Collaboration history

This knowledge exchange project between Oxford Brookes University (OBU) and University of The Gambia (UTG) has resulted from 8 years of discussions between Mr Mbakeh Camara, Head of University Relations and Innovation, UTG and the team at OBU. Mr Camara graduated with a Master of Law (International Economic Law) from OBU in 2017. During his time at Brookes, he set up a social enterprise (Wisdom Superfoods Ltd) based on fair trade, involving the making and selling of natural, organic foods and drinks sourced from low-income communities in The Gambia. This was to support the activities of an innovative youth empowerment project in the Gambia ‘Be Inspired Internationally’, set up and funded aiming to prevent young people from taking the risky journey to Europe through Libya and the Mediterranean Sea. The project worked with local graduates in The Gambia to develop their employability skills in order to promote social mobility.

Mbakeh discovered that Baobab, grown widely in The Gambia is very expensive in UK. He met with Dr Sangeetha Thondre at Oxford Brookes Centre for Nutrition and Health (OxBCNH) who was involved in researching health benefits of baobab and millets. After finding out more about the baobab and hibiscus-based drinks created by Mbakeh and his team at Wisdom Superfoods Ltd, Sangeetha and two MSc Applied Human Nutrition students at OBU conducted preliminary research to show that baobab and hibiscus are high in antioxidants and polyphenols. Additional human studies showed that a breakfast product with millet and baobab has appetite satisfying and sensory properties similar to oats.

Dr Ed Cole (previously IP and Commercialisation Manager at OBU; currently Head of ICURe Regional Hub – London & South East (England)) joined the team in 2019 when the team discussed opportunities for further collaboration. With support from the Research and Business Development Office at OBU and other partners, including Reading University. Gaziantep University, Ministry of Agriculture and Oolu Gambia Superfoods Ltd, a concept note was developed to establish the Centre of Excellence in Food Science and Nutrition at UTG. The objective of the Centre was to utilize the agricultural products already available, increase productivity and access to markets for enhanced food security and nutrition, and resilience of family farms and farmer organizations.

In 2019, the team applied for Global Challenges Collaborative Research Awards with Prof Sidat Yaffa (UTG) and Prof Jonathan Tammam (OxBCNH) to develop and test food products using bioactive ingredients in The Gambia. The team expanded further in 2021 including Dr Vasiliki Iatridi (OxBCNH), other collaborators from UTG, Government of The Gambia and external collaborators from the UK, to apply for a PhD studentship grant to explore nutrition issues in The Gambia and create interventions to address the risk of non-communicable diseases using native crops of The Gambia. Although the above efforts were unsuccessful, the team was awarded the Knowledge Exchange (KE) Small Awards in 2023 to co-create guidelines for a sustainable nutrition strategy for The Gambia. This funding has brought together a multidisciplinary team from The Gambia (UTG, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Agriculture, MRC unit of The Gambia at LSHTM, World Food Programme) and enabled Mrs Sakshi Gupta (OBU) to join the team, organise a KE hybrid conference in 2024, create the sustainable nutrition guidelines for The Gambia and organise the final workshop in 2025.  It is hoped that this multidisciplinary team will continue to collaborate and identify further opportunities to implement the nutrition guidelines in The Gambia through their practices in Enterprise Initiatives, Education, Healthcare, Research and Policy.