Mkwawa University College of Education (MUCE) is thrilled to announce that two research projects featured our faculty have secured major grants. One of these includes Dr. Cornel Joseph, who is a PI, and the other one includes Dr. Ponsiano Kanijo, one of the project team member.

Enhancing Social Protection and Reducing Poverty through Conditional Cash Transfers

The first of these prestigious awards comes from the DEEP Tanzania Challenge Fund, supporting a project that aims to transform the lives of Tanzania's most vulnerable communities. Dr. Cornel Joseph, in collaboration with Dr. Chakupewa Mpambije (MUCE), Prof. Michael Ndanshau (Dar es Salaam University), and Ms. Piyazis Togolai (MUCE), leads this critical investigation into enhancing social protection and poverty reduction through Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programmes.

Their work will not only evaluate the existing framework but also provide actionable insights for policymakers and stakeholders committed to social equity and sustainable development.

Actionality in Kutu and Kwere Languages: A Study of 'Eating, Praying, but not 'Loving'?
The second project, awarded by the esteemed Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (RJ), brings together Dr. Ponsiano Kanijo (MUCE), Prof. Malin Petzell (University of Gothenburg), and Prof. Leora Bar-el (Montana University) to delve into an intriguing linguistic inquiry. Titled “Eating, Praying, but not 'Loving'? Actionality in Kutu and Kwere,” this research investigates how actionality—a concept that deals with the different aspects of actions and states—manifests in the under-documented Bantu languages of Kutu and Kwere.
This linguistic exploration holds promise for shedding light on how languages categorize actions, events, and states, thus contributing valuable knowledge to the fields of linguistics, anthropology, and cognitive science. The insights from this project have the potential to broaden our understanding of language structures, revealing the unique ways these Tanzanian languages articulate actions and experiences.

Both projects reflect MUCE’s mission to foster research that drives social impact, academic discovery, and cultural preservation. As Dr. Joseph, Dr. Mpambije, Prof. Ndanshau, Ms. Togolai, Dr. Kanijo, Prof. Petzell, and Prof. Bar-el embark on these studies, we look forward to the transformative impact their findings will have on Tanzanian society and academic scholarship globally.