The goal of the workshop was to provide a setting for an exchange of lessons learned and experiences gained through collaborative research and teaching, and identifying research challenges for increased relevance of research based education for the region.
The topics that were discussed during the 3 days long workshop were e.g.: The Research Challenges Posed by Formality vs Informality in the Urban Context; Building a Research Program and Pedagogy for Understanding and Addressing Urban Transformation and Sustainability in East Africa; Building Stronger Institutional Relationships South to South and North to South.
Norway has undertaken clear international commitments to contribute to Africa’s development, and the subject for this Workshop was to contribute to the improvement of the living conditions of the urban poor in particular.
‘Given the different situation in the various countries, the focus of our development cooperation will vary, but particular emphasis is placed on education, capacity building and transfer of knowledge’ says Marianne Damhaug who opened the Workshop on behalf of the Norwegian Embassy in Dar es Salaam. She also explains that Norway supports individual countries, but a large part of the Norwegian support is channeled through multilateral institutions such as UN Habitat where Norway is a strong development partner.