Working together, growing togetherAfrica

Traditional Kente cloth

Kente cloth is local to Ghana and West African countries. The vibrant colours and geometric patterns used within the cloth all have their own special significance – with gold representing fertility, royalty, and prosperity, for example, and green the land, harvest and growth. The word Kente comes from kenten which means ‘basket’.

The University coat of arms

The arms of the University of Reading were granted on 7 August 1896 when the newly incorporated University Extension College, Reading was still part of Oxford University. This was thirty years before it was granted a Royal Charter and became a university in its own right. The simple and effective coat is one of only six armorial bearings adopted or granted by English universities before the turn of the twentieth century.The three scallop shells on the upper part of the shield had been the arms of Reading Abbey founded in 1121 and their presence serves as a reminder that the first college was once part of the Abbey.Since at least 1130, the scallop had been the special badge of the pilgrims to the shrine of St James the Greater at Santiago de Compostela in Spain. By the end of the twelfth century it had also become the emblem of James the Apostle. Reading Abbey acquired the hand of St James as its principal relic and many people made the pilgrimage to see the hand and witness the miracles it was believed to perform. Eventually the scallop shells appeared on the Abbey’s coat of arms as a symbol of the pilgrims.It is also possible that the scallop shells might allude to the arms of the local family, the Palmers. Walter Palmer, son of the co-founder of the Huntley and Palmers biscuit firm that came to Reading in the 1840s, was the first President of Reading University Extension College and the family have been and remain benefactors of the University today.On the lower portion of the shield is the Lancaster Rose set on an engrailed cross (indented along the edge with small curves) and is derived from the arms of Christ Church Oxford, to whose initiative the Extension College owed its foundation. The arms of Christ Church were those of Cardinal Wolsey who in 1525 founded Cardinal College, later renamed as Christ Church by Henry VIII in 1546.

Thank you to all our staff, students and alumni who have contributed to this publicationEditorial team: Professor Steve Mithen, Dr Lucy Wallace, Kirsti Wilson, Elizabeth Reed

Photography: DIEM photography, Toby Savage, Dr Jennie Litten-Brown, Ric Coe, Design & Print Studio, Elizabeth Reed, iStockphoto, Thinkstock

Design: Design & Print Studio, University of Reading

Contents

4 Welcome 6 University of Reading 8 Educational programmes at Reading 10 In conversation with Dr Chukwumerije Okereke 13 What does being a regional manager mean to me? 14 The Annual Fund: changing students’ lives 16 Henley Business School South Africa 18 Time for Sudan, and for South Sudan 20 Diageo Scholarship winners and their plans for Ghana 22 The Sue Morgan Memorial Trust Fund 22 Improving standards in the construction industry 23 Graduate profile: Dr Peter Kwapong 24 Creating a Model United Nations on campus

27 Helping children to read in their own language 28 Contemporary African art and art education at Reading 28 Helping to strengthen Tanzania’s business environment 29 Researching mother-child relationships in South Africa 30 Reaching people with design 32 Using African music to teach our teachers 32 Shells shed light on early North African settlements 33 Peacebuilding in Africa 34 How do children and families negotiate illness,

loss and poverty in their lives? 36 The role of classics in Africa 37 Meroë: A royal meeting place for Khartoum

and Reading archaeologists 38 Female entrepreneurship in Kenya 38 On assignment in Algeria 39 Staff profile: Professor Peter Woodward

41 Providing research support to the Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security programme

42 Africa Climate Exchange 44 Meteorological expertise: climate and weather in Africa 46 Supporting the Rockefeller Foundation 48 Summer School in Ghana looks at Climate Change

50 Mining communities in rural Ghana 51 Research methods in African universities and beyond 52 The sustainability of bio-fuel cultivation in Ghana 53 Teaching wildlife reserve management 54 Interview: Dr Kevin White 55 Helping small-scale dairy farmers to control brucellosis 56 Cementing links with the West African research community 56 Supporting food security research 57 Rice for Africa 58 Protecting the future of cocoa 60 Supporting food security by managing ecosystem services 62 Amheida: Living on the edge of the Roman Empire

In focus

People and culture

Environment

Climate and weather

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We are all Africans. Around 55,000 years ago groups of Homo sapiens – our species – left the African continent and began the most ancient and greatest of modern human dispersals. Their descendants soon reached all corners of the planet and became the ancestors of you, me and everyone else alive today.

In focus

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AfricaAfrica

Professor Steve MithenPro-Vice-Chancellor (International and External Engagement)

Just as Africa is our past, so too is it our future – a fundamental part of our interconnected world. The upheavals of the post-colonial era are coming to an end with the emergence of democratic governments, economic growth and what Kofi Annan recently described as a ’new wave of optimism‘ for the continent. This comes from both outside, reflected in the number of businesses and countries flocking to invest in the continent, and from within Africa itself: a new generation of leaders adhering to democratic principles, a burgeoning middle class and a fast-growing, well-trained labour force, all confident about determining their own future. There are, of course, enormous challenges ranging from issues to do with governance, food security and climate change. These challenges will have solutions, one source of which can be found through education, research and training.

The University of Reading is proud to have been engaging with people and organisations within Africa for more than 100 years. Our first African student arrived to study with us in 1904, and since then we have taught a multitude of students from the continent, many of whom returned to become leaders within academia, business and government. Today we work in close collaboration with African institutions supporting capacity building in higher education and devising taught courses together, which has enhanced our programmes taught in the UK. We are involved in many collaborative research projects, bringing our expertise to support research within and related to Africa, and working with our colleagues to address the most pressing social and environmental challenges.

As a global university, Reading wishes to educate the most talented and deserving students in the world, work with the most outstanding academics and help tackle the key challenges facing the well-being of the planet and its peoples today. We can only do so by a deep engagement with Africa.This publication provides a snapshot of that engagement in 2011. I hope you enjoy reading and learning about our African-related teaching and research activities. We are expanding these, committed to working in ever closer partnerships with our African colleagues, enriching ourselves and the lives of many others as we do so.

A world‑class universityThe University of Reading has recently been placed in the top 200 of the world’s 9,000 universities, a reflection of our continued commitment to producing world-class research and a true global student experience.

A popular, cosmopolitan institutionReading is a very popular university choice and currently attracts over six applications per place. We have almost 18,000 students in total. This may sound like a large number, but we are a medium-sized UK university, big enough to offer a lively atmosphere but small enough for our students and staff to feel part of a close community. 3,000 of our students are international, from 125 different countries across the world.

World‑leading researchNearly 90% of Reading’s research was rated world-class in the latest national Research Assessment Exercise – the survey of research quality in UK universities. This is a reflection of our outstanding, vibrant and supportive research environment which helps us to attract staff and research students of the highest calibre and ensures that our teaching is research-informed and meets the needs of society.

Satisfied studentsUniversity of Reading students reported very high levels of satisfaction in the latest National Student Survey (2010), placing us in the top 25 UK universities. We are highly recommended by our international students and have been consistently placed in the top 20 universities overall for the quality of our students’ learning experience (as assessed by the International Student Barometer survey). Each time we have participated in this survey, we have been placed first for the student learning experience out of all members of the 1994 Group (the group of 19 internationally renowned, research-intensive universities to which we belong).

A stunningly beautiful learning environmentAt Reading, we are understandably proud of our campus which is one of the most beautiful in the UK. Giving a relaxed feel to the University, our 320 acres of green parkland surround a central hub of buildings which form the heart of the University. All development is managed in a green and sustainable way to ensure that our beautiful environment is preserved for everyone to enjoy.

Linked in: work and studyOne of the most dynamic economies in the UK, Reading is at the heart of the south east economy, has been named one of the five most recession-resilient ‘cities’ in the UK* and is home to 13 of the world’s top 30 global brands, including Vodafone and Microsoft.* Centre for Cities

University of Reading

READING

London

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In focus

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AfricaUniversity of Reading

READING

London

All of our students, whether coming from the UK or overseas, are regarded as international students. We recruit students eager to engage with global issues and seek to provide them with an outstanding educational experience.

Professor Tony Downes Deputy Vice-Chancellor

established | transformational | global

Educational programmes at Reading

For more information

For more information and to discuss what Reading could offer you, please contact:

Reading International Office international@reading.ac.uk

+44 (0) 118 378 6982

www.reading.ac.uk/international

The data used to create this graphic was taken from students enrolled on programmes between 2006 and 2011.–2011

Key

Undergraduate programmesPostgraduate teaching programmesPostgraduate research programmesOther programmes

Reading offers an excellent educational experience, earning an international reputation as a centre of research excellence, which informs and enhances our teaching and learning.

The most popular programmes chosen by our African students:

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In focusAfricaAfrica

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‘Reading has a strong stake in [taking on complex global challenges]: interdisciplinarity, a high-ranking educational institution, a focus on internationalisation. All of them really come together quite nicely for me.’

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‘One of the things I learnt about myself early on in university was that I wanted to tackle global challenges.’

SM: Dr Chukwumerije Okereke, or Chuks if I may, lovely to be meeting you here in Reading. Could you tell me about your background and how you’ve come to be working in the area of climate and development?

CO: Indeed, I have what many will term a unique interdisciplinary academic qualification background spanning across the physical sciences and social sciences. I actually started with a first degree in Industrial Chemistry at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and then I went on to do a Postgraduate Diploma in International Affairs at the University of Port Harcourt also in Nigeria. And after a brief period of work I came over to Europe and did a Master’s in Environmental Science and Management jointly offered by Saxion University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands and University of Greenwich in the UK. And after that I went to the University of Keele where I did my DPhil in the Politics of International Environmental Management. One of the things I learnt about myself early on in university was that I wanted to tackle global challenges. But also I found that my natural flair was in the area of politics and international relations and so I made it into a job.

SM: Well I think you’ll fit in ideally at Reading because tackling these big global issues does require interdisciplinary work. And that’s exactly what we’re trying to do by bringing together our social scientists and our environmentalists, our meteorologists and our geographers. That’s the nature of the challenge isn’t it?

CO: This is one of my attractions coming to Reading. It is what I see as an appetite to really take on complex global challenges and deal with them. I think that Reading has a strong stake in that: interdisciplinarity, a high-ranking educational institution, a focus on internationalisation. All of them really come together quite nicely for me and this is one of the reasons for my excitement.

SM: Well we sound like a perfect match for each other. Now tell me about your ongoing research. I understand you’ve recently been awarded a Leverhulme Fellowship?

CO: Well my main research interest is in the relationship between global climate governance and international development. The Leverhulme Fellowship is enabling me to extend the frontiers of research in the relationship between climate and environment. I am looking at the opportunities for low-carbon development in Africa and how these can be exploited. Also the range of institutional reforms that African governments need to make in order to deliver effective and reputable climate governance within their political jurisdictions.

Professor Steve Mithen, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (International and External Engagement) talks to new member of staff Dr Chukwumerije Okereke, Reader in Environment and Development in the School of Human and Environmental Sciences

Making a difference:in conversation with Dr Chukwumerije Okereke

In focus

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AfricaAfrica

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‘The implication of climate change is that we cannot continue with business as usual.’

SM: So is tackling climate change actually an economic opportunity for Africa?

CO: Indeed so – there is this tendency to think within the same old trenches and paradigms, and people are blinded to the opportunities that this problem presents. Without a doubt, climate change is the most important developmental challenge of the twenty-first century. With its negative consequences and effects in terms of flooding, drought and famine: climate change can reverse decades of international effort to develop Africa and other countries. Additionally, the implication of climate change is that we cannot continue with business as usual. Although we need massive economic development to lift billions of people out of poverty, developing in the same old way will actually increase the vulnerability of these areas and I can come back to that. We are beginning to understand the relationship between poverty and environmental degradation and so we need look for the opportunities that are presented in this massive challenge to build a resolute and diverse economy.

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Africa

SM: That is quite a different view to the one normally portrayed. We are hearing about the current drought in the Horn of Africa. What are the positive news stories coming from Africa?

CO: Let me give you a snapshot of what’s going on in Africa. Many people do not know that Africa is the fastest growing economy in the world. Africa has a combined GDP $1.6 trillion, equivalent to that of Brazil or Russia, and by 2030 that is expected to rise to $2.6 trillion which will be more than China. In Africa we have 500 million young people in the working population, the only continent where this number is increasing. By 2040 it will be $1.1 billion, more than both China and India. So what we are seeing here is a very fast-growing continent that can potentially be the hub of innovation and growth in the world by 2030. I’m not denying the challenge; there are many problems to address and this is where Reading can really play a role. You are right in saying that Africa gets seen as a problem most of the time but that is actually very wrong. It is a land of opportunities. The governments have really done a lot in terms of introducing regulations, boosting the market, cutting deficit and nipping inflation in the bud. All of these have come together to promote innovation and business opportunities in Africa in a way that we have never seen before.

SM: What do you see as the key challenges for developing collaborations?

CO: That’s an excellent question. But before I talk about the challenges let’s say just a little bit more on the concept of internationalisation because quite frankly I think this is a missed opportunity for many UK universities. Most of the big challenges we have in this twenty-first century are global challenges. What are they? It’s energy, it’s food, it’s health and climate change, and with food goes the issue of water. You cannot tackle this in individual pockets of political jurisdiction, you need collective action at a global level. To be a globally relevant university, you have to have a global presence. So I think that the time is long overdue to be more explicit, more strategic, more focused, and more ambitious in pursuing an internationalisation agenda. One of the main reasons why collaborations falter is because they don’t have a mediator, someone that can serve as a platform to mediate the different cultural variations and differences. I don’t think that any meaningful collaboration can be established without commitment from the topmost leadership of both universities. And when we go to Africa we shouldn’t limit ourselves to talking to universities.

SM: No, we are aware that our engagement has got to not only be with the universities, but also with business and government.

CO: I’m happy to hear you say that because what I would not like to see are collaborations that only do abstract research. Reading’s close partnerships with industry must also be developed in Africa.

SM: You have already made a substantial contribution to the area of climate and development in your career and you are going to make a great contribution to Reading’s internationalisation agenda. These are extraordinarily demanding and challenging issues. What’s your personal motivation for working in this area?

CO: I like to make a difference, I like to make an impact, I like to work on major challenges.

SM: But these are the biggest challenges in the world!

CO: It’s all about concept, strategy, operations, control and feedback. Before we go to the field, we must know what exactly do we need to achieve? What is the goal? What are the targets? What are the deliverables? We need to be able to make real difference to the lives of the people of Africa.

‘Africa gets seen as a problem most of the time but that is actually very wrong. It is a land of opportunities.’

Africa

What does being a regional manager mean to me?Meet Beth Reed, Reading’s Regional Manager for Africa and the Middle East

When I first arrived at Reading, my job was not supposed to be one that travelled. I was to provide market intelligence and marketing materials for international student recruitment as well as supporting all of our communications with our students. In order to get a better understanding of what would be needed from me, I asked to do a trip or two, to make sure I could support our team with the right information, presented in the best format.Some years before I’d come to Reading, I had taken a little time off work to travel in East and Southern Africa. Unfortunately the trips were brief, but by avoiding organised tours I was able to travel and have experiences that no regular holiday would have provided. It was on those visits that I first fell in love with a continent that was beautiful, generous and frustrating all at the same time.

Having done a little independent travel in sub-Saharan Africa, my idea was to try and do some trips for work to other places to see a little more of the world and I started with Jordan, a place of great beauty and history that I came to like a great deal. Then in December 2008, we found that we needed someone to attend a schools fair in Kenya and as I had no specific travelling remit, I was the only person free to go. So I happily signed up and went back to Kenya in January 2009.

It was like falling in love for a second time – the warmth of the people and the

welcome I received, the climate, even the red earth had got under my skin and I was hooked! It was shortly after this visit that I asked the Director of Reading International Office if I could look after Africa as a region and my work took on a very different direction.

It would be tempting to see my job as one that is largely about marketing and recruiting students to come to Reading – it is an essential part of what we do and is vital to the growth of the University. However, what really excites me about my job are the many opportunities to meet bright and engaging people of enormous talent and to see what impact they have on the University when they join us.

What we do is not just about bringing people from all over the world to come to Reading and get a British higher education experience that may change the way they think, but about how our students can change our view of the world around us and how they can teach us to see the world from a different perspective. Add what our alumni go on to achieve and often give back to the University, other students, and their home country, and you begin to see the change that a good education can bring in the world.

More recently I have had the very good fortune to become involved with some exciting projects which focus on further developing the relationships that Reading has with institutions overseas, with the aim of not only extending our research links but also of building capacity in our partner institutions. I’m looking forward to seeing the results.

Reading International Office international@reading.ac.uk +44 (0) 118 378 6982 www.reading.ac.uk/international

In focusAfrica

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Beth Reed with Dr Babiker Bedri, an alumnus of Reading and staff member at Ahfad University for Women in Omdurman, Sudan

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The Annual Fund changing students’ lives

CASE STUDY: Jennifer Wood

In focus

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AfricaKenya

The Annual Fund changing students’ lives

The Annual Fund provides an opportunity for alumni, staff and friends of the University to make a significant difference to the lives of our students. Since the Annual Fund was established in 2004, more than 5,000 donors have helped to raise over £2.5 million to enhance the student experience. From funding various academic and extra-curricular projects across campus, to helping hundreds of students in financial need, the generosity of our donors continues to provide invaluable support to our students.

I travelled to Kenya in April 2010 with the assistance of the Annual Fund to carry out field research for my Master’s dissertation. My dissertation topic covers street children and children’s rights, and the governmental and non-governmental responses to the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.To carry out my research, I primarily spent my time at the non-governmental organisation Action for Children in Conflict (AfCiC). AfCiC works to help children in conflict, whether it is from abuse, neglect, illness, persecution or poverty. It is a UK and Kenyan registered charity, with their street child project site based in Thika (around 45 minutes from Nairobi). Altogether I spent around one month staying in Thika at AfCiC’s volunteer guest house.

My time spent at AfCiC was invaluable for my dissertation research – I was able to interview ex-street children, as well as key informants such as the AfCiC director, assistant director and counsellors, and was also able to interview staff from the children’s legal aid side of the charity, KCLAW (Kenya Children’s Legal Aid Work). Being one of the few charities which provide free legal aid to children and families, spending time learning at this branch, as well as the street child rehabilitative and preventative programmes, provided me with a vast amount of knowledge and inspiration for my dissertation. Furthermore, I could link in the legal aid work with a previous trip to a remand home (juvenile prison) in Nakuru, as well as the relationship between street children and the police, to develop the theme of juvenile justice.My trip has been extremely useful for the construction of my dissertation: new themes emerged from my interviews, and I was able to talk first-hand with ex-street children who have been through some harrowing experiences that could never be understood through simple text.

My trip has made me even more passionate about my research and has given me a greater understanding of why and how street children end up with the reputation that they have. It has made me understand governmental and non-governmental responses, and why and how particular children are targeted for particular interventions or institutions. On a personal level, the trip has encouraged my ambition to work in the charitable sector and ensure that children have easier access to their basic human rights. The trip also allowed me to volunteer for some of AfCiC’s rehabilitative and preventative street children programmes, primarily at the Interim Care Centre, and running classes at the school holiday club. Volunteers in these areas are always beneficial for AfCiC and for the children, as they get some extra attention, an extra pair of hands to help out, and are always very eager to learn about new cultures. I would like to thank all who donated to the Annual Fund and allowed me to undertake this field research trip.

www.reading.ac.uk/alumni/annualfund

Facts

We have over 3,700 alumni from the continent of Africa

We have over 5,000 donors from 66 countries across the world

The Annual Fund has supported nearly 100 projects to date

The Annual Fund supports the International Hardship Fund and International Master’s Bursaries each year.

MA Social Development and Sustainable Livelihoods

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AfricaIn focus South Africa

In 2008 Henley Management College joined with the University of Reading to form Henley Business School – a major player in the business education market. Henley Management College already had a long history in South Africa and had been providing corporate MBA programmes since 1992. We have offered these to students from middle and senior management in both the private and public sectors, which has been especially valuable for a country starved of international contact and standards during the long years of apartheid.

MBA to take up senior positions around the world – including in China, Australasia, and Europe.

The merger with the University of Reading has enabled us to establish ourselves as a full-service business school in Africa. Henley Business School is registered with the South African Department of Higher Education and Training, accredited by the South African Council on Higher Education, and is the only business school in Africa to hold the ‘triple crown’ of accreditation by the AACSB (USA), EQUIS (EU) and AMBA (UK). Executive education work has been developed with clients such as the South African Revenue Service, national electricity utility Eskom, leading banks, industrial groups and consultancies; this part of the business is poised for steady growth and expansion.

Far‑reaching impactOur impact in Africa has not just been limited to commercial and government work. From 2007, MBA students from Henley Business School in the UK, working with Henley Business School in South Africa, have had the opportunity to visit South Africa as part of their overseas studies and make

extraordinary contributions to non-government organisations (NGOs), providing free consulting, management and advisory work. Over 1,200 person-days of free consulting have been given by the experienced international managers who are the MBA students – work conservatively valued at over £1 million.

The NGOs that have been involved in this work include the Foetal Alcohol Syndrome Association, Habitat for Humanity, the Trauma Centre, Shine Child Literacy Project, St George’s Home for Girls, the National Institute for Crime Prevention and the Reintegration of Offenders, and James House a home for AIDS orphans.

In addition, groups of students have personally volunteered and raised funds to help other students coming from less privileged backgrounds, enabling them to continue their studies. Henley Business School South Africa has also launched a social entrepreneurship and corporate social investment action group called HenleyMBAid. This is part of its commitment to engage fully and actively in the local issues affecting Africa. These activities have built enduring connections, transformational learning and mutual respect.

www.henley.com

Henley Business School South AfricaProfessor John Board, Dean of Henley Business School

Our first 18 MBA students graduated in 1995, and since then, a further 820 have successfully completed their MBA. Over the years the college has developed a solid reputation for rigorous and flexible learning, with students joining from other African countries, including Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Kenya, Mozambique, and Ghana. Of all the major MBAs in South Africa, we feel that Henley Business School attracts a mix of students most closely representing the cultural and gender make-up of the country itself.

Over nearly two decades, Henley alumni have taken some of the most influential positions in business in South Africa. These include chairmen, managing directors, directors and CEOs of international advertising agencies, Big 5 consultancies, SABMiller, publishers, credit agencies, banks, parastatals and utilities, hotel groups, engineering and manufacturing companies; as media personalities, sports stars, airline executives and chief pilots, entrepreneurs, academics in South Africa and Europe, and as senior government officials in the Presidency and regional government. In addition, many alumni have taken advantage of the global credibility of the Henley

Africa

The ICMA CentreIn addition to the Business School’s activities in South Africa, the International Capital Market Association (ICMA) Centre (Henley’s financial markets school) has been involved in the delivery of a number of programmes throughout the continent of Africa.

EgyptThe ICMA Centre has worked with the Egyptian Banking Institute (EBI) to design and deliver three courses aimed at finance professionals and covering:

• Regulation and Compliance in Financial Markets

• Asset Finance and Structured Finance

• Investment Banking and Risk Management

Each programme was delivered to a diverse professional audience with delegates registered from institutions including the Central Bank of Egypt, National Bank of Egypt and the Arab International Bank. These courses ran successfully in 2008 and 2009 and further courses are being considered for the future.

KenyaIn 2010, an international programme on enterprise-wide risk management was designed and delivered in conjunction with the Kenya Institute of Bankers (KIOB). The KIOB advertises this type of programme both in Kenya and neighbouring African states. The audience was from a diverse range of countries and institutions with representatives from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and as far away as the west coast of Ghana.

www.icmacentre.ac.uk

The Vetiva Prize for Best Graduating African Student MSc International Securities, Investment and Banking student Chardin Wese Simen had much to celebrate at his 2011 graduation, not only did he come top in his class (thereby winning the MSc Academic Achievement Award), but he was also awarded the Vetiva Prize.

The Vetiva Prize for Best Graduating African Student was established by one of the ICMA Centre’s alumni, Dr Olaolu Mudasiru, who is now Deputy Managing Director of Vetiva Capital Management Limited in Nigeria. In addition to the £1,000 prize, Chardin was also offered a job at Vetiva.

Dr Mudasiru, explains: ‘The prize was established to ensure that the African youth are rewarded for their endeavours. Vetiva envisioned a future where the most excellent African minds would be instrumental in providing solutions to Africa’s economic challenges, with the ultimate aim of accelerating the pace of economic development in the continent.’

Chardin, who is from Cameroon, has demonstrated his drive to achieve both in his work and studies by taking the initiative in participating in Insight Programmes with leading institutions such as Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Financial Services Authority, and also successfully setting up his own business prior to studying in the UK.

Chardin who graduated alongside a record number of MSc students (250) in the University’s Great Hall said: ‘I am delighted to have been awarded these prizes. It is great to receive them in recognition of my tenacity and diligence. I have greatly enjoyed my time at the Centre, indeed I chose to continue my studies here, undertaking a PhD in commodity derivatives under the supervision of Dr Marcel Prokopczuk.’

In focusEgypt | Kenya | Nigeria | Cameroon

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Image, from left to right: Professor Charles Sutcliffe, Head of School; winning student Chardin Wese Simen; and Professor Adrian Bell, School Director of Teaching and Learning.

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Time for Sudan, and for South SudanSudan and its new neighbour South Sudan provide a microcosm of the achievements, opportunities and challenges faced by Africa as a whole: a rich cultural heritage, a post-independence history of conflict, diverse environments and peoples, substantial inward investment, an ongoing need for international support, and the potential for significant economic growth. Indeed, one can easily think that the troubles, the beauty and the opportunities of the whole world seem to be captured within these countries.

Others are considered to be the leaders of tomorrow, such as Ahmed Abdellatif, the Sudanese Young Businessman of the Year. We also have the invaluable asset of having Dr Abbas Elmualim and Dr Tabarak Ballal, both Sudanese nationals, as members of staff within our School of Construction Management and Engineering.

In 2010, Reading initiated a programme expanding our academic relationships in Sudan, which we intend to extend into South Sudan. We are currently working with our partners – the University of Khartoum, the University of Gezira, Ahfad University for Women and the Sudan University for Science and Technology to build a diverse portfolio of research, teaching and capacity-building projects.

Dr Nafisa Bedri (Ahfad University for Women) and Dr Ruth Evans (University of Reading) are leading a project which focuses on inter-generational care, health practices and disability within a diverse range of families in Khartoum and Omdurman. They are comparing the experiences within rural and urban communities using a series of in-depth interviews. A series of joint training workshops and seminars will build capacity for such research in both institutions.

The University of Reading has a long history of engagement with Sudan. Peter Woodward, our distinguished Emeritus Professor of Politics, began his career as a lecturer at the University of Khartoum and has devoted his working life to African affairs, playing a key role in the Sudan peace talks during the 1990s. Professor Chris Garforth, from the School of Agriculture and Policy Development made a key contribution in the development of teaching programmes in rural development and agricultural extension for Sudanese universities. We have had the pleasure of teaching many Sudanese students at Reading, several of whom now have distinguished positions in their country, including Professor El Siddig Ahmed El Mustafa El Sheikh, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Khartoum.

Tell people that you are going to Sudan and more often than not you will be faced with looks of astonishment. Questions which usually follow include ‘Is it safe?’, and ‘Why would you want to go there?’.

Many peoples’ opinions of Sudan are tainted by the troubles which are affecting Darfur and the long-term conflict that has recently led to the creation of South Sudan as an independent country. But Sudan is a massive, diverse and complex country, and there is a great deal more to it than we are led to believe by that which we see reported in the international news.

In Khartoum Beth Reed, Regional Manager for Africa and the Middle East

Health and society

Image credits: Elizabeth Reed

In focus

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AfricaAfricaSudan and South Sudan

The Faculty of Architecture at the University of Khartoum and the School of Construction Management at Reading are working together to enhance the construction industry in Sudan. A three-year programme of activities funded by the British Council will develop an open approach to the design and management of buildings and infrastructure. This partnership will help to develop specialised undergraduate, postgraduate and CPD courses, promote the exchange of good practice, academic materials and publications in construction management, and host joint workshops and international conferences.

Dr Sarah Cardey, from the School of Agriculture and Policy Development, and Dr Rosalind Cornforth from the Department of Meteorology are leading a series of collaborative ventures, including workshops, conferences and research projects with staff from our partner universities that focus on food security and climate change.

In 2010, the University of Khartoum established an English Language Institute to enhance the teaching of English language courses within the university and support the training of English language teachers in Sudan. This is a vital and demanding undertaking for Sudan’s development led by Dr Hala Salih, the newly appointed Director of the Institute. With its expertise in English language teaching, the University of Reading has been delighted to work closely with Dr Salih in devising a five-year development programme for the Institute, providing assistance with text-book materials, curriculum development and staff training.

I was captivated by my first visit to Khartoum: I found a vibrant city with a rich historical past but which is looking towards the future. The universities I visited were proud and ambitious; many of their staff are University of Reading alumni, eager to share not only their memories but also their homes and great hospitality, and delighted to be forging new research and teaching links with Reading. The students I met were kind, friendly, fun-loving and looked as stunningly beautiful in their traditional Sudanese dress as they did in more modern, fashion-conscious outfits.

I discovered a confluence of culture in Khartoum, the place where the Blue and the White Niles meet. Yes, Sudan does have enormous challenges to face; we hope that the teaching and research expertise of Reading can help, and we ourselves have a great deal to learn from our new partners and friends in Sudan. And so do I – I’m so looking forward to spending more time not only in Khartoum, but also elsewhere in Sudan and in the new South Sudan. With the friends I have already made, and the ones I am sure to make, I feel sure that my experiences of these two countries will continue to be amazing.

Construction industry

Food security, climate change and rural development

English language

www.reading.ac.uk/international

In focus Africa

‘Blessed are those who give without remembering and take without forgetting’, is a favourite quote I remember so vividly. There would have

been no experience whatsoever in the University of Reading but for the timely support of the Diageo Foundation – a name I shall never forget. It all started when I had that phone call on that fateful Thursday, in the hot and arid month of July 2010. My joy knew no bounds then: I was being offered a full scholarship by Diageo to study MSc Agricultural Development Economics at the University of Reading! What a day it was! And so in Reading I arrived on the 1 October 2010 to a wet welcome by the merciful UK rains (I had come from the hot tropical climate of Ghana). In fact the first few days were very challenging for me, especially because of the cold winter!In the first month of lectures I struggled to adjust to the new style of teaching and learning but a visit to the study support unit made a difference, a great difference, for which I am ever thankful. It gives me much joy to know that my grades were excellent. The financial support from Diageo gave me the peace of mind that enabled me to study without worrying much about finances. The teaching and support staff deserve much more than a pat on the back for the professionalism and commitment to their tasks in challenging us to go out of our comfort zones to explore a little deeper. Currently I am busily working on my dissertation, titled ‘Economic efficiency of fish production in Ghana: a stochastic frontier approach’. Following up on my undergraduate research, my objective is to find out why, in spite of the many water bodies (including the sea) in the country, Ghana currently has a deficit of about 400,000 metric tonnes of fish supply. Could it be that the fish farmers are not making efficient use of their scarce resources? If so, what factors account for this inefficiency? And how could these factors be taken care of to enhance productivity in the aquaculture sector, without necessarily putting much more pressure on the treasury of Ghana? I am confident that when this research is completed such questions will be answered.It is my passion to pursue a PhD upon completion of my Master’s programme. This would enable me to realise my dream as lecturer, researcher and consultant in agriculture, agribusiness and development economics. Because of this, I am doing my utmost best to graduate with distinction. Ghana is the country I would like to impact with the knowledge and skills I have gained from Reading. I encourage all future Diageo scholars to make the investment of the benefactors worthwhile by focusing on their studies and also to go back to their respective home countries to affect lives positively, after their successful completion.

Christian Crentsil

The Diageo Scholarships provide comprehensive financial support – covering both fees and associated living costs – to talented students from sub-Saharan Africa. Generously supported by Diageo plc and the Diageo Foundation, these scholarships are available to students who plan to study for a Master’s degree within the Graduate Institute of International Development and Applied Economics (GIIDAE) at the University of Reading. (Image credits: Elizabeth Reed)

www.reading.ac.uk/diageo

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AfricaAfrica

Lukest Mensah

Aha! What a journey this has been. I would like to express a heartfelt appreciation for a wonderful experience the Diageo Foundation has made possible. This one year of my life at the University of Reading has been very fruitful and will forever be cherished.

This has been a journey of self-discovery and just like every journey there were highs and lows. The speed with which we completed the autumn and spring terms was really astonishing. For me, the variety in modules the school offered was exhilarating and I really seized the opportunity and picked modules ranging from the extractives industries to banking and social policy.

Reading has brought me into contact with some wonderful people (both colleagues and tutors), and I believe the relationships we have formed will stand the test of time. I was not all academic; I was an active member of the Staff-Student Committee of School of Agriculture, Policy and Development and at one point helped organise the famous end-of-year GIIDAE party. My travels around the English isle were fun and memorable. I visited Stonehenge, Edinburgh, Bath and some interesting places in London and Oxford. Until my visit, some of these places, like Stonehenge, were only screensavers on my desktop.

I have had the opportunity to reflect and deliberate a lot with colleagues and lecturers on my next career move. I wish I could say here that the way forward was clear, but this is far from truth. My training here has indeed exposed me to different options, but at the same time it has made decision-making a bit complex. One thing that resonates with me though is that I would like to work with an international non-governmental organisation to help in achieving the goal of reducing poverty in Ghana.

This belief in contributing to society factored significantly in the selection of a dissertation topic. My interest is to examine the impact of foreign aid on poverty reduction in Ghana. Many such researches have been carried out before, but the novelty in my analysis will be a focus on how foreign assistance has helped Ghana in achieving the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals. This is important because almost all the development agencies working in Ghana have adopted the Millennium Development Goals as a tool for eradicating poverty in Ghana and Africa as a whole.

Truly, my experiences have been wonderful. I accept the good with the bad as they both make me strong and ready for all my future endeavours. Reading has made me trust myself more and for this I will forever be grateful. To Diageo I say

‘Med ‘ase’ (Thank you).

Diageo Scholarship winners and their plans for Ghana

Ghana

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In focus

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In focus AfricaMalawi and Mozambique

The Sue Morgan Memorial Trust Fund

Sue Morgan was a student in the Department of Agricultural and Food Economics in 1988/89 and successfully completed the MSc in Tropical Agricultural Development. She died tragically in Mozambique on 26 June 1991 when she was 34 years old, and the Trust was created in her memory to support agricultural development in Africa.

The 2010 Award was presented to Fidelis Sindani from Malawi who studied for an MSc in Applied Development Studies.

Fidelis was nominated for the award by his Programme Director, Sarah Cardey. She said: ‘Fidelis is a very hard working, dedicated and conscientious student who has demonstrated continued academic development. He is an active participant in the classroom, engaging in lively and constructive discussions. He has also impressed other faculty members in his self-motivation in developing his dissertation proposal and initiating his research.’

For more information contact Rebecca Jerrome: r.m.jerrome@reading.ac.uk

‘I very much appreciate the Trust’s commitment to supporting agricultural development in Africa through this award.’Fidelis Sindani Award recipient

The Sue Morgan Memorial Trust Fund was set up to provide support to students from African countries, particularly Malawi and Mozambique, who need financial assistance to pursue agricultural studies at university in the UK. It is hoped that this will then enable the students to further support agricultural development when they return to their own country.

Improving standards in the construction industry The School of Construction Management and Engineering is playing a pivotal role in a new partnership with the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Khartoum, Sudan, designed to improve standards in the construction industry within the Sudan. The partnership aims to advance the education and sound practice of construction management in the Sudan, contributing to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (UNMDG), especially in the areas of sustainable social housing and the empowerment of women. A 2009 UNMDG report revealed that sub-Saharan Africa ‘remains the region

with the highest prevalence of slums’. The same report stated that ‘women are also poorly represented in non-agricultural employment in sub-Saharan Africa’. Statistics show that, increasingly, women are overtaking men in higher education. Currently 90% of students enrolled in the Faculty of Architecture, at the University of Khartoum, are women but they are extremely under-represented in the construction industry workforce. It is hoped that this partnership will prove crucial in addressing these important issues.The partnership is funded with £60,000 over a three-year period by the Department for International Development, and administered by the British Council under the Development Partnerships in Higher Education (DelPHE) programme.

www.reading.ac.uk/CME

Sudan

University of Khartoum

In focus

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AfricaGhana

Dr Peter Kwapong (PhD Entomology in Horticulture, 2008) is a Reading graduate undertaking global research to further inform the world’s entomologists. He is providing an initiative in his native Ghana, the International Stingless Bee Centre (ISBC), which is making a great impact on beekeepers, farmers, and the general public in Ghana, West Africa and the rest of the world. We caught up with Peter in Ghana at the ISBC to find out about his time at Reading and his important research.

Peter – why did you choose Reading?I looked at a lot of universities and I found that Reading was one of the most friendly, and good for studying the course I wished to do.

What was it like to be an international student at the University?For me it was very exciting, and there were already some Ghanaians at Reading who helped me settle in. Being an international student in Reading was a privilege for us. I made a lot of international friends in Reading – within the community and at the University. The environment left a real impact on me.

How did your career progress after Reading?Well I haven’t done badly since! I have used my studies at Reading in my teaching career. The field of pollination and bees is where I have progressed, and I’ve met a lot of people from across the world in this area. Pollination has become an international issue, one new to a lot of people. I have become part of an international academic community very quickly.

Have you continued your links with the University of Reading?Yes, Dr Simon Potts is one of the people I met at Reading and we developed a proposal together and have collaborated on projects since. We often publish together and the link continues to grow.

Tell us more about the ISBCThe ISBC came about as a result of the work I did with Simon. We sampled bees in the tropical rainforest and we found that most of the flower visitors of all the trees there are stingless bees. At a meeting in South Africa, I met an influential woman in US agriculture and told her about my desire to pursue this area of research, but that funding was a problem.

A funding agency went on to call me and I put forward my proposal on stingless bees and they gave me funding to study with the aim of empowering farmers to make extra money through honey, and through using the bees for pollination.Initially, we were training farmers in five communities around the research site. As we trained them, we used them to build structures, and create a sanctuary for the bees. We also acquired a 20-acre secondary forest to provide a sanctuary and thankfully our funders decided to provide extra resource. We have now trained 150 families from around the world on stingless beekeeping and expanded our training programme to include farmers from Nigeria, Benin, Côte d'Ivoire and Cameroon.We have visitors from all over the world who come to see the work being carried out. We have offices, a training hall, bee sheds, a carpentry shop, a bee walkway and we are hoping to construct a greenhouse where we can do pollination trials. We are preparing to launch the centre so that the general public can have access, and of course it will make funding more sustainable if people want to visit. When I was at Reading, I also learnt about teaching children about nature conservation, so I plan to work with the government to teach young children and am very excited about this.Bees are vital to crop production. If bees keep declining, food and seed supplies will be minimised. Not only will it have a dramatic effect on the world economy, but nutrition will be compromised too. I think the most important thing is increasing awareness and education. We need to focus on the major issues with pesticides and we also need to increase practices that are friendly to retaining pollinators in our communities, avoiding any destruction of their habitats.

Graduate profile: Dr Peter Kwapong

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In focus Africa

Daniel Orwa

The MUN experience shapes the way you think; it opens up your mind to see different aspects of life and issues from a different angle thus fostering critical thinking that can be applicable to many different situations. Critical thinking has definitely benefited me, especially formulating arguments and appreciating both sides of the debate.

The society also gives a platform for social interaction and making friends during social events. I have personally made friends from different courses and friends from abroad that I would not have meet in an ‘ordinary’ university experience. University experience wouldn’t be the same without MUN and I am proud to be a co-founder of RUMUN.

Swaleh Ouma

It was a great honour for my friends and I to set up the society to extend the great MUN experience to fellow students, equip students with knowledge about the UN, its organs, processes and procedures and further the message of the need of international cooperation and upholding the ideas of human rights.

The MUN activities contributed tremendously towards my university experience and to me as a person. I have acquired new skills, such as people management when overseeing the society’s trip to New York.

Students creating a Model United Nations at ReadingModel United Nations, popularly referred to as Model UN or MUN, is an academic simulation of the United Nations and its various organisations. It aims to educate young people, usually secondary school or university students about current events, topics in international relations, diplomacy and the United Nations agenda. MUN sessions are usually held in a classroom or on a larger scale at a conference with a pre-set range of topics.

During the MUN sessions, participants are assigned countries to represent as the delegation to the UN. The participants write position papers stating the views and standpoints on the issues at hand. They then debate the issues to find solutions to the situations or write reports in a controlled environment designed to be just like the actual UN sessions.

The founders of the Reading University MUN encountered MUN while undertaking the International Baccalaureate just before joining the University of Reading. While still at high school in Kenya, they attended the 27th Annual East African MUN session in the UN HQ in Nairobi and the MUN conference in South Africa. When they came to Reading, they were disappointed to find that there was no MUN. With a little encouragement, they took a bold step and started the Reading University MUN (RUMUN).

The society faced challenges during its first year such as operating without any funding but the students overcame all that in the second year and were awarded Society of the Year 2010/2011.

During the 2010/11 academic year, they saw their membership increase from 10 in the first year to over 80. As a society, they participated in the Nottingham International MUN conference in November 2010 and London International MUN Conference in February. The highlight of their year was the National MUN conference in New York which was held at the UN headquarters and saw them receive an award for the quality of their contributions.

The society and the committee saw active support, participation and commitment from the members throughout the year and were pleased that the members enjoyed the MUN experience. RUMUN is lucky to have members from a wide range of countries and provides an important forum for bringing home students and international students together.

MUN events rarely fail to leave a positive impression on the participants.

www.reading.ac.uk/RUSU

Founders of MUN at Reading

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AfricaAfrica

Stone Monzi

The Reading University Model United Nations helped me understand various aspects of the United Nations, especially how the organisation works as a whole and its efforts to make the world a better place. Through the society, fellow members and I were able to practise and hone our debating skills whilst at the same time learning the foreign policies of different countries. I have found myself in situations whereby I have had to argue for and defend ideals I don’t necessarily agree with, for it is only prudent for a delegate to follow the foreign policies of the country that he/she is representing. This forces one to learn how to adapt to various situations. Apart from the serious debating that we engaged in on a weekly basis, a number of society socials were

organised. I have thoroughly enjoyed my experience in the MUN.

The society had an impact on the University. Firstly, it encourages students, especially students in law, international relations, history, politics and economics, to think critically on their degree subjects and add a new sphere to the education in university. Secondly, the society helps to put Reading on the map as an institution of excellence, evidenced by the quality participations and awards won by the delegations from Reading University MUN at international competitions.

Africa In focus

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The key research challenges of the twenty-first century cut across traditional discipline boundaries and require collaboration between academics from across the world. The University of Reading’s strength in interdisciplinary research, especially in climate change and food security, and its wealth of partnerships in Africa, place it at the forefront of addressing many of the most pressing issues facing the planet today.

Professor Christine Williams Pro-Vice-Chancellor Research and Innovation

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People and cultureAfrica

Research by the National Centre for Language and Literacy at the Institute of Education, and funded by the Leverhulme Trust, has been investigating the conditions which are needed for African language publishing to thrive.Teaching children in their mother tongues has been shown to give the best educational results; however, the lack of learning materials in African languages remains a serious obstacle to progress. Consequently, children are often taught to read in former colonial languages.

The research has identified many reasons for the lack of children’s reading material available in African languages, including a lack of infrastructural capacity, a

shortage of writers in African languages and of translators with experience of children’s literature, as well as problems in distribution.

Professor Viv Edwards from the National Centre for Language and Literacy at the Institute of Education said: ‘Our research has identified the issues surrounding African language publishing from the perspectives of both policy-makers and key players in process. Using this we have been able to offer practical recommendations for ways forward which place responsibility on both policy-makers and publishers. Hopefully this will serve as a catalyst for future debate and help to steer stakeholders out of the current impasse.’

www.ncll.org.uk

Daniel Adu Ankrah PhD student, Agriculture | Ghana

Perspectives

Helping children to read in their own language

My experience with the University of Reading has been an exciting one with profound memories which I would carry out in life. I have been able to make life long friends from my school and other schools within Reading. The Sibly hall has a great number of international students who are very friendly. This has really increased my inter-cultural understanding.I was able to run for the position of President for Post Gradutes Representation Group (PGRG). As a president of this Group, I have had several meetings and attended training conferences within the UK. This has been a unique and life changing experience.

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People and culture Africa

Helping to strengthen Tanzania’s business environment Researchers from the School of Economics are involved in a new programme to help strengthen Tanzania’s business environment. The Business Environment Strengthening for Tanzania regulatory reform programme is being funded by a number of international donors. As part of its aim to improve the effectiveness of its projects, the Department for International Development (DFID) has contracted Coffey International (a development consultancy) to undertake a five-year Longitudinal Impact Assessment for the advocacy component of this programme. Professor

Uma Kambhampati from Economics is assisting the macroeconomic and longitudinal aspects of the assessment as an external consultant.

This project aims to enhance the quality and credibility of private sector organisations in Tanzania to engage effectively in

private-public dialogue, and to suggest improvements in the business environment. This should help to create an enabling business environment which is more conducive to private sector growth.

This Impact Assessment study will help to provide a better understanding of the links between the output, purpose and objectives of the reform programme.

www.reading.ac.uk/economics

Contemporary African art and art education at Reading

Tanzania

Looking at and finding out about contemporary African art and artists has become a core strand of the BA Education in Art course. Our undergraduate students are encouraged as developing artists and primary teachers to expand their art knowledge, and to use that knowledge within their own practice as artists and primary teachers. As a result their growing knowledge of the diversity of contemporary African art and culture provides a greater understanding of the international nature of art, and the hybridisation of cultures within that scene.

Through collaborative University-based art activities with local schools, our students have used their newly acquired knowledge of contemporary African artists to initiate and inspire children’s art-making and raise awareness of global citizenship issues. Using a range of selected contemporary African artists, whose dynamic work is not only visually arresting, but also tackles key issues facing the continent, the students have raised the status of artists beyond Europe and provided opportunities for the children they are working with to reflect upon concerns that might inform many artists’ work.

www.reading.ac.uk/education

Africa

For many years we have been conducting research into the nature, epidemiology, impact, and treatment of postnatal depression. Following the 1994 democratic elections in South Africa (where Peter was born and brought up), we became interested in carrying out research into the quality of mother-infant relationships in poor communities in the region, and the implications that this might have for child development. In collaboration with colleagues at the University of Cape Town, we identified an area where we could carry out this work, namely, Khayelitsha, a peri-urban settlement on the outskirts of Cape Town. The first phase of this work was supported by the British Council and the World Health Organisation, on the basis of which we were able to secure Wellcome Trust grant support for an epidemiological study. The results of this study showed that there was a high rate of postnatal depression in Khayelitsha (three times the rate in the UK), and that maternal mood disturbance was associated with markedly insensitive and unsupportive parenting. We also found that postnatal depression was associated with a high rate of insecure infant attachment, which is a form of early emotional disturbance strongly predictive of later behavioural and emotional problems in children.

We used this information to obtain further support from the Wellcome Trust to carry out a large trial of an intervention designed to improve the quality of mother-infant relationships in Khayelitsha. This treatment was based on an intervention we had developed and evaluated in Reading and, together with Cape Town colleagues, we modified it for the local environment. To help deliver this intervention on the ground,

we trained local women from the Khayelitsha community. The study demonstrated that the treatment was effective, in terms of both reduced maternal insensitivity and unsupportiveness, and reduced insecure infant attachment. This intervention has now been adopted by a Cape Town NGO, The Parent Centre, and is being widely delivered within Khayelitsha and beyond.

Recently, we have become interested in responding to the concern within South Africa about the low levels of literacy amongst children. Our experience of mother-infant relationships within Khayelitsha had alerted us to the fact that there was little direct mother-infant interaction and stimulation in early infancy, and no culture of sharing books with children. Therefore, we have been working to develop training for mothers in infant book sharing in collaboration with the University of Cape Town and the University of Stellenbosch. With the help of a charitable donation from a UK publisher (Constable Robinson),

and small private donations, we have just completed a feasibility study of delivering this training programme in Khayelitsha, with mothers of 12 to 18 month old infants.

This has provided us with the evidence of deliverability we need to proceed with a major training study. We hope to be able to demonstrate that with training, mothers can become proficient in book sharing, and that this is of benefit to child cognitive and language development. This evidence could be the basis for disseminating this training programme on a wider scale. Since the programme has been designed to be delivered by trained lay personnel, its dissemination could be achieved simply and economically. This line of work therefore has the prospect of being of major significance to child cognitive and language development in South Africa and similar developing world contexts.

www.reading.ac.uk/pcls

Researching mother-child relationships in South AfricaProfessors Peter Cooper and Lynne Murray from Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences describe research they are involved in which looks at mother-child relationships in South Africa.

South Africa People and culture

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Opposite page: Better farming for better living and Education for all, information booklets, covers and spreads, 1955, Ibadan: Western Regional Government

Left: Vote early at your polling station Poster, 1956, Ibadan, Nigeria: Western Regional Government

Reaching people with design: West Africa 1940–60Eric Kindel from Typography & Graphic Communication discusses ‘Isotype’ and research into its use in West Africa.Isotype (International System Of TYpographic Picture Education) was a method of assembling, configuring and displaying information and statistics through pictorial means. Its basic elements were pictograms – simplified pictures of people or things – graphically arranged to

illustrate and explain social and economic issues to ordinary people. Isotype began in Vienna in the 1920s, where it was developed at a museum of society and economy. Isotype was purposely international in outlook, and it was soon introduced to other parts of Europe and North America. In the early 1940s, the Isotype Institute was established in Britain where work continued through the 1960s.

In 2007, the research project ‘Isotype revisited’, funded by the Arts &

Humanities Research Council, began in the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication at Reading. Drawing on the Otto & Marie Neurath Isotype Collection, an extensive archive of Isotype working material given to the University of Reading in 1971, the project aimed to re-evaluate Isotype’s place in the history of twentieth-century design. Areas of research included Isotype’s contribution to visual education in inter-war Vienna and to pictorial statistics in the Soviet Union; and its work on documentary

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People and cultureAfricaWest Africa

Regional Government, whose programe of improvements included the introduction of free health care and primary education, the modernisation of agriculture and infrastructure, and universal adult enfranchisement. To help explain its programme to children and adults, among whom there were low levels of literacy, the government turned to the Isotype Institute, which produced visual materials adapted to local needs. Examples of the work, which was widely distributed in the Western Region, are shown below.

films, educational books for children, and programmes of public information in British colonial West Africa.

The work undertaken by the Isotype Institute in West Africa is of particular importance. It offered the opportunity to test Isotype’s international effectiveness in the developing, non-Western world. Projects were completed between 1953 and 1958 in Sierra Leone, Nigeria and the Gold Coast (Ghana). In Nigeria, work was commissioned by the progressive Western

In 2010, ‘Isotype revisited’ curated the exhibition ‘Isotype: international picture language’ at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. The exhibition drew extensively on project research and displayed a wide range of Isotype work, including posters and booklets made for West Africa. In 2010, the project also produced the book From hieroglyphics to Isotype: a visual autobiography by Otto Neurath (Hyphen Press), and in 2012 it will publish a collection of essays on the many aspects of Isotype it has investigated.

www.isotyperevisited.org

People and culture AfricaAfrica Africa

Engagement with music from Africa and music influenced by the experience of the African people has helped to develop knowledge about music among our trainee secondary teachers. Furthermore, it has also challenged their attitudes towards social justice and has informed their approach to musical teaching practice. On the Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) at the Institute of Education, our graduates of music and music-related degrees engage with African music and musicians in three different contexts: as a musical tradition, in the context of global citizenship and as a model of teaching practice.

Through seminars at the University, and through their teaching in placement schools, our trainees develop their knowledge of music and vocal styles, so that they can teach children the music and the culture that surrounds it. Beyond this, the fusion of African and European musical traditions, which appeared as a result of the slave trade, are also explored through seminars and related back to their African origins. Studying this fusion of musical styles helps to fosters an awareness of the human relationships that brought them about.

Last year, our music PGCE trainees took part in a project with the Reading International Solidarity Centre (RISC), in which they taught elements of global citizenship through music. As part of this, the trainees and their school-based mentors attended a workshop with Usifu Jalloh, a master

percussionist from Sierra Leone. The trainees and mentors were challenged to acknowledge the many stereotypes surrounding ‘African’ music that are typically present in young people’s minds. The workshop also explored some of the conventions of drumming in Sierra Leone. This developed trainees’ understanding of how traditional West African music can be used in the classroom, not just to teach its stylistic features, but to increase children’s awareness of their connection with people around the world, to challenge their stereotypes and to encourage them to take action for social justice.

The oral tradition of West African traditional music provides an important model of musical teaching practice. It provides a means of teaching musical patterns that can be built into complex structures and textures without extensive prior learning of a system of notation. This therefore forms an excellent starting point for trainee teachers, most of whom have trained as classical musicians, as a means of engaging with children through music and teaching them attitudes towards the quality of musical expression as well as technical musical concepts. For this reason, as part of the workshop, the trainee teachers were required to lead a ‘djembe’ drumming workshop in a local school. Preparing for this enabled them to learn the pedagogical principles inherent in the African tradition of drumming, establishing a foundation for their development as teachers.

www.reading.ac.uk/education

The University of Reading is a partner in an archaeological research project focused on a last glacial cave deposit at Grotte des Pigeons, Taforalt in North Eastern Morocco. The top three metres of the cave deposit covers the Upper Palaeolithic levels of the Iberomaurusian culture, and contains midden deposits, which are mounds

containing shells, animal bones, and other refuse which indicate the site of a human settlement. These have been radiocarbon dated between 13,000 and 11,000 years ago. Funded by the Leverhulme Trust, archaeologists from Reading are working on a project to study the land molluscs found in the midden.

Professor Martin Bell from the Department of Archaeology discusses the project: ‘Substantial land mollusc middens occur on a number of sites round the Mediterranean at the transition from the last glacial to the post glacial. The onset of substantial midden accumulations, especially where associated with cemeteries, has often been

Using African music to teach our teachers

North Eastern Morocco

Dr James Garnett from the Institute

of Education explains how exploring African

music in our graduate teacher training

programmes has helped to enrich their studies.

Shells shed light on early North African

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People and cultureAfrica

Protracted civil conflict has affected many countries in sub-Saharan Africa since the end of the Cold War, often fuelled by the exploitation of natural resources such as diamonds, precious metals, tropical hardwoods and rubber. African regional organisations such as the African Union (AU) or the Economic Community of West-African States (ECOWAS), as well as the UN and major donor countries, have been deeply involved in efforts to end these conflicts, to re-build war-torn countries, and to establish the conditions for self-sustaining peace. The majority of UN peacekeeping operations established in the last decade have been located in Africa.

The effectiveness of such peacebuilding efforts has been limited at best, as developments in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, and Somalia underline. I am currently involved (as co-director) in a major international research project to examine the impact that the interventions by external actors aimed at building peace in war-torn societies have on the political and economic structures of post-conflict countries. The project, entitled Power after Peace: The Political Economy of Post-Conflict Statebuilding, has been supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and has involved over 20 researchers from across the world, including Nigeria, the University of Khartoum, and the Kofi Annan

Peacekeeping Training Centre in Ghana. The cases that we have examined include those in several African countries, such as Burundi, Sudan, and Sierra Leone, as well as the peace and statebuilding practices of African regional organisations, such as the AU and ECOWAS.

One of the key insights we have gained is that while international interventions often end the fighting and on the surface reform the institutions of the state through power-sharing between former warring parties, democratic elections, and economic reforms, the underlying political and economic structures that fuelled conflict in the first place often remain largely untouched. Our research has highlighted the ways in which peacebuilding efforts have often strengthened informal political and economic structures, many of which have their roots in the previous conflict and in organised crime, and which challenge efforts by the state and its international supporters to promote security and economic development. It has also pointed to different ways in which external interventions have often deepened the divisions in post-conflict countries and have fuelled renewed violence.

www.reading.ac.uk/spirs

Dr Dominik Zaum, from the School of Politics and International Relations, discusses work which examines the effectiveness of peacebuilding exercises.

interpreted as evidence of communities settling down in one place to exploit a wider range of dietary resources, following a more mobile and game-focused diet earlier in the Palaeolithic. These general hypotheses will be tested against evidence from the site at Taforalt. The midden we are working on contains not only vast

numbers of land snail shells, but also ash, heat-fractured stone, animal bones, flint tools and charred plant remains all of which suggests a broad diet. The range of land mollusc types is quite limited; the molluscs are of similar growth stages and some are burnt, strengthening the view that they were gathered for consumption.

Research on the present-day mollusc communities round the cave shows that some of the same species cluster in small micro-caves and fissures in the limestone, perhaps explaining how Iberomaurusian communities were able to gather these shells in such numbers.’

www.reading.ac.uk/archaeology

Peacebuilding in Africa

Further information: The findings of this project will be published in late 2011, and will include a policy paper and an edited volume entitled The Political Economy of State building: Power after Peace.

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Delegates at the Wilton Park conference: ‘Power after Peace: The Political Economy of Post-Conflict Statebuilding – What Policy implications?’. Photograph courtesy of Wilton Park.

settlements

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‘We are managing our own lives’How do children and families negotiate illness, loss and poverty in their lives?Dr Ruth Evans, from the School of Human and Environmental Sciences at Reading, discusses her research into families and poverty in East Africa

Over the last 10 years, my research has sought to understand more about how children and families deal with poverty and other vulnerabilities, particularly the effects of HIV and AIDS, in East Africa. Children and young people who grow up in low-income households face many problems, and these can affect their physical and emotional well-being, and make it difficult for them to attend school regularly and avoid poverty in later life. In many African societies, children are expected to contribute to household chores, care for young children, sick or older family members and to work from an early age. Expectations often differ according to gender and age: girls often have a heavier workload doing domestic and caring tasks and less access to education than boys, while older children have greater responsibilities than younger children, which can affect their transitions to adulthood.

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People and cultureEast Africa

In communities severely affected by the HIV and AIDS epidemic, where the material and emotional resources to care for sick relatives are overstretched, my research in Tanzania has shown that girls and boys are taking on significant caring roles for parents and relatives experiencing chronic, life-limiting illness. Rapid increases in access to life-prolonging medical treatment for HIV across Africa in recent years have helped to significantly reduce the numbers of people dying from AIDS. However, there are still many young people in these communities who are likely to eventually lose their parents, siblings and other relatives to AIDS, and some may provide emotionally distressing, intensive end-of-life care for their parents. Following a parent’s death, most young people move to live with grandparents and other relatives, while some may stay in their inherited parental home and look after their younger siblings without a co-resident adult, forming a child- or youth-headed household. My research in Tanzania and Uganda has shown that some orphaned young people chose to stay together with their siblings and live independently without an adult, rather than live with foster relatives. Their reasons for this range from experiences of being harassed when living with relatives, to the fear of losing inheritance rights to their parents’ farm and other assets.

Despite the chronic poverty and other difficulties they experience, many children and young people in these situations see their caring responsibilities for their family as ‘normal’. They try to do their best at school or earn a livelihood to support

their family, and they often have high aspirations for the future. The research I am involved in tries to analyse the factors that influence these outcomes for children and young people, and the practices and approaches that best support caregiving children and their families living in these circumstances. By conducting interviews and using participatory methods, such as drawings, photography, diagrams, art and drama, I try to gain insight into the views and experiences of children, parents, relatives, community members and support workers at the community level. Following the analysis and writing stages, I also provide opportunities for research participants to receive feedback about the findings and participate in dissemination activities in order to inform policy and practice that may help to improve the situation of children and families in the future.

Recently, I’ve been exploring the gender and generational inequalities that disadvantage widows, grandmothers and young unmarried mothers when a male head of household dies. In the context of a highly stigmatised illness such as HIV and AIDS, widows and orphaned children may find it particularly difficult to safeguard their inheritance rights to land, property and other assets following the death of male heads of household. This is due to a number of factors, including inadequate social protection and healthcare provision, increasing competition for land, and limited resources within families. In turn, this means that it is very difficult for the next generation to

escape chronic poverty. I have analysed the protective factors that help widows living with HIV and orphaned youth-heading households in Tanzania and Uganda to safeguard their assets. These include the social relations that women and children develop with relatives, neighbours, community leaders and organisations; written evidence of bequests, property ownership and land titles; awareness of gender and generational inequalities; and advocacy to safeguard their inheritance rights.

My research seeks to identify the key issues and challenges which need to be addressed if policy, services and interventions for children and families affected by HIV and AIDS, and those experiencing poverty, disability or the loss of a family member, are to become more responsive to their needs. I am currently developing research on inheritance practices, access to resources and the intergenerational transmission of poverty in the context of Senegal, which is a country characterised by rapid urbanisation, environmental change and socio-cultural and religious differences. I work in partnership with non-governmental organisations and academics in a number of countries in Africa and seek to disseminate the findings to research participants, policy-makers and practitioners, as well as academics. I am also a member of the recently launched International Network of Caregiving Children which aims to facilitate knowledge exchange and ensure that caregiving children in resource-poor settings are recognised on the policy agenda.

www.reading.ac.uk/shes

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People and culture Africa

The role of classics in AfricaProfessor Barbara Goff from the Department of Classics describes her research interests in the use of classics by different groups of people.My research interests are in Greek tragedy and in what later writers have made of it. Currently I am researching the rewriting of Greek tragedies by writers of African descent, and leading on from that, in the politics of classical education in colonial West Africa.

The history of classics, and how it has been used by different groups, tells us a lot about cultural politics in general, and helps us understand ourselves in the modern world. What I find fascinating about the role of classics within colonialism is that it works as a sign of assumed western superiority, but also as a cultural resource for those peoples who were colonised.

My research has found that Greek tragedy has taken on a number of significances for writers of African descent, and has proved a great resource, both in thinking through subjection and in imagining freedom. I have also found that classical education was a huge bone of contention between African colonised peoples and British colonial officials. They struggled for about 100 years over who should learn Latin and Greek and why.

The story of classics in the British colonies was extremely fraught. From the mid-nineteenth century onwards, missionaries taught Ancient Greek and

Latin to selected boys in order to train up indigenous leaders of the Church. The ancient languages became part of the cultural equipment of the first generation of West African preachers, teachers, lawyers, journalists and civil servants.

In the early twentieth century, however, there was a European reaction against the phenomenon of ‘the educated African’, and the colonial administration tried to eradicate Latin from school syllabi, replacing it with what was called practical education – usually a form of agricultural labour. African people agitated to keep Latin instead, which would help qualify them for higher education. Yet when universities were founded in Africa, after the Second World War, their elevation of classics over, for instance, African languages, was seen as neo-colonial oppression. However, classical myth, history and literature also provided a discourse with which African nationalists addressed the issue of independence and self-government, throughout the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries.

Classics now prospers in certain West African universities, and I look forward to future collaborations with some of the academics there.

www.reading.ac.uk/classics

Osinakachukwu Ideozu PhD student, Real Estate and Planning | Nigeria

Perspectives

The University of Reading has presented me with such a fulfilling experience. I have never known any university whose staff exhibit such a level of courtesy, dedication and willingness to help. I have had no problem that ever persisted without prompt and sincere assistance being received. The guidance and public relations can only be described as simply excellent! It is one university you can count on when it comes to dealing with students, especially foreign students, with extreme compassion and understanding.

The Royal city of Meroë, located in Sudan on the east bank of the Nile, is the ancient capital of the Meroitic kingdom, 800 BC – 350 AD. This was contemporaneous with the Roman Empire, and often one of its rivals in Africa. The Meroitic script has yet to be translated and archaeological excavations at the Royal city have been limited.

Funded by a 2011 International Partnership Award from the British Academy, the collaborative project has the dual aim of providing intensive training for Sudanese archaeologists and extending the regional scope of archaeological research at Reading. The project has been devised by Dr Intisar Elzein (Khartoum) and Dr Anna Boozer (Reading) and will involve six joint workshops over a three-year period. Reading has a world-leading archaeological department

and will be able to share its expertise in methods such as architectural surveying, excavation strategies and conservation. Khartoum holds the archives of unpublished excavations undertaken at Meroë that will be studied by Intisar and Anna to assess our current evidence for the historical development of Meroë, which is anticipated to lead into a new phase of excavation.

While knowledge about Meroë will be a key outcome of the project, it will enable capacity building within the Department of Archaeology of Khartoum. The new levels of archaeological expertise developed and resources provided can be applied to the enormously rich archaeological heritage of Sudan – a key resource of the country for the development of future tourism.

www.reading.ac.uk/archaeology

Meroë: A royal meeting place for Khartoum and Reading archaeologists Image credit: Elizabeth Reed

Meroë, the most important archaeological site in Sudan, is now providing the focus for a collaborative project between the archaeology departments of the universities of Khartoum and Reading.

People and cultureSudan

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People and culture Kenya

Following a visit to Reading by Dr Bakhta Abdelhay of the University of Mostaganem, Algeria, to

discuss her research on language and gender, Dr Alan Tonkyn, Senior Lecturer in Applied Linguistics at Reading, was invited to conduct a week-long seminar for Master’s students at Mostaganem in March 2010 about second language aquisition. Dr Alan Tonkyn discusses the project.

On assignment in AlgeriaThe seminar dealt with topics in the field of second language acquisition, focusing on cognitive theories, the role of instruction, task-based learning and content-and-language-integrated learning. I also conducted a session on research design in English language studies, and discussed the students’ ideas for their research. These ranged from more narrowly linguistic topics such as grammar and vocabulary acquisition, through more sociolinguistic issues such as language and gender and cultural influences on communication and understanding of literature, to factors connected to the learners themselves, such as motivation.

While I was in Mostaganem, I also gave a lecture to a large audience of students and teachers from a range of institutions in the region on the topic: ‘Communicative language teaching: what and why?’

A further Master’s seminar will deal with research-related issues, including sampling, questionnaire and interview design, class observation, and the analysis of quantitative and qualitative data. I will also be discussing topics in the field of English grammar with a younger group of students working in the field of sociolinguistics and gender studies.

www.reading.ac.uk/languages

Female entrepreneurship in KenyaGiovanna De Giusti, a PhD student from Economics, describes her research in Kenya which explores the factors which affect women’s decisions to become entrepreneurs and their business strategy.In many developing countries, the majority of micro and small enterprises are owned and operated by women, and an increasing number of projects have been designed and implemented to boost female entrepreneurship, with the aim of improving women’s lives and as a strategy to alleviate poverty.

Most have identified financial constraints and poor business knowledge as major factors which hinder women from running profitable businesses. However, lack of finance and business education sometimes originate from social norms which limit women’s access to important resources such as finance, property and education, and which confine women to the role

of homemakers. These same social norms can also hinder women from developing a sense of self-worth, which might enable them to access or identify better opportunities.

Using data from a large nationally representative survey conducted in 2003 and 2008–09, I investigated whether gender norms, which define women’s role, prerogatives and responsibilities in a particular social group, and female autonomy, which is the ability to make independent decisions in a range of contexts, have an impact on women’s choice of work and particularly on their decision to become entrepreneurs. I also conducted interviews in 2010 with 513 women and men doing business to further examine the reasons why some choose to run more than one venture, or to operate in the informal sector rather than in the formal economy, and why some prosper while other struggle to survive.

My results suggest that gender norms and female autonomy do affect women’s

decisions with regard to their work and their strategic choices in doing business. In particular, women who live in settings where gender norms are stronger choose not to work for external employers, but rather decide to work for a family member or to become entrepreneurs. Also, women in this situation tend to operate more than one business. This could be in order to diversify their portfolio of investments and reduce their risk. Furthermore, women with more children tend to operate in the informal economy, possibly because they divert resources from the business to satisfy their children’s needs. Finally, women’s high workload in the household reduces their availability of time and therefore their business earnings.

The outcomes of my work are intended to provide tools for policy-makers within the field of enterprise support, for project designers operating within the financial system, and for studies on gender issues and women’s empowerment.

www.reading.ac.uk/economics

Algeria

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People and cultureAfrica

Having spent time in Kosti with Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO) and as a member of staff at the University of Khartoum, Peter Woodward, Emeritus Professor from the School of Politics and International Relations, has been involved in research on armed conflict in Africa for the past 40 years. A particular focus of his has been research on the history of Sudan, including the Sudan Peace Process in 2005 and the ongoing Darfur crisis.

As the author and editor of a number of books on north-east Africa, as well as being a former editor of African Affairs, the Journal of the Royal African

Society, he continues to edit annual volumes of British Foreign Office Documents on Africa from 1914–56. He is currently writing a book on the liberal approach to conflict resolution in the Horn of Africa.

Professor Woodward currently acts as a consultant and adviser to both the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department for International Development of the British government, in addition to a number of research centres, governments and media outlets. He has recently worked as an academic director in South Sudan for a programme on the recent division of Sudan into two separate states.

Staff profile:Professor Peter Woodward

Anita Omonuwa Undergraduate, Law | Nigeria

Perspectives

To me the University of Reading is a first-class university with state-of-the-art teaching facilities and staff, located in the multicultural and vibrant town of Reading and just a 10 minutes’ walk from the town centre. Ranked 17th for law in UK by The Guardian University Guide 2011 with an international student community and modern accommodation facilities, these things triggered my thirst for knowledge in this University.I started in 2009 in the International Foundation Programme to study law. I had a wonderful time during the one-year programme and got acquainted with the British educational system and its academic culture and values.There is not a day that I have regretted my decision to continue my undergraduate studies in Reading. The teaching is one of the best in the country with lecturers who are qualified and ever ready to assist in one’s academic development.

University of Khartoum

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Students from all around the world study at the University of Reading. They deserve an education fitting for the twenty-first century – they are the first generation of truly global citizens. As such,  topics concerning the past, present and future of Africa must be pervasive within the degrees we teach in all subjects of study.

Professor Gavin Brooks Pro-Vice-Chancellor Teaching & Learning

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Climate and weatherAfrica

CGIAR manages a budget of over half a billion US dollars which represents the single largest investment made to mobilise science for the benefit of the rural poor worldwide. Funders of CGIAR include developing and industrialised country governments, foundations, and international and regional organisations.

The Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) is a 10-year research initiative launched in 2010 by the CGIAR and the Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP). CCAFS is one of the seven strategic programmes around which the CGIAR is coordinating all its work.

One of the first tasks of CCAFS has been to set up a multi-level, multi-site baseline that will enable the programme to track the effects of climate change on agriculture and food security in 12 countries. The Statistical Services Centre (SSC) of the University of Reading was invited to provide support on the design of the survey work but soon it became evident that SSC would play a wider role in supporting the development of a baseline strategy that ensures that the complex set of research questions are tackled through an

efficient research process to deliver information of high quality. This is an example of the specialised, effective and timely inputs that the SSC, as an enterprise unit of the University of Reading, is able to offer to the international research community.

The SSC has a long history of collaboration with Consultative Group Research Institutes including a close partnership with the Research Methods Group of the

World Agroforestry Centre and the International Livestock Research Institute. In partnership with international research staff of the CGIAR, SSC staff regularly contribute to capacity building of national and international researchers throughout Africa. This takes the form of in-country training, workshops, mentoring or attachments to the SSC at Reading.

www.reading.ac.uk/ssc

Providing research support to the Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security programme The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) is a global partnership that unites organisations engaged in research for sustainable development. The work they support is carried out by 15 International Agricultural Research Centres, in close collaboration with hundreds of partner organisations, including national and regional research institutes, civil society organisations, academia, and the private sector.

Tef. A staple crop for millions in Africa. Image credit: Ric Coe

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The Africa Climate Exchange (ACX) aims to bridge the historical disconnect between decision-makers and climate scientists, ensuring that all climate-related policy decisions towards improving food security can be made with access to the best available scientific information. By bringing government and NGO policy-makers together with climate scientists, it is hoped that the latest climate science can be channelled into policy to make a positive difference to the lives of the 800 million people in sub-Saharan Africa living with devastating climate variability. This exciting new initiative will be launched at the beginning of December 2011, as part of a recently awarded Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Knowledge Exchange Fellowship.

Currently, the policy-making community are not an integral part of the climate

science chain. A combination of the technical language used, and a lack of understanding of the really relevant local issues with different interpretations of uncertainty and differently perceived responses to timescales, make it difficult for decision-makers to directly influence the focus of climate research for the benefit of the people, and particularly the rural communities of smallholders. The activities and underpinning online portal planned as part of the ACX exchange will bring together communities of scientists and policy-makers, initially in Senegal and Sudan, to share understanding and exchange knowledge on how recent developments in climate science can be exploited to reduce the vulnerability of their societies to climate variability and change.

The ACX program will build on the

unique dialogue established by the African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analysis (AMMA) field campaign (2005–2010), which was set up to improve our understanding of the West African monsoon, and on the long-standing relationship that the Department of Meteorology has with Africa.

Following meetings with the decision-makers and climate scientists to understand their key priorities, the ACX will create opportunities for dialogue and collaboration between these groups, and for working with the local communities. These knowledge-sharing activities in Senegal and Sudan will drive new sustainable collaborative consortia for relevant policy-making towards improving food security. In addition, they will give UK scientists a better understanding of local issues, the

Dr Ros Cornforth, from the Department of Meteorology, who works in association with the Walker Institute for Climate System Research, the National Centre for Atmospheric Science-Climate and the Grantham Institute for Climate Change, discusses a new programme of knowledge-sharing activities at the policy-science interface in sub-Saharan Africa.

Africa Climate Exchange

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Climate and weatherSub-Saharan Africa

complex policy-making environment and the competing challenges faced by African decision-makers. Active discussion, targeted publications in Africa and the UK, and the interactive web portal will ensure learning is utilised effectively and can be extended as a model to other sub-Saharan countries. By encouraging a culture shift towards knowledge exchange, the prevention, preparedness and response capacities of humanitarian and development organisations as well as policy makers should be improved. The exchanges will enable us all to learn about the issues facing each other and find a common language which makes the interpretation of uncertainty easier for policy-makers whose decisions directly impact on the lives of the West African peoples.

The time is very opportune for the ACX following the AMMA field campaign, which finished last year. AMMA was unique in its deep rooting in the realities of operational forecasting methods in the region, and African weather services were actively involved in AMMA, which succeeded in bringing together a remarkable community of researchers and forecasters from Africa and around the world.

We have a new understanding of weather-climate interactions following AMMA to address the potential changes in the African climate system. The Africa Climate Exchange will integrate our multidisciplinary community here and in West Africa to channel our vital expertise to maximum benefit for the welfare and security of the sub-Saharan people.

www.afclix.org

Oliver Okey Oji Enouh PhD student, Livelihoods | Nigeria

Perspectives

I came to the University of Reading after completing my Master’s programme at Yale University, USA, and winning the Commonwealth Scholarship, tenable in the UK. Reading’s Research Methods Training and Transferable Skills programme, research facilities, weekly livelihoods seminar, and effective supervision made the doctoral education highly qualitative, outstanding and memorable.The closeness of the University to London (20 minutes by train), made it easy to attend several professional seminars and workshops in London, visiting several environment and development establishments in the city, and building social network and personal contacts with leading international professionals in conservation and development.

Climate and weather Africa

Meteorological expertise: climate and weather in Africa

The TAMSAT (Tropical Applications of Meteorology using SATellite data) research group was started in 1980 with the aim of using imagery from the European weather satellite, Meteosat, to improve early warning of drought and flood in sub-Saharan Africa.

TAMSAT received some good publicity in 1988 when they were asked by the UK government to provide advice on whether or not to evacuate the British embassy in Khartoum during heavy flooding of the Nile. After studying the Meteosat imagery, their advice was to stay put. This successful outcome led to funding for the development of a rainfall monitoring system for Africa.

The method devised was extremely simple but has turned out to be remarkably robust. It makes use of the thermal infrared sensor on Meteosat to identify the cold cloud tops associated with huge cumulonimbus clouds that produce almost all the rainfall in sub-Saharan Africa. Trials showed that the length of time a cloud top remains

colder than a specified temperature can be related to the amount of rain produced by the cloud. Provided the relationship is carefully calibrated using local rain gauge data, this simple approach is as good as, if not better than, more sophisticated methods which are much more difficult to implement.

This requirement for local calibration and the desire to work in collaboration with African scientists led to numerous rainfall monitoring workshops in different parts of Africa over the last 30 years. The end result of these workshops is that the system can now generate 10-day rainfall totals in more-or-less real time which cover the whole of Africa. The rainfall maps are also transmitted by Eumetsat (European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites) using their Geonetcast system to all users with appropriate reception equipment. Additionally, the European Commission uses

TAMSAT rainfall estimates as part of their FOODSEC (Food Security programme) action, which provides governments and other organisations in a number of African countries with agrometeorological bulletins.

We are now in the process of generating a 28-year time series of African rainfall based on all available data from the Meteosat archive. We hope this will prove to be a valuable resource for investigating rainfall climate variability and change across the African continent.

The long-term aim of the TAMSAT project is to make itself redundant. We hope that the technology and the leadership of the project will eventually be transferred to scientists based in Africa who are in a much better position than we are to continue to develop and improve the rainfall monitoring system and its practical applications.

Monitoring rainfall in sub-Saharan AfricaDr David Grimes, from the Department of Meteorology at Reading, discusses a project which has been successful in using satellite data to monitor and predict rainfall across sub-Saharan Africa.

www.reading.ac.uk/meteorology www.walker‑institute.ac.uk

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Meteorological expertise: climate and weather in Africa

Rainfall variability in Southern AfricaDr Charles Williams is a Royal Society Research Fellow, working within NCAS-Climate at the University of Reading. He has over eight years of experience in African climate variability, and is internationally recognised as an expert in modelling rainfall extremes and associated atmospheric, oceanic and land surface processes over Southern Africa.

Recent climate-related disasters have demonstrated how extreme climate events can impact on society. Rainfall extremes are particularly devastating, as they cause both extreme drought and flooding and have caused enormous physical, social and economic disaster. This is particularly true for vulnerable regions such as Southern Africa (Africa south of the Equator), where widespread poverty, an extensive disease burden and pockets of political instability has resulted in a low resilience and limited adaptative capacity to climate-related shocks and stresses. Here, environmental catastrophes are already causing widespread human suffering, and it is expected that they may become both more frequent and intense as the climate changes. A good understanding of extreme rainfall, and associated ocean-land-atmosphere processes, is therefore essential in order to provide accurate predictions of potential climate extremes.

It is generally understood that various processes influence patterns of rainfall variability. Two important examples are sea surface temperature (SST), and the extent and type of land cover. A major challenge in understanding African climate, however, is that there are currently very few ground-based rainfall measurement systems, so other tools must be used. Climate models are one such tool, simulating present-day climate variability and extremes as

well as the impacts of potential future climate change.

Previous research I have been involved in has used a global climate model (GCM) to characterise the relationship between SST in the South Atlantic and rainfall over Southern Africa. A number of model experiments were undertaken, each with varying temperatures. It was found that with an increasingly cold South Atlantic, rainfall extremes were increased over central Southern Africa. This was due to a westwards shift in the main rain-producing systems over the region. The results were then repeated (and improved upon) using a regional climate model (RCM) at high spatial resolution, and a non-linear process was suggested whereby forcings of opposite sign in the South Atlantic resulted in the same rainfall response over southeastern Africa. This has important implications for the climate modelling community.

Other research is investigating whether local human changes to land use are the most important in influencing regional climate, or whether global atmospheric and oceanic processes dominate.

The changing climate will bring many new challenges for adaptation, and this type of research is important as it will help us to better understand and prepare for these changes across Southern Africa.

Climate and weatherSub-Saharan Africa and Southern Africa

Understanding how the weather in the Sahara affects the worldThe Sahara is one of the most inhospitable places on earth. Bereft of populated areas and therefore, meteorological observation stations, it is also hard to characterise using satellites. This is because the sandy surface reflects much of the sunlight back into space making it difficult to observe surface temperature, clouds and other weather systems. As a result, global climate and weather models find it difficult to predict temperatures and weather across North Africa, and this leads to errors in surface pressure and weather patterns across Europe and worldwide.

A new project known as Fennec (named after the Saharan fox) is looking to improve the meteorological monitoring in this area and to improve the performance of weather and climate forecast models. Researchers from the Department of Meteorology have been involved in experiments which measure the sunlight and the radiation emitted by the surface in the Sahara, as well as the amount and type of dust blown into the atmosphere. The research undertaken by this project will provide new information on the structure of the lowest part of the atmosphere over the Sahara during both quiet conditions and dust storms. Measurements taken during dust storms will enable the identification of processes which are missing from current models, and subsequent work incorporating these processes will improve weather and climate predictions for the Sahara and beyond.

During this project, researchers at Reading will be working in tandem with the local Meteorological Services in North Africa as well as the Universities of Oxford, Leeds and Sussex. Local observers are being trained to operate ground-based equipment, and local knowledge of these dust conditions and predictions will be invaluable to the research.

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Supporting the Rockefeller Foundation Climate Change Units in East and Central Africa

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Climate and weatherAfrica

Climate change and agriculture in East and Central AfricaApproximately 80% of staple food production in East and Central Africa comes from rain-fed agriculture. There are high levels of variability associated with seasonal rainfall amounts and distribution within any given season, and this poses big risks to rain-fed agriculture. As the climate changes, it is thought that predicted changes in total rainfall amounts are likely to result in small average increases in total rainfall across the region. However, it is also anticipated that climate change will impact on rainfall distribution patterns. This will modify the nature of climate-induced risk that already vulnerable farmers will face in the future. Unless climate change adaptation strategies and technologies can be developed in advance, adaptation to such changes will likely prove a daunting challenge for many farmers and probably impossible to some.To address this concern, the Rockefeller Foundation, a charitable organisation which has strong interests in climate change, has established eight Climate Change Units within five countries: Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia and Tanzania. The aim of these Units, which are located in agricultural research institutions and universities in the region, is to develop climate change adaptation strategies and technologies that will build the resilience of rural rain-fed farming communities in the face of anticipated climate change.

Providing capacity building assistanceAs part of this project, the University of Reading is supporting and providing capacity building assistance to the Climate Change Units. The aim of this is to develop a region-wide collaborative research agenda, and at the same time establish other collaborative links between the Units and also other global initiatives on climate change research. A team from the School of Agriculture, Policy and Development, from the Statistical Services Centre, and from the Walker Institute for Climate System Research work with the Units to provide a comprehensive set of support activities for the project. Two of the key areas of capacity building work include training in analysis methods and curriculum development:

Training in analysis methodsCharacterising current climate risks by analysing historical weather data is important as it enables the identification of possible adaptation measures. This also helps to identify the presence or absence of trends that might indicate possible changes in the nature of that risk. Training in the analysis of historical data sets was therefore identified as being important for the staff from the Units. To this end, the University of Reading provided a facilitated e-learning course together with a subsequent face-to-face workshop hosted by Egerton University in Kenya. This was for 29 participants, mostly from Kenya, but with some also from Ethiopia, Uganda and Tanzania. The e-learning course was part-time and taken at the workplace of each of the participants. This enabled flexibility of study as well as being preparation for the face-to-face training workshop that followed. This workshop included clarification on the difference between ‘coping strategies’ that have been used to compensate for climatic variability, and ‘adaptation strategies’ that will be needed in the future to compensate for climate change.

Climate change curriculum developmentOne of the Climate Change Units at Makerere University in Uganda is leading a group that will be working on curriculum development for programmes in climate change. The University of Reading is well-placed to help with the design of this curriculum and to share best practice in the delivery of its programmes as it currently offers an MSc in Climate Change and Development, as well as modules on climate change within its MSc in Agriculture and Development, in addition to an MSc in Atmosphere, Ocean and Climate. We will be supporting this work and it is anticipated that this collaboration will lead to staff exchanges, sharing of materials and methods, support with quality control and ongoing collaborations.

Adaptation strategies based on scientific evidence The ultimate aim of this project is to support the Climate Change Units in the developing of adaptation strategies based on scientific evidence. Adaptation is crucial because climate variability is already impacting on crops and food security, and climate change will exacerbate these impacts. However these adaptation strategies need to be based on sound scientific evidence if they are to be taken seriously by policy-makers and farmers. This is the main goal of the Rockefeller Foundation in funding these Climate Change Units – adaptation based on scientific evidence. The University of Reading is providing the scientific and technical support for these Units in order to achieve this goal.

www.walker‑institute.ac.uk/research/Africa

What did the students gain from the experience?

It is challenging to find a programme of activities which satisfy the needs of a very disparate group. The approach we took was to invite experts in all aspects of African weather and climate to provide a mixture of seminars, some of which were at a basic teaching level and some of which described results of cutting-edge research.

We also held forecasting sessions every morning in which teams of students were invited to compete to give the most accurate weather forecast for the next day for various target locations with a prize for the best team at the end of the school.

How successful was the Summer School?

The school attracted a large number of applications, mainly from Africa, Europe and the United States. In 2010, we had 60 participants, comprising African and British undergraduates, US and European PhD students and professional meteorologists.

As I find is often the case with such events, one of the most valuable elements was the informal discussions which took place across the different groupings. The European and US students gained important first-hand experience of African weather while the African students were given access to state-of-the-art equipment and modelling software. Our group of international experts were able to catch up on the latest developments in our field.

We hope that the next Summer School will take place in 2012 and we are currently looking for sponsorship to help fund the scheme.

Summer School in Ghana looks at Climate ChangeDr David Grimes from the University of Reading’s Department of Meteorology describes a summer school he has been involved with in Ghana looking at West African atmospheric science. The Ewiem Nimdie Summer School brings together students and experts in climate science from Europe, the USA and West Africa.

Climate and weather Ghana

Tell us about the Summer School

In 2010, I became involved with the Ewiem Nimdie biennial Summer School in African atmospheric science which takes place at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana. It was given the name Ewiem Nimdie because it means atmospheric science in the language local to Kumasi.

So, why did you get involved with the Summer School?

The ambitious aim of the Summer School was to bring together a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate students from Africa, Europe and the United States of America who are studying African meteorology. Through it we provide an intensive two-week programme in West African weather and climate.

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Many of our African students are studying for postgraduate research degrees. Our Graduate School ensures that in addition to their academic courses, they also gain generic research and transferable skills that will enhance their future employability. The Graduate School also enables networking for our doctoral researchers across the whole range of disciplines of the University.

Professor Dianne Berry Director of the Graduate School

Mining communities in rural Ghana

Researchers from the School of Agriculture, Policy and Development are working on a collaborative project, funded by the British Council, aiming to improve the understanding of the economic roles of subsistence farming and artisanal mining in mining communities in rural Ghana. Artisanal miners work independently, using their own resources to support their trade; this new project aims to find ways in which to formalise artisanal mining by hearing the views on rural families’ preferred livelihood choices. It is hoped that this project will contribute to the development of a comprehensive rural poverty-alleviation strategy, by improving the understanding of the economic links between smallholder farming and poverty. The project will bring together a consortium of experts, and will initiate a long-term research programme on rural development, with emphasis on determining economically-viable farming for the benefit of rural mining communities.

www.reading.ac.uk/apd

Environment Ghana

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EnvironmentAfrica

The Statistical Services Centre (SSC) has been working with various partners in Africa to improve capacity in research methods within universities and the wider research community. The focus for this has been on agriculture, rural development and the environment – sectors which are often considered as underlying development within the region.

The need for increased attention to research methods (research conceptualisation and design, the management of data and its analysis and interpretation) is clear to many scientists, and comes about for a complex mix of reasons. Some of these are due to the fast-changing focus and institutional framework of research and development, some due to features of the education system, and some due to the chronic shortage of experienced staff and other resources.

For a number of years the SSC has worked in collaboration with research organisations of the Consultative Group of International Agricultural Research to provide training courses and build collections of training material in such areas as the design of experiments, scientific data management and statistical analysis. While these courses have been successful, this approach could only realistically benefit a small number of people. Attempting to change that required different partners, so we started working with a number of individual universities on methods of improving statistics teaching, and extended this to working with the Regional Universities Forum (RUFORUM).

This is an organisation of 25 universities in East and Southern Africa that aims to increase their capacity in agricultural research and training. RUFORUM started an ambitious programme to help universities improve research methods training, and we have become involved with two different components of that.

The first is the design and piloting of a distance learning course for new PhD students. It aims to introduce students to a wide range of methods issues, and help them critique the methods used in their own research. This was based on ideas we had developed with other partners, including the International Foundation for Science (IFS). The first pilot run of the course, with students from Bunda College of Agriculture in Malawi, went very well, and we hope it will soon be repeated with other groups of students.

The second RUFORUM initiative is even more challenging: producing

a whole new generation of research methods professionals to support agricultural research and development. To this end, RUFORUM has sponsored the development of a new MSc in Research Methods, hosted by Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology in Kenya. The SSC has been helping with this from the start, assisting with planning the structure and curriculum, finding and training lecturers, developing module contents and delivering this to the first cohort of students. The MSc has many aspects which are novel for the region and the topic: it is based on the professional requirements for a graduate to be effective in providing methods support to scientific teams, with teaching approaches strongly grounded in real problems of agricultural research and development in Africa.

www.reading.ac.uk/ssc

Increasing capacity in research methods in African universities and beyond

Patrick Mitchell from the Statistical Services Centre discusses the Centre’s work with African partners.

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Environment Ghana

Energy crop cultivation has the potential to improve livelihoods – both directly through local trade in bio-fuels, and indirectly through the increased value gained from trading on the international carbon markets. The capacity of such initiatives to alleviate poverty in the long term, however, rests on their environmental sustainability. There is, moreover, a real danger that the exploitation of water resources in an unsustainable manner will permanently damage vulnerable ecosystems and ultimately lead to grave hardship.

These issues have motivated a new collaborative project – Integrated Carbon, Water and Land Management for Poverty Alleviation (ICWALPA) – which is led by meteorologists from Reading, and funded under the Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) programme. ICWALPA has partners at the University of Oxford, the Centre International pour l’Environnement et le Développement (France), the University of São Paulo (Brazil), the Federal University of Viçosa (Brazil) and The Soil Research Institute (Ghana).

One of the aims of the project is to investigate whether the export of bio-fuel technology from Brazil to Ghana

will alleviate poverty. The research uses models to look at land-surface, global climate and economic crop costs together, and will be applied to two case study regions in Brazil and Ghana.

Brazil has a well-established sugar cane industry that already provides substantial income. However the dependence of many Brazilians on the bio-fuel industry for employment makes its long-term economic viability a pressing issue. Although production is not currently limited by water availability, this may alter in the future due to changing environmental conditions. Ghana was chosen for the complementary case study because it is on the verge of becoming a major player in the bio-ethanol market, as the result of an agreement signed with Brazilian partners in 2006 to grow bio-energy crops.

The modelling framework of this project will be used to investigate scenarios relating to key agronomical

management decisions, which have been defined by the Ghanaian and Brazilian partners. These include things like variety, sowing date, plant spacing, soil type, fertilizer use and irrigation scheduling. The framework will also be implemented for possible future technological innovations, including the development of pest – or drought-resistant – varieties of crops and improvements in farming practices.

Dr Emily Black from the Department of Meteorology said: ‘Our research will give us information about yield, crop price predictions and impact on water availability for different climate and management decisions scenarios. Using these modelling scenarios we hope to provide a comprehensive view of the environmental sustainability, key agronomical decisions and the potential economic impact of sugar cane cultivation in Ghana.’

www.reading.ac.uk/meteorology

The sustainability of bio-fuel cultivation in Ghana

Over the coming decades, increasing oil and carbon prices are likely to lead to a proliferation of energy crop cultivation initiatives. The rules governing the international carbon markets mean that many of these will be based in developing countries, and hence will affect some of the poorest people in the world.

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EnvironmentSouth Africa

Teaching wildlife reserve management A new undergraduate module run by the School of Agriculture, Policy and Development aims to promote an understanding and raise awareness of the many issues and conflicts relating to the behaviour, health, welfare and conservation of wild animals in their natural habitats. It also aims to broaden students’ understanding and knowledge of conservation issues, through a field trip to South Africa.This combines natural history, conservation, animal behaviour and health and welfare, bringing students into contact with a range of wildlife species from cheetahs, elephants and lions, to sea turtles, whales, crocodiles and birds. The module is designed to provide the students with various experiences related to conservation of wild animals in the wild. This new course will be run in South Africa in conjunction with the African Insight educational programme on a bi-annual basis in late September. It consists of a total of 12 days spent in South Africa, combining teaching in lectures and out on safari drives, bush walks and tours.

www.reading.ac.uk/apd

Images credit: Dr Jennie Litten-Brown

Interview: Dr Kevin White School of Human and Environmental Sciences

How long have you been interested in Africa?

I’ve been undertaking research in the dryland regions of Africa for 25 years, principally in the Sahara, Namib and Kalahari deserts. My interests cover palaeoenvironmental research (looking at the ecosystems of the past) and present-day physical processes, particularly those associated with land degradation and environmental change. I work in association with academic colleagues in Libya at Al Fatah University, Tripoli and Garyounis University, Benghazi.

What have you been working on?

A detailed understanding of the changing nature of the Saharan environment is important for testing theories about human migrations, including that of early modern humans coming out of Africa, which resulted in our species populating the rest of the planet.

Recent research has involved reconstructing the palaeohydrology of the Sahara using satellite images and digital elevation models. Once the distributions of aquatic animals are mapped onto the palaeohydrological evidence, the importance of the river connections which ran across the Sahara in the past becomes apparent.

Ongoing work seeks to develop some of my research on synergies between satellite radar and ground-penetrating radar to reveal landscapes which are now buried beneath the Saharan sand seas.

Which African countries have you worked in and on what?

In Algeria, I’ve been working with staff at the Centre de Recherche Scientifique et Technique sur les Régions Arides in Biskra, where I’ve been involved in teaching civil servants about the natural hazards associated with dust storms. This includes how modern remote sensing systems can be used to monitor these hazards, and improve our understanding of the sources of atmospheric dust, as well as the processes by which this material is carried into the atmosphere.

I have a particularly long association with environmental research in Tunisia, as this is where I did my PhD research. I work with researchers at l’Université de Tunis, and l’Institut des Régions Arides, Médenine, and in the past I have given talks on the natural environment of Tunisia on behalf of the Tunisian Embassy in London.

I also lead undergraduate field classes to Tunisia. My specific research interests here include the geomorphology and palaeoenvironments of the Chott Djerid Basin of Southern Tunisia.

In Egypt, I have worked on erosion problems along the Nile Delta coast, in association with staff at Damietta Faculty of Science, Mansoura University, and the Coastal Research Institute, Alexandria, and have ongoing research on Saharan palaeohydrology with staff at the National Remote Sensing Centre, Cairo.

In Southern Africa, I have an ongoing research collaboration with Desert Research Foundation of Namibia and the University of Cape Town.

I’ve also recently completed work on a digital atlas of the Namib Sand Sea and have published widely on the Southern African deserts.

For more information on Dr White’s digital atlas project see: www.shef.ac.uk/sandsea

Environment Africa

Image credit: Toby Savage

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EnvironmentZimbabwe

The Veterinary Epidemiology and Economics Research Unit (VEERU) at Reading is working with local nurses and veterinary livestock technicians in Zimbabwe on an education programme for small-scale farmers and their families about the dangers of brucellosis.

Brucellosis decreases cattle productivity, and can be passed on to humans primarily through drinking unrestrained milk. Although not fatal, the disease causes malaria-like

symptoms with malaise and arthritis, and can last for weeks or months. The most common clinical sign in cattle is high rates of abortions, with cows remaining infectious during subsequent lactations.

Local livestock handlers are often unaware of the dangers for both cows and humans and so brucellosis is frequently misdiagnosed and mistreated. The project, funded by the Wellcome Trust’s Livestock for Life initiative, works with dairy cooperatives teaching them how to prevent and control the disease.

Dr Pamela Woods, a veterinary epidemiologist with VEERU, is leading the programme in Matabeleland South province in Zimbabwe. She said: ‘What makes this project unique is the linking of veterinary, dairy and nursing

staff during the training on testing, and conducting health promotion programmes as a ‘One Health’ initiative.

‘Education is so important. If farmers understand the dangers, they are much more likely to pay for calf vaccinations. However, in this project we have targeted the whole family as they can overestimate the protection which vaccination gives and we found that they often continue to drink raw milk. It’s really about changing unsafe health behaviours, and for that we have needed to work with the whole community.’

One quarter of the world’s poor depend on livestock for food or income. Protecting animal health is therefore an important global issue.

www.reading.ac.uk/veeru

Protecting African dairy farmers from a debilitating cattle disease which can be passed on to humans is at the heart of a unique project by researchers at the University of Reading.

‘Education is so important. If farmers understand the dangers, they are much more likely to pay for calf vaccinations.’

Helping small-scale dairy farmers to control brucellosis

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Environment Africa

I have had a wonderful, educative and enriching experience while at the University of Reading initially as an MSc in International Economic Development student in 2007 and now as a third-year PhD in Economics student. The University of Reading has been home away from home particularly so because of the warmth and friendliness of the multicultural and cosmopolitan University community, members of staff and town. The networking has been excellent and the knowledge gained has been second to none. If I was to be given a second chance to choose where I should do my postgraduate studies, I would definitely choose Reading. I could not have chosen a better place to do my PhD than the University of Reading because of its beautiful, green and well-maintained campus and latest and state-of-art educational infrastructure.

In order to engage with the academic community in West Africa, the School of Construction Management and Engineering has developed the West African Built Environment Research (WABER) conference series, the first of which was held in 2009.

These conferences have grown substantially over the past few years and provide welcome networking opportunities for like-minded people to meet and discuss their research in a supportive and constructive atmosphere. One result of this work is the strengthening of direct links with 40 different universities in West Africa, and as the conferences develop

which are beneficial for all concerned.

Professor Will Hughes from the School of Construction Management and Engineering said: ‘WABER has proved to be an enormous success. It is generating interest both as a model for other academic disciplines, and as a route to international research collaboration. The most rewarding aspect of this work is the meaningful academic discussions we have been able to have around research in the built environment with people that we would not previously have been able to meet.’

www.reading.ac.uk/CME

Supporting food security research The Statistical Services Centre (SSC) has been awarded a grant of one million US dollars to provide research methodology support to the Collaborative Crop Research Programme (CCRP) of the McKnight Foundation until 2013. The CCRP is a competitive grants programme, combining elements of research and development, which seeks to increase food security for resource-poor people in developing countries by building capacity in a way that is consistent with local cultures and the maintenance of the ecosystem’s health. In Africa, CCRP currently has grantees in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Tanzania, Mozambique, Malawi, Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia.

Carlos Barahona, Director of International Work at the SSC, said:

‘We recognise that most projects integrate social and biophysical aspects, and therefore support is offered to both of these areas. Through our work, we hope to contribute to the efforts of CCRP projects to maintain and improve the quality of their research.

‘The approach we have developed is based on helping projects to improve the flow of data throughout the research process. This means that research methods support starts at the point where the research project is conceptualised and goes through the process of design, collection, and analysis and to the generation of research products that are shared with interested parties in different ways.’

A toolkit of resources and publications is being developed to support building capacity among research projects. Resources developed for CCRP are available to researchers throughout the world as public materials.

www.reading.ac.uk/ssc

Perspectives

Remmy Kampamba PhD student, Economics | Ghana

Cementing links with the West African research community

Rice for AfricaTwo split-site PhD programmes in the School of Agriculture, Policy and Development are looking at rice production in Africa.

Rice seed systems in Sierra Leone

Momoh Turay, a Commonwealth Scholar from Sierra Leone, is now in the third year of his split-site PhD programme on rice seed systems in Sierra Leone. He is partly based in the Seed Science Laboratory in the School of Agriculture, Policy and Development, and partly at the Rokupr Rice Research Station in Sierra Leone, and is supervised by Dr Alistair Murdoch and Dr Peter Dorward. His research combines both seed science and technology with socio-economics to ensure the research is applicable to resource-poor farmers in Sierra Leone where agricultural development is still recovering from a decade of civil war (1993–2002).

The Second World Seed Conference in Rome in 2009 ‘highlighted the critical role of new plant varieties and high quality seed in providing a dynamic and sustainable agriculture’ and ‘that governments need to develop an enabling environment to encourage plant breeding and the production and distribution of high quality seed’.

By contrast, following the civil war, seed supply systems to farmers in Sierra Leone remain very weak, dominated by informal markets and farm-saved seed often of poor quality. This research aims to understand the factors influencing farmers’ adoption of new varieties of seed, indigenous knowledge in seed production and storage. It also aims to explore, with farmers, methods of improving seed quality. Insect damage during storage is a key factor in loss of quality and Momoh’s research is exploring appropriate interventions designed to minimise insect pests without the use of insecticides.

Adaptation for climate change

Onoroide Coast, a Felix Scholar from Nigeria, is also on a split-site PhD programme in the School of Agriculture, Policy and Development, supervised by Professor Richard Ellis and Dr Alistair Murdoch. He is studying another potential problem with rice production in West Africa and indeed globally – that of climate change. Previous research at Reading’s Plant Environment Laboratory demonstrated that there were dramatic yield losses following very short exposures to high day temperatures when the rice was actually flowering. Onoroide is continuing this research looking at tolerance to high night temperatures in different rice varieties. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2007) stated that ‘It is very likely that hot extremes, heat waves and heavy precipitation events will continue to become more frequent’. The selection of rice varieties which are adapted to short-term extreme temperature events at certain growth stages is, therefore, essential for mitigating some of the worst consequences of global climate change and increasing food security for poor farmers, for whom rice is a staple food crop. Having carried out part of his research at Reading, Onoroide will be spending one year in the Philippines, at the International Rice Research Institute, before returning to Reading to complete his PhD thesis.

www.reading.ac.uk/apd

West Africa Environment

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Protecting the future of cocoa

Cocoa production in GhanaAmongst the current collaborative projects between CRIG and the University of Reading, a recently established five-year project, funded by the Cadbury Cocoa Partnership is mapping cocoa productivity in Ghana. CRIG staff, working closely with the Ghana Cocoa Board, are surveying cocoa productivity and farming practices in 100 selected farms across the cocoa growing regions of Ghana. This data is then assembled at Reading into an online GIS (Global Information System) database which, together with environmental data that is also collected as part of the project, will provide an online tool that will give immediate and historical data on the status of the crop across the country. More specifically, the project aims to study the effects of certification schemes (for example Rainforest Alliance and Fairtrade) on farm productivity, and on the effects of specific farming interventions on cocoa productivity to enable the benefits and costs of sustainable cocoa production to be identified.

International Cocoa Quarantine CentreThe University is home to the International Cocoa Quarantine Centre (ICQC), which handles all international movement of cocoa breeding material and is the only facility of its kind in the world. ICQC is playing a pivotal role in stopping the spread of pests and disease on cocoa, whilst ensuring that research centres worldwide have access to new and interesting types of cocoa.

The University’s International Cocoa Germplasm Database (ICGD) project was initiated in 1988. It enables cocoa breeders and researchers to find crucial information on cocoa material they are working with, and contains information on over 28,000 characterised trees such as disease resistance characteristics.

Cocoa is one of the most important sources of income for many countries in the humid tropics. Together, Ghana and the Côte d’Ivoire produce nearly 70% of the world’s supply. For Ghana, where cocoa is grown by smallholder farmers, cocoa accounts for over 40% of total export revenues, with over 800,000 farmers engaged in growing the crop and two million people involved either directly or indirectly in its production.

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pods

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Environment

opened pod showing seeds

Ghana

Current world cocoa production is approximately three million tonnes. However, it is generally agreed that by 2030 up to 900,000 tonnes more will need to be produced to meet projected increases in consumption. Such increases can only be achieved through greater productivity, but this must be achieved sustainably. Meanwhile, approximately 30% of potential productivity is lost through pest and disease attack.

An additional challenge comes from the increasing evidence that climate change is impacting on the cocoa-producing belt across the humid tropics. Such challenges can only be met through coordinated, multidisciplinary research.

The Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG), which was established in 1938, is the principle African national research institute working on cocoa

improvement. The University has had a long and very productive period of collaboration with CRIG extending over more than 25 years. Many of the senior staff at the Institute received their postgraduate training from the University and the heads of their Agronomy, Virology, Physiology and Social Science divisions are all Reading alumni. Much of the collaborative research between the University and CRIG involves the Cocoa Group at Reading headed by Professor Paul Hadley from the School of Biological Sciences. This research has been funded by a number of bodies, including the Cocoa Research Association, The Ghana Cocoa Growing Research Association, Cocoa Research (UK) and, more recently, the BBSRC (Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council) and Kraft Foods, as well as Ghana government funding. The University of Reading

provides training for CRIG scientific staff who either study wholly at Reading, or carry out split PhDs in which the majority of the practical work is carried out in Ghana.

Joint research priorities between the University of Reading and CRIG include the development of more sustainable cocoa-growing techniques, opportunities for intercropping with other tree species to provide cocoa farmers with additional income streams, improving the establishment of cocoa trees, studies of the biology of Cocoa Swollen Shoot Virus disease (a major disease of cocoa in Ghana) and studies into the crop physiology of cocoa.

www.reading.ac.uk/biologicalsciences

Insect pests of cocoaA recent studentship, established jointly by the Cadbury Cocoa Partnership and a BBSRC Dorothy Hodgkin Postgraduate Award, is examining the interaction between mirids (a serious insect pest of cocoa in West Africa) and the annual growth cycle of cocoa. The project hopes to establish clear links between mirid population cycles and the annual growth and production cycle of cocoa. This knowledge should help cocoa farmers to target insect control methods (principally through insecticide application) more accurately.

Cocoa diseasesCocoa Swollen Shoot Virus (CSSV) disease continues to be a major disease affecting cocoa in West Africa. Collaborative research between CRIG and the University of Reading, funded by the Commonwealth Fellowship scheme and Cocoa Research (UK), has been developing molecular techniques to study the distribution of the virus which causes this disease, and how it spreads between and within the cocoa plants. These molecular studies have been able to distinguish between the known strains in Ghana and could be combined into a sensitive molecular test for CSSV that could be used to detect the virus in cocoa trees growing in the field, or may lead to an accelerated quarantine procedure.

seeds

flowers

In focus Africa

It is widely recognised that agricultural intensification and climate change threaten biodiversity, including those organisms, such as pollinators and natural enemies of pests, which provide critical ecosystem services supporting food production. Many beneficial insects, such as pollinators, are supported by uncultivated patches of forest and scrub in the wider agricultural landscape. However, these natural patches of vegetation are increasingly being converted to farmland. Furthermore, some farming practices, such as the use of pesticides, may aid crop production by killing crop pests, which may also have negative impacts on pollinator communities and the natural enemies of some pest species. Together, habitat loss and the use of agrochemicals place strong environmental pressures on biodiversity.

This is a particular issue in parts of Africa where growing human populations place greater pressure on food production – often at the expense of biodiversity. In order to better manage the wider landscape, to support beneficial insects and meet growing food security demands, we investigated how farm practices and the structure of the surrounding landscape contribute to food production in East Africa. As a model system we studied pigeon pea which is an economically important crop that depends heavily on insect pollination. Our research showed that when smallholder farms were located in landscapes without high-quality uncultivated patches nearby, the diversity and abundance of pollinating bees was negatively affected. This led to poorer pollination, and consequently

Professor Simon Potts from the School of Agriculture, Policy and Development describes research led by Reading in collaboration with the National Museums of Kenya.

Supporting food securityby managing ecosystem services in smallholder farms

Supporting food securityby managing ecosystem services in smallholder farms

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EnvironmentAfrica

My long-term ambition was to study a PhD degree in a prestigious university. I was so excited to learn of my admission to study at the University of Reading supported by the Felix Scholarship. The thought of moving to the UK was nerve-wracking at first since I didn’t know what to expect! However, the experience was beyond measure. The welcome reception, the courses and support from staff; the student life, mixed cultures and exploring Reading town centre and the surroundings were all amazing. The pinnacle of this was leaving with a high-quality PhD degree, two letters before my name and fond memories.

reduced production in the pigeon pea crops. Therefore, the protection of these uncultivated patches in the wider landscape has a direct economic benefit for farmers and so should be maintained. High pesticide usage was also found to negatively affect both pollinators and some natural predators of crops pests. Together, the loss of these two important components of biodiversity reduced crop production. When fertiliser, another commonly used agricultural input, was used in high amounts, it did promote pollinator abundance. However, it also encouraged some chewing and sucking insect pests onto the farm. This demonstrates that some agronomic practices can have mixed effects for crop production.Based on these findings, we recommended that conservation management maintenance of high-

quality uncultivated habitats within the wider landscape, and within pigeon pea crop fields, should be adopted to promote sustainable yields. This would also help to conserve high densities of both pollinators and predators of pests. In addition, a reduction in insecticide and fertiliser use could help sustain stable densities of pollinators and natural enemies of pests, therefore enhancing pigeon pea yields.Our work contributes to the wider issue of reconciling the often conflicting demands of food production and biodiversity conservation. We have demonstrated that large-scale ecological experiments can provide win:win solutions for wider landscape management, to ensure food security whilst protecting functional biodiversity.

www.reading.ac.uk/apd

Supporting food securityby managing ecosystem services in smallholder farms

Supporting food securityby managing ecosystem services in smallholder farms

Perspectives

Dr Mark Otieno Alumnus, Agriculture | Kenya

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Environment Egypt

Amheida: living on the edge of the Roman EmpireDr Anna Boozer from the Department of Archaeology describes the Amheida Project, which is an archeological research collaboration between the University of Reading, New York University and Columbia University. The excavations are part of the Dakhleh Oasis Project; an international venture dedicated to studying the interaction between human settlement and the environment from the earliest human presence in the oasis to modern times.Reconstructing a Romano-Egyptian city: Amheida is located in Egypt’s Dakhleh Oasis, a fertile region found deep within the arid Saharan Desert. Amheida itself has remains spanning nearly three millennia, culminating in a massive city, which was known as Trimithis, during the Roman period.

The physical remains of the city spread across a two by three kilometre area and include domestic structures, tombs, mud-brick pyramids, a temple mound, and extensive agricultural fields.

The official role of Trimithis appears to have ended in the late fourth century AD, when a combination of civil unrest and environmental issues may have led to the site’s abandonment. The occupants left

behind a wealth of documentary, pictorial, architectural, and material data; and the favourable desert conditions have preserved these remains to a high degree. These material residues of daily life give us remarkable access to past peoples and their placement, with respect to the multicultural environment of Roman Egypt.

Previous excavations targeted two houses at Amheida, in order to understand daily life in this city. In the centre of the site we excavated an elite fourth-century AD house with wall paintings, an adjoining school, and the underlying remains of a Roman bath complex. Documentary sources found within the house indicate that it was owned by a city councillor named Serenos, and the archaeology suggests that he was invested in displaying his facility with Roman material and visual culture.

Excavations in a more modest house of the third century AD have provided us with insights into a family that occupied

the crossroads between Roman, Greek and traditional Egyptian cultures in their daily life. The occupants seem to have engaged in trade and mid-level management, occupying a moderate economic stratum of society.

Our current research examines the neighbourhood around this second house in order to explore a range of questions about daily life under Roman rule. Particular areas we are interested in include family life, gender, social ties, ethnic affinities, economic level and development over time.

Our interdisciplinary team includes both traditional archaeological and papyrological approaches as well as high-tech scientific approaches drawn from disciplines such as engineering and chemistry. This interdisciplinary, holistic research into daily life is the first of its kind in Roman Egypt and will illuminate the experiences of ordinary people living under Roman Rule.

www.amheida.org www.reading.ac.uk/archaeology

Polis, potentially a personification of the City of Trimithis (Site ref: House B1)

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African students at Reading join those from the UK, Europe, China, India, the US and many other countries to form a diverse and cosmopolitan student body. A wide range of sporting and cultural opportunities ensures students have an outstanding experience within a supportive environment.

Dr Jennifer Ghandhi Director of Student Learning and Teaching Services

Environment Africa

‘As well as providing English for academic support in a wide range of contexts, we offer training in English language teaching and capacity building at our partner institutions. We provide training for early career academics with regard to writing articles and research papers for publication in English. In addition, all students and staff have the opportunity to learn or improve their skills in eight other modern languages, including Mandarin, Arabic, French and Spanish.’

Ros Richards Director of International Study & language Centre

‘One of the great pleasures of my role is the diversity of the people I get to meet, not only students, but alumni, parents and academic staff from all over Africa. The fact that I am always greeted and treated as a friend makes my job a real joy.’

Beth Reed Regional Manager for Africa and the Middle East

‘I’ve been a member of staff at the University since 2000, having originally studied at the University of Khartoum. I have watched the University develop into a truly global institution with staff members coming here from all over the world to teach and undertake their research. As a British-African, I am proud to be part of such an inspirational community.’

Dr Abbas Elmualim Senior Lecturer in Construction Management

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‘The University of Reading is fast becoming Africa’s university in the UK. Together we can make a difference.’

Professor Steve Mithen Pro-Vice-Chancellor International and External Engagement

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Environment Africa

Working together, growing together

For more information, please contact:

Professor Steve Mithen Pro‑Vice‑ChancellorUniversity of Reading Whiteknights Reading, RG6 6AH

s.j.mithen@reading.ac.uk Tel (0118) 378 7113

www.reading.ac.uk