Maynooth University leads new European Commission Erasmus + funded research project SEED - Capacity building for Sustainable community-basEd Enterprise Development with partners in Malawi, Zambia, Italy & Belgium.
The network consists of two university partners in Malawi - Mzuzu University & University of Livingstonia – and Zambia Mulungushi University & Kwame Nkrumah University – with European partners led by Maynooth University (Ireland), University оf Naples Federicо II (Italy), and Institut de Haute Fоrmatiоn aux Pоlitiques Cоmmunautaires (Belgium)
SEED responds to a context of an accelerated scale of climate change means that that rural populations of Sub-Saharan African countries of Malawi and Zambia are very susceptible to the impact of droughts, cyclones and other weather events. We work participatively with university, civil society and community partners to build the capacities of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Malawi and Zambia to work with a range of local enterprise, agricultural advisory and local government staff in transformative learning partnerships. Together we will create and pilot new microcredential courses that are responsive to the local climatic conditions and the consequent needs for local entrepreneurs and markets to ensure a more sustainable and resilient economy in Malawi and Zambia. These courses will use transformative community development and professional learning based in real-world learning methods to enable deep collaboration between HEI researchers, community and local enterprise partners.
Further details avaialble from Prof. Bernie Grummell, Adult and Community Education Department, Maynooth University.