GIRT project partner meeting in Addis Ababa

The project meeting was opened by official representatives of Addis Ababa University, the project coordinator, Tania Berger from University of Continuing Education Krems and Kumela Gudeta, the responsible coordinator at Addis Ababa University. Furthermore, Doris Gebru-Zeilermayr from the local office of the Austrian Development Agency as well as Julia Lichtkoppler from the APPEAR Office delivered opening remarks. The Austrian Ambassador to Ethiopia, Dr. Simone Knapp, joined the meeting for the closing ceremony.

GIRT sets out to conduct qualitative, in-depth research in selected case study areas in Addis Ababa, Bahir Dar, Mekelle and Nampula, to investigate problems and challenges faced by inhabitants of informal settlements, particularly of women. The goal is to furthermore identify coping strategies and potential interventions for improving especially women’s living conditions in the selected settlements. So far, the project consortium has collected a substantial amount of data through interviews conducted in the case study areas in Addis Ababa, Mekelle and Nampula. During the project meeting in Addis Ababa, the preliminary results from the interviews were presented and a common methodology for coding the interviews was developed by the project consortium. The analysis of the qualitative data should on the one hand provide comparable results in the further course of the project and form the basis for concrete transdisciplinary applications in the informal settlements.

In the course of the meeting, the project consortium and the APPEAR Office visited the case study site and the campus of Addis Ababa University. Furthermore, meetings with national and international stakeholders were held. In addition to that APPEAR Alumna Dr. Wossen Argaw Tegegn provided input on Gender Research in Higher Education in Ethiopia. The project coordinators of the participating institutions of the GIRT project were furthermore invited to the Alumni reception hosted by the Austrian Ambassador to Ethiopia, Dr. Simone Knapp.

More information on the GIRT project.