A memorandum of understanding between Washington University and Mekelle University in Ethiopia will promote future cooperation between the two universities.

Although the memorandum, signed over the summer, is not legally binding, administrators hope that it will lay the groundwork for future joint research and education programs.

The relationship between the two universities dates back to 2011, when Washington University neurology professor Dr. David Clifford reached out to his former neurology fellow Dr. Enawgaw Mehari, who was at the time working with the People to People organization, to improve healthcare in Ethiopia.

“For me, the most logical area to try to help is with medical education and there is no shortage of need for it with the severe physician shortage in Ethiopia,” Clifford wrote in an email to Mehari.

Mehari recommended Mekelle University as a partner for Clifford’s medical education initiative. In 2011, Clifford visited Mekelle University, and in 2012, three Mekelle faculty members visited Washington University, beginning a long-standing collaboration between the universities.

“There have probably been close to 30 faculty from Washington University, mainly from the medical school, who have been to Mekelle in various capacities over the last seven or eight years,” professor of Medical Anthropology L. Lewis Wall said.

Wall himself spent eight months at Mekelle University’s College of Health Sciences in 2014, and continues to work with the University to improve education for girls in Ethiopia. Currently, the partnership between the two universities mostly involves medicine and health, but Wall believes that the new memorandum will encourage collaboration in other disciplines.

“The interactions to date have been medicine and public health-related, but we’ve started discussions with the School of Engineering [and] the School of Law,” Wall said. “There’s interest in developing some English language capacity-building programs. So, the goal is not just to be health-related in medicine, but to try to extend the relationship across all of the activities of the University.”

Dr. Mengesha Teshome, who helped develop curricula for Mekelle University’s School of Medicine and has mentored current Mekelle faculty, said a formal agreement will encourage future joint efforts.

“So much has been achieved in the absence of this agreement but even more can be achieved now that we have some form of validation,” Teshome said. “This agreement will serve as a point of reference, as the basis to design mutually beneficial different programs. Now that the partnership is ‘formal,’ requesting institutional support to run these programs will have a basis.”

One such program could be a formal study abroad program at Mekelle University.

“I would hope that we might be able to do a junior year abroad program…while we are working to try to develop a more formal relationship between the two medical schools,” Teshome said. “So that stuff is all in the works.”

Looking forward, Teshome believes that the partnership with Mekelle will challenge students to explore new ideas and develop new skills.

“I believe we learn much through exposure to different cultures, different experiences and different places…” Teshome said. “Washington University students who may get the opportunity to visit Mekelle University and learn from the experience will gain much in the field of cultural competence, humanities, resourcefulness, skill sets and more.”