Developing Bahir Dar into a Learning Community

A workshop was held in Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia, on 28 November 2014 to discuss the working strategies of initiating and implementing the learning city project in Bahir Dar city. Twenty-eight Learning Community Project staff participated and agreed on the necessity and importance of further clarifying the concept of lifelong learning and learning community/city in the context of Bahir Dar. They discussed the working plan to bring all concerned stakeholders on board to implement the project, and approved a proposal for conducting a needs assessment in the city to define the priorities of developing Bahir Dar into a learning city and to identify resources and partners for subsequent implementation.

For the project’s official kick-off, the University also plans to hold a large-scale workshop in 2015 to promote the concept and the project to a broader audience in the city. This important outcome of the workshop is a concrete follow-up of the first International Conference on Learning Cities (ICLC). In October 2013, Mr Tesfaye Shiferaw, Vice President for Research and Community Services of Bahir Dar University, participated in the first ICLC. Subsequently, Bahir Dar University has been taking a leading role in initialising the process of developing Bahir Dar into a learning city. 

After the first ICLC, several workshops have been organised within the university to interpret the concept of learning cities and to build the working mechanisms for implementing the project. Seven committees (Research, Intervention, Institutional Linkage, Mobilisation and Events, Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation, and Communications and Promotion Affairs) have been formed, each comprised of four members (a total of 28 Education Faculty staff members). Roles and responsibilities have been assigned to every committee.