A team from Hawassa University participated in IMPACT HE Leadership and Stakeholder Forum under the theme, “African universities driving local development: Visibility, Advocacy, Impact” and training workshop for Internationalization and Project/funding Management at Nairobi, Kenya, May 4-7, 2026.
IMPACT HE is an Erasmus+ CBHE project that aims to support higher education institutions and ministries in Kenya and Ethiopia to strengthen ownership and management of international project funds, and ultimately demonstrate societal impact of international cooperation in a meaningful and localized manner. The project was inspired by “Team Europe” approaches to international cooperation and the ‘S-DHG’ annual forum (Forum for Sustainable Development in Higher Education) of funders in higher education and research cooperation.
The training workshop and leadership and stakeholder forum were coordinated by OBREAL. DAAD, EDUFI and VLIR-UOS are also associated partners and part of the steering committee: key implementing partners of Component 1 of Study and Research in Africa, under DAAD’s coordination (‘SRiA’ - a new European Union initiative).
Apart from the two day training workshop, the second two-day event was a high-level leadership and policy forum that framed the IMPACT HE project. It was timed to coincide with the launch of SRiA and hence integrated important awareness raising and policy elements linked to SRiA as well. The forum was designed to discuss and promote key project messages from IMPACT HE and relevant policy topics such as: Measuring and communicating impact of development cooperation in higher education; Ownership of higher education cooperation projects and wider societal and economic implications; African capacity to lead and mutually beneficial partnerships (Africa-EU and intra-Africa); African universities as agents for local and regional development; and ‘Team Europe’ in knowledge, research, education and African leadership perspectives.
The event targeted university leadership from the project partner institutions (four universities from Ethiopia including Hawassa University and four other universities in Kenya) and representatives of major higher education associations as networks (Association of African Universities (AAU) – also part of SRiA, IUCEA, SARUA, ARUA, ANIE, CAMES, for example). It also targeted policy makers (ministries from the target countries and further afield in East Africa, Regional Economic Communities and the African Union Commission). EU partners at the level of associations and funding agencies such as VLIR-UOS, EDUFI, DAAD and other members of the SRiA team and of the ‘S-DHG’ group were also engaged in the event.
