Speakers and session descriptions

Stephen Tomlinson - Welcome and Introduction

Professor Steve Tomlinson is Provost at Cardiff University and Chairman of the Tropical Health and Education Trust(THET;www.thet.org),which creates partnerships between UK Health Institutions, Universities and the developing world to fight disease and neglect through education, training and research. In 2007 he was awarded the CBE in the New Years Honours List for services to Medicine. Africa has less than 3% of the world's health workers struggling to combat 25% of the global burden of disease. In some of the countries where THET works, health spending per head per year is £3 compared with £1500 in the UK ! Ethiopia has just 2000 government doctors for a population of 70million compared with about 130000 for 60million in the UK . What can we do? We can help to improve basic health services through supporting links and exchanges to increase the numbers of vital healthcare workers. However major improvements in health can only take place in the wider context of International Development. Clean water, nutrition, agriculture, waste disposal and access to transport all have an obvious impact on health. However, little can be achieved in the long term without conflict resolution, political stability and economic growth, governance, security, respect for human rights and the rule of law which are the foundation stones for the defeat of disease and poverty. It is not simple. We must work together. Universities have an enormous amount to offer!

Martin McCann - 7 myths of Development

Martin McCann has been Chief Executive of RedR since 15 January 2007. Martin has been involved in international development and humanitarian reponse for the last 30 years ranging from a two year volunteer posting in West Africa to most recently being the Programme Director and Deputy International Executive Director of Plan International. Whilst at Plan he led the introduction of the Child Centred Community Development Approach and its new Strategic Directions that brought both a Rights agenda and advocacy into Plan. Martin also worked at ITDG (now Practical Action) where he developed the restructuring and systems to help make it financially viable again. Martin is a Trustee of War Child UK and was the founding Chair of the Hope for African Children Initiative (a multi NGO coalition on the impact of HIV/AIDS on children in Africa ). Martin was initially educated in Canada and also holds a MA in Rural Development from the University of East Anglia in Norwich . He has lived for long stretches in both Africa and Asia but has been based in the UK for the past twelve years.

Info on Martins talk to follow

Post Emergency Sustainable Water and Sanitation: an Oxymoron?
Mark Buttle, Arup/ RedR

Mark Buttle is a RedR trustee and member since 1998. He has worked in the post-emergency water and sanitation sector for Oxfam GB in Albania and Tajikistan, and in Afghanistan for Concern Worldwide. Mark is a regular trainer for EWB-UK and now works for Arup in Leeds. An introduction to his experience in post-emergency relief and a discussion on the challenges of implementing successful, sustainable projects

Free trade or development?
Vicky Cann, World Development Movement

Whether it's via the World Trade Organisation, or through a series of new bilateral trade deals, European Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson is targeting a range of developing countries for market liberalisation or so-called free trade. This is in the interests of European multinationals, but is it in the interests of the poor? Find out more about the issues at the heart of WDM's next campaign which will oppose the EU's aggressive free trade agenda and which will instead support trade which benefits the poor

Reflecting on Tourism Development in Kenya Through The Mirror of the Dependency Theory
Dr Manyara, UWIC researcher & lecturer in tourism

The Kenyan Government recognises that the tourism industry can be a tool for economic development and poverty alleviation. However, the extent tourism development model is anachronistic and colonial and the involvement of local communities is insignificant such that the resulting impacts of tourism on socio economic development and poverty alleviation are insignificant. In addition, the prevailing tourism support framework is dominated by conservation-based organisations in pursuance of the conservation agenda. This paper locates tourism development in Kenya within the dependency development paradigm and particularly reflects upon the paternalistic role conservation-based organisations play in tourism development.

Technology and its effectiveness in reducing poverty
Simon Trace, Practical Action

Why technology is important in the fight against poverty in the developing world
How thinking has changed over the years on how technology can make a difference
Why technology generally isn't working for the poor at the moment

Simon Trace took up the post of CEO of Practical Action in October 2005. Prior to this appointment, he was Strategic Development Director for the UK NGO WaterAid. A civil engineer by training, Simon also studied anthropology. Simon's career has principally been in community development, in the fields of soil and water conservation or water and sanitation, and he has spent time with a number of agencies, including periods of secondment to CARE and Unicef. He also spent a total of 10 years in Zambia and Nepal prior to moving to London to take up a series of positions with WaterAid, including Asia Regional Manager and Head of International Operations



Ditch Dirty Development
Emma Hughes, People and Planet

This campaign is aimed at ending UK financial support for the fossil fuel industry. This workshop starts by looking at why we need to stop fossil fuel extraction; keeping oil in the soil! It goes on to introduce the two main campaign targets: The Department for International Development (DfID) and The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), and the campaign demands for each.

Treat Aids Now
Emma Hughes, People and Planet

The pharmaceutical industry promised intellectual property rules would mean better health for more people, and orchestrated an impressive campaign to expand them globally. Yet only 10% of global R&D money is spent on research into the problems that afflict 90% the world's population and many existing medicines are unaffordable for those who need them. Explore, through the lens of People and Planet's Treat AIDS Now Campaign, how big pharmacies prioritise profits are over public health, and what can we do about it.

Emma currently works as a campaigner with People & Planet - the UK student campaigning network working to end world poverty, defend human rights and protect the environment. Previously Emma worked at Cardiff University as a research associate looking at how environmental and science debates are covered in the media.

Dealing with Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) contaminated sites in Ghana and Nigeria

Hywel Thomas

Professor Hywel R Thomas FREng is Professor of Civil Engineering, Director of the Cardiff School of Engineering and Deputy Pro Vice Chancellor for Innovation & Engagement. He is a Founder Director of the Geoenvironmental Research Centre (GRC) at the School of Engineering , Cardiff University . His research interests in the Geoenvironmental Engineering field range from the basic to commercial development. In terms of technical details his work ranges from coupled multiphysics/geo-chemistry problems in soils, through land regeneration to wider sustainability issues.
He is a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Fellow of the Geological Society of London, Fellow of the Transport Research Foundation and Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering elected to the last 'for outstanding and internationally renowned achievements in Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental engineering'.
He is actively involved in many international programmes of research on the geological disposal of high level nuclear waste. His research centre, the GRC, has been selected as a Centre of Excellence in this area, by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA, Vienna).
The presentation will discuss ongoing collaboration between the Geoenvironmental Research Centre (GRC) here at Cardiff and the Department of the Environment/Environment Agencies in Ghana and Nigeria .
A new project has recently started, funded by the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) to develop strategies in Ghana and Nigeria to deal with Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) contaminated sites.
One of the key issues, as always, is that of capacity building. To address this problem 'satellite' GRCs are being established in both Ghana and Nigeria . The presentation will give outline details of this work.

A student's experience in Development

Ryan Dunne

Ryan Dunne is a former Mechanical Engineering Student a Cardiff University and is now on a graduate Training Program with Arup, a world leading engineering consultants. He was Co-president of the Cardiff Branch of Engineers without Borders (EWB) 2006-2007 and then undertook a EWB placement in the summer of 2007 volunteering for Practical Action in Sri Lanka.

His talk will focus on his personal experiences while on a EWB placement, reflecting on the highs and lows of work in developing countries, the challenges that he faced and how his opinion of the 'worth' of development engineering evolved.

Rehabilitation in Basra 2003-04
Tim Marshall, Halcrow

Tim Marshall has worked in engineering consultancy since 1990, in the UK and overseas. Always interested in international work, Tim undertook his MSc in Engineering for Development at the University of Southampton in 2001 in order to change the focus of his career. These studies included 3 months research, with UNICEF, into gender issues and appropriate sanitation technologies in rural India. Joining Halcrow in 2002, Tim volunteered for a posting to Iraq in 2003, and worked in Basra for 9 months, during which Halcrow undertook over 50 rehabilitation projects in and around the city. Tim now works for Halcrow' s Water Group in Cardiff.

"Rethinking International Development - The Role of the Engineer"

By Dr Linus Mofor and Dr. John Kinuthia

In this session we will focus discussions on success/failure of international development activities to date; are those involved with delivering international development solutions from the engineering context holistic enough in training and experience? Is intermediate technology bad engineering or development engineering? Is the current state of international development delivery sustainable? We will then conclude with our concept of what we perceive to be lasting development - the regional development model and then show how "real 21st century engineering" can be used to achieve true international development objectives - for example, renewable energy application in delivering sustainable enhanced quality of life.

Dr Linus Mofor

Dr Linus Mofor is a Senior Lecturer and Postgraduate Course Director in Civil Engineering at the University of Glamorgan. With a keen interest in International Development, Linus and his colleagues formulated, designed, validated and delivered a unique Masters course in Civil Engineering for International Development (CEfID). The course has now been accredited (together with two other Civil Engineering Masters awards in the Department of Engineering at the University of Gl;amorgan) for the further learning requirement (formerly "matching sections") of becoming a chartered Civil Engineer by the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), the Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE) and the Institution of Highways and Transportation (IHT). These Civil Engineering postgraduate courses were the first ever to be so accredited in the UK.

A unique feature of the MSc CEFID course is its holistic integration of the social, geo environmental, political and economic contexts in providing sustainable infrastructure, thus equipping its students with the essential skills necessary in providing effective solutions to development engineering needs in various contexts.

Linus was born in Bamenda, Cameroon and moved to the UK in 1984 after high school to pursue BSc course in Civil and Structural Engineering at Cardiff University. He then moved on to do his PhD at the University of Dundee where he was also lecturer before moving to the University of Glamorgan 10 years ago. Linus's main research interests include the applications of Geographic Information Systems and Remote Sensing in water resources management with recent projects in the Lake Chad Basin and the Merdite region in the north of Albania.

Dr. John Kinuthia

Dr. John Kinuthia is a Senior Lecturer in Civil Engineering, within the Faculty of Advanced Technology of the University of Glamorgan. He has work experience on highway design and construction, and also has a wide and varied research experience on sustainable soil- and cement-based cementitious materials. He holds a BSc. (Hons) Degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Nairobi (Kenya), a MSc. Degree in Highway Engineering from the University of Birmingham, UK, and a PhD from the University of Glamorgan on properties and mechanisms of lime-stabilised sulphate-bearing clay soils. This research study led to the innovative use of blastfurnace slag in lime-stabilisation of soils, and the first application of lime-slag soil-stabilisation for roads in the UK. The novel technology has been tested in a road trial on the A421 Tingewick By-pass, west of Buckingham. The advantage of the technique is the elimination of expansive behaviour associated with lime-stabilisation of sulphate-bearing clay soils, that has lead to failure and reconstruction of even major highways including the M40.

Dr Kinuthia was born in Kiambu, Kenya and educated in Kenya up to University undergraduate level. He has work experience in both public and private sectors, before joining Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture & Technology, where for some time he headed the Civil Engineering department. He then joined the University of Glamorgan for PhD study. Currently, he is involved in both undergraduate and post-graduate teaching and research supervision. This includes the development and delivery of a Masters course in Civil Engineering for International Development (CEfID), a course with strong emphasis on international development. The experience gained working in both public and private sector in Kenya has been an added advantage, as Dr Kinuthia is currently involved in the development of collaborative efforts for training and research. He has already researched on various wastes materials from Kenya such as waste from coffee, sugar cane, pineapple, among other waste materials, with a view to empowering local communities in the achievement of sustainable infrastructure development by way of roads and low-cost housing.

HIV/ Aids
Dr Andrew Freeman, Cardiff University

Dr Andrew Freedman has been a Senior Lecturer/Consultant in Infectious Diseases at Cardiff University since 1994 and worked in HIV/AIDS since 1986. He was also on the Department of Health Expert Advisory Group on AIDS until 2006. He is currently on the British HIV Association Audit and Standards, and Education and Scientific subcommittees

Rescuing a generation - A look at international child health

Dr Daniel Magnus, Kenyan Orphan Project

The rights of children and their health have never been so widely promoted and discussed in the international arena and important steps have been made in the pursuit of reducing deaths in children under 5 years old in developing countries. Yet the lives of millions of children around the world are threatened and the millennium development goals can seem more of a fantasy than fiction. This talk will look at the causes of childhood morbidity and mortality in the developing world, address the issue of strategies and look more closely at personal experiences of working with Kenyan Orphan Project on health, education and social welfare projects for orphans and vulnerable children.

Dan Magnus is a paediatrician working at the Bristol Children's Hospital with a special interest in International Child Health. He studied medicine at Nottingham University and it was during this time in 2001 that he, along with several colleagues, established Kenyan Orphan Project - a registered charity committed to improving the lives of children in western Kenya and to development and international health education and experience for UK students. Dan has spent a lot of time over the last 7 years living and working in Kenya and is also unit lead for Gender, Maternal and Child Health at the University of Bristol on the International Health BSc.

Death in childbirth - Just an old wives tale?

Dr Stephen Morris, Mothers for Benin

Every year more than 500 000 women die from complications due to pregnancy or delivery. Maternal mortality rates are highest in Sub-Saharan Africa approximately a 1 in 7 risk compared with a 1 in 30 000 risk in Europe. Mothers for Benin formed as a response to this appalling death rate, with the aim of improving anaesthetic practice, and thus reduce these figures, without the need for expensive equipment. The speaker will draw from his own experiences from three trips to Benin as to how even the simplest of solutions - education, can have a profound effect on life..

Solar Technology for Development
Dr Daniel Nuh, Managing director, Solar Source

Dr Daniel Nuh, (Beng, MSC, PhD) Managing director, Solar Source A mechanical engineer from Cardiff University, Nuh went on to specialise in solar and renewable energies. He has worked with these technologies in various capacities, from marketing manager to project engineer. He then formed Solar Source, a Cardiff company that designs and makes solar PV panels to suit specific needs and requirements. Its scope include solar PV, solar hot water, manufacturing of solar PV panels, integration of solar PV panels into systems, dwellings and commercial premises.