nairobi newsletter

Regional Office for Africa - 1 | 2012

Call for applications

4th call for PhD scholarship applications to Germany

KENYA-DAAD Postgradua-te Training Programme 2012-2013

Application deadline:

15th March at the National Council for Science and Technology, Nairobi, Kenya

For teaching staff members of public and private universi-ties in Kenya

http://nairobi.daad.de/kgphd.php

New PhD scholars

In 2011, for the first time, new Kenyan PhD scholarship holders to Germany were directly selected in Kenya. The selection committee awarded all 10 available DAAD scholarships as well as two for the joint DAAD/ GoK scholarship programme. Seven additional candidates got DAAD/ GoK scholarship offers pending the fulfilment of certain conditions. Our warmest congratulations to all new beneficiaries!

The new scholarship holders will start their German lan-guage courses in April in Nairobi.

Editorial

DAAD Regional Office for Africa P.O.Box 14050-00800 Nairobi, Kenya Director: Christoph Hansert

Editor: Anja Bengelstorff

Contact: +254 733 929 929 info@daadafrica.org http://nairobi.daad.de

With the opening of the DAAD-Liaison Office in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in the International Leader-ship Institute at Sedest Kilo on November 21st, 2011 the fourth DAAD Office in Sub-Saharan Af-rica was established. Besides the Regional Office in Nairobi, DAAD operates Information Centres in Johannesburg (South Africa), Accra (Ghana) and Yaoundé (Cameroon).

The DAAD funding for Ethiopian students, post-graduates and scientists increased from 308 Ethio-pians in 1997 to 406 Ethiopians in 2009. Simulta-neously, the number of Germans going to Ethiopia increased from 34 in 1997 to 133 in 2009, with the largest increase taking place since 2007.

The DAAD Liaison Office will serve as a contact point for information gathering, counseling and discussing prospective DAAD funded exchange programmes on higher education. Further, prepa-ration and administrative work for workshops and scholarship selection seminars will be done in the office. From now on, applications can be submitted at the office as well and the PhD proposal defense for scholarship applications will be hosted there.

Another main task of the DAAD Liaison office is to support the 25 DAAD experts who work at Ethio-pian Universities as presidents, deans, directors and visiting professors. In the next month, addi-

tional short term DAAD experts will come to Ethio-pia as part of the engineering capacity building programme. The new office is also the partner of the GIZ in Ethiopia: Both organizations are manag-ing one of the largest University reform projects.

The occasion of the inauguration of the DAAD Liaison Office were graced by the German Ambas-sador, Lieselore Cyrus, the Austrian Ambassador Gudrun Graf, the State minister for Higher Educa-tion, Dr Kaba Urgassa, as well as various repre-sentatives from universities in the country, repre-sentatives from cultural and economic organiza-tions and finally from DAAD Bonn, Dr. Martina Schulze, Head of Sub-Saharan Africa Division.

Jana Zehle, DAAD Liaison Office Ethiopia

German Ambassador Lieselore Cyrus, State minister for Higher Education, Dr. Kaba Urgassa, at the opening.

Dear friends of the Nairobi Newsletter,

The DAAD Nairobi team wishes you a very happy and prosperous NEW YEAR! The last quarter of

2011 was especially fruitful for our cooperation. Alumni meetings took place in Ethiopia, Kenya,

Tanzania and Sudan. Together we organised successful Proposal Writing Workshops for hundreds

of participants. Selection sessions for PhD scholarships to Germany took place all over the region.

In Kenya and Tanzania, we organised final selection panels with our partners, the NCST and the

TCU. Our facebook page - www.facebook.com/DAADNairobi - is now an active market place of an

ever increasing number of followers. This newsletter will report about these and more events. I wish you fun reading

and looking at pictures of your activities within this unique region of Eastern Africa. I am looking forward to continue

our cooperation in 2012 and hope to meet you in person soon!

Opening of the DAAD Liaison office in Ethiopia

Christoph Hansert, Director DAAD Nairobi

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newsletter 1 I 2012

DAAD bids farewell to Professor Max Huber

Professor Max G. Huber, Vice‐President of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) for 16 years and currently its Acting President, retired from his DAAD offices on 1 January 2012. Pro‐fessor Margret Wintermantel, President of the Rectors’ Confer‐ence, and Professor Joybrato Mukherjee, President of Justus Lie‐big University Gießen, succeed him as President and Vice‐President respectively. DAAD General Secretary Dr. Dorothea Rüland thanked Max Huber in particular for his outstanding com‐mitment. Professor Huber has set crucial impulses for the DAAD, and also as “National Representative of the German Federal Re‐public for International Higher Education Marketing”. During his period of office, Germany’s higher education institutions have significantly enhanced their international dimension and thus also become more attractive for students and academics from all over the world. 

The new DAAD President, Professor Margret Wintermantel, studied psychology and publishing at Johannes Gutenberg Univer-sity in Mainz from 1966 to 1970. In 1972, she first acquired a Dr. rer. nat. degree in psychology before qualifying as a university lec-turer in psychology at the University of Heidelberg in 1986. Before being elected President of the HRK in March 2006, Wintermantel had already been HRK Vice-President for Research and Junior Scientists and Scholars and, from 2000 to 2006, President of the University of the Saar. She is also a member of numerous national and international committees.

The new Vice-President, Professor Joybrato Mukherjee, who succeeds Professor Huber, stud-ied English language and literature, biology and educational science at RWTH Aachen from 1992 to 1997. In 2000, he obtained a doctoral degree from the University of Bonn in English linguistics and qualified as a university lecturer in English phi-lology in 2003. Before the then 36-year-old be-came President of the University of Gießen in De-cember 2009, he had already been Vice Dean of the Department for Languages, Literature and Cul-ture there, as well as First Vice-President from 2008 to 2009.

Prof. Max Huber during his term as the DAAD Vice-President

KDSA conference in the context of impending devolution of Kenya

DAAD welcomed to a conference regarding the impending restructuring of local administration in Kenya at the Silver Springs Hotel in Nairobi On 16th November 2011, the Kenya DAAD Scholars Association (KDSA) and DAAD Nairobi invited for the conference "Capacity Development for the County Governments in the new Constitu-tional Dispensation in Kenya". Among the more than 90 partici-pants were about 60 DAAD Alumni and 20 In-country Scholar-ship holders. The event was opened by the German Ambassador Margit Hellwig-Bötte. Particularly remarkable besides the contri-butions of various representatives from Kenyan and German uni-versities and the Kenyan Ministry of Education was the participa-tion of six important local politicians: among others, DAAD wel-comed the mayor of Kisumu, Sam Okello, who contributed to a lively discussion. CHE Comm. Secretary Standa, Ambassador Hellwig-Bötte, DAAD Scholar

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newsletter 1 I 2012

On offer: "Leibniz DAAD Research Fellowships" for Senior Researchers

‘Leibniz-DAAD Research Fellowships’ is a programme implemented 2011 by the ‘Leibniz Associati-on’ (Wissenschafts-gemeinschaft Gottfried Wil-helm Leibniz) and the ‘German Academic Ex-change Service’ (DAAD). The fellowships offer highly-qualified recent foreign postdocs the opportunity to conduct special research at institutes of the Leibniz Asso-ciation in Germany for up to twelve months.

Application deadline: 20 March 2012

www.daad.de/leibniz

"On the Cutting Edge of Sustainable Energy Sup-ply" at TU Bergakademie Freiberg May 29 to June 29, 2012 Learn about most recent technological developments related to the use of sustain-able energy.

Deadline: 17 Feb 2012

http://tu-freiberg.de/iuz/index_2.html?id=339

Proposal Writing Workshop for international research pro-jects in November 2011

What is new about proposal writing? We have writ-ten MA and PhD, among other research proposals, anyway! This is the attitude many of us may have had when we saw a DAAD call for the above work-shop. However, over 300 applied but there were only 30 vacancies. I was lucky to be among them.

For the organizers, the selection must have been a tough task. They had to balance gender, age, na-tional origin and areas of specialization. Partici-pants were drawn from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Sudan and Rwanda. It was quite a learn-ing experience because participants from natural sciences, social sciences and earth sciences had to work together. In essence, the training aimed at encouraging multi-disciplinary researches.

The trainers from Germany and Kenya had hands-on experience as experts having written and evalu-ated many projects and research proposals for international funding. They enlightened us on fund-ing opportunities available in both countries for young scientists and post docs. By the end of the training, all the participants agreed that the course

was worthwhile and requested that the training should be at least two weeks. We learnt a lot and also apprised of the shortcomings that make our proposals get rejected. I believe all the participants are now working hard on improving and hoping to be given an opportunity to participate in the sec-ond training in April 2012. The 30 proposals will be vetted again by experts and only those that show improvement will be selected.

I thank DAAD and DIES for the opportunity and hope that in future the training will be done annu-ally for many more of our colleagues to benefit.

Fridah Kanana Erastus, DAADAlumna, KU

On 1st of November 2011, the DAAD-Alumni Asso-ciation in Sudan conducted a DAAD Alumni con-ference in Khartoum with the theme “The Role of Scientific Research in Developing Countries”. The conference was attended by Christoph Hansert, the Director of the Regional Office for Africa, and 54 other mainly Sudanese participants.

Three scientific papers were presented: ‘Scientific Research at the University of Kordofan’ presented by Dr. Mustafa El Sayed from the University of Kordofan in which he gave an overview of the re-search units and activities at the university, high-lighted present situation and constrains and dis-cussed future prospects.

The paper ‘Participatory Research and Agricultural Development’ was presented by Dr. Hanadi El Dessougi from the University of Khartoum. She gave a background about the role of agriculture in growth and poverty alleviation.

The third paper, ‘Contribution of Universities to Research for Development in Developing Coun-tries: The case of JKUAT’, was presented by Dr. John Wesonga from JKUAT in Nairobi, Kenya. His main points were: Universities play a key role in generating knowledge through research that di-rectly or indirectly leads to development. JKUAT established administrative structures and policies that promote research by students and staff. In collaboration with regional bodies like the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agricul-ture (RUFORUM), training programmes to en-hance research capacity in the region were devel-oped. JKUAT established mechanisms to dissemi-nate research findings. These include a journal, conferences, open days and exhibitions.

Christoph Hansert presented a valuable, informa-tive paper about DAAD programmes.

Hassan Mudawi, Chairman, DAAD Alumni Sudan

DAAD Alumni conference in Khartoum Tanzania - GERMANY POSTGRADUATE TRAI-NING PROGRAMME - 2012 CYCLE (PhD studies in Ger-many)

Application deadline:

15 March at the Tanzania Commission for Universities

For academic staff members of public universities in Tan-zania

http://www.tcu.go.tz/info/news/view_news.php?id=66

Postdoctoral Fellowship Programme

For former DAAD In-Region / In-Country Scholarship Hold-ers from Sub-Saharan Africa

Application deadline:

2 months before intended visit to Germany

Contact: Bonface Nyagah

bonface@daadafrica.org

On the way to well-funded research projects..

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newsletter 1 I 2012

Round Table Forum on the Development of Benchmark Standards for Business Studies in Universities in East Africa held, 5-8 December 2011

The Inter-University Council of East Africa, (IUCEA) in cooperation with DAAD and HRK, organized a Bachelor of Business Studies stake-holders’ round table forum at the Nelson Mandela African Institute of Science and Technology (NM-AIST) Arusha, Tanzania from the 5th to the 8th December 2011. The forum took place within the DIES frame-work project on capacity building towards the establishment of a Re-gional Quality Assurance System for universities in East Africa. The aim of the forum was to develop a set of benchmark standards of Busi-ness Studies programs offered by universities in the East African Com-munity’s Partner States: Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda.

The forum brought together more than 40 participants drawn from aca-demics and experts in the field of Business Studies from Germany and the East African Partner States. They were joined by representatives of employers, EAC representatives, professional bodies, national regula-tory agencies of the EAC Partner States and other stakeholders to dis-

cuss the Business Studies program with spe-cific reference to expected learning out-comes, the content and structure of the pro-gram, specializations, the use of the credit points, student assessment and the role of internship among others.

In the end, the forum not only came up with a draft set of benchmark standards for a basic Bachelor of Business Studies program for possible adoption and implementation in the East African universities but also proposed benchmark standards in specialization areas such as Accounting, Finance, Marketing, Hu-man Resources, and Business Administration Management. All participants unanimously agreed: the region had made one major step towards harmonized and quality Business Studies programs offered by universities in the region.

Mike Kuria, QA expert for DAAD/Cosam Jo-seph, QA Director IUCEA

More space for Round Tables: DAAD Regio-nal Office in Nairobi reno-vated Christoph Hansert, director of the Regional Office for Africa in Nai-robi, is happy about the new, welcoming look of the office. The entire staff is looking forward to working with the DAAD Alumni, cur-rent scholars and part-ners in 2012!

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newsletter 1 I 2012

International Summer School „Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor - Natural Hazards, Climate Change, Governance and Human Rights”

From 4th until 17th of December, DAAD and GIZ (German International Coope-ration) funded a Summer School organized by the Centre for International Ca-pacity Development at the University of Siegen, the Institute for Flood Manage-ment & River Engineering, University of Kaiserslautern, the Biomechanical & Environmental Engineering Department, JKUAT, the Department of Ge-ography, Kenyatta University and the College of Agricultural and Environmen-tal Science, Makerere University. The main objectives were to develop research based tools for addressing the water and sanitation demands of the urban poor in Kenya. Subsequently the participants would formulate the possible up-scaling strategies implementable by various stakeholders, development organisations and the national govern-ment. In working groups, the 57 scientists and water and sanitation partners from Germany and East Africa, including 20 International Alumni, focused on Technical solutions, Governance, Conflicting Uses, Management Options and Risk Management. Presentations provided information on the situation of Water and Sanitation and Flood Management in the region before the participants went to the field. In the “poor urban centres” of Nairobi, Mathare and Mukuru Area, data was collected through leading interviews with residents. Additionally, the Nairobi City Council organized a visit of the Ruai Waste Water Treatment Plant and the Dandora waste dumping site.

Close collaboration of the partners from various academic fields and stakeholders to Kenyan insti-tutions, as well as an intensive preparation phase (prior field trips) were the most striking features of the summer school. Furthermore, the invitation of 3 PhD candidates and one professor from the Uni-versity of Siegen through funds of the “Welcome to Africa” Program of DAAD provided opportunities for future collaboration within the fields of architec-ture, city planning and public law. Beate Böhme, PhD student/ Isabell Schneider, DAAD intern

First water-related research center founded in Kenya

On December 14, 2011, the Water Research and Resource Center (WARREC) was inaugurated at the Jomo Kenyatta Uni-versity for Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) in Kenya (picture). It is the first research center in the country entirely dedicated to water and water resources management.

The focus of the institute will be, apart from research, scientifi-cally oriented consultancies within Kenya combined with the

academic training of students. For the next five years, WARREC will be hosted by the Depart-ment for Biomechani-cal and Environ-mental Engineering of JKUAT. After this initial period, the in-

stitute will become an independent national research center.

In the past few months, the Kaiserslautern Institute for Flood Management and River Engineering (KLIFF) of the Technical University Kaiserslautern assisted in the preparation of the set-up of this new East African research institutes and will also sup-port the work of the partner institution in future. During his re-search semester at JKUAT from August 2011 to January 2012, Prof. Dr. Robert Jüpner of KLIFF was able to make valuable contributions derived from his experience as a director of a sci-entific institute and to advise the Kenyan colleagues on specific questions. He was also nominated to join the advisory commit-tee of WARREC where he will serve together with East African and European experts. Prof. Jüpner’s stay at JKUAT was funded by the DAAD Advisory Programme.

WARREC is going to be an important partner of the TU Kaiser-slautern, particularly in the department of Civil Engineering. In the coming years, East African students and PhD candidates will have the opportunity to study and graduate in Kaiserslautern. German students and scientists will as well benefit from insight-ful academic stays and research projects abroad.

Robert Jüpner

Field work in Mukuru, Nairobi

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newsletter 1 I 2012

Academic return to Africa for German Business and IT lecturer

Since my great-grandfather first set foot on African soil in 1886, my family has remained very attached to Africa. I was raised in Namibia and so returning to Africa is always something of a home-coming. It was some 35 years ago that I paid my first visit to Nairobi.

After graduating in Mathematics and Economics in 1968, I started my professional career as a consultant. My first employer was an Engineer-ing Consultancy Firm working mainly in developing countries. This gave me the opportunity to do project work in Africa, e.g. in Sierra Leone, Cen-tral African Republic, Tanzania, Sudan and Ethiopia. After 15 years as a consultant, I became a professor in Business IT at the European School of Business (ESB) of the Reutlingen University for Applied Sciences. I ended my full time academic career in 2006 as a professor at the Mar-mara University in Istanbul/Turkey, managing a joint German-Turkish Higher Education Project (DAAD sponsored).

Subsequently when DAAD, in the context of its Herder Programme, ad-vertised a vacancy at Kenyatta University, I immediately applied and vis-ited Nairobi in June/July this year to clarify the details. The beautiful cam-pus, the kindness and professional attitude of the people immediately impressed me and I instantly felt at home and befriended them. I was quickly convinced to accept the opportunity to teach and work at KU. Since September, I have been a visiting professor and a member of the Management Science Department in the KU School of Business. Pres-

ently I am lecturing in both the Management Science and the Computing Science Departments and supervise PhD students in Management Science.

I would like to emphasize how much I enjoy working with Kenyan students. They are interested, committed, polite and disciplined, and very positive in facing any challenges they have to overcome. I am very grateful for the opportu-nity to explore Nairobi and to visit the many other interesting and beautiful locations in Kenya. I will return to Germany with an even greater appreciation for and understanding of the country, its challenges and its people.

Leonhard von Dobschütz

The annual cocktail of the Regio-nal Office

on 16th November 2011 was graced by eminent personalities and guests.

Top left: Honorary DAAD Alumnus Dr. Dan Masiga, Dr. Martina Schulze, head

of the Sub-Sahara Africa section at DAAD Bonn, Nairobi Director Christoph

Han-

sert. Bottom left: New scholarship holder Betty Mayeku, Kenyan minister for

Higher Education, Prof. Margaret Kamar, German Ambassador Margit Hell-

wig-Bötte. Right: The new DAAD/GoK scholarship holders with Christoph

Hansert and Programme Officer Anja Bengelstorff. We enjoyed the evening

and the company of all our guests!

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newsletter 1 I 2012

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS DAAD PhD Proposal Writing Workshop

on Thursday, March 8, 2012, and on Thursday, June 7, 2012 in Nairobi

٠Training offered by highly experienced Kenyan and German academics with follow-up on progress on second day of the workshop ٠No fees, but applicants cater for own accommodation, transport, meals

٠Number of participants limited

E-Mail applications only with the following documents/ information:

٠A research abstract (max. 300 words in word format) of the PhD project to be undertaken ٠Scanned electronic copy of the Master’s certificate (degree not older than 6 years) ٠At which German university do you want to do your PhD (and why), OR contact of a potential supervisor in Germany/ Graduate school Applicants still awaiting examination of their Master’s thesis must provide a scanned electronic copy of the letter of submission from the university. Application deadline: Tuesday, February 21, 2012, at noon Send applications to Ms. Anja Bengelstorff, Programme Officer, bengelstorff@daadafrica.org Participants from last year’s workshop cannot be considered again. Successful applicants will be notified by February 28, 2012 and will attend both days.

We urge prospective DAAD scholarship applicants to consider their partici-pation in this workshop!

However, participation in this workshop is NOT A REQUIREMENT for a PhD scholarship application.

Please also note that eventually, a supervisor in Germany is needed for a scholarship application, and you may want to start your search NOW.

German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)

Upper Hill Close, 3rd floor Madison Insurance House P.O. Box 14050-00800, Nairobi, Kenya

Phone: +254-20-2729741, +254-771-444 111 +254-733-929 929 Email: info@daadafrica.org Internet: http://nairobi.daad.de

Visiting Hours: wednesdays, thursdays 9 am to 12 noon or by appointment