Delegation’s Ghana Trip Bolsters Scientific Cooperation

Hamburg Science Senator Katharina Fegebank was accompanied by a ten-member delegation that included GIGA researcher Dr. Julia Grauvogel; Prof. Dr. Marylyn Addo, Founding Director of the Institute for Infection Research and Vaccine Development at University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE); Prof. Dr. Andreas Timm-Giel, President of the Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH); and Prof. Dr. Jürgen May, Chairman of the Board of the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine (BNITM).

The delegation visited various research institutes in Ghana, including the Maria Sibylla Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa (MIASA) at the University of Ghana, with which the GIGA closely cooperates as one of four consortium partners in Germany and France. Sustainable democracy was at the core of the talks. GIGA researcher Dr. Julia Grauvogel discussed challenges and opportunities vis-à-vis processes of democratisation in Germany and Ghana with Ghanaian colleagues, including Dr. Emmanuel Yeboah-Asiamah, and with Hamburgian historian Prof. Thomas Großbölting.  The exchange served to strengthen the collaboration between the GIGA journal Africa Spectrum and the Contemporary Journal for African Studies (CJAS), published by the University of Ghana’s Institute for African Studies. Further publishing workshops co-organised by the GIGA and the University of Ghana are planned, with the goal of increasing the number of publications by – and, thereby, the visibility of – African scholars in high-ranking journals. Regular meetings between the publishing teams will help reflect upon and reduce asymmetries in knowledge production on Africa. Along similar lines, joint roundtable discussions at international conferences are planned that will serve as spaces to critically examine structural inequalities in research.  A visit to the West African Science Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL) comprised another high point of the trip. The delegation learned more about the climate research advanced by German and West African institutes, including the Climate Service Center Germany (GERICS), the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (HAW Hamburg), and the Cluster of Excellence Climate, Climatic Change, and Society (CLICCS). The GIGA contributes to CLICCS with its research on climate governance and on the interplay between climate change and conflict. The dialogue with WASCAL opened up new opportunities for more intensive cooperation on climate research with Ghana. The delegation also got the opportunity to meet with Ghanaian Minister of Health Bernard Okoe Boye to talk about health policy and scientific cooperation in the health sector. This exchange produced valuable insights into the policy–research nexus in Ghana.  The Morning Briefing with German Ambassador Daniel Krull was dominated by the topics of democracy and development in Ghana, particularly in view of the upcoming elections in December. The GIGA was able to provide useful knowledge from its democracy research and simultaneously benefit from insights into Ghana’s current political processes.  Additional stops on the trip included a visit to the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine (KCCR), where the delegation discussed current developments in infection research. There was also a day of exchange with students and entrepreneurs, who introduced their innovative projects. The delegation engaged extensively with colonial history, gathering harrowing impressions of the transatlantic slave trade during a visit to Cape Coast Castle. In the end, a new cooperation agreement was signed between TUHH and the University of Cape Coast intended to facilitate future exchange.  “It’s difficult to sum up all the impressions won on this intensive trip. What’s particularly gratifying are the new opportunities that have arisen for closer cooperation, for example between CJAS and Africa Spectrum,” Julia Grauvogel concluded at the end of the trip. She is particularly grateful to the Hamburg Ministry for Science, Research, Equality and Municipalities and the Second Mayor for inviting her to participate in the delegation, which highlighted the importance of scientific cooperation and gave important impetus to future joint research projects between Hamburg and Ghana.