Mr Stefan Frank wrote his bachelor thesis on the topic of “Analyses on the effect of past flood events on the transport infrastructures in northern Namibia as well as on the management during and after a flood”. The thesis was supervised by the Department of Hydraulic Engineering and Water Management, Faculty of Civil Engineering.

The defence of the bachelor thesis will take place on 22 October 2018 at 8:00 in building 13, room 249. All interested persons are cordially invited.

The coordination center for the strategic partnership between the Technische Universitaet Kaiserslautern and the University of Namibia organized in cooperation with the Kolping Bildungswerk Trier this year´s Namibia Network Meeting. The German-Namibian Society and the Parish Service for Mission and Ecumenical Affairs of the Protestant Church in the Rhineland were co-organizers.

In total, 41 participants from different sectors took part in the event on Saturday, 1^st of September, 2018 at Technische Universitaet Kaiserslautern. The organizers´ aim was to create a platform for actors in German-Namibian partnerships through the Namibia Network Meeting to get in contact with each other, to exchange ideas and experiences and to network in order to create synergies for future projects or initiatives.

This year´s concept to include technical contributions from science and research was met with broad interest and was welcomed by the participants. At the end of each presentation, there were lively discussions in which participants from outside the field participated with great interest. Thematically, the contributions came from the fields of ethnology and education as well as from the earth and engineering sciences.

During the breaks, the participants were invited to inform themselves at the numerous information booths in the foyer and to exchange information about the diverse projects, initiatives and partnerships of the actors. Often the activities of associations, partnerships or projects engaged in Namibia are only known in a regionally limited environment of the respective actors and due to the thematic focus of the individual initiatives or partnerships, synergy effects arising from interdisciplinary cooperation may remain unused. Therefore, a central issue was to highlight and to make possible interfaces visible through active networking, the exchange and information at the Namibia Network Meeting.

In the afternoon, several workshops took place. This included language workshops on Otijherero and Khoekheogowab as well as workshops on the funding opportunities and on recent political developments in Namibia. The programme of the Namibia Network Meeting was completed by contributions from the Proud Nama Footprints Choir, which opened and closed the event.

It was worth it! This was the consensus of the participants, who passed the event in review in a “final round”. In addition, many of them expressed themselves very positively about the presented commitment of RPTU and FU Berlin, who introduced their joint research projects and in particular the practical work of the students in Namibia.

We would like to take the opportunity to extend our special thanks to Ms. Barbara Scharfbillig, professional promotor for international partnerships at the Kolping Bildungswerk Trier as well as the co-organizers for the good cooperation. Furthermore, we would like to thank ELAN, Bread for the World, the Katholische Fonds, the Bischof-Stein-Stiftung as well as Promotorinnen und Promotoren für Eine Welt for their support.

Dr. Petrina Johannes, Dean of Faculty of Engineering and IT, and Dr.-Ing. Joachim Lengricht, HOD Civil and Environmental Engineering, of University of Namibia visited the Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität Kaiserslautern-Landau from April 10^th to 13^th, 2018.

In addition to a guided tour through the experimental halls of the structural engineering and the Federal Testing Institute for Rhineland-Palatinate and a visit to the colleagues of the Faculty of Spatial and Environmental Planning, the professional programme included the participation in the international workshop “Resilient communities – how to effectively cope with water-related disasters”. The event took place at Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität Kaiserslautern-Landau from April 11^th to 13^th, 2018 and was organized by the Department of Hydraulic Engineering and Water Management, Faculty of Civil Engineering. Further information about the workshop can be found here. 

Furthermore, the coordination center organized an information meeting on the cooperation with the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of UNAM on 10^th April 2018. Participating as well as interested departments and students of Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität Kaiserslautern-Landau were invited. The aim of the event was the information and exchange concerning the possibilities of future cooperation in various academic and scientific fields as well as the respective focal areas in research.

The highlight of the visit was the meeting with the President of the Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität Kaiserslautern-Landau Prof. Dr. Helmut J. Schmidt on April 11^th, 2018.  

From 26^th February until 14^th March 2018, Ms Christin Rinnert, PhD student at the Department of Hydraulic Engineering and Water Management at Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität Kaiserslautern-Landau and head of the coordination center, organized together with colleagues of Freie Universität Berlin a research trip to the Cuvelai Basin in northern Namibia. The fieldwork and the work in the mobile laboratory was accompanied by students of the master programme “Water Resources Management” of University of Namibia on single days.

The research trip was headed by Prof. Dr. Achim Schulte, Freie Universität Berlin, and was supported by the University of Namibia, namely the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. We would like to thank Prof. Frank PL Kavishe for his support and for the accommodation at University of Namibia.

On 09 September 2017, the Kolping Bildungswerk Trier, the Parish Service for Mission and Ecumenical Affairs of the Protestant Church in the Rhineland and the German-Namibian Society organized a „Network Meeting Namibia“ in Koblenz.

In the morning, short presentations of activities of German-Namibian partnerships took place. Ms Rinnert presented the coordination center for the strategic partnership between the Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität Kaiserslautern-Landau and University of Namibia (UNAM). In the afternoon, further presentations and workshops on different topics were given. The programme provided the opportunity for a lively exchange of experiences and tips between the 51 participants.

Next year, the “Network Meeting Namibia” will take place at the Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität Kaiserslautern-Landau.