Research Thematic Areas and

Community Services Agendas of

University of Gondar
 UNIVERSITY OF GONDAR

RESEARCH AND COMMUNITY SERVICES

CORE PROCESS

Research Thematic Areas and Community Services Agendas

of University of Gondar

Compiled by:

1. Taddesse Kassahun (B.Sc., M.Sc.)

Study & Information Officer at Research & Community Services Core Process

2. Wassie Molla (DVM, M.Sc.)

General Director for Research & Community Services Core Process

3. Malede Birhan (B.Sc., M.Sc.)

Research Team Liaison Officer at Research & Community Services Core Process

October, 2010

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 Acknowledgements

First and foremost, we would like to express our gratitude to all individuals, who actively
participated in the preparation of this document; especially, to those who were members of
the need assessment survey teams and members of the research thematic areas and
community services agenda preparation committees at the College, Faculties and Schools
levels.

We are in high spirit to articulate our sincere thanks to Mr. Asmare Yalew for his genuine
encouragements and providing us constructive comments in the preparation of this document.

We are indebted to experts in North Gondar Agriculture and Rural Development Office for
providing us information pertaining to the selection of sample districts.

Our appreciation also goes to community leaders of the districts, where the need assessment
survey was conducted and to all experts at various offices of the districts for giving us
essential information.

Finally, we are grateful to all deans for smoothing the progress of each phase of the thematic
areas and community services agenda development.

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 Table of Contents

Contents Page
Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................... iii
List of Acronyms and Abbreviations .......................................................................................... v
Preface ........................................................................................................................................... vi
1.1 Background ......................................................................................................................... 1
1.2 Research Trends.................................................................................................................. 2
1.3 Significances of Establishing Research Thematic Areas and Community Services
Agenda ....................................................................................................................................... 3
1.4 Objectives............................................................................................................................. 5
1.4.1 General Objective .......................................................................................................... 5
1.4.2 Specific Objectives ........................................................................................................ 5
2. Problem and Needs Identification Procedures ................................................................... 6
2.1 Personal Experience of Researchers at the University .................................................... 6
2.2 Need Assessment Survey .................................................................................................... 6
2.2.1 Sample Districts Considered in the Survey ................................................................... 6
2.2.2 Data Collection Procedures............................................................................................ 7
2.3. Policy Documents and Survey Reports as Input for Problems and Needs
Identification ............................................................................................................................. 8
2.4 Prioritizing Researchable Problems .................................................................................. 8
3. Identified Problems, Research Thematic Areas and Community Services ................... 10
3.1 Identified Problems ........................................................................................................... 10
3.1.1 Problems Identified by the College of Medicine and Health Sciences ........................ 10
3.1.2 Problems Identified by the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine ....................................... 11
3.1.3 Problems Identified by the Faculty of Natural and Computational Sciences. ............. 13
3.1.4 Problems Identified by the Faculty of Agriculture ...................................................... 14
3.1.5 Problems Identified by the Faculty of Business and Economics ................................. 15
3.1.6 Problems Identified by the Faculty of Social Sciences and the Humanities........... 17
3.1.7 Problems Identified by the School of Law ............................................................. 21
3.1.8 Problems Identified by the School of Engineering ……...…..……………………… 22
3.2 Research Thematic Areas ........................................................................................... 24
3.3. Community Services ........................................................................................................ 69
3.3.1 Consultancy Services ................................................................................................... 69
3.3.2 Trainings ...................................................................................................................... 72
3.3.3 Other Services .............................................................................................................. 77
4. Reference ................................................................................................................................. 81

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 List of Acronyms

ARARDO Amhara Region Agriculture and Rural Development Office

BPR Business Process Re-engineering.

CMHS College of Medicine and Health Sciences

CPD Continuous Professional Development

DOA District Office of Agriculture

FA Faculty of Agriculture

FBE Faculty of Business and Economics

FDRE Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia

FNCS Faculty of Natural and Computational Sciences

FSSH Faculty of Social Science and the Humanities

FVM Faculty of Veterinary Medicine

GIS Geographical Information System

GPS Geographical Position System

ICT Information and Communication Technology

MoFED Ministry of Finance and Economic Development

NGO Non Governmental Organization

NGZARDO North Gondar Zone Agriculture and Rural Development Office

NRM Natural Resource Management

PASDEP Plan for Accelerated and Sustain Development to End Poverty

RCSCP Research and Community Services Core Process

TVET Technical and Vocational Education and Training

UoG University of Gondar

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Preface
Higher Education institutions are mainly mandated to focus on: Teaching-learning, Research
and Community services. Unfortunately, areas of priority and the volume of practices on
each service were not either equally given attention or not well implemented as to their
objectives. Traditionally, teaching-learning activities were introduced based on the contents
of the course outlines, but the quality of teaching, such as: methods of teaching and
evaluation techniques were not been given attention. This has been a long years traditions in
the higher education practices, however the importance of better skills in teaching and best
evaluation methods of students now a days are considered as a must do practices. With this
understanding HERQA is responsible for best practices and implementations of teaching and
learning activities. For instance, continues assessment of students in line with their course
deliberations, has become a good culture, since BPR introductions. In general, quality of
teaching declared by the Ministry of Education is becoming a priority agenda as of 2003 E.C.
in all Higher Education Institutes of Ethiopia.

In fact, for any of the quality services, either Research or Community services, the
competency of graduates would come from the best knowledge, practices of teaching and
learning. The University of Gondar, since 2004, and took its base from the College of
Medicine and Health Sciences, established in 1954. For the last 57 years of practices, when
we think of the palpable contributions of research and community services were not well
documented or addressed to their expectations. Since then, many researches and community
services were introduced in the local community. However, researches and community
services were practiced, not addressing the priority needs of the local community and the
country at large.

This material as the first of its kind has made a great efforts to identify the most important
research thematic and community services areas from the nearby Woreda and district
communities. The main advantage of identifying the research thematic areas is to focus on
the demand driven problems and also let students and other researchers to be in line with the
selected area of researches. The diversity of research thematic areas was based on the
existing variety of departments/expertise in the University of Gondar. Having research
thematic areas will also help the researchers to have in depth knowledge and experiences in

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the respective problems. It also encourages a group shared initiatives, competitions and
cooperation‟s.

Hence, we would like to acknowledge, Dr. Wassie Molla, who was Director General for
Research and Community Services of the University of Gondar and his staff for the great
efforts and contributions they made. What would be remaining is there need to sustain and
working properly on the implementations part of this material. The responsibility of
implementing the material should be every staff of the University in particular the academic
staff. We believe that, periodically, the importance of the material and the applicability of the
methods shall be revised because of its dynamic character.

Dr. Mengesha Admasu Dr. Desalegn Mengasha

President of University of Gondar V/President for Academic, Research and

Community Services, University of Gondar

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 1. Introduction
1.1 Background
The history of conducting researches and delivering community services such as clinical services
at the University of Gondar traced back to the late 1950‟s in the then Gondar Public Health and
Training Center. Since that time, valuable researches and community services have been
conducted mainly in the medical research arena. The Public Health Training center started to
train medical doctors in 1978 and hence renamed as Gondar College of Medical Sciences. In line
with the expansion of education throughout the country, Gondar College of Medical Sciences has
come to be a full-fledged university in 2004 named University of Gondar. Currently, the newly
established University, the University of Gondar hosts one Medicine and Health Sciences
College, four faculties, i.e., Veterinary Medicine, Social Sciences and the Humanities, Natural
and Computational Sciences, and Agriculture; three schools, namely Law, Education, and
Engineering. As a result, research undertakings and community services have also recently
started to emerge from the newly incorporated areas.

Despite long history of researches at the University of Gondar, however, many of them were
disciplinary specific and have not been arguably based on the problems that the nearby dwellers
were facing. In connection with this, the community was not a direct beneficiary of research
outputs to the desired extent. Moreover, community services rendered by the University were
limited to clinical services, veterinary services, legal aids, teaching in the summer, extension and
distance programs. It is thus required to broaden researches and increase community services
rendered by the University. Therefore, the former Research and Publication Office of the
University is redesigned as Research and Community Services Core Process (RCSCP) as per the
new Business Process Re-engineering of the University. As a result, the RCSCP together with
other units of the University (college, faculties, schools etc.) is doing its level best to widen the
scope of researches, boost community services to be delivered and ultimately benefit the
community at large. In order to achieve this goal, the RCSCP strongly believes that prioritized
research thematic areas and community services agenda should be established at the University
level.

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1.2 Research Trends
The University of Gondar is very well known in conducting researches for more than half a
century specifically but not limited to the health research field. Since the inception of the
University of Gondar as Gondar Public Health and Training Center, several hundreds of articles
have been produced by the University staff members. From among these articles, many of them
were published by reputable scientific journals.

Research at the University of Gondar has been undertaken by both students and staff members.
As per the rules and regulations of the University, the academic staff members are expected to
devote one fourth of their working time in research and related tasks. In addition, the students
carry out researches in partial fulfillments for the requirements of their degrees. The researches,
which are conducted by students and staff members, are presented in the annual staff and
students‟ research conference of the University. Comprehensive discussions are made on the
presented issues so as to share ideas among senior and junior researchers.

Basically, research activities at the University of Gondar have the following encouraging
considerations (Yared and Aferwork, 2003).
- Unlimited involvement of students in research.
- Focus has been given on applied researches.
- Endeavor in promoting multidisciplinary collaboration and vigorous bolstering of team
based research.
- Generous intra-institutional funding for research beginners.

As of September, 2008 the University has started to publish a journal entitled The Ethiopian
Journal of Health and Biomedical Sciences, which is published twice a year by the College of
Medicine and Health Sciences. Since the foundation of this journal, more than 30 articles have
been published of which many of them were from the researchers of the University.

Regardless of such successes, however, the involvement of the academic staff in research works
has not been high. This was of course owing to several reasons such as:
- the academic staff members spent much of their time in teaching activities, i.e., only one
fourth of their service time was committed for research;

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 - senior researchers of the University have not been delivering seminars to the academic
staff components on the expected level;
- inadequate availability of facilities such as Internet, books and journals;
- the amount of money allocated for research grant was not as such encouraging;
- there was limited number of links with national and international universities and
research centers;
- the research works, which have been conducted may not be properly disseminated to the
society by the local language and hence this decreased further motivation;
- unavailability of research thematic areas.

1.3 Significances of Establishing Research Thematic Areas and Community

Services Agenda
As a broad grouping of areas of research with a common theme, research thematic areas should
be important in contemporary research development, foster cross-disciplinary research, have
clear potential for economic benefit, and have significance for the social or cultural benefit of the
country. The establishment of research thematic areas plays a pivotal role for increasing effective
utilization of resources, i.e., resources will be appropriately allocated to problems, which have
higher priority.

These days, it is becoming a culture to do researches in groups since it is generally believed that
an individual may fail to have due knowledge in all aspects of research and hence team work is
awfully better than individual works. Needless to say, team based researches will be greater than
before, because thematic areas may extend across more than one faculty and will normally
incorporate a number of research groups. In addition, the identified research thematic areas will
serve as leverage for external funds.

University of Gondar, one of the higher educational and research centers in the country has a due
mandate to actively entail in the development strategies of the country. In this regard, a Plan for
Accelerated and Sustainable Development to End Poverty (PASDEP) document of the country
states that all research activities should be geared towards the development strategies of the
country. To this verity, one of the major activities to be undertaken in the PASDEP(2005/6-
2009/10) period is to fill the gap on the problem of skilled work force through providing quality

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training and render them the center of research undertakings (PASDEP, 2006). Thus, to focus
researches on problems, which have national development priority, establishment of research
thematic areas is highly imperative. Additionally, the research thematic areas and community
services agenda will play a key role to increase community and private sector participation and
hence meet one of the general education goals.

Once the community services agenda such as trainings is identified, the various stakeholders will
easily come to the University and start using the available services. As a result, the community
services agenda will simplify the way to reach the community, strengthen the source of income
to the University and helps to ensure the continuity and reliability of the required financial
resources.

In view of the above ideas, research thematic areas and community services agenda of the
University are designed on the basis of problems that the nearby dwellers of the University are
facing, needs of the society, personal experience of researchers and the national development
agenda.

As per the outcome of need assessment conducted at sample districts of North Gondar and South
Gondar Administrative Zones, the community services to be rendered by the university are
reconsidered to encompass trainings and capacity buildings for the various stakeholders and the
wider community in addition to the already operating services.

Considering the experience of national and international higher education institutions, research
centers, and taking the fields of studies available in the University into account, the broad
research thematic areas of the University are identified to be 20 in number. This is also done with
the assumption that the broad research thematic areas may extend across more than one faculty
and will normally incorporate a number of research groups. Furthermore, according to the new
guideline of RCSCP, strategic research funding is targeted to areas of existing and potential
research thematic areas only.

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1.4 Objectives
The objectives of launching research thematic areas and community services agenda at the
University of Gondar are outlined below.

1.4.1 General Objective

The general objective is to facilitate the discovery of new knowledge and technology in order to
meet societal needs, solve societal problems and catalyze the delivery of policy directions of the
country as a whole.

1.4.2 Specific Objectives

 To identify and prioritize socio-economic, cultural and environmental problems existing
in the society.
 To enhance team based and problem oriented researches across various disciplines.
 To facilitate the establishment of national and international linkage with sister
institutions.
 To indicate the possible community services that could be rendered by the University.

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 2. Problem and Needs Identification Procedures

Prior to deciding the broad research thematic areas and community services agenda of the
University, the academic units of the University identified needs and problems by taking the
following into consideration.

- Personal experiences of the researchers at the University.

- Need assessment survey.
- Referring the various policy documents of the FDRE and survey reports of other
institutions.

2.1 Personal Experience of Researchers at the University

Before this time, research and community services at the University of Gondar were conducted
mainly based on the insights made by researchers. As a result, we prepared the first draft
research thematic areas and community services agenda document based on the agenda proposals
by the academic staff members of the University as a benchmark for further development of the
document. Basically, this was done prior to conducting the need assessment survey so as to
reduce biased-ness on the existing problems and also to make the research thematic areas broader
since in some situations the society may fail to exhaustively reflect he problems. In addition,
researchers at the University are also part of the society so that some unseen facts might be found
from them.

2.2 Need Assessment Survey

2.2.1 Sample Districts Considered in the Survey
The need assessment survey was conducted from 18 March 2010 to 4 April 2010 in two teams.
Each team comprised 1 representative academic staff from each of the schools/faculties / college
of the University. Seven districts from the North Gondar Administrative Zone, namely Gondar,
Mi‟rab Belessa, Metema, Alefa, Takusa, Debarq and Dembia, and two districts from the South
Gondar Administrative Zone, viz., Fogera and Farta were considered for the survey.

According to the information obtained from the North Gondar Zone Agriculture and Rural
Development Office, North Gondar Administrative Zone is subdivided into three development
zones, namely Tekeze‟ zone (having 8 districts), Northwest zone (having 11 districts) and T‟ana

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zone (having 3 districts). As a result, we purposively incorporated 3 districts from Northwest
zone, 2 districts from Tekeze zone and 2 districts from T‟ana zone with the assumption that these
7 districts represent the North Gondar Administrative Zone and hence inclusion of the entire
districts would lead to wastage of resources. As a means to verify about the representative-ness
of sampled districts, we also consulted experts in various situations.

Furthermore, Dembia district was one of the representative districts in the survey so as to
identify the potentials and constraints of fish production in Lake T‟ana. Debark district, a home
of endemic animals such as Waliya Ibex, Gelada Bagoon and Red Fox was incorporated in the
survey in order to assess the status of the wildlife and natural resources in the Semien Mountain
National Park. Additionally, the strategic plan of the University states that University of Gondar
is going to be center of excellence in tourism. For this reason, taking Debark as one of the
districts in the survey has a paramount importance.

From among the entire districts in the South Gondar Administrative Zone, we included Fogera
and Farta districts only into our survey for the reasons that:
- our focus should mainly be in the North Gondar Administrative Zone, which is
considered as the foremost mandate area of the University;
- the South Gondar Administrative Zone is geographically closer to other institutions such
as Bahir Dar University and hence societal problems in zone would most likely be
addressed by such institutions.
Thus, we refrained to include several districts from the South Gondar Administrative Zone in
order not to have redundancy.

2.2.2 Data Collection Procedures

The data considered as an input to identify research thematic areas and community services
agenda were both secondary and primary. Checklists were prepared by academic staff members
of the respective schools/faculties/college so as to make the data collection procedural and to
pinpoint on the relevant issues. Using the checklists, the secondary data were obtained from the
officeholders and experts at various offices of the selected districts. These data encompassed the
major problems that the society is facing as per the observations made by the staff members of
the offices; constraints, opportunities and potentials of the districts, and the problems, which

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hinder their offices to attain the desired level of success. On the other hand, the primary data
were collected from the people living in the selected districts in order to confirm that the
secondary data gathered from the offices are compatible with the actual ones. In this case, focus
group discussions were made with selected ordinary dwellers of the districts. Besides, rigorous
talk was made with community leaders just to incorporate uncovered issues by the above bodies.

2.3. Policy Documents and Survey Reports as Input for Problems and Needs
Identification
There is no question that assessing the national development agenda and policy direction of the
country is very prevailing issue in order to make the identification of research thematic areas and
community services agenda easy. Accordingly, all units of the University have thoroughly
considered the issues described in the document of a plan for accelerated and sustained
development to end poverty (2005/06-2009/10). The strategic plan of the University, the
Research and Community Services Core Process BPR document, the Higher Education
Proclamation document and the various development policies documents of FDRE were also
taken into consideration.

In addition to the various policy documents, reports obtained from assessment studies conducted
by Amhara National Regional State Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Development Office were
also considered.

Finally, combining the issues obtained from the personal experience of researchers at the
University, need assessment survey and the various documents, the RCSCP has come up with 20
broad research thematic areas and a number of community services to be rendered by the
University

2.4 Prioritizing Researchable Problems

Setting priorities for problems, which are going to be addressed under the broad research
thematic areas, has a due importance in order to focus researches on problems which are
headaches at the greatest extent and allocate resources wisely. Priorities for the existing
researchable problems were set using a combination of standard mathematical and subjective
methods of ranking.

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The set of problems which were identified from the need assessment survey of each district were
given ranks according to their district priority, i.e., a problem, which has a high impact as per the
opinions of the target population in the survey and needs immediate research intervention
received a rank of one, the one which requires less research intervention as compared to the first
received a rank of two and so on. It is obvious that a researchable problem, which was a bother
in one district, might not necessarily be a concern in the other. Therefore, the rank value assigned
in district Y to a problem which was a bother in a district X but not in Y having, say 30 distinct
problems identified by the survey would be 31. Furthermore, the rank value for all problems,
which were headaches in other districts, but not in the district Y would be 31 though they would
have different rank values in their respective districts. Similarly, the rank value that would be
assigned in district X (having, say 20 distinct problems identified by the survey) to all remaining
problems which were headaches in other districts but not in X is 21.

Following the above procedures, rank values at each district were weighted just to minimize
biased-ness of the ranking values. Weighting was made as for example, a weighting value of ten
was given for a district having ten distinct researchable problems; a weighting value of 16 was
given for a district having sixteen distinct researchable problems and so on. Consequently, the
weights were multiplied by the corresponding rank values for each of the problems and the
values obtained were cumulated. This is equivalent to say that for a problem with rank value, say
5 in a district having a total number of distinct problems, say 10, the corresponding weighted
rank value would be 50 (5 x 10). Likewise, the same problem would receive a weighted rank
value of 420 (21 x 20) in a district X having 20 distinct problems provided that this problem was
not a bother in district X. Then the grand cumulative rank values were obtained for each of the
problems by adding weighted rank values obtained from the various districts corresponding to
the problem under consideration. Ultimately, the highest priority was assigned to a researchable
problem having the lowest grand cumulative rank value.

After the researchable problems, which were identified by the need assessment survey were duly
prioritized, researchers at the University have also made suggestions in order to make some kind
of amendments on the priorities. The suggestions were based on practical experiences of the
researchers and the assessment of documented evidences such as the development agenda of the
country.

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 3. Identified Problems, Research Thematic Areas and
Community Services
3.1 Identified Problems
The foremost aim of undertaking any scientific research be it thematic based or not is to resolve
problems which exist under a given situation. In this regard, problem identification is the major
pillar of any research. Needless to say, failure to properly identify the problems existing in a given
state of affairs would automatically lead to erroneous conclusions and ultimately the research work
will no longer meet its desired goals. Therefore, care should be maximized up on the stage of
problem identification. Taking this into consideration, the RCSCP together with other academic
units of the University decided to identify the problems of the society originally from the people
residing around the University. As a result, a survey was conducted at the selected districts of North
Gondar and South Gondar Administrative Zones.

Furthermore, appropriate identification of problems is geared towards setting priorities and

establishing research thematic areas. Accordingly, all the Faculties, the College and all the Schools
of the University have involved in the identification of problems that the society is facing. As per the
outcome of the need assessment survey the insights made by the academic staff body, the problems
included herewith are presented in terms of their priority, i.e., the problem which comes first has
highest priority and the one which comes last has lowest priority.

3.1.1 Problems Identified by the College of Medicine and Health Sciences

Numerous health problems are known to exist in the surveyed zones, but the most prevalent
problems are summarised as follows:

- High tuberculosis burden

- Malaria
- HIV/AIDS related problems and their impacts
- Pneumonia
- Reproductive health (Women empowerment, adolescent and youth health, sexually
transmitted illnesses, MCH, family planning, etc)
- Eye diseases

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 - Nutrition related problems (esp. child nutrition)
- Substance abuse (khat chewing, cigarette smoking, alcohol drinking, illicit drugs)
- Leishmaniasis
- Lack of water supply, poor waste disposal, lack of basic sanitation, poor housing
conditions
- Poor health service evaluation (lack of researches)
- Health care financing problems, budget deficit
- Information and communication technology related problems (lack of organization and
utilization of data, problems of recording and reporting, lack of uniformity in data
collection tools and reporting)
- Health promotion and prevention intervention
- Shortage and inappropriate use of drugs and medical supplies
- Injuries related to occupation, car accidents, and quarrels
- Drug sales
- Poor practice in vaccination of animals
- Big mismatch between capacity and demand of health workers (esp. medical specialists)
- Accessibility of health care institutions
- Lack of full - fledged health service to the community
- Problems related with the attitude and professional ethics of the health professionals
- Lack of community participation in safeguarding health and health services
- Shortage of trainings of the community on health matters
- Maintenance on biomedical equipments
- Lack of integration among sectors
- Lack of support from non-governmental organizations

3.1.2 Problems Identified by the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine

The problems identified by the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine include: Shortage of animal feed,
Animal health related, genotype/inappropriate breeding systems, livestock management practices
and Socio-economic and institutional problems.
Shortage of animal feed
1.1. Poor productivity of native pasture

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1.2 Inappropriate utilization /low quality of crop residues
1.3 Low understanding of the nutritive value of feed resources
1.4 Limited utilization of improved forages
1.5 Under utilization of industrial by-products for animal feed
Animal health problem
2.1 Poor understanding of the epidemiology of economically important livestock diseases
2.2 Lack of effective disease control, prevention and treatment
2.3 Poor diagnostic ,control and prevention capacity on prevalent trans-boundary livestock
diseases
2.4 The prevalence of zoonotic diseases (e.g. tuberculosis, rabies etc.)
2.5. Low infrastructure and human power resource on livestock disease control/prevention
activities
2.6 Lack of information on wildlife, bee and fish diseases
2.7 Suboptimal level of budget allocation for drug/vaccine procurement at district office of
agriculture and at district level
Poor genotype/inappropriate breeding systems
3.1 Poor productivity of local breeds compared with exotic breeds in conventional measures/
lack of improved genotypes
3.2 Absence of breeding/mating system
3.3 Lack of facilities for artificial insemination (semen, liquid nitrogen, motor cycles, fuel etc.)
3.4 Lack of phenotypic and genotypic characterization of livestock and poultry
3.5 Lack of characterization of existing honeybee species and races
3.6 Lack of characterization and conservation of aquatic biodiversity

3.7 Low efficiency of artificial insemination (poorly trained inseminators, lack of heat detection,
etc.)
Poor livestock management practices
4.1 Lack of appropriate feeding, animal health, and breeding management
4.2 Lack of appropriate beekeeping management
4.3 Absence of appropriate fishery and aquaculture management
4.4 Lack of sustainable wildlife management

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 Socio-economic and institutional problems
5.1 Less attention given to livestock sub-sector by local administrators
5.2 Absence of livestock policies (breeding, fishery, apiculture, extension, etc.)
5.3 Lack of appropriate livestock product marketing such as processing, storage, distribution,
pricing techniques for milk, meat, hides and skins etc.
5.4 Long period of time required for livestock technology generation, dissemination and
adoption
5.5 Loose farmer-research-extension linkage; poor livestock extension service
5.6 Poor market information on livestock and livestock products

3.1.3 Problems Identified by the Faculty of Natural and Computational Sciences.

Just like other academic units of the University, a number of problems are identified by the Faculty of
Natural and Computational Sciences and are included in this section.
 HIV and related problems
 Malaria, TB and water borne diseases
 Problems on effective utilization of Irrigation (project, impact and assessment)
 Lack of sustainability in natural resource conservation structures and practices
 Problems related to water shade management
 Climate change and deforestation
 Ineffective usage of woreda-net and school-net
 Crop diseases
 Security Issues
 Students dropouts
 Lack of standardize evaluation of education quality
 Reduction in fish type and productivity
 Land resources management and use
 Import and export problems
 Problems on human resource development
 Environmental impact on the living situations of the people
 Problems on the utilization of plasma TV
 Failure to find and use alternative energy sources
 Lack of access to programs teaching vocational skills and science
 Ineffective management of water resource
 Less awareness in ICT
 Inadequacy of practical training in science
 Unemployment

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  Animal diseases
 Soil degradation
 In adequate supply of improved seeds and fertilizers and post harvest technology

3.1.4 Problems Identified by the Faculty of Agriculture

General
 Low productivity, Natural resources degradation, poverty and less development
Crop production and protection
 Productivity loss due to Insect pest, pathogens and weed problems i.e lack of improved
crop protection technologies and practices
 Lack of improved crop technologies such as improved crop varieties and agronomic
technologies and practices
 Soil fertility loss: lack of improved and integrated soil fertility management technologies
and practices
 Lack of post harvest technologies especially improvement of end use quality
 Poor crop diversity management- genetic erosion

Natural Resources and Environmental Management

 Soil, forest, wetland and water resources degradation and improper natural resources
utilization
 Lack of appropriate NRM technologies ( water harvesting, forest management, soil ,
watershed and ecosystem management)
 Lack of appropriate land utilization and management system
 Inadequate nursery techniques and supply of planting materials ( seedlings)
 Inadequate supply of high value tree species and tree seeds ( lack of alternative tree
species, inadequate information on the biology and utilization of indigenous tree species)
 Lack of information on natural resources and biodiversity potentials
 Unsustainablity of soil and water conservation structures
 Lack of biological and socioeconomics information on indigenous tree species
 Climate change and its impact on agricultural production
 Access to natural resources (land tenure issues)
 Natural resources related policy implementation constraints (NRM policy constraints)

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 Rural Development and Agricultural extension
 Poor marketing strategy and lack of post harvest technologies
 Poor marketing/value chain system for agricultural and forest products
 Poor adoption and transfer of agricultural technologies
 Institutional problems (Lack of integration and coordination among stakeholders in rural
development)
 Lack of alternative energy sources

3.1.5 Problems Identified by the Faculty of Business and Economics

The problems identified by the Faculty of Business and Economics are:
 Food insecurity
 Unemployment
 Illegal border trade
 Poor living status of many women headed households
 Misuse/wrong Utilization/ of Communal Lands by district Youth association
 High default rate (In Micro and small Enterprises)
 Non-effectiveness of Micro and small Enterprises
 Problems related with Livestock and livestock products marketing.
 Problems related with BPR Effectiveness
 Research-Extension linkage problem
 Lack of Effective Business plan for food in secured HHs
 Expansion of “CHAT’’ Production
 Fire wood Plantation VS Agricultural Activities.
 Miss-targeting in Safety-Net Program
 Unsuccessfulness of Cooperatives
 Managerial Problems in Cooperatives
 Training gap of Trade and Industry Offices personnel
 Staff Turn Over of Governmental Sectors
 Illegal Employment agencies
 Problems on Procurement in Finance and Economic Development Department/Offices
 Ineffectiveness of Consumer Cooperatives
 Problems related with tourism
 Problems related with Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation in Governmental offices/sectors.
 Non-effective Monitoring and Evaluation system of Government towards NGO‟s follow-ups.
 Poor Contribution of NGOs
 The performance of Agricultural extension system

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 Problems on effective watershed management (eg. Guna watershed)
 Natural Resource Degradation and Deforestations.
 Limited agricultural Inputs
 Underutilization of Irrigations
 The problem of land ownership, allocation, management and utilization
 Unavailability of Crop/Horticulture market
 The chronic (acute) shortage of credit facilities across the district
 Contraband trade
 The Ethio-Sudan trade imbalance
 The problems of investment activities
 Lack of cooperation among traders and investors
 Limited benefit from the various religious and natural tourist attractions
 Mobility of traders and the associated control and tax evasion problems.
 Tax and tax-related problems
 Limited knowledge in documentation and computerization
 Problems related to import-export procedures
 Limited knowledge on marketing information systems
 Ineffective human resources management
 Problems to apply advertising and promotional activities
 Problems related to entrepreneurship
 Lack of knowledge in small business management
 Ineffective financial management
 Lack of knowledge on project preparation, control and evaluation
 Limited knowledge in legal and illegal border trade, free market and trade law
 Limited knowledge in leadership, good governance and trade negotiation
 Lack of knowledge in business ethics
 Lack of knowledge in project accounting
 Ineffective customers care and service provision
 Little business communications
 The harmful effects of Semien mountain national park on the local and surrounding residents.
 Problems on the co-existence between wild animals and local communities in the Semien
mountain national park
 Ineffective diversification and development of additional tourist sites
 Administrative injustice and corruption
 Unattractive relationship between cooperatives and their unions.
 The decline in the number of endemic animals such as Red fox
 The deteriorating work culture and the development of dependency syndrome
 The challenges and opportunities for service marketers

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  Lack of knowledge in basic of accounting and finance
 Limited knowledge in computer application.
 Unutilized natural resources
 Limited knowledge in planning
 Communication problems, both in English and Amharic.
 Unavailability of agro- processing
 Lack of knowledge in market research & marketing information system
 Lack of knowledge on how to dispose used materials
 Underutilized investments opportunities for tourism& recreational ventures in connection
with lake Tana
 Problems in productivity and land ownership.
 Time management problems
 Lack of knowledge in business law
 Low or poor education on the will and ability to work
 Attitudinal & cultural related problems on the will & ability to work.

3.1.6 Problems Identified by the Faculty of Social Sciences and the Humanities
Generally, the problems identified by the staff members of the Faculty of Social Sciences and the
Humanities are classified as agriculture and rural development related problems, water resources,
small and micro enterprises, trade and industry, youth and sport, social affairs, health and related
problems, gender related and other problems.

Social Affairs
 Child trafficking
 Abduction [especially male child]
 Begging as a social problem
 Unemployment
Youth and sport
 Lack of working and recreation areas of the youth
 The limited role played by the Youth and Sport office in mobilizing the young
generation
 Lack of awareness and commitment of the youth in creating job opportunity
 drug abuse
 Problem to make business plan
 Youth and Crime
 Lack of reproductive health related trainings
 Lack of initiatives to be self-employed.
 Lack of peer education

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Gender Related
 Inability of women to solve their own problems by themselves
 Poor coordination between gender office, justice and police
 Lack of community‟s awareness about gender
 Problems in attrition rate and commercial sex work
 Problems related to exercising gender mainstreaming
Education
 Problems in evaluation of educational quality
 Poor library utilization
 Poor laboratory Organization
 Inadequacy of practical training in science fields
 Limited knowledge in technical drawing and ICT
 Low performance of the teachers in conducting action research
 Inaccessibility of special need education
 Problems in the professional efficiency of the teacher
 The implementation of student centered approach is not practical
 Problems related to student‟s discipline
 Weak school-community relationship
 Training in information technology and the plasma is not functioning properly
 Problems related to educational input supply
 Limited or almost non-existence of CPD-training and support
 Inefficient student enrollment system
 Curriculum not contextualized to the local environment
 Students dropout
 Lack of kindergarten
 Problem of English language among teachers
 Problems related to good leadership
 Unfair student-class size ratio.
 Cheating by students
 Folklore problems
 Language problems.

Health and Related Problems

 Lack of full-fledged health service of the community
 Health care financing problem
 Problems in HIV/AIDS- adherence and intervention
 Problems in attitude and professional ethics of the health professionals
 Lack of well organized data on patients
 Lack of community participation in safeguarding the hospital from damage

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  Tuberculosis, Eye and Respiratory infectious diseases.
 Food and water borne disease
 HIV/AIDS resources tracking
 Problems to design strategies for Integrated solid waste management
 ART-defaulter and related problems
 Lack of coordination between the HIV/ADIS office and the concerned bodies
 Unavailability of voluntary counseling and testing services.

Water Resources
 Waste management, water Pollution and related problems
 Problems in water harvesting knowledge and practice of the experts and the farmers
 Problems in watershed management
 Problems related with water supply and sanitation
 Problems in appropriate water and soil conservation

Agriculture & Rural Development

 Problems related with natural resource conservation practice
 Food security problems.
 Problems of irrigational practice and marketability of the products
 Problems related with land use system and administration
 Lack of technical advisory services, for advising farmers on technology
 Problems in resettlement.
 Conflict problems
 Problems related with the performance of the extension system
 Failure to adopt and utilization new technology
 Post-harvest management problems
 Little knowledge in cropping pattern
 Gulley development
 Less productivity of the livestock sector
 Shortage of improved animal feed
 Poor herbicide and pesticide provision and utilization
 Crop disease and emerging weeds
 Lack of knowledge in business development plan
 Little knowledge in conserving natural resources
 Modern agricultural input supply and related problems
 Decreasing ground water level
 Deforestation
 Problems related with post-harvest milk processing and marketing (demand-supply)
 Lack of knowledge in GPS and GIS based land use classification

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  Limited knowledge in the economic contribution of Mushroom production
 Failure to Integrate meteorological forecasting data
 Problems in relating institutional research and extension to farmers indigenous
knowledge for sustainable agriculture
 Little utilization of fertilizers
 Problems in dependency syndrome

Trade and Industry

 Illegal trade
 Market failures
 Lack of basic and technical skills of the experts
 Less participation of NGOs in poverty reducing
 Lack of knowledge in protecting tourist attraction sites.
 Lack of sustainable tourism mechanists for development.
 Lack of coordination among investors

Small and Micro Enterprises

 Problems related to budget sources
 Weak linkage between stakeholders and small and micro enterprises
 Lack of knowledge on business development system
 Dependency syndrome within the stakeholders
 Market-linkage and related problems
 Credit delivery and repayment problem
 Low saving culture of the stakeholders
 Lack of business skill
 Weak integration between TVET and Small and Micro-enterprises
 Micro-finance services delivery
 Lack of credit facilities.
 Lack networking between stakeholders

Others
 Security problems
 Lack of good governance
 Child labor abuse
 Lack of quality of education in governmental and private schools
 Unaffordable housing rent
 Poor market linkage and related activities for small and micro-enterprises
 Lack of knowledge and practice in modern technology utilization
 Lack of attention and support for cultural heritage management

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  Lack of support for elderly and retired people
 Lack of basic computer and database management skills in various sectors
 Computer maintenance and troubleshooting problems
 Inappropriate use of Woreda-net and school-net
 Limited contribution of private sector in poverty alleviation
 Challenges and prospects for decentralization
 Corruption
 Problems in self-employment
 Lack of knowledge in monitoring and evaluation safety net works
 Rape and early marriage
 suicidal crimes
 Problem of prison centers towards behavioral change
 Lack of awareness of the community towards people with disability.
 BPR and related problems

3.1.7 Problems Identified by the School of Law

As per the outcome of the need assessment survey, the School of law identified the following
problems.
 Absence of alternative punishment by courts
 Unplanned and not well managed land distribution
 Illegal child trafficking through port of Sudan
 Lack of integrity and Cooperation among justice organs
 Problem of false testimony as a hindrance to Secure justice
 0rder of the court for suspected individuals to stay with sentenced prisoners as a human
Right violations
 Dalliance of justice
 The harmful traditional practice (FGM, Early mirage etc.)
 Absence of accountability and responsibility by medical professionals
 Absence of Ethical Responsibility by G.U students as a cause for social disorder
 Sewerage emitted from the hospital has been creating environmental pollution
particularly around” keha‟ river.
 Farmer patients are not equally treated with persons from the town at health centers.
 In reality juvenile offenders have been imprisoned with major criminals
 The time limit to be granted by law to investigating police for finalizing investigation is
not as such clear
 Imbalance of knowledge and skill between investigating police and a public prosecutor.
 Individuals refuse to give testimony for which they have knowledge.
 Problem of identifying civil matters from crimes by the majority of the society

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  Short term turnover of municipality administrators
 Judges are inclined to impose penalty based on the lower limit provided by the law.
 Courts do not give a verdict which to be a lesson for others on causes of deforestation and
absence of co-operation by stakeholders to control Environmental pollution
 Lack of adequate provision of ART for HIV/AIDS patients.
 Problem of HOMOSEXUALITY
 Problem of vagrancy
 Problems and constraints on social welfare
 Dealings of products which is Expired and/or spoiled
 Tax law
 Usage of farming lands for the public purpose by the government.
 Food insecurity and safety net
 Corruption
 Drug abuse by the youth
 Violence against domestic servants
 Absence of Basic Medicines in governmental Health Institutions, and unaffordable price
by private Health institutions

3.1.8 Problems Identified by the School of Engineering

Water and Environment
 Problems related with water supply and sanitation
 Liquid waste management problems
 Solid waste management problems
 Integrated water shed management problems
 Lack of small scale irrigation technology
 Lack of ground water investigation study
 Lack environmental impact assessment study
 Lack of river basin study
 Lack of environmental pollution control
 Low integration of professionals in infrastructures
 Problems related with ecological sanitation technology
 Problems related with climate change adaptation
 Lack of small scale hydropower
 Problems related with assessment of water sources

Sustainable Energy
 Problems related with Electrification of rural areas and small villages in Amhara region
 Low usage of Solar energy

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  Low usage of Wind energy
 Low usage of Mini hydropower plant.
 Lack of commitment on Green energy for Ethiopia.
 Lack of cooling system for desert areas.
 Problems related with Refrigeration and air conditioning system.
 Problems related with solar heater and solar collector design and installation.
 Low usage of Wind turbine
 Low usage of Wind pump
 Low usage of Bio gas plant
 Problems related with Rural energy saving stove/wood saver
 Problems related with Chicken house heater
 Lack of Computer Simulation and Design of Thermal Systems,
 Problems related with Waste Heat Utilization

Construction industry and urban enhancement

 Problems related with construction industry and site management system development
 Problems related with strength of construction materials quality inhancment and
development
 Problems related with finding of low cost buildings and infrastructures using construction
materials
 Problems related with application of construction wast and used materials for
construction industry
 Problems related with urban development for slum areas
 Problems related with sand and aggregate quality improvement
 Problems related with approach to effective maintenance management
 Problems related with integration of professionals in infrastructures
Designing and Manufacturing
The design and manufacturing team of the faculty have identified that all machineries and
equipments except a few of them are imported from aboard with a very high cost in dollars. But
many of the machineries and equipments can be designed/redesigned and manufactured with a
good quality and affordable cost for the society, some of the problems in this category are:
 low quality and productivity but high cost of welding machine;
 high cost of agricultural machineries;
 high cost of transportation machineries;
 high cost of construction machineries;
 high cost of manufacturing equipments;
 high cost of wood lathe;
 high cost of manual sheet metal roller machine;

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  problems related with Casting and welding facility;
 problems related with glass recycling;
 problems related with Paper recycling;
 lack of knowledge on pro-cast in metal manufacturing industries;
 problems related with Processing of polymers and composite materials;
 problems related with Rapid manufacturing/prototyping;
 less commitment on reverse engineering for Ethiopia;
 knowledge gap on Finite Element Applications in Manufacturing;
 Knowledge gap on CAD/CAM;
 Knowledge gap on Intelligent Manufacturing;
Industrial Automation and Control System
 Problems related with Electro pneumatic control system design
 Lack of knowledge on industrial automation and its advantage
 Lack of knowledge on control system
Quality Control (an Engineering approach)
 problems on Industrial Quality Control
 Productivity Management problems
 Production & Materials Management problems
 lack of Concurrent Planning
 knowledge gap on Computer Integrated Manufacturing Systems
Information and Communication Technology
 Information gap between the community of UoG
 Misconception on IT effectiveness in Enterprise Systems

The problems which are identified by the various units of the University can be alleviated either
with research intervention or community services, such as consultation services, trainings and
other services. For those problems, which require research intervention, the corresponding
researchable issues are identified and included under the appropriate research thematic areas.
Therefore, the research thematic areas and community services are discussed in the next sections.

3.2 Research Thematic Areas

Prior to merging research thematic areas which have common themes at the University level, the
various academic units of UoG (the College, Faculties and Schools) identified their research
thematic areas based on the procedures described in the previous sections and submitted their
respective research thematic areas proposals. Accordingly, the research thematic areas proposed
by each of them are listed below.

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College of Medicine and Health Sciences
 Infectious Diseases
 Maternal and Child Health
 Nutrition Related Issues
 Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety/Other Public Health Issues
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
 Farm and Wild animals health
 Veterinary Public Health
 Animal Production and Productivity; and Socio-economic and Institutional issues
Faculty of Natural and Computational Sciences
 Environment, Water and Energy
 Information and Communication Technology
 Science and the Society
Faculty of Agriculture
 Crop Production and Protection
 Natural Resources and Environmental Management
 Rural Development and Agricultural Extension
Faculty of Business and Economics
 Livelihoods and Development
 Tourism, Hospitality and Resource Management
 Business and Finance
Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities
 Psychosocial Issues and Mental Health
 Socio-cultural and Socio-economic Issues
 Environment and Development Issues
School of Engineering
 Water, Environment and Sustainable Energy.
 Construction Industry and Urban Enhancement
 Designing, Manufacturing, Industrial Automation and Quality Control
 Information and Communication Technology

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School of Law
 Individual and Group Legal Protections
 Alternative Dispute Resolution Mechanisms
School of Education
 Quality of Education
An in-depth scrutiny of the above research thematic areas was made for there are some which
can be merged to be one. As a benchmark to fix the possible number of research thematic areas
at the University, we have observed the research thematic area documents of other national and
international higher educational institutions and research centers. From among these national and
international higher educational institutions and research centers, many of them have research
thematic areas that are at most 20 in number. In view of this fact, the Research and Community
Services Core Process of the University has come up with 20 broad research thematic areas. It
should also be thought that the broad research thematic areas can extend across more than one
faculty and will normally incorporate a number of research groups.

Theme 1: Infectious Diseases

Infectious diseases are responsible for a number of morbidities and mortalities. They are by far
as one of the most burning issues of developing countries. Tuberculosis, malaria, HIV/AIDS,
diarrheal diseases and pneumonia are some of the most prevalent infectious diseases in the
world. A number of interventions have been designed and are implemented with regard to the
prevention and control of these diseases. For example
HIV/AIDS has been the focus of much funding for health care expenditure in the world.
One of the functions of public health is to identify the major infectious diseases of concern in a
specified locality and devise preventive and control measures accordingly.
With the above concept in mind, the following researchable issues are identified:
1. Tuberculosis
a. Prevalence of tuberculosis
b. Tuberculosis detection rate
c. MDR TB
d. Adherence to treatment regimens
e. Evaluation of the effects of anti tuberculosis drugs

26
f. Patterns and magnitude of drug-resistant tuberculosis
g. Delay in tuberculosis diagnosis and treatment
h. Awareness, attitude and practice on tuberculosis transmission and its prevention methods
i. Clinical issues in tuberculosis
2. HIV/AIDS
a. Magnitude and distribution of HIV/AIDS
b. Adherence to treatment regimens
c. Determinants of high HIV transmission
d. Adherence to Anti-Retroviral Therapy(ART) regimens by people living with HIV
e. Evaluation of the effects of treatment (drugs) for HIV/AIDS
f. Adverse effects associated with ART
g. Drug interactions between ART and other treatments
h. Stigma and discrimination towards people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA)
i. Patterns of drug-resistant HIV
j. Time of diagnosis and delay in pursuing chronic HIV care treatment
k. Awareness, attitude and practice on HIV/AIDS transmission and its prevention methods
l. Quality of life among PLWHA before and after ART
m. Sexuality among HIV/AIDS patients
3. Malaria
a. Prevalence of malaria
b. Malaria detection rate
c. Evaluation of the effects of anti malaria drugs
d. Drug-resistance and treatment failure
e. Delay in malaria diagnosis and treatment
f. Vector resistance
g. Awareness, attitude and practice on malaria transmission and its prevention
Methods
4. Leishmaniasis
a. Magnitude of leishmaniasis
b. Morbidity and mortality related to leishmaniasis
c. Adherence to treatment regimens

27
d. Effectiveness of drugs used for leishmaniasis
e. Diagnostic and treatment delay of leishmaniasis
f. Awareness, attitude and practice on leishmaniasis transmission and its prevention
methods
5. Diarrheal diseases (caused by bacteria, virus, and parasites)
a. Prevalence of diarrheal diseases
b. Diarrheal detection rate
c. Adherence to treatment regimens for diarrheal diseases
d. Evaluation of the effects of anti diarrheal diseases drugs
e. Patterns and magnitude of drug-resistant diarrheal diseases
f. Delay in diarrheal disease diagnosis and treatment
g. Awareness, attitude and practice on diarrheal diseases transmission and its prevention
methods
h. Clinical issues in diarrheal diseases
6. Shistosomiasis
a. Magnitude of shistosomiasis
b. Adherence to treatment regimens for shistosomiasis
c. Effectiveness of anti shistosomiasis drugs
d. Delay in shistosomiasis diagnosis and treatment
e. Awareness, attitude and practice on shistosomiasis transmission and its prevention
methods
7. Nosocomial infection
a. Prevalence of nosocomial infections
b. Nosocomial infections detection rate
c. Adherence to treatment regimens for nosocomial infections
d. Patterns and magnitude of drug-resistant nosocomial infections
e. Delay in nosocomial infections diagnosis and treatment
f. Awareness, attitude and practice on nosocomial infections transmission and its
prevention methods
g. Clinical issues in nosocomial infections
8. Human papiloma virus (HPV)

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 a. Magnitude and distribution of HPV
b. Adherence to treatment regimens for HPV
c. Evaluation of the effects of anti HPV drugs
d. Delay in HPV diagnosis and treatment
e. Awareness, attitude and practice on HPV transmission and its prevention methods
9. Sexual Transmitted Infections (STI)
a. Magnitude and distribution of STI
b. Adherence to treatment regimens for STI
c. Determinants of high STI transmission
d. Evaluation of the effects of treatments for STI
e. Stigma and discrimination towards people living with STI
f. Awareness, attitude and practice on STI transmission and its prevention
g. Sexuality among STI patients
10. Hepatitis
a. Magnitude of different types of hepatitis
b. Adherence to treatment regimens for hepatitis
c. Evaluation of the effects of anti hepatitis drugs
d. Delay in hepatitis diagnosis and treatment
e. Awareness, attitude and practice on hepatitis transmission and its prevention methods
11. Mycosis
a. Magnitude and distribution of mycosis
b. Adherence to treatment regimens for mycosis
c. Evaluation of the effects of anti HPV mycosis
d. Delay in mycosis diagnosis and treatment
e. Awareness, attitude and practice on mycosis transmission and its prevention methods
12. Eye disease
a. Prevalence of eye diseases
b. Eye diseases detection rate
c. Patterns of blindness (cataract, glaucoma refractory disease)
d. Adherence to treatment regimens for eye diseases
e. Patterns and magnitude of drug-resistant eye diseases

29
 f. Delay in eye diseases diagnosis and treatment
g. Awareness, attitude and practice on eye diseases transmission and its prevention
methods
h. Clinical issues in eye diseases
i. Ocular infection
j. Ocular manifestations of medical diseases like DM, hypertension, HIV/AIDS, etc.
k. Outcomes of visual treatment.
13. Urinary Tract Infections (UTI)
a. Prevalence of UTI
b. UTI detection rate
c. Adherence to treatment regimens for UTI
d. Patterns and magnitude of drug-resistant UTI
e. Delay in UTI diagnosis and treatment
f. Awareness, attitude and practice on UTI transmission and its prevention methods
g. Clinical issues in UTI
14. Pharmacology and pharmacognosy
a. Screening of traditional herbs for anti diseases activities
b. Ethino pharmacology of traditional medicines
c. Invio and invitro activities of CVS of herbal remedies
d. Drug Prescription
e. Drug selection for chronic diseases
f. Drug interaction and management
g. Traditional herbs and pregnancy
h. Knowledge and attitude towards drug utilization
i. Screening of natural products for bio activity
i. Antimicrobial screening
ii. MIC determination of natural products
iii. Anti cancer screening
iv. Anti oxidant screening
v. Anti inflammatory, anti protozoa, anti helmentic…screening
j. Collection and documentation

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 i. Medicinal plants
ii. Ethno medicine
iii. Toxic natural products
iv. Trends and alternative/complimentary medicine
v. Alternative vs allophatic
Theme 2: Maternal and Child Health

Maternal and Child Health is the focus of many health programs nowadays. Especially with the
formulation of the Millennium Development Goals, this topic has won a sincere attention among
health professionals and politicians. Reduction of maternal and child death is the central idea of
the Millennium Development Goals in general. Many countries have already started a number of
programs to help them achieve these goals.
Moreover, maternal and child health needs special attention in developing countries as the
related problems are widely seen in these countries. Identifying researchable areas related to this
issue can be considered as a starting point for a number of health Interventions. The following
are researchable areas to be addressed under this theme.
1. Status of women empowerment, adolescent and youth health services
2. Maternal and child health issues
3. Accessibility of reproductive health services
4. Factors related to utilization and accessibility of reproductive health services
5. Problems associated with antenatal care and delivery
6. Sexually transmitted illnesses, magnitude and patterns
7. Contraceptive prevalence
8. Supply and options of contraceptives by health institutions
9. Professionals‟ commitment towards contraceptive utilization
10. Treatment of common childhood illnesses
11. Neonatal care
12. Antenatal care
13. Deliveries attended by midwives
14. Common causes of morbidity and mortality among children
15. Immunization of children and mothers
16. Pattern of childhood ocular morbidity and blindness

31
 17. Causes of maternal morbidity and mortality.
18. Measures of maternal mortality
19. Unsafe abortion (magnitude, determinants and choice of abortion methods)
20. Hemorrhage
21. Pregnancy related disorders (Eclamcia, Preeclamcia, etc)
22. Obstetric fistula
23. Delay in seeking care
24. Early marriage
25. Monarchy and related disorders
26. Infertility (causes, prevalence and social consequences )
27. Assessment on community and health service providers
28. Degree of integration of maternal and child health with other services, e.g., PMTCT,
VCT, etc.
29. Specific maternal and child health measures.
Theme3: Nutrition Related Issues

Nutrition is a very important aspect of health in general. Nutrition plays major roles in
preventing infectious diseases. The existence of nutrition related problems in a community
means much more than the problem itself. Like many other health related issues, nutritional
problems are also common in developing countries. In different countries, there are nutritional
policies and programs which are designed to tackle the problem. This shows that nutrition is a
public health important issue. In addition to interventions done to people during disasters like
flooding and wars, nutritional interventions are a day to day requirement for the welfare of a
particular community.

The advantage of nutrition related programs is many folds. Intensive researches are required to
fill the gaps in the understanding of nutrition related problems. The following nutrition related
researchable areas are identified:
1. Breastfeeding and weaning
2. Harmful and helpful traditional nutritional practices
3. The magnitude and types of nutritional problems in children
4. Prevalence and pattern of macronutrient deficiencies, micronutrient deficiencies

32
 5. Factors related to nutrition related problems
6. Evaluation of nutrition intervention programs
7. Knowledge, attitude and practice of people on nutritional problems
8. Nutritional surveillance
9. Policy issues in nutrition
10. Vitamin A deficiency and eye problem
11. Vitamin A disorders
12. Obesity
13. Nutrition surveillance
14. HIV/AIDS and Nutrition
Theme4: Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety/ Other Public Health Issues
Environmental and occupational health and safety and non infectious health problems are
identified as the fourth thematic area for research. The major problems identified by this report in
this thematic area are related to water, food, sanitation, health and safety environmental
pollution, substance abuse and chronic diseases are outstanding problems in the surveyed zones.
Many other public health problems exist but these are the areas which need greater emphasis,
and the possible researchable areas under this theme are outlined as follows:
1. Food, Water supply and sanitation
a. Solid waste
b. Liquid waste
c. Water and sanitation projects evaluation
d. Health care and hazardous waste management
e. Waste recycling
f. Clean environment
g. Physico- chemical Water quality
h. Biological water quality
i. Water bodies pollution
j. Infection prevention
k. Health extension packages
l. Food microbiology
m. Food borne diseases

33
 n. HACCP
o. Food handlers
p. Physical and chemical food analysis
q. Food spoilage
r. Food preservation
s. Food adulteration
2. Occupational Safety and health
a. Safety in the workplace
b. Work related health problems
c. Injury
d. Accident
e. Patient safety
f. Organizations health and safety culture
g. Economic cost of health and safety
h. Motion sickness
i. Occupational diseases
j. Work design
k. System design
l. Office ergonomics
m. Computer ergonomics
n. Noise
o. Thermal
p. Vibration assessment
q. Product design ergonomics
r. Work and Stress
3. Environmental pollution and Vector control
a. Traditional vector control methods
b. Vector distribution in Ethiopia
c. Vector epidemiology
d. Chemical resistance of vectors
e. Impregnated bed net

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 f. Indoor air pollution
g. Indicator for air pollution
h. Climate change
i. Greenhouse gas effect
j. Acidification
k. Air quality monitoring
l. GIS and mapping
m. Environmental pollution and eye problem
n. SAFE strategy for trachoma control
4. Substance abuse
a. Drug abuse
b. Magnitude of substance abuse
c. Factor related substance abuse
d. Consequence substance abuse
e. Health effect of substance abuse
f. Pharmacological activities of commonly abused substances
5. Chronic and/or non communicable diseases
a. Diabetics mellitus
b. Hypertension
c. Cancer
d. Orange disorders
e. Hematological disorders
f. Blood donation and safety
6. Economic costs of diseases
7. Cost effectiveness of intervention
8. Health workers motivation and customer satisfaction
9. BPR implementation assessment in the health sector
10. Health care utilization
11. Management of information system
12. Climate change and health
13. Disaster prevention and management

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14. Environment impact assessment
15. Health risk assessment
Theme 5: Farm and Wild Animals Health
The livestock population of Ethiopia which is the largest in Africa, provides the bulk of the
draught power for cultivation, the household‟s meat and milk, and is also a major source of cash
and a store of wealth for the rural population. Despite the importance of livestock to the larger
sector of the population and to the national economy, the sub-sector has remained unexploited
because of different factors including: poor productivity, lack of good management and prevalent
livestock diseases; the major problem is contributed by livestock diseases. The contribution of
wild animals to eco-tourism and their significance for reservoir and transmission of livestock
diseases is untouched. Knowledge regarding especially of trans-boundary and trade sensitive
diseases and on diseases which cause serious loss because of their high prevalence is important
to add value on our farms. Therefore, research to facilitate diagnostic, treatment, control and
prevention activities on farm and wild animals‟ health is of paramount importance to maximize
production and productivity of this resource.

The most priority issues which can be covered under farm and wild animals‟ health thematic area
include:
1. Bovine health:
a. Study of diseases for bovines managed under extensive management (FMD, CBPP,
bovine pasteurollosis, endoparasitism, trypanosomosis, reproductive wastages,
tuberculosis, tick and tick-borne diseases, LSD, phytotoxicity, RVF)
b. Study of diseases for bovines managed under intensive management (mastitis,
pasteurollosis, calf mortality, diarrheic diseases in calves, metabolic diseases,
reproductive wastages, tuberculosis, FMD, endoparasitism, tick and tick-borne
diseases)
2. Small ruminant health (endoparasitism, respiratory disease complex, sheep and goat pox,
PPR, skin diseases, viral diseases, lamb and kid mortality, diarrheic, reproductive
wastage, phytotoxicity)
3. Equine health and welfare research ( helmenthosis, AHS, management problems such as
associated with poor harnessing, tryponosomosis, strangles, reproductive wastages,
respiratory diseases, epizootic and ulcerative lymphangitis)

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4. Poultry health:
a. Study of diseases for poultry managed under commercial production and in poultry
breeding centres (NCD, IBD, coccidiosis, chronic respiratory disease, Marek‟s
disease, fowl cholera, nutritional deficiencies, salmonellosis)
b. Study of diseases for poultry managed under extensive management system (NCD,
internal and external parasites, coccidiosis, infectious bursal disease (IBD), egg
defects and hatchability problems, nutritional deficiencies).
5. Evaluation of veterinary drugs and vaccines
a. Survey and inventory of the existing veterinary drugs
b. Assessment of the state of illegal drug usage
c. Evaluation of efficacy of routinely used drugs and assessing drug resistance
d. Setting options to combat drug resistance and drug utilization
e. Testing the efficacy of vaccines currently used for prevention of livestock diseases
f. Assessment of the efficiency of mass prophylactic vaccination practices
6. Survey and identification of honey bee diseases
7. Survey and identification of fish diseases
8. Assessment of ethno-veterinary practices
a. Assessment of the contribution of herbal medicaments
b. Evaluation of herbs as medicaments and development of botanical garden
c. Phytomedical analysis
d. Helping in patenting farmers‟/traditional healers output
9. Camel health research (respiratory disease complex, internal and external parasites,
morbilli virus like infection in camels, trypanosomosis, foot and mouth disease, calf-crop
mortality and diarrheic diseases in camel calves)
10. Research on distribution, behaviour, and welfare of wild animals and the impact of wild
animal-livestock interface
a. Study on the type, number and distribution (population dynamics) of different species
of wild animals (Alatish, Simein Mountains National Parks).
b. Study on the impact of wild animal-livestock interface in the different parks
c. Assessment of feed resources of wild animals in the different parks
11. Epidemiological research on diseases of wildlife

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 a. Study on the occurrence and distribution of infectious diseases of wild animals such
as rabies, anthrax, parasitism
b. Study on the possible risk factors associated with the occurrence and distribution of
wild animals
c. Study on the occurrence and distribution of metabolic and nutritional diseases and
poisoning of wild animals
12. Impact of climate change on farm and wild animal health
Theme 6: Veterinary Public Health

The importance of Veterinary Public Health and the economic significance of meat and milk-
borne diseases in developing countries are often under-reported and, therefore, under estimated,
even though the health hazards arising from the consumption of contaminated food especially
those of animal origin tend to be the most hazardous unless the principles of food hygiene are
employed.

Many foodborne diseases due to meat, milk and their products are the consequence of zoonoses
from domestic animals. Meat and milk-borne diseases may be caused by various agents such as
bacteria, viruses, protozoa, moulds, helminthes and poisonous chemicals, including residues of
veterinary drugs. Therefore, for the fullest and more adequate investigation of the problems of
food safety, to protect human from food-borne zoonotic diseases and support the strategies of
disease prevention in the country, the faculty has chosen veterinary public health to be one of the
research thematic area of it.

The following researchable areas are going to be addressed under this theme.
1. Zoonoses
a. Survey of emerging and re-emerging zoonotic diseases
b. Survey of major zoonotic diseases ( tuberculosis, brucellosis, rabies, hydatisosis,
cysticercosis, toxoplasmosis, leishmaniasis, rift valley fever, fasciolosis)
c. Investigation of epidemiological factors involved in the transmission of selected
economic and public health important zoonotic diseases.
2. Food quality and safety
a. Evaluation of traditional milk and meat preservation methods in relation to food-
borne diseases.

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 b. Isolation and identification of frequent causes of foodborne infections and
intoxications.
c. Evaluation of shelf-life of semi-processed and processed dairy and meat products
d. Identification of sources of bacteriological contamination of meat from farm (live
animal) to the consumer level.
e. Assessment of the existence of commonly used antibiotic and chemical residues in
foods of animal origin.
f. Relation of climate change with food spoilage and pathogenic organisms.
g. Identification of critical control points in food processing plants of animal origin.
Theme 7: Animal Production and Productivity; Socio-economic and Institutional Issues

Despite the importance of livestock to the larger sector of the population and to the national
economy, the sub-sector has remained untapped because of many problems including poor
productivity, lack of good management and poor genetic performance and diseases. It is,
therefore, important to study feeds and nutrition, genetics and breeding, and management
practices and production systems to foster utilization of feed resources, to know phenotypic and
genotypic character of indigenous farm animal resources, to characterize and conserve aquatic
biodiversity, to improve reproductive and productive efficiency, to develop appropriate animal
power technologies, and study socio-economic constraints and opportunities to livestock
production.

The following issues will be covered under animal production and productivity; and socio-
economic and institutional issues thematic area:

Feeds and Nutrition

1. Improvement of the utilization of feed resources:
a. Development of better ways of utilizing improved forages, crop residues, non-
conventional feeds, and agro-industrial by-products (from brewery factories, flour
mills, oil refineries, etc.);
b. Exploration of the indigenous knowledge of animal feeding (e.g. mineral
supplementation, fattening practices, etc.);
c. Development and on-farm testing of forage and concentrate-based short-term
fattening technologies appropriate to different production systems/agro-ecological

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 zones, species (e.g. Rutana sheep) and age groups to meet live and carcass weight
requirements of export markets;
d. Development of simple and cost-effective farm level feed conservation techniques;
e. Identification and evaluation of dearth period supplementary feeds for bees;
f. Development of appropriate bee colony feeding systems;
g. Characterization, evaluation and formulation of fish feeds (industrial, agricultural,
and household by-products); and
h. Study of the abundance of planktons and benthos.
2. Management and improvement of native pastures and germplasm
a. Evaluation of species composition, yield and quality
b. Identification, screening and collection of native grass and legume species which are
valuable as livestock feeds and bee forages
c. Improvement through various techniques (application of organic and inorganic
fertilizers, oversowing, etc.)
d. Introduction of appropriate grazing management practices (paddocking and rotational
grazing, etc.) through active community participation and use of by-laws
3. Development and management of improved forages
a. Adaptation trials on productive herbaceous forage legumes, grasses, and multipurpose
trees for different agro-ecologies
b. Agronomic studies on promising forage crops and multi-purpose trees
c. Integration of feed-food crops
d. Enhancement of the utilization of non-conventional feed resources
e. Reclamation of restricted grazing areas or enclosures with adaptable forage species
f. Improvement or management of fallow land
g. Selection and development of cultivars with high yield potential and quality
4. Improvement of forage seed supply
a. Breeder seed multiplication and maintenance for promising species
b. Development of appropriate seed production and distribution scheme to ensure
sustainable forage seed availability
5. Inventory and characterization of available feed resources
a. Inventory of locally available feed resources

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 b. Evaluation of the nutritive values of indigenous and improved forage and browse
species
c. Evaluation of nutritive values of major crop residues and agro-industrial by-products
Genetics and Breeding
1. Phenotypic and genotypic characterization of indigenous farm animal genetic resources:
a. Physical description and molecular characterization of local sheep, goat, cattle,
equine, and poultry breeds such as Farta, Washera sheep; Fogera, Felata, Rutana,
cattle.
b. Genetic variability studies and distance measurements on phenotypically described
breeds;
c. Genetic improvement and conservation of promising breeds;
 Selection for traits of interest within local genotypes;
 Crossbreeding with more productive local breeds or exotic genotypes (Fogera,
Holstein Friesian, Jersey breeds of cattle; Awasi and Washera sheep; Bore and
Ango-Nubian goats, etc.);
 Development of animal breeding strategy in collaboration with concerned
institutions;
d. On-farm evaluation of the performance of crossbred animals;
e. Designing of appropriate schemes for sustainable use of crossbred animals
f. Introduction of standardized recording system
2. Characterization and conservation of aquatic biodiversity and determination of
commercially important fish:
a. Phenotypic and genotypic study of local fish diversity;
b. Evaluation and assessment of exotic fish genotypes suitable for culture system;
c. Study on the biology of commercially important fish
d. Level of utilization of existing fish resources, selective fishing
e. Seasonal dynamics of economically important fish; appropriate fishing season
f. Involvement of different fish species in the food chain (carnivores, omnivores,
herbivores)
g. Trend analysis of fish productivity
3. Characterization of existing honeybee species and races

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Management Practices and Production Systems
1. Development of proper management practices to improve reproductive and productive
efficiency:
a. Development of appropriate technologies for rearing of calves, lambs, kids, etc.;
b. Improvement of the market condition finished/culled animals;
c. Development and promotion of appropriate and sustainable livestock management
packages incorporating improved feeding, hygiene, and animal health, breeding and
reproduction management components.
2. Development of appropriate animal power technologies:
a. Study on alternative options of equine-based cropland cultivation;
b. Investigation of efficient ways of animal-implement combinations and harnessing
systems for different farm operations;
c. Development of integrated health and nutritional management options for increased
working efficiency of draught animals;
d. Study on increasing the scope of use of draught animals in transhumant and mixed-
crop-livestock systems.
3. Development of appropriate fishery and aquaculture management techniques:
a. Study on the efficiency of culture techniques (cage, pond, integrated);
b. Recommendation of appropriate fishing seasons and gears;
c. Development of package for commercial fish fattening in artificial ponds (feeding,
fish density, size and depth of ponds, fish species selection, etc.).
4. Improvement of traditional and transitional beehives:
a. Development of appropriate bee space for modern hives;
b. Evaluation of splitting and queen rearing techniques
Socio-economic and Institutional
1. Feasibility studies for fattening, dairy, poultry, fishery, apiculture , etc. businesses:
 Study of beef cattle marketing systems: Why is the cross-border livestock trade
(allegedly) declining? Do we benefit from the current market structure? Does
current cattle population (growing only by about 1 % per annum) support the
export market satisfying the mounting domestic demand for meat? Or will it

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 further reduce the availability of the highly demanded oxen power to feed the
growing human population (growing about at a rate of 2.6 % per annum)?
 Designing of strategies to satisfy the ever increasing domestic demand for milk
and egg especially in urban areas.
2. Study of socio-economic constraints and opportunities to livestock production:
a. Characterization of livestock production systems e.g. identification of marketing
problems and development of strategies to improve export carcass of certain breeds
such as Rutana (Metema) sheep breed;
b. Identification of reasons for slow or little adoption of livestock production
technologies e.g. why does the use of dairy and other technologies disappear after the
termination of some projects such as ILDP;
c. Impact studies of released technologies or veterinary services provided for the public;
d. Demonstration and scaling-up of proven technologies.
3. Evaluation of livestock product processing, storage, and distribution techniques (e.g.milk,
meat, hides and skins processing technologies):
4. Evaluation of fishery and aquaculture production systems:
a. Assessment and enhancement of artificial water bodies;
b. Formulation of fishery management strategy guidelines and manuals for sustainable
exploitation of aquatic resources in Lake Tana and economically important rivers;
c. Estimation of maximum sustainable yield;
d. Investigation of the economic and social impacts of fish farming.

Theme 8: Water, Energy, Environment Management and Development Issues

Water, energy and environmental issues are becoming the world‟s main concerns as they have direct
impact on the real life of the society. If there is a limitation in anyone of the three, there will be an
ecosystem crisis which has a profound effect on the health, wealth and power of the society. Energy
can be obtained from both renewable and non-renewable resources. In developing countries,
including Ethiopia where electricity utilization is limited, energy is obtained from non-renewable
resource in most cases. If not properly used, such resources have direct negative consequence on the
environment. Such environmental crisis will lead to the water shortage and water pollution and the
vice versa, forming vicious circle. Furthermore, generation, adoption and dissemination of improved
technologies to ensure sustainable utilization and management of natural resource (Resource

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inventory, participatory NRM, soil fertility management, soil and water conservation, NTFP
utilization, forest development and management, climate change impact, adaptation and mitigation,
land tenure, water harvesting, acid and salt affect soils alternative energy) issues are the focuses of
this theme.
Water and Environment
 Water and food borne disease managment
 Atmospheric pollution studies
 Ground water potential assessment
 Water safety and quality
 Waste management
 Mathematical modeling in water and other resource management
 Bayesian modelling and analysis
 Water recycling
 Environmental engineering analysis.
 Integrated watershed management
 Environmental impact assessment
 Vulnerability to climate change
 Biodiversity and sustainable ecosystem conservation and management
 Biological and other remediation measures for contaminated soil as well as air and water
pollution
 Molecular characrerization of flora and fauna
 Fishery and aquaculture research interventions
 Instrumentation development for environment protection
 Material structure studies using computational techniques
 Sanitation project.
 Effective and sustainable soil and water management measures.
 Water harvesting techniques.
 Irrigation and water use efficiency.
 Solid waste management
 Liquid waste management

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 Ecological adaptations and propagations of Boswelia papyteria around Mettema and
Quara
 Water supply and sanitation (processes in treatment plants)
 River basin study
 Environmental pollution control
 Integration of professionals in infrastructures
 Ecological sanitation technology
 Climate change adaptation
 Assessment of small scale hydropower
 Assessment of water sources
 Water and sanitation management in slum and low income areas
 Water supply management in rural and urban areas
 Assessment of irrigation technologies using available lands and water sources
Energy
 Renewable energy
 Geo-hazards mitigations
 Geophysical survey
 Utilization of wind and solar energy
 Biogas plant design and implementation.
 Small scale hydropower project.
 Land, energy and Livelihoods
 Electrification of rural areas and small villages in Amhara region
 Solar energy
 Wind energy
 Mini hydropower plant
 Assessment of Green energy for Ethiopia
 Cooling system for desert areas
 Refrigeration and air conditioning system
 Solar heater and solar collector
 Wind turbine
 Wind pump
 Bio gas plant
 Rural energy saving stove/wood saver
 Chicken house heater
 Computer Simulation and Design of Thermal Systems,

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  Waste Heat Utilization
Natural Resource and Development
 Sustainable natural resources conservation, utilization and management
 Semen national park biodiversity conservation and management
 Developing biological control for crop pests and vectors
 Behavioural Biology

- Natural resource conservation practice

- Sustainable development policy

- Indigenous knowledge, soil degradation, poverty and farmers willingness in natural

resource management

- Restoration and rehabilitation of degraded lands.

- Sustainable management and utilization of woodlands in the North-Western lowlands.

- Non-timber forest products production, utilization and marketing (gum, resin, fruits,
medicinal plants).

- Soil fertility management

- Domestication of high value wild edible fruit trees.

- Characterization of indigenous tree species and introduction of high value exotic tree
species.

- Development and utilization of trees on farm.

- Wildlife (biodiversity) conservation and management.

- Agro-forestry system development.

- Participatory forest and nature management.

- Innovative value added interventions, market linkage and marketing systems of forest
products.

- Identifying, testing, validating and promoting NRM related indigenous knowledge/

technologies.

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 - Impact of land policy on natural resource management and conservation.

- Inventory and valuation of natural resources.

- Role of gender on NRM.

- Impact of resettlement and Agriculture Investment on natural resource.

- Impact of infrastructure (road)on soil and water conservation

- Land suitability analysis

- Land capability classification

- Production, utilization, processing and marketing of lowland bamboo

- Seed collection treatment and germination test of valuable trees in North Gondar.

- Wild life and its rangeland management

- Faire protection and plants adaption

- Land use change and deforestation detection using GIS

- GIS Application on sustainable utilization and management of natural resources.

Theme 9: Information, Communication and Construction Technology

According to recent researches, wise and wide (broad) utilization of ICT is one of the most
important components for bringing sustainable economic development in the developing countries.
In this regard, the Ethiopian government is giving high degree of emphasis and it is now making a
huge investment in both creating high skilled intellectuals in the field and disseminating ICT
infrastructures throughout the country. It is believed that higher educational institutions in the
country can play a substantial role in the technology transformation. University of Gondar, one of
the prominent universities in Ethiopia has therefore identified this broad theme as one of its focus
areas and ready to undertake researches geared towards information and communication technology.

These days, the construction sector is booming at a rate no one can imagine in Ethiopia. It goes
in line with the foundation of new towns, reconstruction and expansion of the existing towns,
and infrastructures. In order to make this promising start continual, the University has planned to

47
contribute a lot by engaging in research works in the area of construction industry and urban
enhancement.

Information and Communication Technology

- Information and awareness

- Technology Business Incubation in Ethiopia

- Development, follow-up policy, standards, procedure, guideline, of ICT at regional and

national level.

- Implement/ Support, E-government assignments, regionally and nationally.

- Facilitate and coordinate the development of the required National ICT Infrastructure;

- E-Revenue, E-Environment, E-Education, E-commerce, E-government and E-health

systems.

- Institutional Archives and document management

- National digital Library for Higher education

- Justice System

- Innovation and entrepreneurship

- ICTs in education challenges and research questions

o Impact
 Impact of ICTs on learning and achievement
 Monitoring and evaluation issues
 Equity issues: Equity, special needs and marginalized groups
o Planning
 ICT in Education Policy issues
 School-level issues
o Current implementations of ICTs in education
 Current projects and practices
 Specific ICT tools used in education
 Teachers, teaching and ICTs

48
  Content & curriculum issues
o Costs
 Case studies of a variety of strategies explored by public-private
partnerships to deliver ICT hardware, educational software and content,
maintenance and training as ways to share costs should also be explored.

- Electronic medical records

- Telemedicine

- Health management information system

- GAPs model analysis

- Data mining

- Text analyzer in information systems

- Software engineering

- System design and analysis

- Internet applications

- Computer networking

- Social network analysis

- Community FM radio construction for University of Gondar

- security system /camera system/
- IT effectiveness in Enterprise Systems
- Text analyzer in information systems
Construction Industry and Urban Enhancement
- Construction industry and site management system development
- Strength of construction materials quality inhancment and development
- Finding of low cost buildings and infrastructures using construction materials
- Application of construction wast and used materials for construction industry
- Urban development for slum areas

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 - Sand and aggregate quality improvement
- Approach to effective maintenance management
- Integration of professionals in infrastructures
Theme10: Designing, Manufacturing, Industrial Automation, and Quality Control

All over the world manufacturing industry is the second largest industry next to the service
industry. However, the manufacturing industries in our country are very small in number, their
productivity is very low and their products are low in quality. As a result, our country imports
even very small and simple machineries and equipments with very high cost though there is a
potential to design/redesign and manufacture them with a low cost and affordable to the society.
In view of this fact, therefore, the design and manufacturing team has identified the following
issues to be dealt under this theme.
Designing and Manufacturing

- Welding machine with 2 electrode holder/2 electrode holding capacity

- Corn planter
- Cereal or any crop plus fertilizer feeder
- Corn sheer or Sheller
- Improved welding machine with high power, well welding alternative phase
- Improved animal drawn cart
- Incubator design
- Forge chopper/animal feed
- Simple/manual fork lift
- Hand crank with lifting and lowering mechanism
- Wood lathe
- Four brick laying machine
- Mixer concrete
- Stone cuter/splitter machine/
- Manual sheet metal roller machine
- Casting and welding facility

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- Single animal drawing plowing machine
- Manual conveyor
- Pipe bending machine
- Vertical fork lift electrical/manual
- Sewerage tube mould
- Brick/blocket transporting cart
- Water sprayer for cemented building
- Bread baker machine
- Animal washer manual machine
- Farm water sprinkler
- Special bed with waste holder
- Sheep/goat slaughtering frame made of wood
- Manual washing machine
- Small scale glass recycling
- Paper recycling
- Design and development of waste plastic recycling machine
- Grinder
- Salt processing machine
- Fruit processing machine
- Honey processing machine
- Small scale furnace for mechanical work shop
- Small scale foundry for mechanical work shop
- Recycling of the metal chips from the machining shop (mechanical department)
- Welding machine for mechanical work shop
- Boat for fishing and transportation
- Plastic injection molding
- Plowing machine

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 - Potato digger machine
- Bajaj manufacturing
- Agricultural machineries
- Construction machineries
- Transportation machineries
- Entertainment facilities/amusement park for kindergarten
- Introduction of pro-cast to metal manufacturing industries
- Processing of polymers and composite materials
- Rapid manufacturing/prototyping
- Reverse engineering for Ethiopia
- Finite Element Applications in Manufacturing,
- Practical application of CAD/CAM,
- Intelligent Manufacturing
- PCB /Printed Circuit Board/ Design
Industrial Automation and Control System

- Electro pneumatic control system design

- Hydraulic lift for maintenance and washing of cars (UoG)
- Automation of student cafeteria cooking and washing machines (UoG)
- Industry control system using PLC/ FPGA
Quality Control (an Engineering approach)

- Industrial Quality Control

- Integrated reliability and optimal maintenance schedule design: A Life Cycle Cost based
approach
- Productivity Management
- Production & Materials Management
- Concurrent Planning
- Computer Integrated Manufacturing Systems

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 - Developing of Quality control for manufacturing industries (Dashin brewery, Bahir Dar
textile, Almeda textile)
- Developing of Quality control mechanism for service industries(UoG)
Theme 11: Science and the Society
Science has a very close relationship with the society in different aspects. However, so far the
contribution of science to the society in our country is very limited compared to other countries. It is
believed that the role of science and technology for development will be significant and sustainable
if the stakeholders work hand-in-hand. In connection with this, the society provides inputs to the
scientific research. The output of the scientific research will in turn reach the society as an input on
the other hand. In such a way, the society will be the beneficiary of the research output. In
cognizance of the importance of the scientific research in various ways to the society, the University
has an opportunity to conduct a study in the following researchable issues.
 Strengthening and promoting science, mathemathics and technology

 Enhancing mushroom production and processing

 Integrating indigenous knowledge and practices into scientific interventions

 Generating and dispatching horticultural crops planting material to the end users

 Radiation protection

 Early warning information using geographic information system (GIS)

 Developing diagnosis kit for various crop, animal and human diseases

 Mathematical modeling in life sciences

 Preventive mechanisms of hypo kinetic diseases

 Physiological effect of exercise on the human body

 Human wild life conflict

 Statistical Bioinformatics

 Mathematical logic and the philosophy of mathematics.

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Theme 12: Crop Production and Protection
This theme addresses generation, adoption and dissemination of improved agricultural
technologies such as improved varieties, agronomic practices, crop protection practices, post
harvest technologies and socio-economic aspects to enhance agricultural production and
productivity in different agro ecologies. The crops treated under this them includes cereals,
pulses, oil crops, fiber crops, sugar crops, vegetables, fruits, coffee, tea, spices. The researchable
issues that can be treated under this theme include the following
Crop improvement
 Development of
 high yielding varieties
 diseases resistant varieties
 drought resistant and early maturing varieties
 varieties for end use qualities
 nutritionally rich varieties
 appropriate propagation techniques
 Introduction and evaluation of high valued crops like oil crops and spices
 Adapting improved varieties to different agro ecologies
 Collection and characterization of local germplasms
 Maintenance and multiplication of improved and breeding lines
 Selection and multiplication of appropriate root stocks
Agronomic Practices
 Develop and disseminate appropriate agronomic practices/packages like
 site and crop specific fertilizer (organic and inorganic) requirements, method and
time of application
 seed rate
 time of planting
 method of planting
 intercropping
 irrigation management practices
 seed treatment and germination test
 tillage practices

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  farm machineries
Crop Protection
 study of biology of economically important pre and post harvest crop pests
 Collection, identification, classification and preservation of crop pests
 Yield loss assessment study of major economically important crop pests
 Screening and evaluation of different prevention and protections technologies and
methods against crop pests
 Legislative (quarantine and laws)
 Physical (Mechanical destruction)
 Chemical control
 Cultural practice(Adjusting time of sowing, crop rotation, inter cropping, use of
resistant varieties)
 Biological (using natural enemies)
 Integrated pest management (IPM)
Post harvest management
 Develop and disseminate appropriate harvesting and post harvest technologies
 Maintenance of post harvest shelf life of fruits and vegetables
 Identification of causes of post harvest loss and developing appropriate control and
prevention measures
Theme 13: Rural Development and Agricultural Extension

This theme deals with the assessment of opportunities and constraints of rural setting and
designing mechanisms to boost rural development (Land and natural resources tenure, access to
natural resources, agricultural products marketing and value chain development, small scale
enterprises, gender and youth in rural development, institutional and policy aspects).
Researchable issues under this theme encompass the following.
 Evaluation of agricultural information and Knowledge System (AKIS)
 Rural organizations effectiveness, Efficiency and sustainability
 Assessment of food insecurity interventions in rural areas
 Assessment on rural –urban interactions
 Value chain development on selected commodities

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  Land tenure application, challenges and opportunities
 Assessment of the existing farming system
 Evaluation of the existing extension system among rural development actors
(stakeholders integration )
 Adoption studies on new technologies disseminated
 Addressing gender and Youth in rural development
 Assessment of Rural infrastructure for rural development
 Female addressing technology development and dissemination
 Role of Agricultural extension in rural development strategies
 Criteria and their effectiveness of graduation and farmers response towards graduation
on safety-net programs
 Identifying and quantifying the extent of food insecurity and rural poverty
 Land certification, challenges and its implications
 Safety net targeting strategies and their effectiveness
 Seriousness of miss targeting and its effect towards food security
 Land owner ship allocation, management and utilization in rural areas
 Determinants of cooperative challenges, failures and opportunities
 Addressing the challenges in agriculture
 Linking institutional research and extension to Farmers indigenous Knowledge for
sustainable agriculture
 Farmer‟s innovation in agricultural practices
 Rural entrepreneurship
 Studies on rural policies
 Rural financial enterprise studies
Theme 14: Livelihoods and Development

A livelihood comprises the capabilities, assets (stores, resources, claims and access) and
activities required for a means of living: a livelihood is sustainable which can cope with and
recover from stress and shocks, maintain or enhance its capabilities and assets, and provide
sustainable livelihood opportunities for the next generation; and which contributes net benefits to

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other livelihoods at the local and global levels and in the long and short term (Chambers, R. and
G. Conway, 1992).

Livelihoods and development research brings together all stakeholders whose research interests
converge on the policy linkages between micro level livelihood strategies and poverty reduction
as a regional, national and international goal. The group anchors itself in livelihood approaches
that emphasize the interactions between people‟s assets, the options open to them to utilize those
assets productively, the activities in which they engage in pursuit of viable livelihoods, and the
institutional contexts (governmental organizations and non-governmental organizations) that
either help or hinder them in their quest to improve their circumstances. Research topics that fall
within this rubric include risk and vulnerability, livelihood diversification, food security,
migration, land certification, small farm development, rural-urban transitions, unemployment
and local taxation.

Detailed researchable issues under this theme are described as follows.

 „CHAT‟ production and its socio-economic implications on the life of the society
 An Economic perspective on the potential gains from improvements in irrigation
 Area closure and its impacts on community livelihoods
 Causes and effects of inflation in Ethiopia
 Causes, effects and magnitude of unemployment and its possible remedial actions
 Cost of relief and its contribution for food security. (Linking relief and food security)
 Criteria and their effectiveness of Graduation and Farmers Respond towards
Graduation
 Economic considerations for rural planning and development in woredas.(To investigate
the current situation of rural life-regarding their activities)
 Economic implications of AIDS
 Economic role of fire wood plantation and its shortcomings
 Existing governmental sectors planning, monitoring and evaluation systems and their
effectiveness/ limitations
 Farmers‟ risk management strategies and their effectiveness.
 Good governance and development in Ethiopia

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  Government strategies and their effectiveness towards unemployment reduction
 Identifying and quantifying the extent of food insecurity and rural poverty.
 Land certification and its challenges and implications
 Multicriterion indicators for technical and economic evaluation in rural areas. (Used for
the evaluation of economic contribution of rural development practices.)
 Role of agricultural extension in rural poverty reduction
 Role of NGOs in poverty reduction
 Roles of micro and small enterprises in poverty reduction.
 Rural-Urban migration and rate of unemployment
 Safety-net targeting strategies and their effectiveness
 Seriousness of miss-targeting and its effect towards food security
 Temporary migration (to Humera, Metema and other areas) and its implication for food
security.
 The contribution of education to the enhancement of productivity (economic
development).
 The key contributory factors for successes or failures of food security program.
 The role of micro and small enterprises in poverty reduction
 The socio-economic impact of remittances in Ethiopia
Theme 15: Tourism, Hospitality and Resource Management

A resource is any physical or virtual entity of limited availability that needs to be consumed to
obtain a benefit from it. In most cases, commercial or even ethic factors require resource
allocation through resource management. On the other hand, tourism is the movement of people
out of their permanent destination and activities related to this movement, for non remunerated
purpose, that spends time for a minimum of one day and a maximum of one year. Therefore,
this theme is concerned with studies on natural resource management, human and business
management, tourism management and hospitality.

Detailed researchable issues under this theme are described below.

 Biodiversity and sustainable ecosystem management
 Participatory forest and nature management for ecotourism.

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 Assessment of constraints and opportunities related to service sector such as hotel and
industries in relation with promoting tourisms
 Tourism Investment challenges and opportunities
 Leadership and corruption
 Sustainable cultural heritage management
 Business ethics in micro, small, medium and large business establishments
 Customer‟s relationship management and its problems
 Tourism investment challenges and opportunities
 Problems and challenges of service quality delivery.
 conservation and management of heritage attractions
 Identification and development of tourist attraction
 Infrastructure development and tourism management
 The conflict and co-existence between wild animals and local communities
 Tourism destinations management plan
 Tourism law and professional ethics
 Tourism master plan studies
 Impacts of existing tourism investment promotion policies and Strategies
 Tourism investment challenges and opportunities
 Strategies and their contribution to decrease illegal tour guide.
 The quality of customer care and hospitality in generating maximum revenue from
tourism and building good country image.
 The challenges and opportunities of service marketing and marketers.
 Sustainable cultural heritage management
 Tourism market development plan
 Impact of tourism on climate change
 Role of community based tourism in rural poverty reduction
 The key contributory factors for successes or failures of tourism development.
 Economic values of park natural resources locally, nationally and internationally
 The beneficial and harmful effects of national parks on the local and surrounding
residents

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  Assessment of human development plan for the governmental sectors.
 Assessment of natural resources potential and actual utilization
 Business and Economics Faculty Graduate students employability and performance
auditing
 Economic contribution and community perception on watershed management
 Economic, ecological and social importance of natural resources
 Effectiveness and efficiency of BPR as a system and its determinants
 Human capital management: utilization and quality of working environment in Ethiopia
 Human resource development systems in the public sectors
 Knowledge management in Ethiopian higher institutions
 Land ownership, allocation, management and utilization in rural areas.
 Material management practices in public Sectors
 Reasons behind ineffectiveness of soil and water conservation efforts done so far and its
implications for future efforts
 Strengths and weakness of Purchasing and materials management in public sectors
 Managing diversity in the work place
 Corporate social responsibility
 Quality of work life-Human Resource Development
 Turnover and its management
 Management of change
 The quality of customer care and hospitality in generating maximum revenue from
tourism and building good country image.
Theme 16: Business, Finance and Marketing

This broad thematic area delivers researchable issues related to the ever-changing fields of
business and finance in the areas of: Accounting, Economics, Finance, Management and
Marketing.
Researchable issues that can be addressed within this theme are listed below.
 Agricultural products and Market access
 Analysis of Capital budgeting practices in Ethiopia
 Analysis of Demand for and supply of agricultural inputs and their effectiveness

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 Application of international accounting standards in Ethiopia and its harmonization with
national accounting standards
 Availabilities, roles and limitations of credit facilities
 Business ethics in micro, small, medium and large business establishments
 Causes and consequences of tax evasion and tax avoidance
 Causes, effects and remedial strategies of illegal border trade and its trend.
 Cooperatives: challenges and opportunities
 Corporate governance and social responsibility in the Ethiopian business sector
 Operations research techniques
 Good governance
 Women and leadership
 The role of public administration and management
 Urban management
 Cost of capita and its determinants in Ethiopian context
 Customers relationship management and its problems
 Determinants of cooperatives success and failures
 Determinants of failures and expansions of micro and small enterprises
 Determinants of loan repayment of micro enterprises
 Different lending strategies and their effectiveness
 Effectiveness and efficiency of internal control system in the public sector
 Existing tax system and its limitations as well as the people‟s awareness on it
 Exploring alternative markets for animals (local, regional, national etc),
 External growth : opportunities and challenges
 Failures and success of consumers‟ association
 Financial performance of companies and the reward to owners
 Impacts of existing investment promotion policies and strategies
 Investment activities challenges and opportunities
 Live animals exporting and its economic contribution
 Nature and characteristics of public finance in Ethiopia
 Post-harvest milk processing and marketing (demand-supply)issues

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 Problems and challenges of entrepreneurship in Ethiopia
 Product distribution and the role of intermediaries.
 Sources of investment and working capital and its management for business in Ethiopia
 Problems and challenges of service quality delivery.
 Analysis of marketing practice in small scale industries.
 Strategies and their contribution to decrease illegal border trade of livestock.
 Studying de-stocking possibilities of small-holder animal husbandry strategies
 Supply chain management.
 The application of total quality management.
 The challenges and opportunities of service marketing and marketers.
 The contribution of micro finance institutions in poverty reduction
 Trade imbalance and its socio-economic consequences.
 The nature and role of financial instruments in Ethiopia business sector
 The need and importance regulated capital markets in Ethiopia
 The role of financial markets and institutions in Ethiopia.
 The role of accounting in the performance and development of businesses.
 The role, importance and level of savings across various sectors in Ethiopia
 Understanding/quantifying temporal and spatial demands for animals and its products
and price fluctuations
 Uses and practices of performance audit, internal audit and external audit in Ethiopia
 Rural marketing in Ethiopia: Issues and challenges.
 Venture capital financing and entrepreneurial development in Ethiopia.
 Marketing strategies for the Ethiopian small scale industry
 Quality issues of domestic and imported goods and services.
 Market price forces and management.
 Efficiency of price discovery.
 Broker-Client relations
 Impact of information on commercial behavior
 Market participation and competitiveness.
 Self regulation and market conduct.

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  Efficiency of informal market data dissemination channels.
 Behavioral & attitudinal aspects of exporters
 Assessment of market information asymmetry.
Theme 17: Socio- cultural and Socio Economic Development Issues

This theme focuses on miscellaneous socio-economic and socio-cultural issues and problems
linking with over all socio-economic, cultural and political factors. Hence, research in this theme
deals with such crosscutting issues like Investment (foreign direct investment and domestic),
rural-urban linkage, micro and small enterprises, micro finance institutions, remittance, urban
development and rural development.

The following researchable issues can be addressed under this theme.

 Child and woman trafficking
 Abduction {esp. male child}
 Begging as a social problem
 Unemployment
 The limited role played by the youth and sport office in mobilizing the young generation
 Gender mainstreaming
 Sustainable cultural heritage management
 Resettlement, migration and decentralization
 Community-based disaster and risk management
 Market linkage and related activities for small and micro-enterprises
 The contribution of private sector in poverty alleviation
 Rape and early marriage
 Unemployment and informal sector: market and technology
 Harmonizing population and economic growth
 Addressing the challenges in agriculture
 Small business and micro enterprise as an opportunity and asset building strategy
 Awura Amba‟s Community culture and their living style

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Theme 18: Psychosocial Issues and Mental Health

This theme focuses on several and diverse research issues and problems involving psychological
and bio-medical factors across the life span, such as mental health, special needs population,
developmental and family issues, general psychological issues, measurement testing, and
evaluation.

Researchable issues that can be addressed within this theme include the following.
 The Psychology of HIV/AIDS and Voluntary Counseling Testing
 Stress, burnout and coping mechanisms
 Disasters and posttraumatic stress disorder
 Child abuse (labor, physical, sexual….)
 School related mental health problems
 Women and depression
 Mental health problems among adolescents and youth
 Theft and juvenile delinquency
 Pycho-ocology
 Stigma and discrimination related to communicable and chronic illnesses
 Adjustment and coping with chronic illnesses
 Loss and bereavement
 Community violence and peace making
 Psychosocial problems among differently abled persons
 Epidemiology of mental disorders
 Drug and alcohol abuse
 Psychosocial factors related to low achievement
 Determination of job satisfaction and unemployment
 Coping with retirement and old age
 Mental health problems of street children
 Divorce and its Psychosocial crises
 Criminality and life in prisons
 Child prostitution

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 Harmful traditional practices and its psychosocial and mental health effects
 Orphanage and its psychosocial correlates
 Counseling and psychotherapy
 Motivation and sport
 Physical exercise and mental health
 Transportation and traffic behavior
 Culture, traditional healings, health and illness
 Parenting styles and child development
 Begging and consequences
 Environment and consequences
 Environment and behavior
 Health professionals-patients interactions
 Family planning and abortion, a psychosocial approach
 Psycho-social adjustment of university students
 Aggression and interpersonal behavior
 Attitudes, value formation, and attitude change
 Adjustment in relation to resettlement and migration
 Child prostitution
 Orphanage and its psychosocial correlates
 Criminality and life in prisons
 Psychosocial problems among differently abled persons
 Assessment of special abilities of persons with special needs
 Community based rehabilitation
 Policy considerations
 Learning disabilities
 The built environment and personas with special needs
 Divorce and its psychosocial crisis
 Coping with retirement and old age
 Parenting styles and child development
 Family planning and abortion, a psychosocial approach

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  Adolescents risky sexual behavior
 Adolescents identity formation
 Adolescents adjustment
 Identity identification in special communities (Awuramba, Bete-Israel)
 Community violence and peace making
 Psychosocial factors related to low achievement
 Determinants of job satisfaction and unemployment
 Motivation and sport
 Environment and behavior
 Aggression and interpersonal behavior
 Discrimination and prejudice
 Gender inequality
 Eye witness testimony
 Psychometric properties of achievement tests
 Measuring student centered learning

Theme 19: Legal System, Judiciary and Human Rights

The practice of granting legal protections to human beings by states traced back to the time of
ancient legal systems. They, to date, are numerous in number and some developed to be of
universal application. In whatever way it can be, change in human life is unavoidable which in
turn induces changes in the legal spectrum. Of course, any point in time the nature, scope and
essence of the protections, the extent of their enforcement, the strength and weakness of the legal
system, attitude of the public and its response to the legal system, etc. should be in continuous
assessment and backed up by corrective and when necessary reformative policy and legal
measures. However, it is agreeable that those measures shall always be ones sought to by
research findings. Besides the usual court litigation, other ways of resolving disputes, amicable
or binding, are said to be more economical in terms of monetary expense, time and energy. The
alternates which basically includes arbitration and mediation, are also in tune with the foundation
of the social bond that would otherwise be affected had disputes been seen by courts.

Researchable issues which can be addressed under this theme are the following.

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 Trafficking on human beings
 The existence and practical application of the code of conduct for organs of justice
 The place of the right to life, morality and ethics under Ethiopian legal system
 Harmful traditional practice as a violation of human rights
 Practical application of code of conduct for medical professionals vis-à-vis human rights
 Indicators for environmental pollution and environmental change with in underdeveloped
countries
 Extent of duty to cooperate in crime control
 Good governance and development
 Local aspects of product liability
 Legality of the amount of compensation in case of expropriation
 The right to food as a basic human right
 Drug abuse and criminality
 The law and practice to protect rights of domestic servant
 The right to health as a basic human right.
 Air pollution and climate change indications to less industrialized world
 On discrimination (On employment and occupation – international considerations and
practice).
 Principles of medical ethics relating to human rights.
 Principles of independence of the judiciary.
 Law and practice in civil status in Ethiopia.
 On the jurisdiction and practice of international criminal court (ICC)
 International minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners: law and practice.
 Crimes against property.
 The “Choice of Evils” in a criminal defense.
 Constitutional limits as criminal law.
 On freedom of religion and beliefs: the problem of intolerance and discrimination.
 On territorial asylum.
 Justice for victims of crime and abuse of power.
 Child abuse, neglect.

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  Women discrimination and empowerment.
 Ethiopia‟s interest over international rivers.
 Role of arbitration/ mediation in light of restorative justice
 Scope of arbitration/ mediation in criminal matters: The law and the practice
 The place of “social courts” in Ethiopia
 The concept of “Alternative Lawyering”
 Administrative injustice and corruption

Theme 20: Quality of Education

Stagnating or declining quality of education has become an important issue in developing

countries that are expanding enrolments rapidly toward 2015 Education for All goals within the
context of severely limited resources. At the same time that education systems are overstretched,
many are implementing reforms based on constructivist, student-centered, and active-learning
classroom approaches that, although excellent in their goals for student learning, are complicated
to implement. These combined factors in many cases present challenges for improving education
quality. In the search for ways to improve quality of education, most countries increasingly focus
on understanding complex interactions that take place at the school, classroom, and community
levels as the primary engines of quality. On top of the theme of quality of education, the
following researchable issues have been identified.

 An Assessment of the Research Capacity of Higher Education Institutions

 The implementation of student centered approach
 The practice of CPD-Training and support
 Leadership and education system
 Factors that hinder school-community relationship
 Practice of cheating by students
 Student-class size match and education quality
 Impediment to Library utilization
 Assessment of laboratory organization
 Barrier to practical training in science fields.
 Evaluation of teachers in conducting action research

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  Assessing the importance of special need education
 Professional efficiency of teachers and quality of education
 Impact of educational input supply on teacher‟s motivation to teach
 Assessment and measurement for quality education
 Students attrition rate
 Learning strategies
 Practice of continuous assessment
 Item bank development

3.3. Community Services

It is understandable that the problems faced by the society may not necessarily be alleviated by
research intervention; rather they may require services in various situations. Keeping this in
mind, the researchers at the University made a painstaking scrutiny in order to identify those
issues which require community services. Community services intervention can be done using
either or all of the following means:
1. Consultancy services;
2. Offering long-term or short-term trainings;
3. Rendering other services

3.3.1 Consultancy Services

 Participating (by giving advice, guidance, etc.) in specific health and health related
areas in consultation with NGOs working in the Amhara region.
 Providing consultancy services to those individuals and organizations who are
interested to participate in the Amhara region in relation to health and health related
projects.
 Livestock issues that help in decision and policy making.
 Project design and evaluation in relation to animal health and production issues.
 Proper Pc utilizations
 Proper chemical utilization
 Accessing of open source software‟s
 Guidance in IT project managements
 Advertising and promotion activities

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 System design and development
 Internet and personal computer protection
 Data collection, organization and management
 Statistical tools for survey and research.
 Constructing sport fields
 Preparation of improvised teaching materials
 Ultimate body nutrition plan
 Hypo kinetic diseases
 Agriculture related investment project.
 Proposal development and research thematic area identification.
 Environmental impact assessment.
 Knowledge and skill training facilitation.
 Value chain development
 Agricultural projects impact assessment.
 Socio-economic surveying.
 Sustainable land, water and forest management.
 Environmental management plan preparation.
 Environmental auditing.
 Change management
 Conflict management
 Customer attraction and retention.
 Managing price (Dynamic pricing)
 Marketing plan.
 Electronic marketing.
 Import and export procedure.
 Economic consultancy
 Employment creation
 Investment opportunities
 Micro finances credit provision and collection
 NGOs development intervention

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 Preparation of tourism master plan, tourism destination management plan and tourism
market development plan.
 Managing distribution.
 Product and brand management
 Natural resource conservation practice
 Evaluation of food security/livelihood projects
 Gender mainstreaming
 New technology adoption and utilization
 Gulley development project preparation
 Water resources management
 Unemployment rate trend and its social, economic al and political implications
 Youth‟s attitude towards HIV/AIDS
 Irrigation projects impacts assessment
 Guidance and counseling for children and youth
 Community based rehabilitation and institutionalization
 Marriage counseling
 Consultancy for traffic behavior
 Consultancy for different community programs and projects.
 Program evaluation
 Safe sex and sex education
 Antenatal and postnatal mental health
 Creativity and entrepreneurship
 Consultancy for retired people and elderly.
 Consulting private and government schools on issues related with school
management.
 Consultancy service for all civil works

 Consulting the micro and small enterprises/industries

 Consulting the TVET institution on quality control, self income generation, design
consideration, ISO-implementation and training the staff self improvements.

 Consulting manufacturing industries based on their needs

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  Consulting the faculty and the university on self income generation using the
available work shops

 Consulting the welders on safety, weld quality and weld defects

 Consulting on air conditioning and refrigeration system

 Consulting on the maintenance and repair of the biomedical equipments of the

hospital

 Consulting the university on technology transfer

 Consulting on small scale hydropower

3.3.2 Trainings
 Under graduate and post graduate programs in summer, distance education and extension
programs.

 Data management: collection, compilation and timely reporting among health workers in
the various health institutions
 Health service management training to leaders of health institutions, Woreda Health
Administration Offices, etc.
 The relevance and application of disease control measures ( strategic deworming and
strategic vaccination) in the control and prevention of animal disease population
 Grazing management, forage production and feed utilization
 Health and production management of dairy animals
 Health and production management of poultry
 Health and management of feedlot operation
 TTP
 Malaria, HIV prevention and control
 Awareness on sedentary life style
 Injury prevention and safety.
 The relevance and application of disease control measures (strategic deworming and
strategic vaccination) in the control and prevention of animal disease population.
 Grazing management, forage production and feed utilization.
 Health and production management of poultry.

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 Health and management of feedlot operation.
 Animal breeding ( mating and breeding systems)
 Standardized recording system on health, nutrition and breeding record in intensive
animal production
 Bee keeping, fishery and wildlife management
 Management practices that influence the quality of hides and skin
 Appropriate use and welfare of draft animals

- On the area of Education

 Trainings related to teaching-learning activities
 For science and mathematics teachers
 Laboratory technicians
 Training in school improvement program

- On the area of ICT

 Basic computer skills
 Application software‟s
 Statistical and Econometric application software‟s (SPSS, Minitab,
SAS, STATA, R, Limdep, Eviews )
 Hardware Maintenance and troubleshooting
 Software maintenance and troubleshooting
 Database management system
 Server based network configuration
 Software installation
 Data processing skills
 Data mining

- Production of hand-driven/ manually operated agricultural tools and water pumps.

- Construction materials production

- Awareness creating in water born diseases

- Malaria prevention and control

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- HIV prevention and control

- National parks management.

- Ecological conservation

- Training on aquaculture

- Knowledge and skill training services:

o Value chain development techniques.
o Gender and youth addressing strategies in extension.
o Cooperative extension.
o Marketing extension.
o Rural finance utilization techniques.
o Agricultural knowledge and information system in innovation process.
o Ethics and principles of extension.
o Communication skill for agricultural extension.
o Project preparation and management.
o Project monitoring and evaluation techniques.
o Problem identification approaches (RRA,PRA an RAAKS)

- Training for farming community in agronomic practices, crop protection, soil fertility
management, soil and water conservation, water harvesting, forest development,
agricultural marketing and post harvest technologies.

- Establishment of demonstration sites for improved agricultural technologies

- Organizing short and long-term training and discussion forums for agricultural experts
and development agents on improved agricultural technologies.

- Multiplication and distribution of improved crop verities (tree species, cereals, pulses,
spices and fruits)

- Production and distribution of multipurpose tree seedlings

- Advertising and promotional activities

- Basic accounting application

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- Basics of financial management

- Business ethics

- Cooperatives‟ management

- Cost-benefit analysis of projects

- Customer care and handling

- Customers service delivery

- Development plan preparation, monitoring and evaluation.

- Entrepreneurship Development

- Free market and trade law

- Guiding and professional ethics

- Heritage preservation and conservation.

- Hotel management

- Import and export procedures

- Sales force training.

- Leadership

- Managing distribution.

- Product and brand management.

- Customer attraction and retention.

- Managing price (Dynamic pricing).

- Electronics marketing.

- Marketing information systems

- Motivational problems and diagnosing motivation problems.

- Office management and record Keeping

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- Participa tory planning Techniques /PRA, RRA etc.)

- Price regulation/stability

- Project proposal preparation, appraisal, implementation and monitoring and evaluation

- Raising awareness of saving habit

- Research methodology

- Sales forces management

- Selection of projects

- Tax assessment, accounting and auditing

- The concepts and application of BPR

- Ticketing.

- Professional ethics

- GPS and GIS based land use classification

- Alternative energy sources

- New technology adoption and utilization

- „Chat‟ and „Shisha Betoch‟ trend and its implications

- Action research

- Student centered approach

- Good governance and development

- Appropriate technology diffusion

- Strategic plan preparation and implementation

- Life skills training for special needs population

- Adjustment training for retired people and the elderly.

- Care and support for HIV/ AIDS and other chronic illness survivors.

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 - Training on police and military psychology

- Educational measurement and evaluation

- Training on safe sex and sex education

- Training on antenatal and postnatal mental health

- Training on creativity and entrepreneurship

- Training on ethics in social research

- Training for teachers on teaching methodology

- Training for the society to enhance awareness related with the importance of school
community relationship

- Short term software training in water resource and environmental engineering disciplines
- Short term software training related to civil engineering.
- Trainings for machine operators, supervisors and people working in manufacturing
industries of modern industrial automation
- Training on general maintenance scheduling of machineries
- Training on new software applications related to electrical engineering.

3.3.3 Other Services

- House to house health service including home visits to most affected rural areas
- Coordinating final year students with the health workers (both government and non-
governmental organizations) during field practice (health education, vaccination, etc.)
- Veterinary clinical service ( in the faculty‟s clinic and mobile clinic service)
- Artificial insemination
- Laboratory diagnostic service for animal related diseases
- Distribution of improved genotypes (cattle, chicken and others)
- Supplying formulated animal feed
- Supplying quality animals and animal products for consumption
- Animal slaughtering (abattoir ) service

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- Improved forage seed and cuttings for propagation for forage trees
- Dissemination of proven animal production and health technologies
- Providing software‟s
- Projects design, management and development
- Web and system development
- Technical support of :
 Maintenance and troubleshooting,
 Chemical and laboratory operations for preparatory schools
 Network configurations
 Software installations and upgrading
- Laboratory services for students from other institutions
- Gymnasium service
- Technical support on coaching
- Preparing different bazaar educations, seminars and workshops to fight the literacy of
technology.
- Self employment trainings for graduating class students.
- Conducting bazaar educations, seminars and workshops.
- Self employment trainings.
- Accounting and auditing service
- Compensation plan(Staff manual) development
- Event preparation
- Financial manual preparation
- Financial statements preparation and analysis
- Hotel and pension service
- Job analysis
- Monitoring and Evaluation guideline development
- Museum service
- Organizational Development (OD)
- Project and program evaluation.

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- Filing system and records management.
- Marketing plan preparation.
- Preparing advertising and promotion programs.
- Project appraisal
- Project or program document preparation
- Tax return preparation
- Thematic areas document preparation

- Travel agency and tour operation service

- Travel agency and tour operation service consultation

- Zoo service

- Market research (Preparation of market research)

- Provide supports for the implementation of school improvement program in different

schools

- Small scale level(house hold) drinking water treatment

- Design and supervision from low scale level to high level of all water works(dams, water
supply, waste water treatment, hydropower, irrigation etc)
- Contract administration work for all water projects
- Contract administration work for construction projects
- Preparation of water supply and waste water treatment user manual and policies
- Application ecological sanitation technology for a community
- Small scale irrigation technology
- Ground water investigation
- Design and supervision of all civil works infrastructures (buildings, roads, site works,
town planning).
- Testing of building materials (soil, sand, aggregate, stone, concrete, hollow blocks
concrete, reinforcement etc.)
- Preparation of project construction and maintenance manuals

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- Pproduction of construction materials (HCB, concrete pavement, tiles, concrete pipes,
concrete chair etc).
- Opening of driving license school for the community
- Material testing

- Design and manufacturing of steel structures/flyover bridge

- Designing and manufacturing of pumps
- Designing and manufacturing of small machineries and hand tools
- Designing and installation of renewable energy sources
- Electronic devices maintenance and computer hardware and software maintenance.
- Design, supervision of electrical installation for buildings, industries etc..
- MBD(main distribution board) production and supply to market
- Medical equipment maintenance
- Redesigning the transmission line of EEPCO
- Automation of printing press.

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4. Reference
 ARARDO(2009). A report on societal problems and need assessment study. Bahir Dar,
Ethiopia.
 Chambers, R. and G., Conway (1992). Sustainable rural livelihood: Practical concepts for
the 21st century.
 Dianna, P. M. (2007). Comprehensive Community Needs Assessment Template.
 MoFED (2006). A plan for accelerated and sustainable development to End Poverty
(PASDEP) ( 2005/06-2009/10). Volume I: Main text. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
 Mesfin B. (2009). Business Incubation. Ethiopian ICT development agency. Unpublished.
 NGZARDO(2009). A report on societal problems and need assessment study. Gondar,
Ethiopia.
 RCSCP(2009). Research and community services BPR document.
 UoG. (2004). Senate Legislation of the University of Gondar. Gondar, Ethiopia.
 UoG. (2004). Strategic Plan of the University of Gondar. Gondar, Ethiopia.
 Yared, W. and Afework, K. (2003). Guidebook of Research and Publications at Gondar
College of Medical Sciences. Gondar, Ethiopia.

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