President Peter Salovey and a delegation of Yale faculty members and staff are traveling in Ghana and Kenya this week, March 10-16. The visit takes place during the five-year anniversary of the Yale Africa Initiative (YAI), an ongoing effort to prioritize and further expand Yale’s collaborations in Africa that Salovey announced in 2013 when making his inaugural address. Since then, Yale has extended its partnerships throughout the continent with an emphasis on educational exchange and innovative research that addresses global challenges.
Salovey has emphasized that working with African institutions provides significant opportunities to share knowledge and ideas, benefiting both Yale and its research and educational partners.
“Our international collaborators have helped Yale transform educational experiences for our students and produce remarkable discoveries in business, public health, agriculture, and other sectors,” Salovey said. “In a world that is growing in complexity and becoming more interrelated, successful universities will embrace global networks and exchanges. By combining our diverse strengths and insights, we can create a shared future for the global community.”
This week, Yale extended its long-standing successful partnerships with the University of Ghana through the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, the University of Ghana Medical School, and the Fox Fellowship Program, a partnership between Yale and 19 of the world’s leading universities. These collaborations have already led to promising discoveries. For example, research conducted through a collaboration between the University of Ghana Medical School and Yale has identified low-cost biomarkers that can be used to monitor the effectiveness of antiretroviral therapy in children with HIV/AIDS.
During his time in Ghana, Salovey also presented David Ofori Adjei, former director of the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, and Mike Wilson of the Noguchi Institute with certificates of appreciation from Yale in recognition of their contributions to the ongoing partnership between Yale and the Noguchi Institute.
Other events in Ghana that Salovey participated in included the Yale Leadership Forum, an event hosted by Yale, La Fundación Mujeres por África (the Women for Africa Foundation), and Banco Santander. This event was attended by numerous previous participants of the Leadership Forum for Strategic Impact, a Yale program entering its fourth year that aims to amplify the influence of women in African governments.
Salovey also spoke at a town hall forum organized in collaboration with the University of Ghana. The event featured a panel of academic and business leaders engaging in a dialogue on “The Power of Partnership in Education,” with discussions about how increased collaboration can be leveraged to benefit the continent and the globe.
During that same town hall, Salovey announced a five-year extension of the Yale Young African Scholars program (YYAS), an initiative made possible through the continued generosity of Strive and Tsitsi Masiyiwa, Zimbabwean-born philanthropists and co-founders of Higherlife Foundation. The program helps bolster the pipeline for emerging scholars by providing an intensive educational experience for highly motivated and talented high school students from Africa. Watch a video of the town hall here.
Having concluded their trip to Ghana on March 13, the members of the Yale delegation will be in Nairobi, Kenya for the remainder of the week, where Salovey is convening public discussions among African leaders, extending collaborations with leading partner institutions, and connecting with Yale alumni and friends. You can learn more about Yale University’s many partnerships and international collaborations in Africa here.
