UConn successfully launched its PIRE Food and Water Security Project at a kickoff meeting in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia from July 11-14, 2016. The meeting included a two-day workshop with presentations and breakout sessions devoted to rain-fed agriculture, irrigation, hydropower, and international teaching and learning; field trips to irrigated and rain-fed communities, a hydropower dam, the Blue Nile Water Institute and the Abbay Basin Authority; and meetings with key officials including the regional minister for education.

The kickoff meeting intended to serve as a platform where researchers, university administrators and stakeholders could develop an understanding of project objectives, discuss expectations, and identify opportunities and risks for the collaboration. The conference achieved its intended goals on all fronts. Most importantly, the main stakeholders renewed their commitment and several new local stakeholders (including the President of Bahir Dar University and community leaders in potential field sites) expressed new commitment to the project.

The conference received considerable media attention from both regional and federal mass media outlets. Interviews were made by both US and Ethiopian researchers as well as stakeholders, and broadcasted live on national TV stations. The UConn PIRE team used the occasion to inform viewers of its commitments towards realizing water/food and human security in Ethiopia and the value they placed in knowledge transfer and cultural exchanges between the peoples of the United States and Ethiopia.

The report presents the main action items team members will pursue in the near future, summaries of the presentations and discussions from the workshop, and descriptions of the field sites. Read more

UConn and the National Meteorological Services Agency (NMA) of Ethiopia have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

UConn has launched an Amharic course for the first time, beginning in Fall 2016. The course is offered to the social science research group of the UConn PIRE  project.  The team is scheduled to conduct survey and ethnographic research in a region where local farmers speak only Amharic. In order to develop reasonable skills to speak and write Amharic, participants are expected to spend about 1,320 contact hours. In addition to formal classroom learning, Ethiopian graduate students from the sociology department will mentor Amharic students five hours per week.

The research team attending Amharic class is showing marked Amharic language learning in a short time. It is anticipated that knowledge of the local language will help the researchers effectively cross geographical and cultural boundaries to conduct meaningful scientific research in Ethiopia.