Title Promoter Affiliations Abstract "South Initiative (SI) : Tracing the status and impacts of terrestrial contamination in the coastal environments of Tanzania." "Natacha Brion" "University of Antwerp, Open University of Tanzania, Vriendenkring VUB, Analytical, Environmental & Geo-Chemistry, Chemistry" "Tanzania coastal area is made up of marine and estuarine ecosystems, wich are among the country's greatest assets. The Government of Tanzania stresses on the need for the protection, management and development of the marine and coastal environment. Contamination of the evironment, perticularly coastal and estuarine ecosystems, is heavily influenced by human activities. Studies conducted in Belgian universities through BTC and others have shown that marine pollution mainly originates from land-based sources which are primarily linked to various activities related to urban development. However, these studies were of preliminary nature and involved just a small part of the Tanzanian coastal area. Furthermore some emerging endoctrine contaminants of concern were not measured in the studied areas and their exposure to organisms can produce various adverse effects as responses. Currently, the Tanzanian coastal areas are under considerable pressure from human activities that present a potential risk of contamination and degradation to the hydroecosystems. it is then important to carry these research activities further so as to obtain more results, and in the process, train more staff and build institutional capacity through investing in analytical tools and strengthen the collaborations that were established. We aim at quantifying the levels of different endoctrine disrupting contaminants in sediments and relate them to land and/or marine based pollution sources." "Key performance indicators for improving the last mile in antiretroviral therapy to prevent HIV drug resistance in Tanzania." "Nico Vandaele" "Faculty of Business and Economics, Kulak Kortrijk Campus, Laboratory of Clinical and Epidemiological Virology (Rega Institute)" "This transdisciplinary, human-centered project proposal will generate key performance indicators that have to be met in order to prevent HIV drug (HIVDR) resistance in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. In an existing VLIR-SI, the factors driving HIVDR for a specific population in Dar es Salaam are being mapped. In this JOINT project, two partners of KU Leuven and two Tanzanian partners will join forces to use these system maps of causes leading to HIVDR, to identify and quantify key performance indicators to monitor the improvement of HIV care at the last mile, in order to avoid HIVDR. The transdisciplinary process includes stakeholder analysis, co-creation of knowledge during stakeholder workshops and making sure they are sufficiently committed to implementation. By linking the two Tanzanian partners in this project, both will be empowered to enter into a transdisciplinary collaboration with each other and the stakeholders needed to follow-up, evaluate, and adjust the implementation plans when the tresholds of the key performance indicators are not met within the expected time frame." "Parental involvement in literacy development of primary school children in Tanzania" "Karla Van Leeuwen" "Parenting and Special Education" "Despite several initiatives to enhance primary education provision in Tanzania, and as a consequence high enrollment rates, there have been limited improvements in the early literacy development of Tanzanian children. The current education system of Tanzania focuses mostly on schools and teachers as the key educators in children’s learning with little attention to the role of parents and the home environment. This PhD project aimed at exploring and supporting parental involvement in primary school children’s reading development, and at creating a framework to encourage teacher-parent partnership in Tanzania. The research in the dissertation (a) explored motivational factors that influence parents’ decisions to be involved in educational activities at home and schools, (b) assessed the relationship between parental reading support activities with children’s reading skills, and (c) evaluated the effectiveness of a one year intervention programme that intended to enhance children’s reading development. We used Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler’s model of parental involvement as our theoretical framework. The intervention was based on practices that were shown in the research literature to be effective for children’s learning and included a teacher and parent training, teacher-parent communication, reading at home, and parent involvement in their child’s homework.Participants in the study were 600 second-grade primary school pupils and their parents (68.2% mothers) from 24 schools in Dar es Salaam. Questionnaires and tests (reading, intelligence) were used to measure the study variables. We used a school-based cluster randomized controlled trial with baseline, post-intervention and follow-up measurement to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention (n = 336 intervention group, n = 224 control group). Statistical analyses included regression analyses and multilevel modelling.Findings showed that parents are willing to be involved in their children’s education. Involvement at home was related to parents’ expectations for children’s school success, next to parents’ perceived time and energy, child invitations and parents’ self-efficacy. School involvement was predicted by perceived time and energy, and school and child invitations. There were weak associations between parental reading support activities (modelling, reinforcement, encouragement and instruction) with three aspects of children’s reading (decoding, fluency, and comprehension). The evaluation of the intervention revealed that children in the intervention condition made more progress in reading (decoding and comprehension) compared to children in the control condition. Throughout the study, we found a relationship between parents’ education level and children’s reading skills. This indicates that parents with a low level of education need more attention and support. We can conclude that the intervention through feasible activities, is able to foster parental involvement. Schools need to support teachers and create a warm environment for all parents, regardless of their social economic status. The government should make parental involvement a policy issue by setting regulations and guidelines for effective parental involvement in the literacy development of children." "Evaluation of an antibody detecting point-of-care test for the diagnosis of Taenia solium taeniasis and (neuro)cysticercosis in communities and primary care settings of highly endemic, resource-poor areas in Tanzania and Zambia, including training of -and" "Sarah Gabriël" "Department of Translational Physiology, Infectiology and Public Health, Department of Veterinary Public Health and Food Safety" "The abstract for ""Evaluation of an antibody detecting point-of-care test for the diagnosis of Taenia solium taeniasis and (neuro)cysticercosis in communities and primary care settings of highly endemic, resource-poor areas in Tanzania and Zambia, including training of -and technology transfer to the Regional Reference Laboratory and health centres."" is missing. Please contact the promotor for more information." "Green building rating systems: applicability and impact on constitution process in Tanzania." "Griet VERBEECK" ArcK "In Tanzanian construction industry, some ov newly establisched projects such as residential complexes, offices, and corporate offices do not consider or the pay less attention to green building concept for their design. This is contributed by the fact that there is low level of technological know-how. To transform building industry, the Green Building councils worldwide promote and supply more information concerning Green Building hence making it easier for property developers, owner, achitects, material suppliers, buyers and investors to build sustainable buildings. The delivery processes for green buildings are not the same as those for traditional buildings, because 1) the needed intense interdisciplinary collaboration during planning up to post-construction phase, 2) the complexity of computational modelling and analysis and 3) th required careful selection of materials and systems. In developing counties like Tanzania there are numerous benefits of using green building rating tools but the rating mechanism from building delivery process concept is not in place. This study will investigate and seeking for appropriate green building rating systems that incorporates the whole building delivery process in Tanzania construction industry context." "HIVDR-Prevent: Design and evaluation of interventions for preventing HIV drug resistance in Dar es Salaam urban cohort study (DUCS) area in Tanzania, using a transdisciplinary human centered approach." "Nico Vandaele" "Faculty of Business and Economics, Kulak Kortrijk Campus, Laboratory of Clinical and Epidemiological Virology (Rega Institute)" "HIV Drug Resistance (HIVDR) is rising and antiretroviral treatment (ART) is getting less effective, so people living with HIV (PLHIV) suffer more as they are restricted in their daily abilities. This induces several sustainability threats, touching several SDGs, not only health, but several other SDGs such as education, poverty, gender equality, among others. Root causes need to be determined in order to design leverage points to counteract HIVDR at community level. During a VLIR-UOS-SI, a transdisciplinary methodology was co-developed involving semi-structured interviews and co-creation workshops with the local communities, stakeholders and researchers. A systems map was built representing the “last mile” at the point of care delivery on ART and HIVDR in the Dar es Salaam area. Key performance indicators (KPIs) have been designed during a VLIR-UOS-JOINT project and are being measured. This TEAM project will capitalize on these efforts, through further rolling out the trans-disciplinary methodology to support the qualitative and quantitative HIVDR systems model design and improvement which started during the SI and JOINT projects. During this TEAM project, intervention models will be co-designed, and interventions will be tested and evaluated to improve the last mile based on identified leverage points. The experience so far has been an eye opener for all parties, and the local community is already taking action based on what the project has revealed, for example through local social enterprises. The project will empower researchers, the local community, stakeholders and policy makers to collaborate and improve the last mile in HIV treatment, thereby preventing HIVDR from rising further in the study area. Interventions, transferable to other settings and contexts are envisioned. At the same time, the project will enable both Tanzanian and Belgian partners to further develop their skills on trans-disciplinary research and education." "Development of Housing from Tourism perspectives in Bagamoyo Tanzania - Integration of Local and Foreign Design Considerations Revisted" "Jo BERBEN" "ArcK, Ardhi University" "The Research Council of Hasselt University approved the stay of dr. Livin Henry Mosha (School of Architecture Construction Economics and Management, Ardhi University, Tanzania). During this stay, dr. Livin Henry Mosha will perform research in cooperation with your research group ARCK." "Design and Evaluation of Interventions for Preventing HIV Drug Resistance in Dar Es Salaam Urban Cohort Study (DUCS) Area in Tanzania, Using a Trans-disciplinary Human Centered Approach" "Nico Vandaele" "Faculty of Business and Economics, Kulak Kortrijk Campus, Operations Management Research Group (main work address Leuven)" "HIV Drug Resistance (HIVDR) is rising and antiretroviral treatment (ART) is getting less effective, so people living with HIV (PLHIV) suffer more as they are restricted in their daily abilities. This induces several sustainability threats, touching several SDGs, not only health, but several other SDGs such as education, poverty, gender equality, among others. Root causes need to be determined in order to design leverage points to counteract HIVDR at community level. During a VLIR-UOS-SI, a transdisciplinary methodology was co-developed involving semi-structured interviews and co-creation workshops with the local communities, stakeholders and researchers. A systems map was built representing the “last mile” at the point of care delivery on ART and HIVDR in the Dar es Salaam area. Key performance indicators (KPIs) have been designed during a VLIR-UOS-JOINT project and are being measured. This TEAM project will capitalize on these efforts, through further rolling out the trans-disciplinary methodology to support the qualitative and quantitative HIVDR systems model design and improvement which started during the SI and JOINT projects. During this TEAM project, intervention models will be co-designed, and interventions will be tested and evaluated to improve the last mile based on identified leverage points. The experience so far has been an eye opener for all parties, and the local community is already taking action based on what the project has revealed, for example through local social enterprises. The project will empower researchers, the local community, stakeholders and policy makers to collaborate and improve the last mile in HIV treatment, thereby preventing HIVDR from rising further in the study area. Interventions, transferable to other settings and contexts are envisioned. At the same time, the project will enable both Tanzanian and Belgian partners to further develop their skills on trans-disciplinary research and education." "Efficacy Assessment of Bio-Control Preventive Actions in Maize to Reduce Human Mycotoxin Exposure in Tanzania" "Sarah De Saeger" "Department of Bio-analysis, Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology" "The use of atoxigenic Aspergillus species to reduce aflatoxins in maize, based on competitive exclusion of toxigenic fungi, is a promising bio-control strategy. However, no research has been executed on the secondary metabolic repertoire of these so-called atoxigenic Aspergillus species and potential favourable production of fumonisins by Fusarium species. Furthermore, the direct comparison of mycotoxins treated with bio-control and non-treated maize has never been performed. Therefore, through a case-control study in 10 Tanzanian villages, the risk in humans will be assessed through multi-mycotoxin biomarker analysis in urine and plasma." "RESIST- Building a Resilient and Sustainable Immunization System in Tanzania" "Nico Vandaele" "ATM - Access-To-Medicines Research Centre, Faculty of Business and Economics, Kulak Kortrijk Campus, Operations Management Research Group (main work address Leuven)" "Immunization programs are very crucial in meeting most of the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SDG), particularly SDG 3 (ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being at all ages). Specifically, effective immunization directly leads to the realization of SDG 3.2 (By 2030, end preventable deaths of newborns and children under 5 years of age), SDG 3.3 (By 2030, end the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and neglected tropical diseases and combat hepatitis, water-borne diseases and other communicable diseases) and SDG 3.8 (Achieve universal health coverage, including financial risk protection, access to quality essential health-care services and access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all). the Global Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP) 2011-2020 aimed at reaching immunization coverage rates of 90% at national level and 80% at district level, but many parts of Africa, including Tanzania, are still way below this target. Despite the successes influenced by the SDG Agenda and GVAP, there still remain challenges as jointly reported in 2020 by the WHO and UNICEF. Tanzania has been implementing immunization programs since 1976. Despite the country having one of the largest average immunization coverage rates, coverage is still largely non-uniform across different demographics within the country and a large number of diseases still remain unabolished and/or at high prevalence. The 2015–16 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) reported 1 in 4 children nationally was not fully vaccinated, and many regions fell short of the 90% coverage target set by the GVAP. 4 In addition, although vaccine stock outs have declined in the country over the past decade, significant stock outs are still prevalent. An effective supply chain of vaccines is at the center of all successful immunization programs. There is, therefore, a need to build a sustainable and robust supply chain model for vaccines and other immunization products. The model’s supply system must, at all times, be able to reach all demographic groups and must be flexible and resilient enough to respond to emergency and drastic changes such as the COVID19. More importantly, the model must be applicable in the local context. Furthermore, as we have witnessed during the COVID19 pandemic, vaccines supply programs should incorporate an important element of public education in order to combat vaccine hesitancy."