Transformative Engagement Network project - Summer School in Zambia

The Transformative Engagement Network (TEN) is a research project funded through the Programme for Strategic Cooperation between Irish Aid and Higher Education and Research Institutes between 2012 and 2015.

The project partners are Maynooth University (lead), University of Mzuzu, Malawi, Mulungushi University and the Zambian Open University in Zambia. 

The Transformative Engagement Network seeks to enhance the capacity of universities to better serve the needs of smallholder food producers within vulnerable communities  as they cope with the challenges of climate change. It also seeks to initiate new knowledge flows and exchanges of expertise between rural communities, the agencies and organisations that work with each community, and between national and international bodies concerned with agriculture, food security, nutrition and climate change.

As part of the project, 36 students are now enrolled in a new Masters programme delivered in Africa by the four partner universities. Students comprise professionals in governmental and non-governmental agencies who work closely with vulnerable communities in Zambia and Malawi and have demonstrated a unique knowledge and understanding of the challenges posed by climate change to these people. Their expertise is critical to the TEN project.

The Director of HERC, Professor Maria Slowey, taught at this year's Summer School which was held in Zambia