The AirQo Project, College of Computing and Information Sciences (CoCIS), Makerere University in collaboration with various partners hosted a three-day peer learning and knowledge exchange workshop in Kampala Uganda. The workshop brought together communities of practice from over fifteen cities in Africa, with a focus on utilising low-cost sensors for air quality management in Africa.
Participating cities included: Kampala, Jinja, Fort Portal, Kabale and Gulu (Uganda), Nairobi and Kisumu (Kenya), Dar-es-Salaam (Tanzania), Kigali (Rwanda) and Bujumbura (Burundi). Others were Lagos and Abuja (Nigeria), Accra (Ghana), Yaounde and Douala (Cameroon) and Dakar (Senegal) in West and Central Africa; Maputo and Manica (Mozambique) in Southern Africa; and Port Louis (Mauritius) in the Island States.
Held under the theme: Championing Liveable Urban Environments through African Networks for Air, the workshop served as a launch pad for Africa-led collaborations and multi-regional partnerships for sustained interventions to achieve cleaner air across the continent.
Held from 3rd to 5th April 2023, the three-day engagement was aimed at; 1) Increasing the understanding of low-cost air quality sensor networks and digital solutions as new approaches for air quality management in the African context, 2) Fostering city-city and policy-research collaborations and 3) Increasing awareness of contextual issues of air quality for better health outcomes.
The three-day workshop was crowned by launching the CLEAN-Air Africa Network at a dinner held at the Kampala Sheraton Hotel on 5th April 2023. The launch was graced by the Vice Chancellor, Professor Barnabas Nawangwe, The Lord Mayor of Kampala City, His Worship Erias Lukwago, Acting Public Affairs Officer at the U.S. Embassy Kampala, Amy Petersen, the AirQo Project Lead, Prof. Engineer Bainomugisha, among other dignitaries.