Alumni Conference in Berlin/Germany canceled for 2020!

Due to the Corona Crisis, the 2020 #Alumni Conference "Implementing the SDGs – Practical Challenges, Creative Solutions and Best Practices for Knowledge Transfer and Policy Learning" planned to take place in Berlin from 27- 30 July was canceled. The colleagues are trying to postpone the conference to 2021. We will keep you informed about any news in this regard later this year.

Read more: Alumni Conference in Berlin/Germany canceled for 2020!

Welcome to two new scholarship holders!

In 2020, two new scholarship holders commenced their studies at our Centre! Out of about 500 applicants the selection committee chose Kenechukwu Ikebuarko from Nigeria for the PhD Development Studies and Eric Nordjo from Ghana for the MA Public Administration. Both were welcomed by our coordinator at UWC, Freda Philander.

From left to right: Eric Nordjo, Freda Philander and Kene Ikebuako

Digitalization-Kick-off: New Digital Infrastructure for the Network of the DAAD Centres of Excellence

On March 3-6, 2020 the Kick-off Meeting of the new digitalization project DigiFace took place at Nelson Mandela University in Port Elizabeth. DigiFace – short for “Digital Initiative for African Centres of Excellence” – is a new project funded by DAAD that aims at supporting and facilitating higher education learning and research at all DAAD African Centres of Excellence. DigiFace is setting-up tools and facilities for digital learning and knowledge exchange with the help of a central interactive digital platform. The project is going to strengthen the Centres’ digital learning, teaching and research competencies as well as the networking among all the Centres – between all institutions involved, between staff, students, and alumni.

More information on the project can be found here on the Website!

The Kick-off meeting was the official starting-point of the new project. Delegates from all the currently 10 Centres as well as from the Centres’ Alumni Network gathered in order to exchange on the current statuses of digital infrastructure, the needs and expectations with regard to such an all comprising new digital network, the opportunities and challenges for its implementation as well as on the next steps to go.

The SA-GER CDR was represented by Lance Scheepers (Information Systems ISD), Enayat Hamza (Programme Manager: Training and Consultancy at the SoG), and Ruth Knoblich (DAAD Lecturer in Development Research at the SA-GER CDR).

RUB Management visited SA-GER CDR

Accompanied by DAAD’s secretary general, Dr. Dorothea Rüland, RUB’s Rector, Prof. Dr. Axel Schölmerich and Chancellor, Dr. Christina Reinhardt, visited the DAAD funded South African-German Centre for Development Research (SA-GER CDR) as part of an information visit of management members of German universities.

At CDR they met our DAAD lecturer Ruth Knoblich, CDR steering committee member Prof. Julian May as well as further staff members and Alumni of the centre.

New Centre graduates from the "Bochum Programme"

Finally, it is done! We are happy to welcome new graduates to the alumni network of the SA-GER CDR. 12 students from the "Bochum Programme of Development Management" (MADM) obtained their Master's degree. They received their graduation certificates on Saturday, 30th of November. Earlier that week, they had successfully defended their master theses on interesting topics like innovation hubs, certification of cocoa farmers, and survival strategies of street traders (just to name some of them).

Our graduates now pursue new goals. Most of them chose the opportunity to strive for a second (UWC) MA degree and then will head for the practical area. We wish our graduates all the best for their future career and trust that they will find exciting positions! We are looking forward to hear from our alumni soon.

New Journal Article by two MADM Alumni

Nardos Legesse Beyene, Alumnus of IEE’s MA in Development Management, together with Prof. Mulugeta F. Dinbabo, also IEE Alumnus and nowadays Acting Director of the Institute for Social Development, IEE’s partner institution at the University of the Western Cape/South Africa, published an article on

An Empirical Evaluation of the Link between Women Participation in Village Savings and Loans Association (VSLA) and Poverty Reduction in Ethiopia

Read more: New Journal Article by two MADM Alumni

Learning by Doing in the Field of Development

Macmillan Bonomali from Malawi has spent an internship period at UNU-FLORES in Bonn during his studies in the MA in Development Management programme. Find out about his experiences in an interview published by his internship organization.

Photo: UNU-FLORES)

Visit of two members of the German Federal Parliament and the Consul General at the SA-GER CDR

On 7th February the two members of the “German Federal Parliament”, Ulla Schmidt und Dagmar Freitag, who stayed in South Africa for taking part in the 2019 State of the Nation Address by the South African President Cyral Ramaphosa, used the opportunity to as well visit two DAAD funded Centres of Excellence in Cape Town together with the Consul General Matthias Hansen.They first visited the African Institute for Mathematical Studies (AIMS) in Muizenberg and afterwards the South African-German Centre for Development Research (SA-GER CDR).

Read more: Visit of two members of the German Federal Parliament and the Consul General at the SA-GER CDR

10-year anniversary of the Centres of Excellence

On the occasion of the ten-year anniversary of the Centres of African Excellence initiative by the Federal Foreign Office and the DAAD, a large network meeting was held in Berlin.
There are now ten university Centres of African Excellence in Sub-Saharan Africa, set up to train highly qualified future managers and leaders in Africa by significantly contributing to the quality and relevance of selected disciplines at African universities, to the creation of research capacities to the establishment of networks between African universities and research institutes including German partners.

The SA-GER CDR Team in Berlin: (from left): Isioma Ille, Stefan Buchholz, Britta Niklas, Gabriele Bäcker, Mulugeta Dinbabo and Ina Conradie

For the achievements of the South African-German Centre for Development Research and for more information on the network meeting please have a look at the upcoming IEE-Newsletter (December 2018).

CDR's achievements after 10 years of operation

After 10 years of operation, CDR recently reported about achievements so far to DAAD. The following provides a summary of these achievements:

• Scholarship applications received from all over Sub-Sahara Africa increased tenfold over CDR’s years of operation and reached nearly 900 for the 2018 intake
• 78 Master scholarship holders from 14 countries have been accepted for studies in one of the CDR's Master programmes, 58 grantees completed their studies successfully so far, 16 grantees are still on their way to graduation, the completion ratio will reach 95% after the remaining candidates have completed their studies. Overall, 299 candidates graduated from CDR’s Master programmes. 16% of Master scholarship holders completed two degrees of CDR and 5% have been accepted for PhD studies afterwards. More than 30 Master theses have been published electronically via http://etd.uwc.ac.za/ (a detailed list of MA Theses topics is available here).
• 25 PhD scholarship holders from 11 countries have been accepted for PhD studies at CDR, 16 of them completed their projects so far, 8 are still working towards their graduation. The completion ratio will reach 96% after the remaining candidates will have completed their projects.Overall, 35 PhD candidates graduated from the Centre’s PhD programmes. All PhD dissertations have been published at least electronically. A detailed list of PhD Theses topics and links to publishedd theses are available here.
• Additional training offers such as seminars on report writing, scientific writing and presentation have been widely implemented. These training offers have been complemented by regular team building events. Since 2013 CDR in addition offers a career training event for scholarship holders once a year to support labour market integration. Short term support has been given to CDR Master Scholarship holders for study periods in Germany. About 10 CDR PhD scholarship holders had the opportunity to complete short-term stays at Ruhr University Bochum to take part in structured course work of the PhD IDS or other PhD related events like the PhD conference in International Development Studies.
• Co-operation activities in research and higher education with additional partners in South Africa, in other Sub-Sahara African countries and in Europe have been established widely.
• An Alumni network and Alumni activities have been established. In 2016, CDR took the lead in establishing joint Alumni activities of all African Excellence Centres and applied for DAAD funding of an Alumni conference on Tackling the root causes of displacement in Sub-Sahara Africa, which took place in November 2017 in South Africa. 40 Alumni (15 female, 25 male) representing 11 countries and 5 African Excellence Centres as well as staff members of CDR and partner centres took part. On the occasion of the Alumni conference a CDR Alumni took the initiative to establish an African Excellence Centre Alumni group. A working group of representatives of different African Excellence Centres has been established and has met at UWC in 2018 to register the Alumni association and further develop its concept. They will soon report on the latest developments.