Education and Knowledge

While women's rights are already suppressed across the world, the pandemic has exacerbated these situations in the region during lockdowns and in an absence of adequate response. From this stems a need to host a discussion on the measures to address the impact of the pandemic and the lockdown, which has put women and girls in more vulnerable positions and let them slide into poverty further.

This was the third Lecture in our lecture series on 'Africa and Africanity'. This Lecture on  'Ethics in Higher Education: An African Perspective' focused on education and technical skills that people require to make decisions on the basis of rationalized processing.

This was the second Lecture in our lecture series on 'Africa and Africanity'. This Lecture on 'Future of Religion and Religiosity of the Future' is grounded on the dimension of human identity that cannot be expressed empirically of which is religiosity.

This was the first Lecture in our lecture series on 'Africa and Africanity'. This Lecture on Identity and Equity is grounded on the view, that we humans are brothers and sisters, whoever we happen to be, wherever we happen to live, wherever we happen to have come from, and whatever our means of livelihood. 

Understanding the epidemiology of Covid-19 and moving forward would be critical to determining policy on the need to adopt interventions, including the Covid-19 vaccines that are being developed.

There is a need to consolidate global efforts to control and manage highly pathogenic agents like SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19). The legal framework under development by Africa-CDC will address this by assigning government agencies to regulate research activities that include high-consequence pathogens, and to ensure ethical boundaries are not breached.

Physical distancing is a tried and tested method of slowing the rate of infection during a pandemic (without the use of medical interventions). But as we’ve seen, it can have devastating economic, health and social effects, especially on developing nations.

Covid-19 has taught us that investing in health security research, preparedness and responsiveness, nationally, regionally and globally, is critical. For this to work and to beat similar crises in future, effective, credible, altruistic political leadership at all levels of society is needed.

Lockdowns and physical distancing have proved crucial to slowing the spread of Covid-19 in the short term, but looking to the future these measures are unsustainable and have caused a lot of social and economic damage. As the race for the vaccine continues experts are now focused on improving testing, tracing and treatment efforts, especially in Africa, where life-threatening gaps exist.  

Every evening during the early days of the pandemic, people opened their windows at a set hour to applaud the heroic women and men who were putting their health on the line in the fight against Covid-19. In New York, London, Madrid and other cities, it became something of a ritual. For me, it was a daily reminder of those invisible workers, the public health professionals who battle the pandemic behind the scenes. It was also a reminder of how now, more than ever, we must invest in public health.

Finding the balance between limiting disease transmission, maintaining access to critical services and supporting livelihoods is the public health challenge of this century.

Never before has the public had an opportunity to see, in glaring detail, the difference good governance makes. As Covid-19 spreads across the globe, we witness how different leaders address the same crisis. Some have the skills, qualities and appetite required to best guide their countries through the crisis, while others demonstrate their incompetence on a near-daily basis.

Emergency remote education during COVID-19 has exacerbated structural inequities and revealed gaps in pedagogical knowledge and infrastructure to support the use of technology for instruction. During this webinar, we will hear about the challenges that are facing parents and learn about coping strategies and the resources available for parents. 

COVID-19 has exacerbated structural inequities and revealed gaps in pedagogical knowledge and infrastructure to support the use of technology for instruction. From this Webinar, we will hear the impact COVID-19 has had on education and instructional strategies in primary and secondary education that can support online teaching and learning - in the US, Kenya, Turkey, and globally.

This was the first panel of a two-part panel series hosted by the Columbia Global Centers| Nairobi and Columbia Global Centers| Mumbai. The purpose of this series was to discuss lessons learned from India, Kenya and the United States in finding innovative ways to provide in-person and virtual clinical and outreach services in dental healthcare delivery during this pandemic. 

Along with the terrible toll it has exacted in lives lost, as well as negative health and economic impacts, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced dramatic changes in how families must navigate work both inside and outside of the home. This webinar brought together a team of experts who addressed issues that are being experienced in the home as a result of the pandemic and provided helpful tips on how to deal with these challenges.

This was the third panel of a three-part panel series hosted by the Columbia Global Centers| Nairobi and Columbia Global Centers| Rio de Janeiro. The purpose of this panel was to bring together experts and community members to talk about their experiences with and perceptions of stigma and discrimination in informal settlements in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic and to hear their strategies and recommendations for addressing stigma and discrimination in these communities.

Water-Related Disasters account for about 90% of natural disasters globally. Global warming and climate change have resulted in changing weather patterns around the world. In various regions, rainfall patterns have changed drastically resulting in unprecedented river flows. This webinar sought to minimize the impact of flooding both in Kenya and India through the development of mitigation measures geared towards minimizing the impacts of floods.

The purpose of this panel discussion was to bring together mental health experts living and working in informal settlements to discuss mental health in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic and to provide recommendations for managing and mitigating mental health challenges in these communities.

This was the first panel of a three-part panel series hosted by the Columbia Global Centers| Nairobi and Columbia Global Centers| Rio de Janeiro. The purpose of this series is to hear from experts and residents of informal settlements about some of the pressing issues related to the Covid- 19 pandemic in informal settlements in these two populous cities.

From this webinar on ‘Frontline Nurses: Leaders in Pandemic Response’ you will get to hear the voices of the Ebola nurses, understand their insights, and consider the implications for all of us today in the battle against COVID-19.

This special webinar on 'Africa Confronting Covid- 19' held on April 22^nd 2020 at 3:00 pm GMT was co- hosted by ICAP at Columbia University and Columbia Global Centers| Nairobi together with Columbia Global Centers| Tunis

The meeting assembled key African pediatric leaders in the academic, government and NGOs to discuss Global Health Security Agenda issues.

On July 19^th, 2018, the Director of Columbia Global Centers |Nairobi – Dr. Murugi Ndirangu, was invited by Equity Foundation to speak to a group of students who were attending the 2018 College Counseling boot camp at Brookhouse School Karen.  The group comprised of 100 scholars – these being those who were going through the application process to IVY League Schools abroad including Columbia University, and over 15 mentors – these being those with some experience abroad.

The center hosted a workshop on opportunities for addressing challenges in oral health and dental care.

On Friday, 25th May 2018, Columbia Global Centers hosted a full day conference on, "Re-thinking Sage Philosophy" this was organized in collaboration with the Institute of African Studies, Columbia University, and the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at the University of Nairobi.

On May 8^th 2018, Prof.

Columbia Global Centers Nairobi hosted the launch of the Model International Mobility Convention.  This brought together participants in the areas of refugee law, human trafficking, economic migration, labour rights, public policy, international law, labor migration and forced migration.  The event was moderated by Prof. Sarah Deardorff, an Adjunct Professor with Columbia School of International and Public Affairs.  The panel of speakers were drawn from government, academic and NGO sectors.  These were; Mr.

In marking International Women Day, Columbia Global Centers Nairobi partnered with a working committee of women leaders from the African Gender Taskforce - a virtual forum comprising of about 130 women who are passionate about all issues pertaining to and that affect women. The Women deliberated on plans / programs to empower women through training in key areas such as in productivity, security, sustainability, personal development and assertiveness.

The committee established 5 thematic areas under which training would be established and implemented. These are;

The INEE Teachers in Crisis Contexts (TiCC) Working Group, in partnership with the United States Agency for International Development’s Education in Conflict and Crisis Network (USAID ECCN) coordinated the “Teachers in Crisis Contexts Introduction, Contextualization and Implementation Workshop for Kenya,” from June 12-16, 2017 at Columbia Global Centers Nairobi. The workshop brought together practitioners, teacher trainers, policymakers and academics. Participants were introduced to the Training Pack for Primary School Teachers in Crisis Contexts, which was launched in April 2016.

A proposal to cut funding for the John E Fogarty International Center from the upcoming United States federal government budget by President Donald Trump’s administration has prompted an outcry from academics and educators across Africa.

East African governments should work with universities to build knowledge on climate change with a view to building the capacity and resilience of local communities, who largely depend on rain-fed agriculture, to mitigate the consequences of climate change. 

Kenya’s Commission for University Education has issued stringent new guidelines for the appointment and promotion of academic staff in a system that gives heavy emphasis to publication in reputable, peer-reviewed journals and discourages publication in so-called predatory journals. While the move is intended to raise academic standards, it has also raised concerns about the hurdles to publication facing many Kenyan academics.

The rare opportunity – the first in Africa – is a major collaboration with Columbia University. The ANSRC is a partnership that brings together academic and research institutions across the East African region with the goal of building a PhD training programme in basic research in nutritional and agriculture science. The main aim is to address food insecurity in the region and raise the number of trained manpower in the selected fields of study across East African universities.

Strengthening the capacity of East African universities to train PhD and post-doctoral academics in areas such as human nutritional sciences, agriculture, technology, engineering and mathematics is urgently needed to develop local scientific capacity and help the region to achieve its development goals. 

Gone are the days when you could predict the next course of action along the dominant ideologies.

For more than 50 years, the works of economist John Maynard Keynes dominated capitalist governments.

The Global Think-In Event titled, ‘Thoughts On A Changing World’, was held on 24^th April 2017. It brought together academics and experts in various fields discussing the global issues facing and affecting Kenyans.

The consortium is being facilitated by Professors Richard Deckelbaum and Debra Wolgemuth of the Institute of Human Nutrition at Columbia University, Dr. James Ntambi, professor of Biochemistry and Nutrition at the University of Wisconsin, and Dr. Bonnie Dunbar, adjunct professor at the University of Nairobi. The Institute has established a coordinating office for this program at Columbia University’s Columbia Global Centers | Africa (Nairobi), under the direction of the East Africa Coordinator and Kenyan native, Dr. Murugi Ndirangu.

Columbia’s Safwan Masri says that to understand a region today, you must consider the entire world. "There’s a very different feel and a very different impact that’s realised by being on the ground and having real conversations and dialogue that I think advances the notion that universities are relevant and neutral places of inquiry,"

Universities must adopt global, rather than international, outlooks, says scholar.

A group of thirty key stakeholders from the education sector in Kenya gathered at the Columbia Global Centers | Nairobi to deliberate the future of education in areas plagued by insecurity and conflict.

A joint team of students from Columbia and Princeton Universities attended a course in Nairobi at Columbia Global Centers | Africa as part of their Sustainable Development in Practice program. The course is designed to give the students a practical but broad-based understanding of sustainable development in East Africa. 

The event, held at Strathmore University’s business school, was the inaugural lecture in a series to be hosted by the Nairobi Center throughout 2014. Professor Masri’s distinguished academic career, including his former role as executive vice president for Global Centers and Global Development at Columbia University, provided the basis for his unique insight, shared with a packed hall of Kenyan university students, faculty, and Columbia University alumni and partners.

This is a collaboration between 617 global partners and 10 US state institutions such as Columbia University, Yale University, Stanford University, State University of New York and University of Kentucky.

CGC | Africa was proud to host the team of the African Migration and Development Policy Centre (AMADPOC) in Nairobi, Kenya, headed by Professor John O. Oucho, PhD, on Monday 27 January 2014, as part of the E-Conference on the Health Consequences of Migration, hosted online across the Columbia Global Centers and the Columbia Population Research Center in New York.

University officially inaugurates seventh international hub for expanded academic partnerships, and student and alumni affairs.