JOOUST is among 5 higher institutions of learning selected for a VLIR-IUC Partnership Programme. This follows a successful   presentation of the proposal titled, ‘Strengthening Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology Capacity in Natural Resource Management, Food Security and Health’. The other four institutions include; Université de Lubumbashi (DR Congo), Ardhi University (Tanzania), Mbarara University of Science and Technology (Uganda) and Quy Nhon University (Vietnam). This is a 10-year programme expected to start with a Phase-In IUC Pre-Partner Programme for a period of 1 year. The actual Programme activities will start at the beginning of 2022. Each institution will receive a grant worth 6 million Euros for the 10-year period. The IUC Partner Programme aims at long-term collaboration with all Flemish universities and some university colleges.

JOOUST will partner with Flemish institutions of higher education to strengthen capacity building, research and outreach in five strategic areas, including natural resource management; agriculture and food security; human health; ICT; and climate change mitigation and adaptation. The Programme objectives are to: 1) build capacity for high quality research and training in natural resources management, food security, health, ICT and climate change; 2) promote sustainable use of Lake Victoria Basin (LVB) resources; 3) improve health and well-being of LVB populations; 4) create synergies in transformative knowledge, technologies and innovations in collaboration with stakeholders; and 5) build the capacity of government agencies in service delivery and sector-wide regulations.

The above programme objectives will be implemented through five projects:

1. Management of the Lake Victoria Basin Natural Resources (Team Leader - Prof. Dennis Ochuodho);
2. Transformative Agri-food Systems for Resilience in the Lake Victoria Basin (Team Leader - Dr. Calleb Olweny);
3. Management and Control of Communicable and Non-communicable Diseases (Team Leader - Ms. Damar Osok);
4. ICT (Team Leader - Dr. Silvance Abeka);
5. Climate change Resilience among Communities and Ecosystems in the Lake Victoria Basin (Team Leader – Prof. Benard Muok).
6. The Local (JOOUST) Programme Coordinator working the Belgian Counterpart from the Free University of Brussels (VUB) is Prof. Benson Estambale (DVC Research, Innovation and Outreach)

Congratulations to all the team members!!!