Latest news: Regional Office for Africa

Vacancy: Future Earth Interim Director

Bongani Mahlalela — 2013-01-10T06:20:00Z

Future Earth is a 10 year international programme on Earth systems research for global sustainability. The goal of Future Earth is to develop the knowledge required for societies worldwide: to face challenges posed by global environmental change and to identify and implement solutions and opportunities for a transition to global sustaibability.

African Regional Implementation Workshop on Hazards and Disasters

Bongani Mahlalela — 2012-12-14T06:40:00Z

This workshop focused on:

Establishing research consortia that will design specific trans-disciplinary and trans-boundary projects to be implemented at regional level in collaboration with identified partners.
Outlining a framework with envisaged work plans for the implementation of these projects, highlighting the key role players, time lines and milestones in the implementation.
For each project, exploring and identify available funding/ fundraising opportunities from within and outside the region, including submission within the 10-year research proposal that will be compiled at the end of the 18-month Sida-funded period.

The workshop ended with a strong resolve from all participants to work towards addressing the problems of natural and human-induced hazards and disasters in sub-Saharan Africa. This resolve is encapsulated in a number of recommendations made in what was termed the “Dakar Declaration”. See full report on this workshop. Appendix 1, Appendix 2, Appendix 3, Appendix 4, Appendix 5a, Appendix 5b, Appendix 6, Appendix 7, Appendix 8, Appendix 9, Appendix 10, Appendix 11

Post-ICSU GA30 African National Members and Scientific Unions Forum

Bongani Mahlalela — 2012-12-12T14:50:00Z

The Forum ended with the establishment of a five-member Task Team with representation from each of the five sub-regions of the continent. This Task Team is to assist the ICSU Regional Office for Africa in implementing a number of resolutions made at the Forum. The Team is also to help strategize towards effective participation of NMs and SUs in the 31^st General Assembly of ICSU to be held in New Zealand in 2014.

A full report and Resolutions.

Call for IAG/AIG Grants

Bongani Mahlalela — 2012-12-12T14:30:00Z

The funds allocated are 12,000 euros from the IAG/AIG plus 1000 euros from the French Geomorphology Group (GFT). In recognition of the outstanding research carried out by the French Geomorphologyist Jean Tricart (1920-2003) in Latin America, Africa and Asia, one of the grant holders from these regions will be designated as the Tricart Scholar.

For more information regardint this call please click here

Applications for Scholarships

Bongani Mahlalela — 2013-01-09T03:55:38Z

AAA offers study opportunities at post-graduate level to professionals from eligible African countries. The scholarships are offered at Masters Level, for PhD studies in Agriculture, and for short professional development courses ("Short Course Awards") of up to 3 months in specialised fields.

Applications for the next round of scholarships opened on September 2012, and close on the following dates:

Short Course Awards for 2013: Closing date 30 November 2012
Long-Term Awards (Masters-level Awards) for 2014: Closing date 14 December 2012
Long-Term Awards (PhD Agriculture) for 2014: Closing date 31 March 2013

For detail information please visit www.adsafrica.com.au

ICSU ROA Chemistry Book Published

Bongani Mahlalela — 2013-01-08T07:29:17Z

The book is divided into three parts. The first part comprises of six chapters, and it focuses on the application of chemistry in health and biodiversity utilisation. The second part of the book, which comprises of four chapters, presents case studies of how scientists on the continent are utilising new technologies to address the challenges of the emerging areas in chemistry. The last part which is comprised of three chapters, highlights the relevance of international scientific collaboration to the sustainable development of the continent.

The book is available online from Springer website: http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-642-29642-0/page/1 and the Amazon http://www.amazon.com/chemistry-sustainable-development-Ameenah-Gurib-Fakim/dp/3642296416

ICSU ROA Chemistry Book Published

Bongani Mahlalela — 2013-01-08T06:56:39Z

The book is available online from Springer website and the Amazon.

Future Earth Regional Workshop for Africa

Bongani Mahlalela — 2012-11-06T07:35:00Z

The International Council for Science, with financial support from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) organised the Future Earth Regional Workshop for Africa, which was held in Cape Town, South Africa on 31 October – 02 November 2012. The workshop brought together about 50 global environmental change scientists from within and outside Africa. It provided a platform for these scientists and other stakeholders working on global environmental change research across disciplines to discuss and elaborate recommendations for the development of Future Earth on the continent.

Dakar Declaration

Bongani Mahlalela — 2012-10-25T17:30:00Z

The Sida funded African Regional Implementation Workshop on Hazards and Disasters took place in Dakar, Senegal from the 26 - 27 September 2012 and ended with this declaration of outcomes.

Call – SSEESS Research Links Programme

Bongani Mahlalela — 2012-10-04T08:10:26Z

This programme aims to enhance the collaboration between Swedish scientists and scientists in the South in order to enhance the research and research capacity in developing countries, and to strengthen the Swedish research of relevance for developing countries. The focus is on Swedish collaboration with the three Regional Offices of the International Council for Science (ICSU), in Africa, Asia and Pacific, and Latin America and Carribbean. The overall scope of the programme is to address the grand challenges of sustainability in the regional context.

The application should be emailed to the SSEESS secretariat at: application@sseess.kva.se, no later than November 9, 2012. For more detailed information click below link

http://www.sseess.org/news/call-sseess-research-link-programme

ICSU RCA 13th Meeting Feedback

Bongani Mahlalela — 2012-09-03T14:50:00Z

The RCA members deliberated and took decisions on a number of issues that included ICSU ROA budget for the 2013/14 financial year, the implementation of past and future planned activities of ICSU ROA, the activities of the Office with the ICSU Family as well as with ICSU ROA partners and other science networks on the continent. Via Skype, Steven Wilson updated the Committee on issues related to ICSU’s Rio+20 conference involvement as well as progress on the implementation of the Future Earth initiative and the Sida proposal that is being implemented by all the three ICSU Regional Offices.One of the major decisions taken during the meeting was the approval of the African School Series programme by the RCA.

This programme will focus on offering Africa’s students and young scientists transformative experiences in science, engineering and technology applications on the continent. The 13^th RCA Meeting was preceded by a one day workshop that was co-organised by ICSU ROA and the NRF (the host institution of the Office). The workshop was held at Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory (HartRAO), a facility of the NRF, about 60 km west of Pretoria. This event was meant to provide a platform for the RCA members to interact with scientists from South African research and academic institutions. Presentations included those on HartRAO, the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project, ACCESS (Applied Centre for Climate and Earth Systems Science) and iTHEMBA Lab’s institutional African partnerships and programmes.

First Meeting of the African Union (AU) High Level Panel on the review of Africa’s Science and Technology Consolidated Plan of Action (CPA), 8 - 9 August, 2012, Library of Alexandria, Egypt

Bongani Mahlalela — 2012-09-03T14:50:00Z

The panel will advise the AU on reviewing the CPA which was adopted by the African Ministerial Council on Science and Technology (AMCOST) in 2005 and endorsed by African Heads of State and Government in 2006 in order to move the continent from resource-based economies into innovation-led, knowledge-based economies.

The eight-member panel is drawn from all five geographical regions of Africa as well as from the international community. ICSU Regional Office for Africa, which has been incorporated as a Working Group member for the review process, actively participated in the first meeting of the panel that was held on 8-9 August 2012 at the Library of Alexandria in Egypt. To view the press release on the emerging issues from the inception meeting in English click here.

ICSU ROA Annual Report 2011/12

Bongani Mahlalela — 2013-01-11T15:35:30Z

To view the Annual Report on PDF format click here

ICSU ROA Intern

Bongani Mahlalela — 2012-08-08T06:45:36Z

ICSU Regional Office for Africa would like to welcome Awelani Sadiki who joined the Office beginning of August. Awelani who is on an internship programme of the Department of Science and Technology of the Republic of South Africa has been deployed to undertake his one year internship programme at ICSU ROA. His background is in International Relations.

13th ICSU Regional Committee for Africa Meeting

Bongani Mahlalela — 2013-01-07T00:25:51Z

The meeting will be preceded by a one-day workshop that will be organized by the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa. This pre-meeting will provide a platform for the RCA members to interact with scientists from South African research and academic institutions. The Chairperson of ICSU‘s Committee on Scientific Planning and Review, Prof M. Makgoba, will join the pre-meeting and share his vision for this important structure within ICSU.