Status of space science and planetary sciences in Uganda: Building it through synergies with Europe

<p>Space Science and Astrophysics are currently emerging fields in most African countries and in particular Uganda. These two fields are known to be channels of socioeconomic development and as such need to be developed further in the different African countries. For this to be achieved, there is need to deal with the challenges in doing astronomy or space science research on the African continent for instance access to state of the art computational and observational facilities. Creating synergies between European and African countries offers a gateway to advancing astronomy in Africa. In East Africa, and in particular Uganda, Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST) is aiming at becoming a centre of excellence in Space Science and Astrophysics research. This has been possible through the funding from the Swedish International Development Agency through the International Science Programme at Uppsala University.<br />I will briefly highlight the different projects going on at MUST in both Planetary and Space sciences. I will then focus on the results obtained in our study on “stellar activity as an important factor for planet habitability”. This study was carried out in collaboration with the Thueringer Landessternwarte-Tautenburg, Germany.</p>

Sven Hessle, 2006

This chapter contains a brief biography and transcript of an interview with Sven Hessle, a leader in Swedish social work education, who was awarded the Katherine Kendall Award of the International Association of Schools of Social Work in 2006, for his contribution to international social work education. Trained as a psychologist, after early experience as director of a therapeutic community for drug users, he worked with vulnerable multi-problem families. He later moved into research and teaching about child welfare practice in Sweden and internationally. He led a variety of projects to reconstruct social work in the former Yugoslavia, involving UNICEF and the Swedish International Development Agency, later becoming involved in other international projects in Asia. He argues for seeing a social aspect to many world problems and fears trends towards academization will diminish the value of the practical aspects of social work education.

Recent advances in nature conservation in the Lao PDR

The Lao People's Democratic Republic (PDR) has long been a white spot on maps depicting national parks and similar protected areas. This changed dramatically with the official declaration in October 1993 of 18 protected areas covering over 10 per cent of the country's land surface. Among the countries of South East Asia Lao PDR now ranks among those with the highest proportion of land under legal protection. The political climate seems favourable and additional areas may still be added. System planning and, increasingly now, the management of declared areas has been carried out by the Protected Areas and Wildlife Division of the Centre for Protected Areas and Watershed Management (PAWM), Forest Department, with funding by the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) and technical support from IUCN-The World Conservation Union. Some of the most vulnerable species, such as the Javan rhinoceros Rhinoceros sondaicus, may already be extirpated, but most species and ecosystems have good prospects of survival if management of the reserves and some wider conservation initiatives can be implemented.