1. Home ›
  2. Notre Dame in East Africa

Notre Dame in East Africa

In parallel with the Pamoja Initiative, there are a number of projects which Notre Dame has been engaged in across East Africa. 
 

Programs and Research in Central Uganda

Notre Dame has a long history in East Africa. Their presence started with an initiative called The Universities Partnership for Research, Outreach, and Development (UPFORD), in Nnindye, Central Uganda. The program was domiciled at Uganda Martyrs University and was aimed at illustrating human development in action by providing support to the residents of Nnindye in order to achieve sustainable social and economic development. This initiative ran from 2009 through to 2015 and was aimed at demonstrating the impact of the community interventions. Additional projects involving faculty from the Department of Economics include the evaluation of a network of Savings and Internal Lending Communities (SILC) groups that were aimed at leveraging local knowledge amongst lenders to provide loans for agricultural activities.

Programs and Research in Nairobi, Kenya

In 2011 the Holy Cross Congregation and the University partnered with the Dandora community- a peri-urban settlement in the east side of Nairobi to conduct a comprehensive community engagement exercise. This community engagement resulted in the selection of two human development interventions for focus. These were 1) the construction of a maternity wing to promote the provision of high-quality maternal health services for women and 2) strategic interventions for the growth of female microentrepreneurs businesses to increase the profits.This was done either by a mentorship program or by capacity building through training. These interventions were evaluated by faculty from the Department of Anthropology and the Department of Economics respectively to establish the impact.

Other projects external to Dandora included collaboration between the Keough School of Global Affairs and the Institute of Economic Affairs to produce a report that explored the diverse viewpoints of stakeholders on devolution and examines the implications of these recent changes in the micro and macro workings of Kenya through a political economy analysis framework. Political Science faculty also conducted a project in partnership with the Zizi Afrique Foundation and worked to establish how secondary schooling experiences shape three dimensions of citizenship in Kenya - political knowledge, political engagement, and trust towards other citizens.

Dandora June2016 060 Cropped School children surround Christine Aching and Jackline Oluoch-Aridi to have their photo taken with them on a street in the Dandora community in Nairobi, Kenya.

Eck Institute for Global Health Research

The Eck Institute for Global Health (EIGH) brings together a diverse group of faculty, staff, and students from science, engineering, social science, and other disciplines whose research addresses global health challenges.

Below is a list of EIGH research projects in East Africa:

  1. Validation of a scalable and automated mosquito species identification system (Kenyan highlands)
  2. Remote Emerging Disease Intelligence NETwork (REDI-NET) (Kenya)
  3. Advancing Spatial Repellents for Vector-Borne Disease Control (Kenya, Uganda)
  4. African Center for Histidine Deletion Surveillance (ACHIDES) (Ethiopia)
  5. The impact of novel vector control interventions on asymptomatic P. falciparum infections (Kenya)
  6. Molecular epidemiology of malaria (Burundi)
  7. Testing a digital microscope for malaria diagnosis (Ethiopia)
  8. Pharmaceutical quality in Malawi (Malawi)
  9. Defining the prevalence of non-tuberculosis mycobacteria infections in Kenya (Kenya)
  10. Evaluating circulating extracellular vesicles as biomarkers for pediatric TB (Kenya)

Visit the EIGH Research site to learn more about these projects and their work across the globe.

Partnerships

In order to effectively conduct research, we have established partnerships with universities, Catholic institutions, NGOs and foundation partners.

University Partners
  • Uganda Martyrs University in Uganda
  • Strathmore University
  • Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA) in Nairobi, Kenya
Catholic Institution Partners
  • Congregation of Holy Cross (CSC) Brother Andre Hospital
  • Catholic Research Services (CRS)
  • Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB)
NGO & Foundation Partners
  • The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA)
  • The Zizi Afrique Foundation
  • IBM Research