African science academies meet in November

African science academies meet in November

The African Science Academy Development Initiative's sixth conference takes place in November 2010 with a focus on electricity and renewable energy.

The conference will be held under the theme "Improving Access to Energy in Sub-Saharan Africa" on 9 and 10 November 2010 in Somerset West, a town in the Western Cape of South Africa.

Traditional versus modern forms of energy are among the debates at the conference.

Other issues include identifying how to bridge the energy gap between rural and urban areas and how to provide affordable and sustainable energy; and energy as a universal supply for economic development are among the topics.

Interested participants must complete a registration form, available on the website of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) and email it to Dorothy Ngila at mutheu@assaf.org.za or fax her on +27 (0)86 576 9517.

ASADI is a decade-long collaboration beginning in 2004 between the science academies of Uganda, South Africa and Nigeria, and the United States National Academies, with funding by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The academies of Ghana, Cameroon, Sénégal and Kenya, and the regional African Academy of Sciences, also participate in the initiative.

Members of the ASADI board include Narciso Matos, a chemist and chief executive officer of the Foundation for Community Development (Fundação para o Desenvolvimento da Comunidade or FDC) in Mozambique and Sénégal-born demographer and population health specialist Cheikh Mbacké.

Also serving on the ASADI board is medical doctor Speciosa Wandira, the first woman to be appointed vice-president of Uganda, who served the country from 1994 to 2003 and then resigned to pursue a PhD at Harvard University in the USA.

Jo Ivey Boufford, a professor of public service, health policy and management at the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and clinical professor of paediatrics at the New York University School of Medicine, is the president of ASADI board.

Links
African Science Academy Development Initiative
African Science Academy Development Initiative conference (pdf 145KB)
Fundação para o Desenvolvimento da Comunidade, Mozambique