Developing partnerships in Higher Education (DelPHE) is a seven-year project which supports partnerships between universities and other higher education institutions across the world.

The aim of the programme is to contribute to achieving the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.

What are the United Nations Millennium Development Goals?

These goals fall into eight areas:

• Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
• Achieve universal primary education
• Promote gender equality and empower women
• Reduce child mortality
• Improve maternal health
• Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
• Ensure environmental sustainability
• Develop a global partnership for development
  

" The Millennium Development Goals set time-bound targets by which progress in reducing income poverty, hunger, diesease, lack of adequate shelter and exclusion - while promoting gender equality, health, education and environmental sustainability - can be measured. They also embody basic human rights - the rights of each person on the planet to health, education, shelter and security. The Goals are ambitious but feasible and, together with the comprehensive United Nations development agenda, set the course for the world's efforts to alleviate extreme poverty by 2015."
           United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

Each Millennium Development Goal has its own time-bound targets. You can find out more at http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/global.shtml

How is DelPHE working to achieve these goals?

DelPHE provides funding to support partnerships between universities and other higher education institutions working on collaborative activity linked to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The overall goal is to enable HEIs to act as catalysts for poverty reduction and sustainable development.

DelPHE aims to achieve this by building and strengthening the capacity of HEIs to contribute towards the Millennium Development Goals and promote science and technology related knowledge and skills.

The UK Government's Department for International Development (DFID) has invested up to £3 million per year in DelPHE. The programme runs from June 2006 to March 2013 and has funded 200 partnerships. There is currently no further funding available for new projects.

Universities and other higher education institutions are funded from DFID's 22 bilateral focus countries listed below. The list includes some of the world's lowest income countries and are those for which DFID is publicly accountable for progress against the Millennium Developoment Goals. They are:

Africa: Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Asia: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Vietnam and Yemen.