UNU Priority Africa
The United Nations University plays a strategic role in Africa as a
facilitator of dialogue, a capacity builder, a provider of postgraduate
training and a promoter of innovation.
In December 2008 the UNU Council designated the Vice Rectorate in Europe with the overall co-ordination and implementation of a
“Roadmap” - the focus on Africa of UNU
. The roadmap is based on the guiding principles of ownership, building upon existing African resources and UNU’s presence in Africa.
The
Africa Strategy
of UNU
(
„Priority Africa") aims to make UNU activities in and on Africa of greater relevance to the African continent and its people, the UN organizations and UNU end-users; it aims to make UNU-generated knowledge on peace, development and sustainability better acknowledged, recognized and used. Moreover, the roadmap shall contribute to the implementation of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on the African continent.
In addition, UNU-ViE currently supports the development of the new UNU concept of
”Twin Institutes“. UNU plans for every UNU institute in industrialized nations to develop a "twin-institute" in a developing country. Africa is a particular target, where UNU capitalizes on the presence of UNU-INRA (Institute for Natural Resources in Africa) in Ghana. At the moment, a twin-institute of UNU-FLORES (Dresden) in Mozambique and a twin of UNU-EHS (Bonn) in Indonesia are in the planning process. Namibia and Tanzania are also considered.
