Collaboration agreements between higher institutions in Italy and Africa: the case study of Wave Abroad summer workshops

In more than 14 years of Academic and professional work in Africa, I have experienced various contexts and environments; however, guided by the same conviction, education is one of the keywords to trigger and support future architects. As a young PhD holder in architecture, I have worked in Burkina Faso, DR Congo, Rwanda and Egypt, always striving to set up from scratch or to enhance existing bonds between the local and Italian Institutes. The research aims to explore the achieved outcomes of collaborative agreements that were able to involve students from Europe and Africa involving them in designing and reshaping the Urban development of Kigali. The University of Rwanda (UR) and the University IUAV of Venice signed an MoU completed with an appendix on specific projects. In 2018 and 2019, the two Universities decided to organise Kigali the WAVeAbroad Summer Workshops. Italian, Ugandan and Rwandan students found themselves at UR working on the Green City Kigali competition. Thus, The agreement allowed an actual sharing process among students from different backgrounds, opening up the flow of other partnerships.