One Health Project for the Horn of Africa

One Health Regional Network for the Horn of Africa (HORN) is a multidisciplinary, international partnership led by the University of Liverpool and is being implemented in academic institutions in Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somaliland.  The project aims to strengthen capacity of individuals and institutions to undertake high quality One Health research in the Horn of Africa. It is being implemented in the School of Public Health College of Health Sciences and Department of Public Health Pharmacology and Toxicology (PHPT) in te College of Agriculture and Veterinary Sciences (CAVS)

The 4-year project funded by UKRI and the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) from the Growing Research Capability is led by the University of Liverpool (UoL, UK) to the tune of British Pound Sterling 7.7 million.

Two post-doctoral fellows have been recruited at the UoN and a call for another two has been made. This is the first post doctoral fellows at the UoN. This has been achieved through the One Health Horn of Africa Project that was launched in February 2018. 

This was announced when the Principal investigator, Prof. Mathew Baylis of One health Regional Network for the Horn of Africa project from the University of Liverpool paid a courtesy call on the Vice Chancellor on Wednesday December 4, 2019.

Prof. Baylis highlighted, “The Project has signed an MoU with Kajiado County to enhance training and research in One Health. To enhance the venture, the Project identified a laboratory in the Ministry of Agriculture and Veterinary Services that could be refurbished for the purpose. The Project requested and obtained authority from the Office of the Vice Chancellor to utilize local contractors from Kajiado to refurbish the laboratory. To date we have obtained quotation from contractors from the county and are in the process of finalizing the tendering process. Hopefully the laboratory will be up running early next year. The Project has also bought equipment for the laboratory that will be installed as soon as the refurbishment is complete.”

In addition the project carried out a capacity assessment with the Department of Public Health Pharmacology and Toxicology (PHPT) in the College of Agriculture and Veterinary Sciences (CAVS) and equipment necessary for research capacity strengthening was identified. Following on this, the HORN project has committed to buy and install the equipment; a process that should be completed early next year. The project has also undertaken to refurbish a vehicle from the pool at CHS.

On his part the Ag. Vice Chancellor, Prof. Isaac Mbeche noted that UoN has signed many partnerships and it is always good to know that the partnerships are healthy. He mentioned that UK research Institute (UKRI) visited the UoN recently and audited the systems of research.