Building Stronger Universities

The Building Stronger Universities (BSU) programme was established in 2011 as collaboration between Universities Denmark (representing all Danish universities) and higher education institutions in priority countries of DANIDA, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Denmark.

The Global Health Section has been engaged in the Danida flagship “Building Stronger Universities” (BSU) since the early pilot phase in 2010. In the initial year support was mainly provided for needs assessments and pilot activities. Since then collaboration in established partnerships with universities in Tanzania, Zanzibar, Ghana and most recently Ethiopia has included:

Development of postgraduate and PhD courses
Online and blended learning, problem based learning, supervisory and mentoring skills
MsC and PhD co-supervision
Research
Scientific and grant writing, research project management, proposal development
Upgrading of laboratory, library, ICT and financial management facilities and procedures
Formulation of university policies and guidelines
Networking, outreach, research dissemination

Apart from the university-wide and generic capacity building activities, support is also allocated to research activities within a range of thematically focused health topics. The present collaboration with the State University of Zanzibar aims at improving public health while at the same time enhancing the sustainable growth of the tourism sector, supporting pilot research studies on waste management, food safety, mosquito borne diseases, marine ecosystem health and services.

Most recent collaboration with Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana focused on health delivery systems and specifically on mass drug administration in onchocerciasis (river blindness) control.

The project “Strengthening the capacity of (Covid-19) disease surveillance, diagnostics, vaccination programmes and promoting mental health of frontline health care workers” (SCCOPET) supported with BSU3-COVID19 funds was launched in 2022. The project focus is on the strengthening of capacities and facilities in the areas of research, education, and outreach within and across the three partner institutions Kilimanjaro Christian Medical University College, the State University of Zanzibar, and Jimma University.

BSU SUZA Phase IV involves new north partners from Aalborg University, Roskilde University and Good Deeds Consulting.

Faculty and staff from the Global Health Section also engage in the BSU IV collaboration with the new partner University of Hargeisa (Somaliland) 2023-2027 under the supervision of the DK co-lead at the Department of Immunology and Microbiology, UCPH.

Project periods

Pilot phase 2010
Phase l 2011-13
Phase ll 2014-2017
Phase lll 2017 – 2021/extended to 2023
Phase IV 2023-2027
SCCOPET 2022-2024

Partners

Over time the Global health Section’s engagement in BSU has involved numerous roles and tasks but continuously including the management of short term assignments by and collaboration between a wide range of research and administrative staff from different faculties and departments at different partner universities in Denmark, Ghana, Tanzania and most recently Ethiopia.

2011 – 2013, phase l: The Global Health Section hosted the Secretariat of the Platform on Human Health and held the lead position in the DK Steering Committee. South partners in this period included UG, KNUST, KCMUCo/NIMR, SUZA/ZCHS.

2013 – 2017, phase ll: With the shift in the overall organisation of BSU from platforms to individual partnerships and the introduction of South driven leadership, the Global Health Section (representing UCPH) became the DK co-lead of the BSU ll partnerships with SUZA and KNUST.

From 2013 – 2016, in parallel with the BSU ll programme, separate grants were provided for cross-cutting projects managed by the Global Health Section aimed at developing capacities in ‘E-Learning and Problem based Learning’ and ‘Knowledge Sharing, Research Dissemination and Communication’ across all BSU partner institutions in Tanzania, Zanzibar and Ghana.

2017 – 2022, phase lll: The Global Health Section has remained the DK co-lead of the overall BSU SUZA partnership and performs as co-lead of work package 3 on Health Delivery Systems in the BSU KNUST partnership between Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Ghana and Aarhus University, Aalborg University and University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Phase lll was originally planned to end in 2021 but has been extended until end of 2023 to make up for COVID 19 related delays.

2022 – 2024, SCCOPET: KCMUCo is the South lead, the Global Health Section representing UCPH is the North co-lead of the partnership also involving SUZA, JU, DTU, and INN

2023-2027, phase IV: The Global Health Section remains the DK co-lead of the BSU SUZA partnership. Faculty and staff from the Global Health Section also engages in the new collaboration 2023-2027 with University of Hargeisa (Somaliland) under the supervision of the DK co-lead at the Department of Immunology and Microbiology, UCPH

Partner universities:

Denmark
Aalborg University (AAU), Aarhus University (AU), Roskilde University (RUC), Technical University of Denmark (DTU), University of Copenhagen (UCPH), University of Southern Denmark (SDU), Good Deeds Consulting.

Norway
Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences (INN)

Ghana
University of Ghana (UG), Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).

Tanzania
Kilimanjaro Christian Medical University College (KCMUCo), National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR), Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA), University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM).

Zanzibar
State University of Zanzibar (SUZA).

Uganda
Gulu University (GU)

Ethiopia
Jimma University (JU)

Somaliland
University of Hargeisa (UoH)

Outreach activities also involve external partners incl. government institutions, media, private sector actors, communities and NGOs.

Objectives and methodology

Objectives:

The Building Stronger Universities programme aims at increasing the capacity of African universities in selected Danida priority countries to undertake teaching, research and outreach with the overall objective to generate and apply new knowledge to solve priority development challenges.

Methodology:

Since BSU ll the South universities have held the overall responsibility for prioritizing coordinating and managing the partnerships while DK partners are involved as mentors and discussion partners throughout the project cycle. This goes for identification, design and management of research, upgrading of dissemination practices, selection of and practice of teaching approaches, development of teaching resources and development and installment of upgraded infrastructure and systems all taking place in a close dialogue between assigned resource persons from DK universities and relevant counterparts at the South partner institution.

Results

Researchers, lecturers and project managers with upgraded skills and competencies
Focused research policies and strategies
Improved management and research processes
New courses
New teaching resources and approaches and new research-relevant content
Research proposals submitted
Research findings published in peer-reviewed journals and shared by other means to other target groups
Improved laboratory, library, ICT, financial management facilities and procedures