Hawassa University VPRTT Held a Discussion with Delegates of USAID Ethiopia

VPRTT held a discussion with delegates of USAID Ethiopia over a newly launched collaborative project.

Vice president for research and technology transfer, Dr.Tafesse Matewos, held fruitful discussion with two delegates of USAID Ethiopia concerning a newly launched collaborative project with the College of Law and Governance of Hawassa University. During his welcome speech to the delegates, Dr. Tafesse pointed out that Hawassa University is one of the first-generation public universities in Ethiopia with longstanding experiences of collaborative projects’ execution working with several local and global partners. The vice president also mentioned the fact that HU has been leading a cluster of 8 universities in Southern Ethiopia on peace education and peace and conflict information curriculum development via the college of Law and Governance. He also expressed his appreciation to the USAID and the US government on behalf of HU for supporting peace dialogues in Ethiopia which are national top priority as a public institution which truly cares about the stability of the country and its overall prosperity.

Brittany Gleixner-Hayat, country representative of Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI) in USAID Ethiopia, also expressed her gratitude for HU as two collaborative projects have been successfully executed through the College of Law and Governance over a span of a year since March 2021. She also pointed out that USAID/OTI focuses on projects that contribute to peaceful negotiations in politically transitioning states like Ethiopia through intervention-oriented action research and community engagements. She added that their former projects have significantly contributed in maintaining peaceful dialogues and boarder conflict management in Oromia and Sidama regional states over their shared boarders.

Dr. Fikrewold Yeneneh, who is a project leader from the CLG at HU, presented a brief information about HU and the CLG along with the two former collaborative projects with OTI that have reached millions of people working on the grassroots level to promote democratic values, social cohesion and institutionalizing peace. He also remarked that a newly launched project entitled “Assessing Public Awareness about National Dialogue and Consensus” is going to contribute meaningfully as the college is committed in making it a success.

Finally, the delegates from both USAID and HU agreed to work on issues of public importance on mutual understanding and a sense of collaboration for the future.