Last week Dr. George Njenga, Executive Dean, Strathmore University Business School held a high-level meeting with the Estonian team on cooperation between Estonian Universities and SBS.
Mrs. Kadi Metsandi, Director of Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid, Special Representative of Estonia to Palestine, and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Estonia led the meeting focused on discussing how SBS and Estonian Universities can partner on e-governance as a field of study and research.
During the meeting attended by Mr. Ado Lohmus- Estonia Permanent Representative to the UN and also Kadri Humal Ayal, Honorary Consul of the Republic of Estonia in Kenya, the team discussed Estonia’s priorities in its engagement with African governments and key organizations in the development of the African digital single market. According to Mrs. Kadi, Estonia is well-positioned for sharing its experience in the areas of e-governance and e-services.
Mrs. Metsandi said that this partnership discussion was based on the Estonian-Africa Strategy which aims at strengthening bilateral and multilateral relations based on shared values, interests, and equal partnership.
Seeing that Estonia is a tech-savvy country that has been constantly evolving for the past 30 years, she expressed an interest in partnering with Strathmore in Digital Transformation, which includes: e-governance, innovation, and green transition. These areas are of particular importance to Estonia since they are already supporting the European Union’s Team Europe approach in response to the ongoing COVID- 19 pandemic and broader cooperation between member states.
As one of the founding members of the Digital for Development (D4D) Hub, she said Estonia would like to be at the forefront of promoting new international partnerships on digital transformation in Africa.
In regard to introducing the e-governance learning model in partnership with SBS, Mrs. Kadi re-affirmed their commitment is justified by the fact that already Kenya as a country is making good progress towards public services through various e-services platforms e.g., e-citizen and this will require capacity building and continuous skilling. This makes academic collaboration to be necessary especially after the massive impact that the COVID-19 pandemic caused within the education sector. Currently, many students who used to study in Estonia are unable Estonia to continue with their study on e-governance. “It would be better if we can set up a curriculum collaboratively with Kenyan Universities to benefit even more students,” said Mrs. Kadi.
According to her, partnering with SBS would further enhance the customization of the curriculum to fit the context in Kenya and embrace the best innovation which is derived from diverse cultures. To take this to the next level, Ms. Kadi said that she would connect SBS with the Estonian University of Technology to start working long term partnership.
In his remarks, Dr. Njenga noted that SBS was keen to engage with Estonian Universities to discuss collaborative engagement towards setting up the Executive Programmes in e-governance because Estonia has the best-integrated e-governance system in the world. He observed that the country has an advanced e-governance curriculum that can be used as case studies training.
Estonia is a pioneer in Blockchain Technology development, Kenya stands to benefit greatly from their experience.
By Rosemary Orlale, Director, Africa Media Hub, Strathmore University Business School
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