Visit to Guinea-Bissau
A packed programme of exciting experiences awaited the five members of SDU's Executive Board who participated in the visit to the Bandim project in Guinea-Bissau a few weeks ago.
On the west coast of Africa towards the Atlantic Ocean and bordering Senegal and Guinea-Conakry, lies one of the smallest countries on the continent, Guinea-Bissau. It is one of the poorest countries in the world, where the public system is virtually non-functional.
Vice-Chancellor Henrik Dam, Pro-Vice-Chancellor Bjarne Graabech Sørensen, Dean Marianne Holmer, Dean Henrik Bindslev and Dean Ole Skøtt participated in the trip to Guinea-Bissau during the third week of this year. They visited the field station which has been home to the Bandim project for 41 years and which SDU took over from Statens Serum Institut with effect from 1 January 2020.
-It was an intensive visit with a packed programme organised by Professor Christine Stabell Benn from the Faculty of Health Sciences, which enabled us all get a really good impression of the Bandim project and the challenges facing the country, says Henrik Bindslev.
Field station for 40 years
Together with Peter Aaby, Christine Stabell Benn has established a well-functioning field station in the capital of Bissau, and their team has been collecting data on vaccinations for over 40 years. The project now follows a population of around 100,000 people in the city and 100,000 in rural areas. There is particular focus on women and their children and on improving the vaccination programme in order that it can make a greater contribution to reducing child mortality. The field station has around 180 employees, of which approx. 10 per cent are researchers and students from Denmark.
-The Bandim project is highly regarded and has a tremendous amount of goodwill in the country. Their work with vaccination programmes has contributed to reducing the country's child mortality from 50 per cent to 7 per cent during the forty-year period in which the project has been running, says Ole Skøtt.
Biodiversity and education
In addition to the Bandim project itself, the Executive Board members also visited UNICEF, which works with the country’s water supply.
-There are a multitude of challenges aside from ensuring that there is a supply of water and the sought after experts who can work with everything from technical installations to pesticide residues in the water. We also visited the United Nations Development Programme, UNDP and IBAP, which is an independent institute working with biodiversity in coastal zones and forest areas, says Marianne Holmer.
There are many major challenges in the country and education is an essential prerequisite for the country’s development.
-The Bandim project has educated 12 graduates and 7 PhD students from Guinea-Bissau, many of whom we met holding important positions in the health sector. In addition to the research results, education is a very important contribution from the Bandim project towards the development of the country.
The research into improving vaccination programmes has provided important new learning on the effects of vaccines, which in the long run, can also have a major bearing on child mortality and morbidity worldwide, says Ole Skøtt.
Sustainable Development
In the future, SDU will study options for linking more research areas and educational activities to the field station.
-It is a unique opportunity for those of our staff and students who are interested in sustainable development in relation to education and research. There is no doubt that Guinea-Bissau faces challenges in the vast majority of the UN's SDGs and that each of the faculties at SDU can find new research areas, says Henrik Dam.