The 19th PhD

It is July 2013. The dry air takes my breath away. The asphalt of the treeless parking lot sticks to my feet. Our Tanzanian colleague Daniel takes us to his car for a 3-hour trip through the organized chaos of Dar es Salaam’s city traffic. He drives carefully. Mopeds pass us by, left and right on the dusty service roads. Along the road are endless small shops and stalls with themed items such as bedroom furniture or coffins in some places, and very diverse items in other places. Street vendors knock on windows to sell local African fruits, Chinese toys, car gadgets, household products and the like. The multitude of colors, the cheerful disorder is overwhelming and strange.

Little did I know that I would drive this route so often in the coming years that I would feel more and more at home in this strange place. Little did I know that 10 years later this chaos would become the subject of a VLIR-UOS IUC partnership with Ardhi University (ARU) in Dar es Salaam for the next 10 years. On the Flemish side, there is collaboration with UHasselt (coordinator), KULeuven, UGhent, UAntwerp, PXL and AP. The central theme is the “Sustainable Urban Development of fast-growing Cities in Africa”.

Sustainable Urban Development

It is now October 2024. We are starting our third year of the VLIR-UOS IUC programme with ARU. We are also starting the 19th doctorate in this programme. It is a PhD in the field of Cultural Heritage. We are doing well. In 2 years time we have managed to start 19 doctorates on the topic of sustainable urban development in fast-growing cities, more specifically in Africa and Tanzania. All study work is bundled in the African Center for Sustainable Cities Studies (ACS). The focus is on SDG11. In addition to Cultural Heritage, the themes that are being focused on include Land Use Planning, Decent Housing, Socio-Economic Development, and Urban Transport. All the topics are supported by 2 transversal themes, Gender and Participation, and ICT and Smart Cities. In addition to the many doctorates, students are also supported to pursue a master's degree in Tanzania or abroad. Intense collaboration with communities and policy makers must ensure concrete actions on the ground. For example, a waste center for energy production has been built and tested in a small village in Kigamboni.

As the first major event, we are organizing a Resilient and Sustainable Cities Conference on February 26 and 27, 2025 (https://sites.google.com/uhasselt.be/resilient-cities/home). The focus is on the research for sustainable development of fast-growing cities in Africa. In addition to the presentation of papers, the conference will also focus on achievements in the field.

The conference will be in Dar es Salaam, a place where I, and many enthusiastic Belgian IUC colleagues with me, started to feel at home thanks to the fruitful collaboration and hospitality of many Tanzanian colleagues and the warm welcome of the local people and communities.