A pole of competence, expertise and innovation  on water and sanitation at the University of Abomey-Calavi in Benin to develop employment

Employment, especially for young people, remains one of the major challenges facing the Government of Benin, with an underemployment rate of 53.9% which is increasing continuously. The main question is how higher education systems can adapt to meet this challenge and play a more active role in preparing young people for the labor markets. The Africa Centre of Excellence for Water and Sanitation (C2EA) of the University of Abomey-Calavi in Benin, is providing a substantial answer to this question by creating a pole of competence, expertise and innovation on water and sanitation at national and regional level, tapping into the wining model of Water Campus of Leeuwarden, in Netherlands. This is very well aligned with the main indicators of the World Bank funded ACE Impact project indicator 5.3 pertaining to the establishment of an ecosystem favorable to the development of innovation and entrepreneurship.

Training workshops on water & sanitation involving entrepreneurship & innovation

After a training workshop of representatives of the C2EA in Leeuwarden from the 3^rd to the 7^th of July 2023, a second training workshop targeting a wider audience, finely selected representatives of the ecosystem on innovation and entrepreneurship at national and regional scale (Senegal and Ghana included), was held at the University of Abomey-Calavi in Benin from the 16^th to 18^th 2023 with substantive and inspiring physical participation of representatives of the Water Campus of Leeuwarden. Private national companies, industries, incubators, academic professionals and students were all involved in an intensive 3-day workshop to analyze the state of the art and good practices on innovation and entrepreneurship in comparison to the current situation under the local context of Benin.

The 3-day workshop details:

First day: focus on "the Learning Community concept"

An approach of "Learning Community concept" was used for the discussion sessions following dozens of presentations. During the first day, attention was given to the

1. Water-related challenges and opportunities for collaboration (National/Regional level), considering possibilities of replication of solutions from the Netherlands; and 
2. Existing/innovative technologies/methodologies for treating wastewater and human faeces and reusing recovered resources, including in agriculture in Benin.

Local challenges in water management and treatment raised by the private managing companies (SIPI and DELVIC) of two major governmental pilot initiatives, namely the Industrial Zone of Glo Djigbé (GDIZ) and the Adjagbo Faecal Sludge Treatment Company (STBV), were discussed and opportunities of improvement and collaboration were identified.

Second day: focus on research, education, intellectual property, commercialization

During the second day, attention was given to the:

1. process for defining joint research and education including industry-driven research agenda together with companies, education and research organizations to create innovative solutions;
2. approach to intellectual property protection, commercialization of research results and entrepreneurship;
3. approach to selecting, educating students with innovative project ideas and startup incubation; and the
4. existing curricula on innovation and identification of improvement rooms and opportunities in the local context of Benin.

Third day: visits to infrastructures

The third day of the workshop was consecrated to site visits at the Industrial Zone of Glo Djigbé (GDIZ) and the Adjagbo Faecal Sludge Treatment Plant (STBV) by the WaterCampus and C2EA representatives. This visit enabled to get to grips with the challenges faced by the companies which were already discussed the first two days of the workshop and which could nourish future collaborations.

The companies present on the GDIZ site are the processing industries of agricultural products (cashew, soya, cotton, pineapple and shea butter), pharmaceutical industries, ceramics industries and textile industries with a very high demand for water which quality is unfortunately poor with high acidity and high aggressiveness in term of CO2 concentration.

Other challenges faced are the lack of compact technologies for wastewater treatment; management of hazardous industrial solid waste; the weakness of the municipal regulations in terms of environmental preservation and standards for the discharge of wastewater and waste; and the lack of specific expertise.

The challenges faced at the Adjagbo Faecal Sludge Treatment Plant (STBV) level are amongst others : the too long separation time of the liquid and solid parts (30 days) ; difficulties in extracting chemicals from faecal sludge, in particular nitrogen and phosphorus, which could be used in agriculture; difficulties with the aerators, which are not adapted to the African context, since the models currently available do not work well (too many breakdowns); faecal sludge station taking up too much space for inefficient work, etc.

Workshops' impacts, upcoming workshop & training

One of the most tangible impacts of these training workshops is the establishment of the C2EA-led University Ecosystem on innovation and entrepreneurship which now gathered diverse actors with complementary expertise to address the above-indicated local water-related challenges through a sound process for defining joint research and education including industry-driven research agenda together with companies, education and research organizations to create innovative solutions.

There is a high expectation to see in the close future an emerging practical approach to intellectual property protection, commercialization of research results and entrepreneurship within the local context.

A third workshop is planned in the coming days to upgrade the existing curricula on innovation and entrepreneurship as room for improvement and opportunities are already identified. The European Water Campus Business Challenge model has been very inspiring and useful to establish an approach to selecting, educating students with innovative project ideas and startup incubation in the Benin local context. This is already under implementation, guiding the attribution of the prices of the best innovators of the University by December 2023.

It is highly recommended to have a joint training where students with a bachelor’s degree from C2EA (Benin) could go to WaterCampus (Netherlands) to do a six-month internship at CEW accompanied by some minor courses in water technologies. This internship would prepare them to apply for the Master in Water Technology (Leeuwarden), which takes place over a period of 24 months. It is also recommended to think about the integration aspect of students on internship mobility on issues related to climate, socialization and other factors. The internship at CEW can be on aspects of the lab or data analysis. Throughout the process, the seeds of entrepreneurship will have to be planted in the students' mindset.

The outcomes of this working visit can also support the internationalization strategy of the European Partnership Water4All, especially in the framework of capacity building in Sub-Saharan Africa to make regional innovation ecosystems more successful. The overall goal is to increase access to clean drinking water and facilitate a circular economy through collaboration in education, research, innovation and entrepreneurship.