Gender inequalities in academia exist in Zanzibar, just like everywhere else in the academic world. But things are changing for the better at the State University of Zanzibar with more girls enrolled in higher education and more women in senior academic positions. What are the roles and positions of the women at the State University of Zanzibar? Three female researchers – Fatma Saleh, Aziza Abdulqadir and Biubwa Ally – share their experiences of being female role models in academia.

Seagrass contributes to the conservation of Zanzibar’s biggest tourist attractions: the pristine beaches and the clear water. The marine plants act as barriers to the waves and reduce the erosion on the coastline while helping to clean polluted water from land. Thousands of marine species depend on seagrass for their survival. But seagrass is endangered by pollution and climate change. Researcher Idrissa Yusef Hamad is trying to find solutions to this marine health challenge by using drone technology to map Zanzibar’s seagrass.

Zanzibaris have become so accustomed to plastic waste in the streets that they don’t even notice it anymore. Thousands of plastic bottles are shipped to the islands every day to quench the thirst of the many tourists and the local population. Unfortunately, discarded bottles end up on the beautiful beaches and in the streets where they become potential breeding grounds for disease-carrying mosquitos. Researcher Aziza Abdulqadir is trying to find solutions to this environmental health challenge.

Tourist hotels in Zanzibar generate a lot of solid waste, including food waste. And right outside the hotel gates, local communities go to bed hungry every night. Researcher Biubwa Ally is working on prevention and minimisation strategies for food waste management in the hotel industry in Zanzibar.

Researcher Fatma Saleh is on a mission: to prevent the aedes aegypti mosquito spreading viral diseases, such as dengue, chikungunya, and zika viruses. She did her PhD on mosquito-borne viral diseases in Zanzibar and how the health system can detect and deal with epidemics caused by these diseases.

What is research capacity development all about, what is the purpose and lessons learnt from the ‘Building Stronger Universities’ programme and how has it strengthened the State University of Zanzibar? In this episode, four researchers from the State University of Zanzibar – Fatma Saleh, Biubwa Ally, Aziza Abdulqadir and Idrissa Yusef Hamad – and Bjørg Elvekjær, Senior Advisor at the University of Copenhagen, who has been the coordinator of the partnership on the Danish side from the very beginning, talk about the impact of a decade’s collaboration.