We are pleased to present you ZEF’s Annual Report 2005-2006. We have chosen the role of knowledge in development research as this year’s focus theme, since ZEF acknowledges the crucial role knowledge plays for sustainable human development. As you can read in this report, ZEF strives to contribute to this development by producing and sharing knowledge as well as by building academic capacity.

The Rector of the University of Termez, Prof. Dr. Zair Choriyev, visited the University of Bonn and ZEF on December 4 to sign a cooperation agreement between the two universities. First he paid a visit to the Rector of the University of Bonn, Prof. Dr. Matthias Winiger with whom he had a long talk on the possibilities of academic cooperation between both countries and universities. Then he met Prof. Dr. Solvay Gerke, Director of ZEF's Department of Political and Cultural Change to sign the agreement.

edited by Peter Mollinga from ZEF and Ajaya Dixit from the Nepal Water Conservation Foundation, Kathmandu. Published by Sage Publications in October 2006. - Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) has become the international label for the ‘new approach’ to water resources management. This volume investigates how this global concept resonates with regional, national and local concerns in South Asia.

The paper 'Azolla as an alternative technology to improve the nitrogen use efficiency of lowland rice' written by Dr. Maria-Andrea Kern, ZEF alumna, won the writing contest of entwicklung & laendlicher raum (agriculture & rural development). The paper will be published in the first edition 2007 of the journal.

www.rural-development.de

for his paper on "Assessing the effect of Mother’s Migration on childhood mortality in the informal settlements of Nairobi".

Draft program available online

This year's overall theme was the UN Decade on Education for Sustainable Development. Special Guest and patron of the event was Professor Alpha Oumar Konaré, former President of Mali and current Chair of the Commission of the Organization of African Unity. He also paid a visit to the ZEF information stand to inform himself about the international PhD program in general and the perspectives for African students in particular.