Ambassador of Ireland to Ethiopia Visits Hawassa University.
Ambassador of Ireland to Ethiopia, Her Excellency Nicola Brennan, visited Hawassa University on February 15, 2024 to discuss potentials for collaboration with Irish institutions.
Dr. Ayano Beraso, HU President, warmly welcomed the ambassador in his office accompanied by vice presidents where he remarked on the priceless contributions of the government and people of Ireland to the development of Ethiopia in general and the Sidama people in particular. He mentioned that the Irish government has been closely working with Ethiopian government on different development projects over the years taking the example of development projects on education in Sidama region particularly in Hawassa and Yirgalem towns on human capacity building. Dr. Ayano said that the Sidama people have hugely benefited because of those education institutions established by the support from Irishaid creating a special kinship between the two people. He expressed his heartfelt gratitude to everything that has been done so far and said he looks forward to a great collaboration between Hawassa University and Irish universities on areas of common interest.
Dr. Emebet Bekele, Director General of OERC at HU, presented highlights of Hawassa university with focus on its priority areas of excellence and potentials for international collaborations followed by Dr. Mihret Dananto from IOT whose presentation highlighted the collaborative projects of HU with potentials to transform different development sectors in Sidama region.
Dr. David Moor from Ireland then presented an overview of Regenerators project that is working on technology transfer and innovation research and agricultural mechanization in Ethiopia with a multilateral collaboration among Limerick University of Ireland, Punjab University of India and Hawassa University of Ethiopia. He said the goal of the project is to transform the Ethiopian agricultural system by starting demonstration on Sidama region through HU by bringing together the best of both worlds where Sidama can become the Silicon Valley of East Africa.
Ambassador Brennan also thanked the university for the warm welcome and highlighted on the longstanding and strong diplomatic ties between the two counties which need to be strengthened further with hopes for a better future. She stated that the Ireland government respects the Ethiopian territorial integrity and wants to closely work with Ethiopia as an important regional ally in East Africa and promised to work as a bridge to connect research and academic institutions in Ireland with Hawassa University.
Finally, the President of HU and the Ambassador signed an exchange of note for promising strong future collaboration.
