NORHED is a new Norad programme designed to stimulate productive South-North collaboration. It is intended to strengthen the institutional capacity and performance of higher education institutions (HEIs) in the South to deliver quality education and research. This may also include capacity development within system development, administration and infrastructure, with due attention to gender balance considerations The program will complement Norad’s specific support to research projects through the Research Council of Norway and other mechanisms.

NORHED draws heavily on the findings and recommendations from the external evaluation of the NUFU and NOMA programs. It is merging the two programmes and moving capacity-building beyond individual students and researchers to address the broader institutional environment. NORHED has been developed on the basis of a broad domestic and international consultative process. Under NORHED, five thematic areas and one geographic area have been selected for special targeting for education-research improvement work. These six areas are defined as NORHED sub-programmes, and are:

• Education and training,
• Health,
• Natural resource management, climate change and environment,
• Democratic and economic governance,
• Humanities, culture, media and communication
• Capacity development in South Sudan