitude, and confidence that the future would only get better.
A week later, a post on the official Facebook page of the Danish Embassy in Uganda would read:
“Our Ambassador and the Deputy Director [Senior Vice President] of the Novo Nordisk Foundation [NNF] visited Gulu University and BSU-Building Stronger Universities programme with support from Danida Fellowship Centre. BSU aims at strengthening the collaborative research between Danish universities and [Gulu] University to address relevant social issues for community transformation, such as the UPCHAIN initiative, which has developed green charcoal from agricultural waste to mitigate climate change in Northern Uganda. We look forward to the continuous cooperation with BSU as it enters its fourth phase.”
Danish Ambassador Signe Winding Albjerg (r) follows a presentation during her visit. Next to her is Hanna Line Jakobsen, the Senior Vice President, Social Development and Humanitarian Aid, NNF.
As it sounds in its full form, BSU is meant to make Gulu University stronger in terms of research, teaching and learning for the benefit of the communities the university serves.
The Danish government has, through Danida Fellowship Centre, funded BSU since 2011 in three phases with grants totaling DKK 10m (about USD 1.3m). This visit was an opportunity for the guests to learn more about BSU, interact with the leadership and staff of Gulu University, and also share with them more funding opportunities for research, teaching and learning.
The Ambassador, Signe Winding Albjerg, who started her new role on September 1, 2022, came along with Hanna Line Jakobsen, the Senior Vice President, Social Development and Humanitarian Aid, Novo Nordisk Foundation (NNF), an international enterprise foundation based in Denmark.
NNF is the world’s richest charitable organisation with a net worth of USD 93.73bn in 2021 and its focus areas include Health, Sustainability and Life Science ecosystem. The foundation says it annually awards over USD 660m (DKK 5bn) for scientific, humanitarian and social purposes.
After a brief discussion with the top leadership of BSU – Prof. Ladaah who is the BSU Principal Investigator (PI), the BSU Chair Assoc. Prof. Charles Nelson Okumu, and the BSU Coordinator Dr. Agatha Alidri – the delegation was led into the boardroom for a much larger meeting with the University management team, the entire BSU management team, and the heads of the university’s different faculties and institutes.
Prof Ladaah listens attentively to the Danish delegation
Through a formal presentation, Dr. Alidri highlighted the milestones reached by Gulu through BSU, which centred around the development of new academic programmes at the university, support for university staff in achieving higher academic qualifications including PhD, support for research, including collaborative research with BSU’s partners in Danish universities, and direct financing to the university for the development of infrastructure to enhance research, teaching and learning.
“Four PhD programmes have been developed and accredited. Also developed are eleven Masters programmes in the Faculty of Education and Humanities and the Faculty of Business and Development Studies. Seven cross-cutting courses have been co-developed and these are co-taught with partners to support PhD education,” Dr. Alidri said while outlining several achievements realised by Gulu University through BSU.
She further emphasized BSU’s commitment to public engagement and community transformation, mentioning some new research projects in that area which were developed through BSU. These include Unlocking the Potential of Green Charcoal Innovations to Mitigate Climate Change in Northern Uganda (UPCHAIN), Transforming Education PBL Hybrid Learning - Beyond Covid-19, and Consequences of the COVID Epidemic for Youth Reproductive Health in Northern Uganda (CONSCOV).
The guests were particularly excited by the UPCHAIN project whose objectives were elaborated by Dr. Collins Okello, the project Co-PI. Among those objectives is mitigating climate change through developing a scientific, social and economic model of making and using briquettes (green charcoal) from agricultural waste. Ideally, the project mitigates climate change by reducing pressure on trees as people replace black charcoal with green charcoal in cooking. This Danida-funded four-year project is worth UGX6bn and the project lead is Prof. Lone Dirckinck-Holmfeld of Aalborg University in Denmark.
The meeting discussed continued cooperation between Gulu University and the Royal Danish Embassy in Kampala as well as possible support from NNF for Gulu University’s proposed programmes and projects that are in line with the foundation’s focus areas.
“We believe that research transforms society. And when research is combined with business it becomes very important. People will have the motivation because they are seeing a good business idea. That makes it more sustainable”, said Jakobsen. “We have done a lot of work in Denmark and now we are moving to work with universities in the rest of the world. Come up with projects that you see are necessary. I am grateful for the work you are doing here.”
Among those who hailed BSU’s collaborative approach to designing and implementing projects was Dr. Anthony Ocaya of the Faculty of Medicine. “There is a lot of potential through the BSU chain. We can come up with a collaborative approach,” said Dr. Ocaya, in reference to developing research project proposals.
Front (L-R): Dr. Collins Okello, Assoc. Prof. Charles Nelson Okumu, Judith Awacorach (BSU Deputy Coordinator – Administration), Hanna Line Jakobsen, Prof. Ladaah, Ambassador Albjerg, Dr. Alidri, Agnes Gillian Ocitti (Senior Programme Adviser-Danish Embassy), Prof. David Okello Owiny (Gulu University Deputy Vice-Chancellor- Academic Affairs). Back (left): Robert Ringtho (Academic Assistant-UPCHAI), (right) Geoffrey Olok Tabo (BSU Deputy Coordinator-Technical)
From November 24 to 25 BSU will hold what it has called “The BSU Conference 2022” on the theme “A Decade of Building Stronger Universities”. A lot of research work achieved through BSU will be presented during this conference. Apart from that, the conference presents an opportunity for project planners and implementers to learn more about what BSU has achieved and how it has achieved it over the last 11 years.
Anyone involved in project planning and management, especially at Gulu University, should pick an interest and follow the proceedings of this conference, even if they are unable to attend physically. I have interacted with the BSU leadership for nearly three years and the thing that has impressed me most about them is the high sense of accountability – that strong will and endless effort to show value for money.
The visit of the Danish delegation last month, and the renewal of the BSU project (the process is already underway) in some form of BSU IV, is certainly a vote of confidence in the BSU project. Gulu University stands to gain much if other projects can learn from the way BSU is managed.
The writer is a science journalist who has covered BSU activities for three years and has reported some of them for the Danish Development Research Network (DDRN.dk).