City cements relationship with Canadian university
The municipality signed a MOA which expands the City’s partnership with universities to an international level.
ETHEKWINI Municipality City Manager, Sibusiso Sithole signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the Canadian Simon Fraser University at the 4th Research Symposium at the ICC on 5 April.
The MOA expresses the intention of the City and the university to work together on various projects focussing on environmental sustainability. As a pilot project, the partnership will be fixed for a year, and will involve the placing of volunteers within the City as part of the Canadian International Youth Internship Programme.
The signing took place at the fourth Research Symposium that the City hosts with its current university partners through the Municipal Institute of Learning (MILE). Partners include the University of KwaZulu-Natal, the Durban University of Technology, University of South Africa, Mangosuthu University of Technology, Human Sciences Research Council and the University of Zululand.
More than 40 research papers, based on the theme, “Durban, a City in Transformation: Towards an Effective, Inclusive and Sustainable Socio Economic Outcome”, were presented. Topics ranged from urban agriculture and food security to environmental and public health, from transforming local government through e-government, electronic and engineering solutions to enhancing capacity and skills transformation.
The symposium provided a shared platform for practitioners and research organisations to engage with evidence based research outputs that can be used to influence policy and decision making within the municipality. It also provided a networking opportunity to strengthen collaboration and harness innovations, creativity and best practices to improve the quality of life of residents in Durban.
Jane McRae, who represented the Simon Fraser University, was excited at the partnership with the City.
“This partnership is an important step in developing our youth and helping them to become global citizens. This is indeed a unique partnership that brings the city and research together to make well informed decisions,” she said.
Vice Chancellor of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Dr Albert van Jaarsveld, said: “This is a significant engagement which gives tertiary institutions the platform to expose their post graduate students to the kind of research that both the city and academia need to succeed together. We are trying to grow a new generation of researchers and managers that will take research forward for the city, research that will forge new ground.”
