At the end of August 2025, the RESPIRA-ABEP project formally came to a close. What began as a seed-funded collaboration under the Una Europa – Africa Partnership programme has, over the past year, grown into a vibrant interdisciplinary network that now spans Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain. RESPIRA-ABEP – Respiratory Health, Outdoor Air Pollution and Solid Waste Management: A Built Environment Perspective – was never meant to be just another...

The RESPIRA consortium has recently taken an important new step in strengthening its long-term research agenda by submitting a new international funding application. This time, the proposal is led by our colleagues at Leiden University, with Prof. Marleen Dekker and Dr. Agnieszka kazimierczuk at the helm. They have been involved in various RESPIRA activities and projects and organised an inspiring panel at the CLEAR-AIR forum in Nairobi. The submitted project draws inspirations from these...

On Friday 10 October 2025 , a closed-door roundtable discussion on Air Quality Management (AQM) in African cities was held at the CSIR Knowledge Commons in Pretoria. Co-hosted by VITO, RESPIRA and CSIR, the session brought together experts and key actors from provincial and city-level government, meteorological services, research and academia, and funding agencies. The aim was to foster technical exchange and dialogue on the current status and future perspectives for monitoring and assessment...