Notes from the Field: Columbia Global Center Opens

Nairobi, Kenya – January 13, 2012: The opening of the Columbia Global Centers | Africa in Nairobi and represented the culmination of the University’s impactful engagement with Africa spanning several years. Signing a Host Country Agreement with the Government of Kenya established the Center as an international organization, providing a number of privileges and immunities to enable complex research, policy, and academic activities to take place.

The Center says that it aims to:

• Enable the highest levels of knowledge and learning in and for Africa

• Create a hub for global curriculum and scholarly outreach in the region

• Link the academic pursuits of the Global Center to Columbia’s main campus and around the world

• Advance Columbia’s vision of producing 21st century global citizens, equipped to meet today’s greatest challenges

The Center is home to the Earth Institute’s Millennium Villages Project (MVP), founded by Jeffrey Sachs, and the Drylands Initiative, an ambitious six-country program boosting the capacity of dryland communities in drought-prone areas of Africa.

Jennifer Gross, founder of the Blue Chip Foundation was present for the the opening. She said: “One of the many amazing experiences I had during my first trip to Africa was attending the opening of the Columbia Global Center in Nairobi. Belay Begashaw, the director of that center, called me as soon as I landed in Nairobi and asked me to attend the opening of the Center. It was meaningful to be there with him and with Jeff, and to sit and discuss future plans for the surrounding regions.”

The Center hopes to usher in a new era in objective, unbiased scholarship in and for Africa, becoming the “preeminent research and development institute providing thought leadership, cutting edge research, and expansion of scientific knowledge in the region.” As the only Global Center based in Africa, the Nairobi Center links Kenya and the continent to a vast body of knowledge and scholarship and will help Africa become a global leader.

The Center intends to work towards the alleviation of global poverty, the primary objective of the Blue Chip Foundation and a cornerstone of the Millennium Development Goals. It supports that intention by facilitating research, dialogue and technical support for African countries. It wants to be a platform for high-level policy dialogue, and to provide a forum celebrating free speech, good governance and basic human rights.

Columbia University programs, schools, students and academics, all working closely with Kenyan Government Ministries and Kenya-based NGOs and universities, are hard at work in the Center, committed to a variety of research and development initiatives.

Learn more at: http://globalcenters.columbia.edu/nairobi/