DR Congo is one of the key VLIR-UOS partner countries for Flemish universities and university colleges. Between 2003 and 2021, VLIR-UOS spent about €30 million in cooperation with DR Congo, including 2 long term Institutional University Cooperation programmes (IUC) with the University of Kisangani (UNIKIS) and the Catholic University of Bukavu (UCB), in addition to cross-cutting programmes in quality assurance, English academic and ICT (together with ARES 2007-2016), and more than 120 departmental level projects.

DR Congo is also one of our 29 scholarship countries.

Ongoing projects

Institutional University Cooperation

IUC 2017 Phase 3 UCB IUC 2017 Phase 3 UNIKIS IUC 2021 Phase out UCB IUC 2017 Phase out UNIKIS IUC 2021 Phase In UNILU

TEAM projects

Screening and management of renal diseases in children living in Democratic Republic of Congo Renforcer les capacités académiques et l’échange d’expertise dans le domaine de la cardiologie et de la neurologie en RDC Understanding responses and resilience of central Congo basin forests to a changing environment – FORMONCO II

JOINT

Anglais Académique - Phase 4: Qualité, Extension, Durabilité Assurance qualité aux universités partenaires de la RD Congo Restauration forestière agro-sylvo-pastorale et sécurité alimentaire (hinterland de Kindu et Kisangani) Sustaining, deepening and expanding the Sub-Saharan HPV research network WAKA-HPV Africa Trees against malaria: strengthening of academic and research capacity on Cinchona trees in Peru, Ecuador and DR Congo African network to study, treat and prevent onchocerciasis associated epilepsy (OAE-Africa) Ecologie politique de la gestion des ressources forestières : le chaînon manquant A network for research and multidisciplinary medical care for oculocutaneous albinism in the DR Congo. Appui à la production agricole par la propagation des agents biologiques de fertilisation KivUpsIT: Kivu region is Upskilling Information Technology through networking Improving treatment of Acute Kidney Injury in children in the provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo

South Initiatives

Efficacité des écoles secondaires des Provinces de la Tshopo et de l’Ituri en République Démocratique du Congo Insuffisance cardiaque en RDC: collaboration interuniversitaire pour le renforcement des capacités à Kindu Planification du développement territorial et gestion urbaine par les cadres de base de la ville de Lubumbashi

DR Congo and Agenda 2030 - country reference framework

VLIR-UOS revised its country approach towards an ‘Agenda 2030 on Sustainable Development’ centred approach. Moreover, VLIR-UOS wants to facilitate connections between different actors and projects present in a given country. With these objectives in mind, the Country Reference Framework (CRF) for DR Congo supports teams of academics when identifying and formulating project proposals, by providing a context analysis focused on Agenda 2030 on Sustainable Development and the higher education sector in DRC, and by providing an overview of Belgian development actors active in DRC, their ongoing projects and partners, in view of exploration of opportunities for synergy and complementarity. Belgian Non-Governmental Actors involved in the geographic Joint Strategic Framework (JSF) DRC, those involved in the thematic JSF on Higher Education and Science for Sustainable Development, those involved in other thematic JSFs as well as Enabel have been included.

VLIR-UOS cooperation in DR Congo has been aligned with the DRC development plans in terms of national poverty reduction and higher education and has mainly focused on 2 central themes ( Connectivity, opening up towards the world ('désenclavement') ; Staff renewal and training of young academics ('relève académique') via which topics of top priority for the Congolese higher education sector such as Quality Assurance, Academic English and D4D have been dealt with by transversal projects and institutional university cooperation projects. Next to this numerous short and medium term projects were undertaken in the spheres of natural resources and biodiversity, food security, public health and social development.