Minister praises University of Cambridge’s global poverty research
Research is helping to improve agriculture, education, medicine and technology across the developing world.
Baroness Northover meets Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. Picture: Matt Mee/DFID
International Development Minister Baroness Northover has visited the University of Cambridge to hear more about their world leading research to help end extreme poverty in developing countries.
Research and evidence play an important role the UK’s international development work.
Supported by the Department for International Development, the University of Cambridge’s research is helping to understand how to improve agriculture, education, medicine and technology across the developing world in a bid to end dependency on aid. Around a third of all research projects run by DFID are won by British universities.
During her visit Baroness Northover heard from professors and students carrying out research into:
- the control of bovine tuberculosis in Ethiopia to help protect the livelihood of poor farmers
- the control of zoonotic gastrointestinal disease in pigs in Burma which can pass to humans and account for around 1 million human deaths per year globally
- the control of aphid-transmitted viruses which can kill beans and other major crops that provide essential sources of food in Central and Eastern Africa
- the impact of Activity Based Learning as a teaching method.
Baroness Northover said:
High quality research is the foundation of the most effective development programmes and can make an huge difference for millions of the world’s poorest people.
The University of Cambridge’s research has already had an enormous benefit on the lives of people in developing countries and will continue to do so as their DFID funded programmes come to fruition.
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