SCO: Sustainable Operations for Resource Management and Food Supply

Maria Besiou

The SCO Center jointly with the University of Nairobi (UoN) in Kenya and the University of Dar es Salaam (UDS) in Tanzania will empower all those who engage with it to organize in a sustainable fashion all kinds of operations, i.e. the production, movement, and processing of food and other natural resources and products as well the people needed along with the tools to do their work. It addresses practitioners, students and graduates of business schools just the same as those of other disciplines, like medicine, agriculture, engineering, and humanitarian with a common core of concepts and practical implementation strategies for sustainable operations. The Center will address issues of crucial importance to Africa with respect to, for example, sustainable value-adding in transportation, logistics, warehousing.
The project in cooperation with the Kühne Foundation is to establish the African Center of Excellence for Sustainable Operations for Resource Management and Food Supply (SCO) jointly with the University of Nairobi (UoN) in Kenya and the University of Dar es Salaam (UDS) in Tanzania with funding from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). It aims to empower all who engage with it to organize in a sustainable fashion all kinds of operations, i.e. the production, movement, and processing of food and other natural resources. The Center will address issues of crucial importance to Africa with respect to, for example, sustainable value-adding in transportation, logistics, and warehousing.

movement, and processing of food and other natural resources as well the people needed along the supply chain. It addresses practitioners, students, and graduates of business schools just the same as those of other disciplines, like medicine, agriculture, engineering, and humanitarian. The Center harnesses previous and ongoing funding of the Kühne Foundation which has helped establish bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD degree programs in business with a specialization in logistics and operations management at seven different universities in Africa, among them UoN and UDSM. The goals of the new center include the establishment of new Master Programs in Business Research (MBR) and Sustainable Management and Operations (SMO) at UoN and UDSM, an own PhD scholarship program, regular summer schools for students and strengthening exchange between universities through exchange and visits, including guest lectures. Since 2008, the DAAD has been supporting universities in several (now nine) African countries by establishing centers of excellence to improve the quality of their education and expand their research capacities. Intended to train future decision-makers in keeping with international standards, ten centers have since been created, each of which is supported by a German university.