Page 26 - UNAM’s National Capstone Contributions

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ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION RESEARCH

The OvaHimba community has shown a great interest in participating in
EbA activities by allocating land in the Orue, Otjimbundu, and Otjamaungu
villages in Kunene to grow food and for restoration activities. Through
donations raised by the researchers, a borehole was drilled in Orue village,
supplying water to the community garden and experiments and to several
households near the community garden.

INNOVATIONS IN AGRO-PROCESSING AND
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

The University of Namibia through Innovation Development Accelerator
has conducted research to characterise indigenous fruits, vegetables and
plant material in terms of their content and develop new food products that
incorporate nutritious and health promoting substances from these sources.
These food products include Jams and Juices from Fruits and Vegetables
(Mutete, Maguni, Mango) endemic to Namibia.

MALARIA RESEARCH

The programme received a shot in the arm
when UNAM received N$12 million in research
funding from the Novartis Foundation as part of
a very fruitful partnership with the University of
California, San Francisco’s Malaria Elimination
Initiative.

The project has expanded and became
a programme with many national and
international partners generating over
N$30 million in research funds, which have
contributed towards establishment of the
Biomedical research laboratory, recruitment of
30 post-graduate research fellows to date (7
PhD, 23 MSc - 2 graduated cum laude), piloting
of cutting edge malaria interventions for
prevention and diagnosis of malaria including
clinical trials, generation of evidence that has
influenced malaria policy for surveillance and
use of insecticides to prevent resistance by Funding boost: Establishment of the Namibia Malaria
mosquitoes, publication of research in high Elimination partnership between UNAM, UCSF, Novartis
impact journals, including The Lancet, one of Foundation and acceptance of N$12 million cheque
the oldest and most reputable medical journals by PVC AA&R Prof Osmumd Mwandemele and Health
(impact factor 202.7). Minister, Dr Richard Kamwi.

UNAM’s National Capstone Contributions