2-3 April 2009, Johannesburg NEPAD initiative –
Southern African Water Network of centres of Excellence
The 2d and 3rd of April 2009, was hosted in Johannesburg the first meeting of the Southern African Water Network of centres of Excellence.
Participants were representatives from:
- NEPAD
- Office of Science and Technology;
- the ministries of S&T of Malawi, Namibia, Botswana, South Africa;
- the research institutions and Universities identifies so far as centres of excellence for the Southern African region (Univ. of Botswana; NAREC Univ. of Malawi; SANUMARC, Univ. Namibia; Univ. of Western Cape; Kwazulu Natal Univ.;CSIR ; Stellenbosch Univ) and in the Western African region (Univ. Cheik Anta Diop, Senegal and 2ie, Burkina Faso);
- the University of Zambia (invited as observer, the representative of the ministry could not attend the meeting)
- SANBIO Network of Excellences
- the SADC;
- the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs;
- the WRC Water Research Council, South Africa and the IRD Institute of Research for Development, France in their quality of expert to NEPAD for the identification of centers of excellence;
- EC, DG EUROPAID and DG JRC;
- SPLASH programme.
The Southern African Water Network of Centres of Excellence is constituted by:
- Univ. of Botswana, Botswana
- NAREC Natural Resource and Environnement Centre,
- Univ. of Malawi, Malawi
- SANUMARC Sam Nujoma Marine and Coastal Resources Research Centre, Univ. Namibia, Namibia
- Western Cape Univ, South Africa
- Kwazulu Natal Univ., South Africa
- CSIR Council for Science and Industrial Research, South Africa
- Stellenbosch Univ., South Africa
The decisions taken were following:
- The Stellenbosch University, South-Africa will be responsible for the secretariat of the hub.
- The secretariat will propose Terms of Reference for the management of the network.
- Each Center of Excellence will send a synthesis of their main competencies and their fields of interest and priority (by end of april).
- The network will build a business plan by the end of the summer time (based on the areas of joint interest).
- A Strategic Board will be constituted, with all the partners of the hub, with and equal voice.
- A process will be defined to include new partners in the hub.
The SANBIO network of centers of excellence have been presented by Prof. Diran Makinde. He explained the network structure, progress and results. (http://www.nepadst.org/sanbio/)
Mr Murray Biedler (DG EUROPAID) et Dr Cesar Carmona (DG JRC, Ispra) have presented a pilot project that will aim at supporting the centres of excellence on jointly developed activities.
The SPLASH programme has been presented by Mrs Manon Rabanit, and the propositions of future SPLASH joint actions: - a support to NEPAD in identifying new centers of excellence, to strength (make this initiative benefit from the SPLASH expertise and channels of communication to inform and motivate our partners in south to apply (NEPAD his highly interested);. - a coordination of SPLASH donors around the centers and hub of excellence needs, to strengthen the regional networking and support capacity building (2IE, UCAD ..are interested) ; - the creation of an e-course on research management in cooperation with Univ. in South (2IE and WRC have expressed their interest).