• ANU Africa Network

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    This website was established in 2013 by David Lucas, and renovated and relaunched in 2020 as part of a project to increase awareness of Africa and African studies in the ANU and the ACT, funded by the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

    Another outcome of that project was a major research report, published in August 2021, African Studies at the Australian National University and in the Australian Capital Territory, analyzing the past, present and future of the study of Africa at the Australian National University and the wider Australian University sector.

    The major innovation on this updated website is the creation of the ACT Africa Expert Directory which lists experts on Africa from institutions around the ACT, primarily the ANU. We will continue to curate this list, offering a key resource for media, government and non-government organizations seeking expert facts and opinions on Africa. Individuals can request to be added to the list by contacting the website managers.

    Another notable addition is the expanded directory of PhD theses on Africa produced in the territory’s universities, a solid measure of the vitality of the study of Africa in the city of Canberra.

    Reviewing these directories, it is revealing to note that the vast majority of research on Africa is produced by disciplinary experts (environmental scientists, economists, demographers, etc.) rather than area studies experts. This means that the study of Africa is woven into the fabric of the research culture of the ANU and the ACT’s other universities in ways that are not necessarily apparent.


  • A decision-focused approach to sustainable development in Africa

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    Crawford School of Public Policy | Resources, Environment and Development Group

    Date & time

    Monday 10 October 2016
    10.00am–11.00am

    Venue

    Lennox Room, Level 1, JG Crawford Building 132, Lennox Crossing, ANU

    Speaker

      Dr Keith Shepherd, World Agroforestry Centre, Nairobi, Kenya.
    Keith Shepherd is a Principal Scientist at the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) in Nairobi and leads the Centre’s Science Domain on Land Health Decisions. . Keith has 40 years’ experience in agricultural research and development in Africa and Asia.
    ‘Decision-makers should be selecting interventions that optimise outcomes across the whole set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This requires economic models that project long-term costs, benefits and risks of intervention options. There is also a need to assess trade-offs and returns to investment and this requires expressing the relative value of different aims in monetary terms.’

    Contacts

    Vivienne Seedsman
    6125 3912

    FOR MORE DETAILS SEE

    https://crawford.anu.edu.au/news-events/events/8465/decision-focused-approach-sustainable-development-africa

     

     

     

    Apologies: IT problems were responsible for the lateness of this post 


  • Engaging diasporas in development

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    Date & time

    Thursday 29 September 2016
    1.00pm–2.00pm

    Venue

    Brindabella Theatre, Level 2, JG Crawford Building 132, Lennox Crossing, ANU

    Speaker

    Chukwu-Emeka Chikezie, MBE, Director, Up!-Africa Limited;

    Chukwu-Emeka was born in London to a Nigerian father and Sierra Leonean mother. He was formerly a Senior Economic Advisor to the Mauritian government on the private sector and diaspora. He is founder of London-based African Foundation for Development, prominent in the UN-sponsored Global Forum on Migration and Development and also director of Up!-Africa Limited.

    In this public seminar following on from the inaugural Disaporas in Action Conference in Melbourne, Chukwu-Emeka Chikezie MBE will draw on his 30 years of experience in advancing diaspora engagement with government, NGOs and the private sector in the UK

    In this public forum co-hosted with Diaspora Action Australia and the Research for Development Impact Network, he and a leader in the field from Fiji will discuss how to engage diaspora communities in order to strengthen Australia’s development and humanitarian response efforts and to identify possible ways forward for collaboration

    Migrant-and refugee-led organisations implement innovative, small-scale, low-cost projects and these multicultural communities have high levels of contextual knowledge and access to vulnerable populations. However, policymakers have only just begun to appreciate the powerful role that migrant-and refugee-led organisations might play in Australian development efforts.

    For more information and to register for this event see

    https://crawford.anu.edu.au/news-events/events/8395/engaging-diasporas-humanitarian-response-and-economic-development?tb=rego#tab


  • Panel on Eradicating disease/Science Communication in Africa

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    ANU’S Contribution to Science and Communication in Africa

    Thursday 15 September, 2016, 6-7 pm.

    Venue: Australian Centre on China in the World

    Building
    Address:
    188 Fellows Lane, ANU
     
    • For more details about registering etc., see

    https://www.anu.edu.au/events/science-and-innovation-in-africa

    Panellists include:

    • Professor William Foley, Leader Animal-Plant Interactions Lab, ANU Research School of Biology.
    • Mr Gboyega Adeniran, PhD Candidate, Water Governance, ANU Centre for European Studies
    • Dr Graham Walker, Science Circus Africa Project Officer, Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science
    • Mr Matthew Neuhaus, senior career officer with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, currently Assistant Secretary, Africa Branch

    This panel will have two main foci, the first being  the decades of work by ANU Emeritus Fellow Dr Howard Bradbury AM on Konzo,

    Cassava is a staple food in parts of Africa but If prepared incorrectly can produce a poisonous cyanide compound which can cause death or can result in the crippling disease, Konzo.

    Dr Bradbury has worked to eradicate konzo in 16 villages in Africa. by providing health practitioners with both an easy method for testing for cyanide, and the skills needed to encourage communities to use this method as part of their daily routines.

    Secondly. the panel will discuss the ANU’s Science Circus Africa project which has resulted in 162 local African staff being trained to perform their own science shows using everyday equipment such as bicarb soda, beach balls and magnets.