NORTH-SOUTH CENTRE - ETH - North-South Centre North-South ...

occur in developing countries, with the fastest growing
cities located in Africa. This poses immense challenges to
rural and urban dwellers, the environment and social cohesion.
The other side of the coin is equally rapid rural
transformation. Providing adequate infrastructure and services
to large, less densely populated rural areas is by far
more challenging than in urban environments and requires
innovative technological and institutional solutions. Both
challenges, urban and rural transformation cannot be separated
and have to be approached in an integrated manner.
Concerning Technology and infrastructure, the ETH Zurich has
much to offer to achieve the goal of “Sustainable development
for human well-being”. Engineering knowledge and expertise
does not only contribute directly to helping poor people
to meet their basic needs in a sustainable manner (for
example, for safe drinking water, water for food production,
secure shelter, sanitation and waste management, etc.). It is
essential for economic growth which, supported by appropriate
national and local government policies, is required to
achieve sustainable improvements for poor people. This holds
true of information and communication technology for development,
as well as of medical technologies for improved
health, of transportation, energy systems, and infrastructure.
With regard to Capacity development, the strategy highlights
the importance of individual capacity development
as a task of the North-South Centre. In the future, tandem
student research projects and summer schools will be added
to the current portfolio of instruments. Concerning institutional
capacity development, we believe that we are
most effective by strategically targeting and bundling our
instruments for individual capacity development to build
up specific institutions.
10
Profile
Strategy 2010–2016
Natural resource management –
Bush fires to control the vegetation, Ethiopia