UDS : Centre for Sustainability and Resilience Commissioned

The Kazuhiko Takeuchi Centre for Sustainability and Resilience (KTCSR) has been commissioned at the main Campus Library, University for Development Studies by Professor Kazuhiko Takeuchi under the theme “Enhancing Resilience to Climate and Ecosystem Changes in Semi-Arid Africa”.

Chairing the Commissioning ceremony, the Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture at UDS, Professor George Nyarko, recalled all other joint projects with JICA and stressed on the relevance and appropriateness of this particular collaboration.

In his address, the Vice-Chancellor of UDS, Professor Gabriel Ayum Teye welcomed the team from Japan particularly Professor Takeuchi who is the Project Leader and also the Executive Director of Integrated Research Systems for Sustainability Science (IR3S) at the University of Tokyo. The Vice-Chancellor emphasized that UDS was very proud of this project since Japan had proven to be a very dependable partner of Ghana when it came to our development goals and have made tremendous strides through its development agencies in the areas of Agriculture, Health, infrastructure and research on building resilience in Africa. Prof.  Teye added that UDS owed it to it nuclear and wider community to partner JICA towards the achievements of the objectives of CECAR-Africa project.

Dr. Godfred Seidu Jasaw, First Sustainability Scientist from UDS to be trained in Japan gave a synopsis of how this project came into being. He spoke highly of the project and commended Prof. Tekeuchi for his great sense of commitment.

The Enhancing Resilience to Climate and Ecosystem Changes in Semi-Arid Africa is an Integrated Approach (CEDAR-Africa) project between University for Development Studies and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

The project developed a ‘Ghana Model’ which is operationalized as an integrated resilience enhancement strategy against climate and ecosystem changes based on the assessments from ecological, engineering and socio-economic dimensions in vulnerable semi-Arid Africa.