Participants 2020/2021

The 12 ISA scholarship-holders 2020 / 2021 were selected at the end of 2019. They were selected out of 85 applicants. Strong motivation to live the ISA philosophy, a well-defined project and their personal suitability were key to convince in the pre-selection procedure and in the subsequent video interviews (here in alphabetic order):

  • Jhan Araja from the Philippines. His project is to develop a plastic waste management center in the province of Palawan to aid the country’s battle against one of its biggest polluters: single-use plastic sachets. The center will focus on two main objectives: (1) incentivizing a zero-waste barter system wherein citizens bring their old sachets in exchange for the desired household products (2) finding ways of repurposing these sachets into useful and marketable items.
  • Varaidzo Chinokwetu from Zimbabwe. She will look at the nature and extend of urban green spaces in Chinhoyi Municipality, Northwest Zimbabwe. Using GIS mapping, the research will describe the nature and spatial organisation of the green spaces. An urban green space user survey will examine how the spaces are affected by socio-demographic and environmental factors. The research will focus specifically on the city of Chinhoyi as a case study, mainly because urban greening has become one of the key goals within Zimbabwe’s development agenda.
  • Itohan Egbedion from Nigeria.  Her ISA project is to set up a sustainable urban farming business model in Lagos, Nigeria with the aim of bringing fresh, hygienic, high quality agricultural products closer to urban dwellers thereby increasing food security and improving agriculture’s environmental footprint (by reducing the emissions associated with the production and transport of food from rural areas to the cities).
  • Phillip Kwendesa from Zimbabwe. He plans the establishment of SRHR (Sustainable Sexual Rights and Reproductive Health) digital content consisting of a teacher support network and national, local and international experts and representatives to foster collaborative action and facilitate a participatory, grassroots approach. Integrated impact assessment, monitoring and outcome-based evaluation of the SRHR toolkit for enabling and assisting the national curriculum for SRHR education in secondary schools.
  • Nishad Malla from Nepal. His project entails the designing and setting up of a sustainable school garden within periphery of Nepal Secondary School, where the students of agriculture as well as other faculties, teachers, school staffs and local community members can learn more about the organic farming and sustainable practices. Additionally, launching of Vermicomposting project will create awareness on waste segregation & management as well as inspire students towards green entrepreneurships.
  • Zahnl Mamykova from Kasachstan. Her main and overall project provides development and integration of digital ecosystem concept into activities of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University in Kasachtstan. Her ISA project is centered on the development of an electronic catalog of the zoological collection of the wildlife of the Biological Museum of KazNU. This collection and expositions are of great scientific and educational importance, play an important role in environmental protection and environmental education in order to preserve the Red Book species of the animal world and to promote the ideas of nature conservation. This work will contribute to the implementation of SDG 15 – the conservation of Kazakhstan’s biological diversity.
  • Olamide Olabimpe OLAYIWOLA is from Nigeria and she intends to
    complete a two phased project at ISA. The first part is to write a research paper that spotlights possible better conservation practices in Nigeria. Her research will investigate the impact of displacement and resettlement of local communities in protected areas in Nigeria as well as explore better conservation practices that could be birthed through improved recognition and participation of local communities. Additionally, her project at ISA will employ unconventional educational activities to encourage the active participation of young Nigerians in the care for protected areas. This would take the shape of a three-day boot camp, which would follow the step by step activities provided in the manual designed by the ISA Fellow.
  • Michel Charly Ompendoguelet Fanguinoveny aka Michael C. Fanning from South Africa. His project goal is to review and finalise a continental Entrepreneurship Education Curriculum (e-Textbooks and e-Workbooks offered 100% online) with a regional focus (specific to North Africa, Central Africa and Southern Africa), meeting the requirements of the national curriculum of each host country. Establishment of a continental streamlined Entrepreneurship Education ecosystem consisting of 8 online business courses to provide first-time African entrepreneurs with an effective support via strong network of 500 savvy national, local and international business experts and investors to foster successful mentorship and facilitate diversity and inclusion of 5000 African young founders each year in the economic growth of their continent. As of 2019, this can be achieved thanks to the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which aims to create one African market.
  • Eva Ndamono Shitaatala from Namibia. The aim of this project is to establish a sustainable cultivation system supervised by young people that can be adapted to the effects of climate change in Namibia. Some of the planned cultivation techniques are: Aquaponics, horticulture, greenhouse farming in Namibia’s rural areas to produce both fresh fish and horticultural products. The pilot project will be carried out in 2 rural schools; after the test phase in the pilot schools it can be extended to other schools. The products from the farms are used in the school canteens to cook lunch for the pupils. The food leftovers from the school canteen are used to produce compost which is needed for the farms. The reintroduction of free lunch in schools will encourage rural children to attend school regularly.  The latter will act as a research centre for improved agricultural technologies and adaptation to climate change.
  • Pranaya Udash from Nepal. This project empowers local level Health mother group which is a voluntary mother´ group that is present in every community by supporting them technics to prepare balanced nutritious product.
  • Leidy Natalia Valbuena Chavez from Kolombia. The objective of the work is to seek a methodology of territorialization of air quality values through atmospheric models, so that this element can be considered in territorial planning studies.

Please note that the project goals are preliminary and will be further defined. Participants and their projects will be presented in detail in the coming weeks and months in our News Blog.

You would like to cooperate with one or more of the scholarship-holders? Then please contact the Project Team.