Arising out of ACRC research findings and developed in consultation with local and city-level stakeholders, the four pilot projects were proposed by city research teams as potential solutions to address critical urban development challenges in their locations.

City-based researchers and practitioners – already versed in the ACRC research and approaches – will lead the projects.

In Nairobi, the pilot intervention focuses on improving children’s access to healthy diets. Current efforts to provide school meals in the city do not include informal schools and day care centres located in informal settlements, as they are not registered and are unrecognised by public authorities.

This project aims to strengthen and expand an existing school feeding programme to encompass schools located in informal settlements. It entails conducting action research to identify ways to link food production and supply systems within and outside the city, to sustainably supply food for the expanded school feeding programme.

The project in Harare centres around upgrading and regularising informal enterprises located in the Glen View Eight complex. Zimbabwe’s national government established the complex in the wake of its 2005 “Operation Murambatsvina” mass evictions, which saw more than 700,000 people lose their homes and businesses. Thousands of market spaces were provided for small entrepreneurs in the complex, but these were substandard, with inadequate connections to services and infrastructure.

The intervention will involve supporting the mobilisation of the informal traders, establishing a technical working group to address challenges faced by these entrepreneurs and conducting action research into processes of negotiation and implementation.

�Ѳ�����ܲ��ܰ���’s intervention builds on an existing effort by the Borno State Geographic Information System (BOGIS), which aims to better integrate informal settlement residents into land titling processes.

Complexities around land tenure and ownership in Maiduguri lead to frequent contestation and evictions, with lowest income groups the most vulnerable. This project will conduct action research to unearth ways to tackle uncertainties around customary land tenure processes and advance the interests of disadvantaged groups.

The Mogadishu pilot seeks to increase tenure security and access to justice for informal settlers and internally displaced people (IDPs). While informal and formal mechanisms for securing rights exist currently, they are complex, confusing and rarely used effectively.

Building on a model already used in IDP camps and on policies accepted by the state government, researchers will work with informal settlement residents to support them in navigating these adjudication mechanisms more effectively, and conduct action research around the processes themselves.

With ACRC’s foundation phase research in 12 African cities drawing to a close, the next phase of the programme centres around implementing action research interventions in a smaller number of cities.

Of the four pilot project cities, Nairobi and Harare have been chosen to progress to the final implementation phase of the ACRC programme, along with Lagos, Nigeria and Accra, Ghana. The complete line up of cities for the next phase of work will be confirmed at the end of the year.

For more information about the work of the ACRC, visit .   

The move will help to promote the development of a Centre of Excellence for Healthcare Education and Training in western and central Kenya by the Ministry of Education.

The Centre will have its hub in Kisii University and its spokes in Maseno, Masinde Muliro, Egerton, Bomet and Kibabii Universities.

The approval of the programme by the Kenyan Cabinet will see the Ministry of Education seek just short of £1 billion from UK Export Finance and other Development Partners to build six new healthcare campuses in western and central Kenya and licence the Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy and Nursing programmes from the University of Swagֱ��.

The Educational Hub will create a workforce capable of dealing with the challenges of providing patient-centred healthcare for non-communicable diseases in the region.

Professor Keith Brennan, Vice Dean for Internationalisation said: “By 2030 non-communicable diseases are set to overtake communicable, maternal, neonatal and nutritional diseases combined as the leading causes of death in Kenya.

“Associated with this rise in mortality is an exponential increase in the morbidity burden associated with cancer, cardiovascular, respiratory and metabolic diseases even amongst the rural communities.

“That is why establishing an education pipeline that can deliver a modern, flexible and resilient healthcare workforce capable of responding to the rising tide of non-communicable diseases is an urgent priority within Kenya.”

He added: “The WHO predicts by 2030 that the only continent to see an increasing deficit in healthcare workers will be Africa and that 40% of the global shortfall in healthcare workers, approximately 6 million, will be within the continent.

“That is why developing a resilient and flexible multi-professional health workforce, with strong inter-professional working in Kenya and East African Region is so important.

 “New models for health education and training based on modern pedagogical methods, distance learning and competency based in-service training and assessments need to be explored systematically, so that this collective experience may drive further changes in Kenya and the wider region.”

Prof John Akama, Vice Chancellor of Kisii University. Said: “I would like to most sincerely thank Swagֱ��, for the strategic role it has played in the conceptualisation and realisation of the Centre of Excellence in Healthcare Education and Training.  This will be a transformative project for the people of Western Kenya and Kenya in general.”

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization said: “"NCDs are becoming an issue of equity. They disproportionately affect low-and lower-middle-income countries, and in all countries the poorest and most vulnerable are the most at risk and the least likely to have access to treatment."

Image: Professor Graham Lord, Vice-President and Dean of the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health in the Statehouse with HE President William Ruto and HE Simba Arati, the Governor of Kisii County

The unique partnership between Swagֱ��, The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, and Kenyatta University Teaching, Referral and Research Hospital (KUTRRH) will raise awareness of squamous cell carcinoma of the oesophagus (OSCC) in Kenya and increase engagement in public screening opportunities using mobile detection units that travel across the country.

It will link the early detection of cancer using a digital transformation in cancer detection and outcome data through a “hub and spoke” system linking cancer hospitals and local healthcare authorities.

The funding will help establish a central cancer specialist “hub” at KUTRRH in the capital Nairobi which will support local cancer care delivery ’spokes’ in five regional counties: Meru, Kiambu, Kisii, Nakuru, and Nyeri.

According to the International Agency for Research in Cancer, OSCC is the third most common cancer in Kenya and the most lethal: 99% of patients die from their disease within 5 years.

The poor prognosis is directly related to OSCC patients being diagnosed too late when they have advanced, incurable disease. Instead, this initiative will establish early detection as a part of the Kenyan healthcare system by training healthcare workers to recognise early symptoms of OSCC.

The NIHR Global Health Research award will co-train Kenyan clinicians and healthcare workers in NHS Trusts. It will provide continuous, bespoke training in state of the art cancer diagnosis and molecular pathology where the initial trainees from Kenya travel to Swagֱ�� and subsequently return to Kenya to become the trainers future cancer researchers and carers.

The award will also use molecular assays to help identify Kenyans at greatest risk of OSCC.

Using next generation genetic and cell biology approaches, tissue samples taken for patient diagnosis will undergo sophisticated molecular pathology studies to document the abnormal cancer genes and proteins which drives the initial growth, unique biology and aggression of Kenyan OSCC cancers.

The genetic results will be obtained from all 5 Kenyan counties and matched with clinical data and county level information to try to understand the differences which cause the variable rates of OSCC seen across Kenya.

Robert Bristow is the study’s UK Co-Lead, Professor of Cancer Studies at Swagֱ��, Chief Academic Officer at the Christie NHS Foundation Trust  and Director of the Swagֱ�� Cancer Research Centre (MCRC).

He said: “We are excited to be working side by side with our Kenyan partners to optimise a national Kenyan Cancer Early Detection network to diagnose and understand the biology squamous cell carcinoma of the oesophagus at an early stage and design new strategies to improve survival.

“Our joint study is designed to increase accuracy of data across the diverse geography of Kenya to use to develop early detection intervention strategies for Kenyans living in rural areas with very low incomes.

“Many are cut off from cancer care since around 80% of cancer treatment centres are in the capital city Nairobi and a hub and spoke model will benefit both rural and urban populations.

“The project also is an example of inclusive cancer research as the data from the molecular research in OSCC and other Kenyan cancers will improve our understanding and appropriate individualised treatment of cancers in Africa and UK patients who come from Africa. Despite Africa being between 15-20% of the world’s population, only 2% of the genetic sequencing and information have been completed on African cancers”

Professor Keith Brennan, Vice Dean for Internationalisation at Swagֱ�� said: “This work is about helping to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals by supporting the provision of Universal Health Coverage within Kenya.

“As the world’s number one university in the Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Rankings last year, we take this responsibility very seriously.”

Professor F. George Njoroge is study’s Kenyan  co-principal investigator,  Chief Scientific Officer at  Kenyatta University Teaching, Referral and Research Hospital (KUTRRH),  Board director at Kenya Medical Research Institute(KEMRI) and chairman of the council at Daystar University

 He commented: “The unique collaboration between  Kenya and  United Kingdom in this oesophageal cancer study will go a long way in establishing ways  that would tilt the balance whereby oesophageal cancer could be detected at the potentially curative stages 1 and 2 rather than the late stages 3 and 4. This will be a game changer in diagnosis and management of that disease”

The research published today in journal, , demonstrates that poaching combined with individual rhino’s reproductive variance, or how successful mums are at raising young, leads to a greater than first thought risk to the survival of the black rhino.

In the case of these rhino, reproductive variance increased extinction risk by as much as 70% when combined with poaching.

Within black rhino populations (and most likely in most animals), some individuals have more babies than others. This variation increases existing estimates of extinction risk, especially when there is poaching. This is because indiscriminate killing can lead to some of these important animals which contribute a greater number of offspring being removed.

Susanne Shultz, Professor of Evolutionary Ecology and conservation at Swagֱ�� said: “Preventing population declines is a crucial step for stopping biodiversity loss. In this study, we identified how losing key rhinos can make small populations very vulnerable, which can help us design more effective conservation actions.”

“The new research is important because it shows that we may underestimate risk, or overestimate viability, if we do not recognise that some individuals contribute a lot more to the population and their loss will have a much bigger impact.”

Lead author on the work, Dr Nick Harvey Sky said: “This study shows that poaching has effects on rhinos beyond the death of targeted individuals. The deaths of healthy females that would have gone on to produce lots of calves can make whole populations more vulnerable to extinction.”

Estimating the extinction risk faced by different populations is vital for conservation. This can be affected by differences in breeding success between individual females (called reproductive skew), but reproductive skew is not often included in predictions of future population growth because it requires detailed individual breeding histories.

This information is available for the Critically Endangered eastern black rhino because of intensive monitoring to protect them from poaching. Swagֱ�� has collaborated closely with Kenyan rhino managers, scientists and security teams who have meticulously recorded births and deaths for decades. Across three Kenyan populations of black rhinos on Lew Wildlife Conservancy, Ol Pejeta Conservancy and Ol Jogi Wildlife Conservancy, the researchers found that there is significant variation in breeding success between females, with many females not breeding or doing so very slowly.

Dr John Jackson, Post-doctoral researcher at the University of Oxford said: “For me, our study really highlights a deadly combination of small populations, individual differences, and poaching for vulnerable populations. When working in combination, these factors can completely reshape the fate of an endangered species.”

Crucially, variation in female breeding success can exacerbate the effects of poaching, especially on small populations. If key individuals, ones that breed very well, are killed then it can make the whole population more vulnerable to extinction. This highlights how important it is to protect rhinos from poaching. It may be possible to even out the variation in breeding success by creating new rhino reserves, moving rhinos between current reserves, or even creating more valuable habitat, but the causes of reproductive skew must first be identified. Differences between individuals in their contribution of young to at risk populations is likely an issue across many more species and should be evaluated when assessing their risk of extinction.

Representatives of the founding partners of the Kenya UK Healthcare Alliance, including Swagֱ��, The Christie Hospital, Kisii University and Kenyatta University Teaching, Referral and Research Hospital (KUTRRH) will attend the launch

The scheme ultimately aims to uplift the standard of healthcare in Kenya, through research, workforce training and education of healthcare professionals, initially focusing on improving cancer outcomes through early detection, rapid diagnosis and the delivery of high-quality care.

They will be joined by representatives of: Swagֱ�� University NHS Foundation Trust; the UK Government; the Ministry of Health, Kenya; Ministry of Education, Kenya; and the Council of Governors.

The initiatives will bring together clinicians, researchers and trainees in the UK and Kenya to develop the clinical services and research expertise needed to address the non-communicable diseases affecting East Africans, starting with cancer.

In addition, they will provide training to the current healthcare workforce in Kenya to help establish a hub & spoke model for Comprehensive Cancer Care Services, where a central specialist hub at KUTRRH will support local healthcare delivery at 11 regional cancer centres.

The transfer of UK teaching excellence and curriculum development to establish the Centre of Excellence for Healthcare Education & Training at Kisii University will benefit students from both countries and improve clinical practice through the exchange of healthcare professionals between the UK and Kenya.

The initiative will help tackle surging rates of cancer and other non-communicable diseases in Sub Saharan Africa.

The International Agency for Research in Cancer (IARC) report for 2018 estimated 47,887 new cancer cases annually in Kenya, with a mortality of 32,987, a 29% increase since 2012.

The agency also highlighted that seven out of ten cancers were diagnosed late, resulting in some cancers, such as oesophageal cancer, having mortality rates of more than 99%.

Professor Graham Lord, Vice President and Dean at Swagֱ��’s Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Heath is attending the launch.

He said: “Our aim is to improve the standard of healthcare in Kenya, through research, workforce training and education of healthcare professionals. It is a flagship project for the Faculty and one that we hope will make an important difference to Kenyans.

“The work will initially focus on improving cancer outcomes through early detection, rapid diagnosis and the delivery of high-quality care.

“But our ultimate aim is the creation of a resilient healthcare system in Kenya that can cope with the changing disease burden in the country from infectious to non-communicable diseases, including cancer, mental health and cardiovascular diseases.

“This collaboration will directly address the UN Sustainable Development Goals by supporting the provision of Universal Health Coverage within Kenya.

“As the world’s number one university in the Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Rankings last year, we take this responsibility very seriously.”

He added: “Establishing an education pipeline that can deliver a modern, flexible and resilient healthcare workforce capable of responding to the rising tide of cancer is recognised as an urgent priority within the development of a comprehensive cancer care service.

“There has been a surge in incidence and prevalence of non-communicable diseases including cancer in Sub Saharan Africa over the past two decades.

“Consequently, developing a comprehensive cancer care service and high-quality research is an essential way to improve the quality of life of people both in and beyond Kenya.”

Olive Mugenda, Chairperson at KUTRRH, the site for the Centre of Excellence for Cancer Research, commented, “Oesophageal cancer is one of the leading causes of death due to cancer in Kenya, with the mortality rate exceeding 99%. We want to reverse this figure and high quality evidenced research will tell us how. It will provide the answers to one of our biggest health challenges, so we’re delighted that with Swagֱ�� we’ve secured a research grant to learn how to improve early diagnosis of the disease and therefore improve treatment.”

Susan Mochache, Principal Secretary to the Ministry of Health, Kenya says, “We have chosen to work with Swagֱ�� because they are the best at what they do, and they want to partner with us in seeking real world solutions to some of our biggest health challenges”.

“Swagֱ�� share our vision of healthcare in Kenya and understand how high quality evidenced research, the creation of a skilled workforce and improved technologies will improve cancer detection and treatment. Together we are committed to delivering this vision and making the discoveries that will benefit our global communities”.

HE James Ongwae, Governor of Kisii County commented, “The teaching and learning that will take place in the new Healthcare Education & Training Hub we are co-developing, will see us train a new generation of healthcare professionals. This will enable us to address the rising incidence of non-communicable diseases. This flexible multi-professional workforce will increase treatment capacity, meaning more Kenyans will be able to stay in Kenya for their cancer treatment, allowing us to develop our own health system rather than Kenya supporting health systems in other countries”.