As the world goes through one of the most turbulent periods in its recent history, the health, social & economic consequences associated with 'post-conflict disability' arising through major limb loss (MLL) has gained importance as a significant public health issue. Our preliminary observations and community engagement activities in two post-conflict societies - the Sub-Acholi Region in Northern Uganda and Northern/Eastern provinces in Sri Lanka, have demonstrated this to be an under-appreciated complex and multi-faceted problem characterised by: a: Lack of suitable services capable of addressing the complex needs of the affected populations b:Inability of the affected population to access the existing services due to poor transport links, poverty and ignorance. c: Ad-hoc service development using non-sustainable funding sources at the time (or the immediate aftermath) of the conflict with inadequate characterisation of the needs of the local population. d: Social-cultural factors and belief systems that adversely affect the day-to-day experiences of the victims and prevent their reintegration into the society. Influencing and engaging with future policy making in this field therefore requires an integrated approach involving multi-disciplinary teams. This proposal aims to bring together the 'Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute (HCRI)' - an institution specialising in global health and 'In Place of War (IPOW)'- an organisation with expertise in conducting cultural programmes in post conflict settings, to focus on the multi-faceted problem of disability associated with MLL in two post-conflict societies - Uganda and Sri Lanka. The project will link HCRI and IPOW with Gulu Medical Faculty (GMF)-established specifically to address the health needs of Northern Uganda, the 'Gulu Referral Orthopaedic Workshop (GROW)' - the only centre providing prosthetic limb services in Gulu district in Northern Uganda, and 'Meththa Foundation UK' (MF)-a charity that pioneered prosthetic services in post-war Sri Lanka using recycled components from the UK and an innovative outreach model for service delivery. The involvement of Geographical Information Scientists (GIS) from University of Manchester (UOM), surgeons/public health officials from Northern Uganda and the Uganda-UK Health Alliance (UUHA) - the official intergovernmental body with a mandate to create sustainable partnerships between the two countries, will strengthen the proposed network. Research output from this network will: a. Evaluate the impact of arts and social theatre in challenging entrenched cultural views and bias associated with MLL b: Highlight the harm caused by ad-hoc service development in conflict environments c: Provide the forum, pilot data, policy options and critical appraisals of delivery systems in low-middle income countries to deal with the rising tide of MLL cost-effectively d: Fabricate and deliver 50 prosthetic limbs using an outreach service delivery model (successfully implemented in post-war Sri Lanka) and assess its suitability, acceptability and cost effectiveness in Northern Uganda. The partnership will also create a quality assured environment where UK based professionals and students will be able to undertake short/long term volunteering and student placements with mutual benefits to both countries. The involvement of UUHA and Health Education England (HEE) as project partners creates a window of opportunity to champion the cause of disabled people in the region (and the UK) by influencing training, research, policy making and funding priorities. We submit that the policy documents, particularly those in relation to the feasibility/desirability of outreach prosthetic services in LMICs, will have wider applications in service planning in many other post-conflict societies in Asia, the Middle east, and Africa

Kenya, Uganda and Zambia have serious challenges in utilizing the agro-sector jobs and wealth creation potential in national development. The reason for this is that the agro-graduates are not equipped with work-life relevant competences because they are not trained with modern pedagogical methods. Problem Based Learning (PBL) is a powerful way to educate students in systems thinking and to equip them with 21st century relevant competences. Most agricultural Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) do not offer PBL based courses. HEI staff are not trained in using student-centered methods, and university-industry cooperation is weak. European HEIs, such as HAMK, Aalto and UNIPV do research and apply sustainable education approaches for global development. In the AgriSCALE project, the EU HEIs aim to develop a contextualized PBL education method appropriate in SSA. The project addresses the strategic bottleneck of the HEIs to equip graduates with an entrepreneurial mindset and competences to solve complex development challenges in the agro-sector. The project cooperation is based on PBL methodology development, the training of teaching staff on PBL methods and tools, and joint piloting of PBL cases in cooperation with the student teams involved. The objective is to establish PBL into the agro-entrepreneur curricula of the partner HEIs in KE, UG and ZM. EU HEIs bring their PBL expertise to the project and all HEIs contribute to student field challenges; Aalto facilitates PBL learning in real-life contexts; Aalto and HAMK co-lead competence-based quality assurance; UNIPV develops the PBL expert teachers network and Best Practice PBL Manual for dissemination to SSA; and HAMK in the overall management and research-based PBL methodology development. At the end of the project, the six participating HEIs will continue the PBL entrepreneurship courses.

In most African countries, there is need for revitalizing HEIs to deliver agricultural science curricula that will produce graduates with requisite skills for employment, job creation and agricultural development. AgriENGAGE aims at strengthening HEIs to provide excellent training programmes in agricultural sciences responsive to evolving labour market demands of stimulating agricultural transformation and enhanced agricultural sector competitiveness. The specific objectives of the project are: availability of updated agripreneurial and Community Engagement Training programmes at HEIs; enhanced teaching compentences in business development services and community engagement in HEIs’ academic staff; students skilled in demand driven agripreneurship, agribusiness development services and community engagement and enhanced collaboration between HEIs and industry. The project is envisioned to upscale the hands on approach to agricultural science teaching by skilling staff and students through reviewing existing curricula and developing modules in agripreneurship and community engagement, training staff and students in community engagement and agribusiness development services and working with farmers and industry. Moreover the project will conduct agribusiness clinics, farm attachment, entrepreneurship and community engagement challenges to build the skills of students in entreprenurship and community engagement. This will enhance academic staff pedagogical skills to deliver curricula for agripreneurship and Community engagement, strengthen students’ skills in agripreneurship, business development services and community engagement as well as enhance collaboration between HEIs institutions, farming community and industry. The target groups in AgriENGAGE are students, academic staff and the higher education institutions. Indirect target groups like farmers and employers will benefit through ability of graduates to work with farmers and industry to transform smallholder en