Edulink II

Today, as we go live, the site already sets out the programme and its projects better than its predecessor. However, we intend to go much further, and turn this into a true community of people interested in higher education, specifically in ACP countries, whether they are actively involved in an EDULINK project or not.

Shortly before the 3rd EDULINK Stakeholders Conference on 01 – 02 October in Lisbon, the ACP Secretariat asked all the projects to submit a short paper, explaining how the project addresses and/or contributes to poverty alleviation in ACP countries and regions.

To date, 23 projects out of 66 have responded to the request, i.e. slightly more than ⅓. Non-respondents are reminded that their answer is still expected.

From the analysis of these 23 papers, a pattern emerges that can confidently be expected to be confirmed as more replies are received. Essentially, it is characterised by 2 aspects:

The SideCAP project helps to promote poverty reduction and promote sustainable development in ACP States because the work of the project focuses on the use of open source software and free software in the design of educational courses.

The ICT4D Consortium project is moving forward strongly, having convened our second workshop, experiencing success in our exchanges, and seeing growth of our online environment.

We invite you to join our online environment for ideas on ICT4D curriculum (ict4dconsortium.rhul.ac.uk/elgg), or feel free to join some of the interesting discussions we are posting in YouTube and FaceBook. (for example, what are your thoughts on this? "From Maseno University, Kenya, The 5 Most Dangerous Trends & 5 Greatest Opportunities for ICT4D in Africa" www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAQepSZ4pak).

The VASES-MAPPES Project is a multinational and transcontinental consortium that brings together the institutional and academic capacities of Makerere University in Uganda, St. George's University School of Veterinary Medicine in Grenada and Kigali Institute of Science and Technology in Rwanda. These three Partner Institutions share knowledge and expertise to improve the ability of policy makers, University managers and academic staff to better "vocationalise" the animal sector education and to produce graduates who will offer the much needed entrepreneurship, trade and safety skills.