Earlier this year, the Faculty of Geo-Information and Earth Observation Science (ITC) has been granted three Tailor Made Training grants for projects in Vietnam, Guatemala, and Africa. These projects are funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs under the NUFFIC Orange Knowledge Programme.
TMT Vietnam – Sustainable shrimp farming and mangrove restoration
Dr. Iris van Duren has teamed up with Can Tho University (Vietnam) and Sustainable Aquaculture Solutions to deliver a training programme called 'Sustainable Shrimp Farming and Mangrove Restoration'. Aquaculture in the Mekong Delta is important from an economic and nutritional perspective. Intensified shrimp farming degraded large areas of mangroves while these offer essential protection for coastal zones. With this training, the teams aim to address the lack of skills in using modern, easy to use spatial tools for mangrove cover assessments, the lack of insight into the cooperation between different stakeholders and their perceptions about sustainability issues.
TMT Guatemala - Actionable weather information for a more sustainable and climate change-proof agriculture
Dr. Javier Morales and Prof.Dr. Raul Zurita-Milla, together with long-term partner ‘Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala (USAC)’, Centro Universitario de Occidente (CUNOC) in Guatemala, co-developed a training course focusing on developing capacities to address the challenges posed by climate change, specifically extreme weather events that are becoming more frequent in the valley of Quetzaltenango, threatening food production. The training brings methodical and technological knowledge of how to use weather sensor data from a set of fixed stations to describe weather conditions throughout the valley, gauge the obtained data against long-term climatic variability, and derive farmer-focused information that supports the rationalization of farm practice decisions. For example, one type of product could provide insight into the likelihood of certain types of extreme weather events taking place based on historical records. Such information plays an important role when discussing climate adaptability (e.g., planting/harvesting schedules).
TMT Africa - Open access training for community-based data collection experts (Data4HumanRights)
This training is lead by dr. Monika Kuffer and will focus on human rights and good governance, putting an emphasis on gender-responsive training. Data4HumanRights will generate an easy-to-use, state-of-the-art and open-access curriculum, which is co-developed with community groups. The Data4HumanRights training programme allows community members to produce, analyze, maintain and disseminate data related to human rights and their violations. In this process, female leadership will be stimulated. Thus, the TMT training will contribute to the transparency of governance and the human rights situation in deprived urban areas as well as explicitly make gender topics in human rights visible by producing data-driven evidence. In addition to the development of open-access material, local community members will be trained as TOTs. This will allow the dissemination of knowledge within local communities in Nigeria, but also showcase good practice for other communities within and outside of Nigeria.
Orange Knowledge Programme
The Orange Knowledge Programme is a €195-m Dutch global development program available in 53 developing countries and managed by Nuffic, a Dutch non-profit organisation for internationalisation in education. Launched in mid-2017, it aims to have provided tens of thousands with the possibility to change their future through education and training by mid-2022.
For more information about the projects, please contact:
