Summary of Periperi U Annual Report

Growth and Innovation in Capacity Building

In this third and final year of Periperi U’s 2016-2019 USAID award saw incredible growth, innovations and opportunities open for how partners enhance disaster risk (DR) related capacity building and training on the continent.

Makerere collaborated with the WHO to design and implement an all-hazard Rapid-Response Training short course in Uganda to strengthen detection and response to public health emergencies and potentially harmful events in the region. Partners also coordinated with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) to launch the first African Risk Methods School (ARMS), a summer school styled training event hosted by Ardhi University in Tanzania, hosting participants across academia, non-government organisations (NGOs), government organisations and United Nations personnel.

The consortium saw a sharp rise in the number of students to a total of 2 425 across 19 disaster risk-related academic programmes, 25 modules (whose enrolment numbers almost tripled in this year), as well as hosting 13 short courses with 361 participants. There was also a significant rise in overall female representation across education and training activities, reaching over 40% of total enrolment numbers for the first time.

Seven Periperi U partners revised existing disaster risk curricula or developed new integrated academic programmes, many which are set to be launched in the upcoming 2019/2020 academic year. Despite facing major disruption and political instability within their country, UBuea finally completed and launched its new MSc degree in Disaster Risk Management and Safety.

Generating local and relevant risk knowledge

Periperi U faculty-led research collaborations continued with government, NGOs, international research groupings and international agencies, as well as among other Periperi U partners. These included a tracer study of the career paths of approximately 400 (primarily) Masters graduates from ARU, BDU, Makerere, SU, Tanà and UDM courses.

New Research projects among partners and international institutions include the assessment of the WFP’s adapted Three-Pronged Approach programme to assess risk amongst, urban and displaced populations, as well as a World Bank project to assess and develop a framework to enhance capacity building across southern Africa.

From its students, 393 students across the partners undertook research for BSc, PGDip, Honours, Masters and PhD degrees, including 208 Masters projects and 25 PhD theses. When theses from across 2016-19 are included, an impressive 828 student theses have been undertaken across the partnership in just two years with 421 completed at the time of reporting.

Advocacy, Engagement and Collaboration

Partners attended an estimated 90 strategic and technical engagement events such as meetings, conferences and consultations spanning from local to international scale attended by almost 8000 people. In each instance, Periperi U participants were involved either as hosts, co-organisers, discussants, panellists, presenters, technical advisors, or had other specialist roles.

Major events during this period include partner participation at the at the Africa-Arab Regional Platform (AfARP) on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) in Tunisia and the 6th Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (GPDRR) in Geneva Switzerland, in which the partners were able to engage with a multitude of stakeholders from across the globe as well as act as ambassadors for the consortium and advocates for African academia upon a global stage.

 It was further underlined by a growing range of memoranda of understanding (MoU) between its partner universities and other scientific, governmental and international organisations such as the UNDP, WHO and World Food Programme (WFP).

A unified and committed Pan-African partnership

Established in 2006, the Periperi U partnership has grown incrementally to include 12 African universities with a combined contingent of 245 staff engaged in research, training and project management. In this reporting period, the collaboration actively engaged the universities listed below:

  • Bahir Dar University (Bahir Dar, Ethiopia)
  • Built Environment Research Laboratory (LBE) University of Science and Technology Houari Boumediene (USTHB) (Algiers, Algeria)
  • Disaster Management Training Centre (DMTC), Ardhi University (Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania)
  • Research Alliance for Disaster & Risk Reduction University (RADAR)(Stellenbosch, South Africa)
  • Makerere University (Kampala, Uganda)
  • University of Ghana (Accra, Ghana)
  • Universidade Técnica de Moçambique (UDM) (Maputo, Moçambique)
  • Moi University (Eldoret, Kenya)
  • Gaston-Berger University (St Louis, Senegal)
  • Centre D’Etudes et de Recherches Economiques pour le Developpement (CERED), University of Antananarivo (Antananarivo, Madagascar)
  • Ahmadu Bello University Center for Disaster Risks Management and Development Studies (Zaria, Nigeria)
  • University of Buea (Buea, Cameroon)

Periperi U’s secretariat, RADAR/SU, continued to oversee compliance with award terms and conditions. It disbursed USD 805 002.23 to 11 sub-awardees, as well as arranged and paid for 42 international flights. The secretariat maintained Periperi U’s online platforms such as its website Facebook page as well its online research centre (ORC), which recorded over 6 million searches, an increase of 237.8% since the previous annual report.

The consortium underwent a summative external evaluation of the partners during this 2016-2019 USAID award period, to analyse the progress of the consortium, its capabilities and strengths, and identify areas to be improved upon.