Global challenges, especially with a view to the future, require greater pooling of resources and interdisciplinary collaboration. In this context, global cooperation in higher education can be an instrument to ensure that knowledge from research and experience is passed on and further developed and that new ideas and innovations are initiated collaboratively. This is where the higher education cooperation projects between German higher education institutions and their partner institutions in the Global South come in. Funded by the DAAD with resources from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), they strengthen institutional capacity building, foster the joint development of study and qualification programs and aim to contribute to the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda.
Within this framework, the DAAD – Project Leader Conference “Higher Education Partnerships as a Key to Sustainable Development” was held in Costa Rica from 24-26 April 2023. At the conference, our project “Protecting livelihoods and biodiversity in Costa Rica” was represented by the Vice-President of Research and Transfer from the Universidad Técnica Nacional Prof. Dr. Liliana Rodríguez, their technical advisor Jennifer Sánchez Acosta and Prof. Dr. Susanne Schlünder from Osnabrück University. Initiated by keynotes on “Universities, Society, and the Green Economy – The State of Affairs in Latin America” (Prof. Dr.-Ing. Paola Vega Castillo), among others, the conference offered ample opportunities for the development of strategies for the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals in the various projects, as well as for networking.
You can download the conference poster of our project here:
