In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), high levels of ethnic diversity have often been considered in quantitative research as constraining social and economic development. Yet most of the research on ethnicity and development has given little thought to the complexity of ethnic identities, treating ethnic identity as a static affiliation to a single group. As such, it is not easy to reconcile findings from this literature with more recent empirical work that stress that multi-ethnicity is not a rare phenomenon in SSA and that ethnic identity identities may be less salient than national identities. In response, the TransmId project (Intergenerational Transmission of Identity in sub-Saharan Africa) proposes a novel understanding of ethnicity by focusing on the intergenerational transmission (IGT) of identity in SSA. By studying which identity traits (e.g. language use, religious practice) are passed down generations, we can gain a more nuanced understanding of ethnicity while considering it both as socially salient and dynamic. The project combines insights from the theoretical economic literature on parental investment in IGT with perspectives from political science and sociology on institutional factors and socialisation mechanisms. TransmId relies on economic modelling, statistical analyses, and first-hand data. The project’s workflow follows the sequence of intergenerational transmission over generations, from marriage decisions to investments in children’s identities. First, I will focus on understanding the drivers of intermarriages using data from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Second, I will design a lab experiment in Kenya to assess parents’ preferences regarding their children’s identity (e.g. multi-ethnicity, ethnic and national identities). Third, building on case studies and on a cross-country longitudinal analysis, TransmId will provide a comparative perspective on the role of institutional contexts in shaping IGT decisions.

This project consisted of in- and out-going mobilities with partner universities from four different countries, Colombia, Lebanon, the Philippines and Vietnam. We were able to realize all of the 16 mobilities for which we had received funding. We have engaged in this International Credit Mobility Programme, because the University of Namur (UNamur) has participated for over two decades in the traditional Erasmus programme and we have welcomed the possibility to export the Erasmus concept also to our non-European partner universities, with who the bilateral connections are in same cases much stronger than with some of our traditional European partners. We have also engaged in this project, because we believe that, in today's globalized world, an international experience is an important part of any student’s or any professor's academic career for many reasons, but notably because such a mobility offers the student or professor the possibility to benefit from an exposure to a different language, culture and teaching/working environment. Specifically, this present project contained 8 in-coming student mobilities and in each case the student benefited from this experience through an internationalisation of his or her academic curriculum, from the possibility to follow courses or academic specializations not available at his or her home university and from becoming more independent, responsible and aware of other countries and cultures in the world. We overall believe that due to this experience a participating student was able to improve the curriculum vitae for his or her post-university professional career. The results of the mobilities realized are overall very positive. Students generally reported that they liked the experience and that they would recommend such as experience to their peers. The credits and grades obtained by students during their stay at UNamur were directly integrated into a student’s academic curriculum at their home institution. In the case of the professors or researchers who participated in this project, the objective was generally to build on and improve already existing relations between the two partners. In total the project contained two teaching mobilities and six training mobilities. UNamur sent one professor to teach at one partner university and also welcomed one professor from one partner to teach to students in Namur. The training mobilities were also divided into three outgoing ones and three incoming ones. In all cases the participant's mobilities served to strengthen the ties between the two partners by continuing existing research collaborations and developing new ones. In addition to these impacts the longer-term benefits will be joint publications and thus stronger CVs of the participants as well as a better mutual understanding, an improvement of the trust that has already been built between partners and consequently a better position of the two partners to jointly apply for research grants or similar collaborations in the future. Specifically the four collaborations in the project were the following:Colombia: UNamur's partner university is the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Bogota and the academic field concerned is veterinary sciences. The mobilities realized under this project were for three incoming students for a total of 397 days as well as one outgoing staff mobility for training during ten days. Lebanon: UNamur's partner university here is the Université Saint Joseph in Beirut and the academic field concerned is management sciences. The mobilities realized under this project were two incoming student mobilities for a total of 300 days as well as one incoming staff mobility for teaching during eight days.Philippines: UNamur's partner university is the University of the Philippines in Manila and the academic field concerned is geography. The mobilities realized under this project were two incoming students for a total of 224 days and one incoming staff mobility for training during 10 days. In addition two outgoing staff mobilities for training were realized with a duration of 10 days each.Vietnam: UNamur's partner university is Can Tho University in Can Tho and the academic field concerned is aquaculture/fishery sciences. The mobilities realized under this project were one incoming student mobility during 150 days and one incoming staff mobility for training during 15 days. Furthermore, two outgoing mobilities were realized, one for teaching and one for training, for a duration of 10 and 11 days, respectively.

The idea to be taken as proof of concept is drawn from the ERC Advanced grant N°293605-CAPCAN (2012-2016). This grant aimed at understanding the molecular and genetic bases of the dramatic human infections caused by Capnocytophaga canimorsus. One of the questions that we addressed in the frame of CAPCAN is why are there so few cases of human infections while so many dogs carry C. canimorsus? In other words, are all C. canimorsus strains equally dangerous and, if not, could we prevent the disease by detecting the dogs carrying the more dangerous strains? During CAPCAN, among others, we showed that C. canimorsus is endowed with a capsular polysaccharide (CPS) and its assembly pathway was characterized [1]. We also showed that the CPS of 25/25 strains isolated from human infections present a limited variability, with 3 dominant capsular serovars. In contrast, only 4 out of 52 C. canimorsus isolated from dog mouths did belong to these three serovars [2]. This implies that a small minority of dog-hosted C. canimorsus strains are virulent for humans than most strains and that these strains can be identified by capsular serotyping. We also set up a PCR test to achieve this capsular serotyping [2]. The proposal to be taken to proof of concept is to market the PCR test designed to identify the dogs carrying the more virulent strains of C. canimorsus.

The 2018/21 edition of the Erasmus+ project is a continuation of former Erasmus projects, in which the University of Namur (UNamur) has participated for almost three decades. We continue to participate in this project, because we believe that an international experience is an important part of a student’s academic career for many reasons, but notably because an Erasmus Plus mobility offers the student the possibility to benefit from an exposure to a different language, culture and teaching/working environment. Furthermore, it internationalize his or her academic curriculum,provides the possibility to follow courses or academic specializations not available at UNamur and it forms a student by becoming more independent and responsible and because it improves a student’s curriculum vitae for his post-university professional career. Statistics in reports analysing the question have shown that graduates having participated in an Erasmus exchange are more likely and quicker to find professional than there non-Erasmus counterparts. This confirms the experience UNamur has experienced for a long term that an Erasmus semesterimproves a graduates post-university lives.In the 2018/21 Erasmus Plus programme edition, the University of Namur sent 45 student for a SMS mobility, 39 students for a SMP mobility, five academics for a STA mobility and nince staff member for a STT mobility . Participating students/academics came from most of the six faculties of the University of Namur and about 62 percent of students were at the Master’s level and 38 percent at the bachelor level. All SMS mobilities took place at partner universities of the University of Namur, while about only about one third of the SMP moblities were organized at a partner university and the rest at non-university institutions. The STA mobilities consisted of five or six-day teaching assignements at an Erasmus+ partner university of the University of Namur and the STT mobilities consisted mostly of the participation in Erasmus+ training week or educational visits at partner institutions. The results of the 2018/21 mobilities are overall very positive. Students generally reported that they likedthe experience and that they would recommend such as experience to their pears. The credits and grades obtained by students during their SMS mobility were directly integrated into a student’s academic curriculum at the University of Namur and in addition to the academic gain, students had also gained personally by improving their language skills and by becoming more mature. Participants of a STA/STT project also reported the experience as positive, as it gave them the possibility to benefit from a different teaching environment but also because it provide them with an opportunity to discuss one-on-one with colleagues at a partner university the establishment or continuation of joined research or other collaborations.The long term impact the University of Namur expects from the 2018/21 Erasmus Plus project are a higher quality of our graduating student and increased cooperation between the University of Namur and her partner universities.

Rates of domestic violence and the relative risk of premature death for women are higher in sub-Saharan Africa than in any other region. Yet we know remarkably little about the economic forces, incentives and constraints that drive discrimination against women in this region, making it hard to identify policy levers to address the problem. This project will help fill this gap. I will investigate gender discrimination from two complementary perspectives. First, through the lens of economic history, I will investigate the forces driving trends in women’s relative well-being since slavery. To quantify the evolution of well-being of sub-Saharan women relative to men, I will use three types of historical data: anthropometric indicators (relative height), vital statistics (to compute numbers of missing women), and outcomes of formal and informal family law disputes. I will then investigate how major economic developments and changes in family laws differentially affected women’s welfare across ethnic groups with different norms on women’s roles and rights. Second, using intra-household economic models, I will provide new insights into domestic violence and gender bias in access to crucial resources in present-day Africa. I will develop a new household model that incorporates gender identity and endogenous outside options to explore the relationship between women’s empowerment and the use of violence. Using the notion of strategic delegation, I will propose a new rationale for the separation of budgets often observed in African households and generate predictions of how improvements in women’s outside options affect welfare. Finally, with first hand data, I will investigate intra-household differences in nutrition and work effort in times of food shortage from the points of view of efficiency and equity. I will use activity trackers as an innovative means of collecting high quality data on work effort and thus overcome data limitations restricting the existing literature