Philippines  

The Strengthening Urban Engagement of Universities in Asia and Africa (SUEUAA) project is funded by the British Academy under the Cities and Infrastructure programme of its Global Challenges Research Fund.  The project, led by the University of Glasgow, includes six international partners from Iran, Iraq, the Philippines, South Africa and is a collaborative study between University of Glasgow (Scotland), and Universities in Iran (University of Kurdistan), Iraq (University of Duhok), the Philippines (Philippine Normal University), Zimbabwe (University of Harare), Tanzania (University of Dar-es-Salaam), and South Africa (University of Johannesburg). Your are cordially invited to a forum in Manila on 28 August at which emerging outcomes of this project will be disseminated. There is no fee for this event and further details are attached.

The project addresses a core problem in emerging economies of strengthening the urban engagement role of universities, and ways they contribute to developing sustainable cities in the context of the major social, cultural, environmental and economic challenges facing the global south. It uses a set of well-proven benchmarking tools as its principal method, and seeks to strengthen the capacity of universities to contribute to city resilience towards natural and human-made disasters. Examples of urban engagement include supporting the development of physical infrastructure, ecological sustainability, and social inclusion (including of migrants). It calls upon contributions from science and engineering, the arts, environmental sciences, social sciences and business studies. It assesses the extent to which universities in 6 countries under study can respond to demands of society, and how through dialogue with city stakeholders this can be enhanced and impact on policy; it uses a collaborative team from the UK and emerging economies.

This event presents cases of engagement from our six countries and will be of interest to academics, policy-makers and officials in cities and students from around the world. It will include a keynote from Dr Mario Delos Reyes (University of the Philippines), plenary sessions from Local Government officials and academics on the subject of interventions at the city level, and a presentation by Professor Roberta Piazza (University of Catania, Italy) on the topic of forced migration. This event also features a showcase of work currently being undertaken by the SUEUAA team, and provides opportunity and space for discussion.

The event has been scheduled to allow delegates attending the 15th PASCAL Conference in Suwon, Korea, to attend this event as well if their schedule allows.