Bridging the water

Nuffic has selected ‘Bridging the water: co-create to learn & experience’ as the Orange Knowledge Program for institutional collaboration for South Africa. The project aims to strengthen water education & training sustainably in South Africa. The project starts in February 2019 and runs until the end of 2021.

Dutch and South African cooperation
Various Dutch and South African partners work together in the project ‘Bridging the water’. TUDelft, Wateropleidingen/World Water Academy (delegated project manager), HS Rotterdam, CEW Leeuwarden and Waterschap Brabantse Delta on the Dutch side and University of Cape Town, Durban University of Technology, Salga, City of Cape Town and Ethekwini from South Africa. This consortium creates a diversity to make a successful project. The project is set up as an joint activity with Dutch universities and private suppliers and both South African and Dutch students.

Action learning
The project develops sustainable knowledge exchange and collaboration between the stakeholders with the aim to bridge the gaps between theory & practice, research & implementation, education & work and engineers & operators. This is done by action-learning and co-creating in the form of living labs for students, innovators from universities and municipalities and practical training for employees. Bridging the gaps between theory and practice will result in better water management and improved water services for all residents of the municipalities in South Africa.

Orange Knowledge Programme
The Orange Knowledge Programme contributes to a society’s sustainable and inclusive development by providing access to education and training for professionals and organisations in technical vocational education and training (TVET) and higher education. It is funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs as part of its development cooperation policy. The subsidy programme is managed by Nuffic, a Dutch non-profit organisation for internationalisation in education.

It offers funding for long-term, demand-driven partnerships between Dutch knowledge institutions and organisations in 19 participating countries, as well as individual scholarships and Tailor-Made Trainings in all 53 selected countries. The € 195-m, five-year programme ends mid-2022, enabling tens of thousands to change their future. From the Dutch development cooperation policy, 4 priority themes have been selected on which to focus in the programme: Food and Nutrition Security; Water, Energy and Climate; Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights; and Security and Rule of Law. Cross-cutting themes in this programme are inclusion, employability and environmental sustainability.

Visit www.nuffic.nl/okp for more information.