In january, IPAV - Instituto Padre António Vieira, the implementation partner of Camões IP, under the Tourism and Cultural Heritage component of the Go Blue project, delivered a Change Lab named "Changing the Story". The workshop was the starting point for writing the strategy and action plan for the six counties on Kenya coast (Kwale, Mombasa, Taita Taveta, Kilifi, Tana River and Lamu), for Tourism and Cultural Heritage. After the working days with 21 stakeholders from the blueprint development committee from the region, a collaboration protocol was signed with all higher education establishments, and the Polytechnic Institute of Portalegre and the Polytechnic Institute of Leiria, forming the Kenyan-Portuguese Academic & Innovation Alliance.
In the words of Rui Marques, President of IPAV, this Portuguese-Kenyan visit traced a path of “cooperation focused on building a strategy for the next ten years around tourism and cultural heritage. Therefore, other goals unite us with Kenyans and motivate us on this common path. Many good challenges line up in the future ".
The work with stakeholders was followed by meetings with more than 300 Kenyan Ubuntu leaders, including students at the University of Mombasa, discovering several initiatives and projects related to combating climate change, combating youth extremism, as well as promoting employment, preventing early pregnancy, and combating drug abuse.
This initiative led by Camões, I.P. It forms part of IPAV's activities under the EU-funded GoBlue project for the economic bloc on the coast of Kenya.