UNamur in the Democratic Republic of Congo

At the Department of Economics, Professor Marcus Dejardin and his former PhD student, now colleague, Guylord Kakenza Kitumba, a professor at the University of Kinshasa, have launched an ARES-funded Amorce project. Their aim: to adapt the European "EntreComp" tool, a repository designed to identify entrepreneurial skills based on three domains (ideas and opportunities, resources and action), to the specific characteristics of the city of Kinshasa.

This adaptation takes place in a socio-economic context marked by significant underemployment. Faced with this reality, the two researchers intend to strengthen the entrepreneurial skills of the population in order to foster the creation of value and jobs and stimulate local economic development. "The strategic objective is to help Kinshasa university graduates facing underemployment to become promoters or owners of viable, sustainable businesses, part of a community development dynamic", explains the researcher.

"It is necessary to adapt the tool to the context of the city of Kinshasa. In particular, this means assessing the validity of the European reference tool "EntreComp" with the local public", clarifies Marcus Dejardin. A research team will meet with the people concerned to try to identify, in context, the deficits and gaps in entrepreneurial skills."Once these elements have been adequately detected, we will be able to identify the training courses to be set up to accompany these people and train them in the concepts of entrepreneurship, with the aim of enabling them to develop their own business", concludes the researcher.

The ERC-funded leader of the European African Women project, economics professor Catherine Guirkinger is researching the long-term impact of colonization on the colonized, particularly in the DRC. For this project, she is using historical data from the colonial period, demographic data from the 50s and 70s, and more contemporary data. Three questions guide her work.

"The first concerns the impact of the natalist policies implemented by Belgium in the 1930s," explains the researcher. "Many countries feared low birth rates and therefore declining populations. Belgium therefore implemented health and education policies aimed at stimulating the birth rate and pushing the population to have more children." Based on individual demographic microdata collected in the 1970s, she thus analyzes birth behavior as a function of women's exposure to Catholic missionaries, the people responsible for implementing this natalist policy.

"In my second line of research, I attempt to analyze the long-term effect of the colonizing power's investment in the education of populations", Catherine Guirkinger continues. Thanks to the data available, she has been able to assess the impact of education during the colonial and post-colonial periods. "We realize that near the places where the first schools were built, the level of education is higher, especially among girls. We're trying to understand whether this might have something to do with transgenerational transmission, or whether it's due to regional agglomeration phenomena..."

"Finally, I'm analyzing legal decisions made in indigenous courts. These were integrated into the formal legal system and judged cases concerning family law. These sources turn out to be very interesting, as the courts had to judge according to local custom, but the colonizer sought to influence the decisions made", concludes the researcher

Since 2012, Philippe Lambin, a professor in the Department of Physics, has been collaborating with the Institut Supérieur Pédagogique (ISP) in Bukavu, South Kivu Province in eastern Congo. Thanks to financial support from the Fonds Adrien Bauchau, subsidies from FUCID, UNamur's NGO, and the City of Namur, he was able to travel to the field on several occasions as a visiting professor at ISP, between 2012 and 2018. There, he coordinated projects for the benefit of a local association supporting "rural women". "These women, often responsible for growing vegetables in the villages to sell in town to support their families, benefited from the installation of two photovoltaic electricity production units, financed by the Fonds Bauchau," he explains. "These have made up for frequent power cuts by providing a sustainable and reliable source of energy. In particular, one of them has been used to light a large classroom, named the "Jean Vandenhaute amphitheater" in tribute to a deceased UNamur professor, offering students improved study conditions."

Since his emeritus from UNamur in January 2019, Philippe Lambin has been appointed full professor at ISP. "In parallel, I am coordinating a project for the development of ARES-CCD (UNamur, ULiège, ISP-Bukavu and Université Catholique de Bukavu) focusing on the characterization and physico-chemical treatment of coltan, an ore often mined in precarious conditions by artisanal miners", he adds. The aim of this project is to assess the impact of recent regulations on coltan mining, and to explore more responsible and sustainable extraction methods. It also aims to raise awareness among local players of the issues surrounding this resource, often referred to as a "blood ore", due to the violent conflicts that have erupted around its exploitation in Africa and South America.

For over 40 years, UNamur has collaborated with ISP Bukavu in the field of biology. In 2009, these inter-university exchanges were extended to the History Department, with the involvement of Professor Isabelle Parmentier.

"It was at the request of the then Director General of ISP, Mr. Boniface Kaningini, that I first went to Bukavu on a teaching mission as a visiting professor. Subsequently, I supervised the doctoral thesis of a particularly brilliant colleague, Jacques Usungo, and we continued our collaboration". His assignments ranged from methodology courses (quantitative methods, documentary research methods) to general courses such as historiography or history-related social sciences. During his time in Belgium, Jacques Usungo gave presentations as part of the interdisciplinary course "Introduction historique aux principales civilisations extra-européennes" (Historical introduction to the main extra-European civilizations), part Sub-Saharan Africa, led by Ms Anne Cornet, as well as the FUCID midis.

In terms of research, the focus is on environmental history. In particular, Isabelle Parmentier has collaborated on an ARES-CCD project combining history, environment and didactics. The aim was to create tools for teaching environmental history and raising awareness of ecological issues, and to produce doctoral theses on the subject.

Objectives of these exchanges? To train high-level scientists and put them in a position to train local students and researchers in history, as there is a shortage of PhDs. It is also a question of multiplying scientific exchanges, beneficial to all, both in the South and in the North. "Thanks to this collaboration, doctoral students have been able to rub shoulders with Congolese researchers who have come to the department. This enabled them to broaden their horizons, to better understand the specificities of field research and its difficulties in the Congo in the field of history, and in particular environmental history, which is little known in Central Africa. Beyond that, it's also an opportunity to raise awareness of North-South issues," concludes Isabelle Parmentier.

As part of the Master of Specialization in International Development Economics, the Faculty of Social Sciences, Economics and Management very regularly welcomes students from the DRC. These exchanges, made possible thanks to funding from ARES, enable students to take a year's course at UNamur.