Adamou Rabani is Rector of the Université Abdou Moumouni in Niamey, Niger
and Coordinator of the WASCAL Studies Programs ‘Climate change and Energy’ and ‘Photovoltaic and System Analysis for Green Hydrogen Technologies’
ZEF’s cooperation with Abdou Moumouni University of Niamey in Niger
Partnerships with internationally and interdisciplinary oriented institute such as ZEF are very important for the Global South. Through these joint efforts we can handle global challenges like climate change and key sustainable development goals (SDGs 1 to 7, SDG 11 and SDGs 13 to 17). Especially partnerships focusing on developing and implementing high-level research and adequate education are key. In West-Africa, the collaboration that the Abdou Moumouni University of Niamey in Niger has developed with ZEF includes (i) research activities related to the management of natural resources, innovation and technological change, as well as political and cultural change and (ii) master and PhD trainings on sustainable rural transformation (WAC-SRT) in order to educate and train young African scholars in engineering and policy areas.
A cascade of collaboration projects
During the last ten years, we have developed strong and very important international collaborations worldwide. The number of our international collaborations has increased considerably, since we started cooperating with ZEF in the West-African Science Service Center in Climate Change and Adapted Land Uses (WASCAL) project in 2013. By now, we are cooperating on many capacity development and research projects, namely WASCAL, RARSUS, WASCAL-PAUWES, WAC-SRT, CIREG and RE-TO Dosso. This opportunity has allowed us also to build a strong partnership with ZEF’s partners in Germany and Africa: IIT-TH Cologne, United Nations University (UNU), Potsdam Institute for Climate Research impacts (PIK), Pan African University in Water and Energy Sciences (PAUWES) hosted by Tlemcen University in Algeria, University of Development Studies (UDS) from Tamale (Ghana) and University of Ghana from Accra (Ghana) and UNAL (Colombia). In collaboration with ZEF, we have been involved in the mobilization of regional and international grants to conduct research on issues related to energy, water, food security and climate change.
Need for identifying and integrating more African perspectives
It is recommended that the doctoral program integrate African partners more fully into the following areas: teaching, recruitment process, thesis supervision, and defense. Locally identified research needs should be included in projects in a better way, e.g. by developing joint research topics in collaboration with partners.
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