Renewable energy and access to electricity is critical for development and in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Currently, over 600 million people on the continent have no access to energy, with average electricity grid access a mere 20%, and just seven countries on the continent having electrification rates exceeding 50%. Sub-Saharan Africa has access… Read More

We are thrilled to announce that the PEI Foundation’s Academic Board’s two founding members, Professor Atta-Ur-Rahman, and Professor Berhanu Abegaz have arrived in Mauritius to select finalists for the HE Mrs. Ameenah Gurib-Fakim PhD scholarship programme. During their stay, Professor Atta-Ur-Rahman and Professor Abegaz will also give public lectures at the State House, Mauritius. Their… Read More

This week, as particular of our series of interviews with nominees for the next United Nations Secretary General, we were fortunate to speak to Dr. Danilo Türk, Slovenia’s candidate for the position. Dr. Türk discussed the importance of ensuring that women’s voices feature more prominently in developmental decision making, and how for-profit businesses can help… Read More

This week, we caught up with Fatimah Kelleher, independent social development and women’s rights advocate/consultant. Fatimah discussed her formative influences, key areas of interest, and spoke eloquently about the need for deeper understanding of equity issues in economic dialogues around Africa. 1)   Your career has spanned education, economic empowerment, and writing, but with women’s rights as… Read More

Azza Ahmed, a Sudanese PhD student, attended TReND in Africa’s recent bioinformatics course, one of our winning Africa Data Challenge projects. A Sudanese proverb holds that overseas travel has at least seven benefits, and the bioinformatics workshop I attended in icipe, Kenya illustrated this perfectly. Let me start from the beginning. I come from an… Read More

Today, we welcomed representatives from African missions based in the UK, private sector companies, and PEI partners such as Elsevier to our last Africa Breakfast Club meeting for 2015. The event explored the role of science in the delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals in Africa, which sparked a lively discussion among our guests. On… Read More