AfricaLics @10
The African Network of Researchers in Learning, Innovation and Competence Building Systems (AfricaLics) is the African regional network for researchers involved in innovation and development research with a specific interest in promoting learning, innovation and competence building systems approaches. The network currently includes scholars from Algeria, Cameroon, Benin, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Uganda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The formation of AfricaLics was centered on the following two rationales:
- A need to understand innovation and learning in the context of Africa – both from theoretical and practical perspectives.
- Given the fact that Africa lacks adequate capacity for the above purpose, a need for capacity building arose.
It was envisioned that the AfricaLics network could become a strong dynamo for capacity building in the specific field of innovation and economic development, both at the individual, institutional and country levels. This can allow African countries to design policies suitable and responsive to their own needs, and instigate corrective measures to ensure the smooth production, dissemination and use of knowledge for economic development, including poverty alleviation.
AfricaLics has received funding from the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida) to conduct research capacity building activities to build research capabilities in the field of innovation and development. This includes funding to support a bi-annual research conference.
University of Yaoundé II-Soa
The University of Yaoundé II emerged from the former University of Yaoundé, founded in 1961 out of Presidential decree in 1993. It specializes in the teaching and research of social sciences through two branches: Economics, Law and Political Sciences, and Communication and Information Technologies. The university counts with a student body of nearly 30,000, as well as 316 teachers and 480 administrative staff. The University of Yaoundé II-Soa aims to become a virtual university.
Today, the University aims to be a Technopole in the social sciences including research centers, companies, academic institutions, as well as financial organizations that facilitate personal contacts between these different entities. This Technopole wants to be the engine of public action in its diagnostic, evaluative and praxeological dimensions. Well beyond the functional needs created by the increasing complexity of the public policy environment, it intends to give meaning and innovation to the construction of the continuum between legal, political, economic, managerial, demographic and communication knowledge on the one hand and public action on the other.
To do this, the University of Yaoundé II-Soa relies on a training offer structured around:
Today, the University aims to be a Technopole in the social sciences including research centers, companies, academic institutions, as well as financial organizations that facilitate personal contacts between these different entities. This Technopole wants to be the engine of public action in its diagnostic, evaluative and praxeological dimensions. Well beyond the functional needs created by the increasing complexity of the public policy environment, it intends to give meaning and innovation to the construction of the continuum between legal, political, economic, managerial, demographic and communication knowledge on the one hand and public action on the other.
To do this, the University of Yaoundé II-Soa relies on a training offer structured around:
- 5 institutions. – 26 pedagogical departments. – 30 Bachelor’s degree programs (classical and professional). – 25 Master’s programs (classical and professional). – 1 doctoral school with 9 doctoral training units;
- 9 research centers. – 5 chair programs. – 10 teams and networks of researchers. – 1 library of 200 places and – 4 documentary resource centers
PAU Institute for Governance, Humanities and Social Sciences (PAUGHSS)
The PAUGHSS is hosted at the University of Yaoundé II, Cameroon, representing Central Africa. It is one of the five Institutes of the Pan-African University. Established in 2002, the Institute presently comprises two Masters and Ph.D programmes in “Governance and Regional Development”, quartered in the University of Yaoundé II-Soa and in “Translation and Conference Interpretation” based in the Advanced School of Translators and Interpreters (ASTI) of the University of Buea.
The “Governance and Regional Integration programme”, seeks to give Africans the necessary intellectual and practical capabilities in the field of good governance, sustainable development and the promotion of Regional Development in Africa, while the “Translation and Conference Interpretation” programme enables young Africans to acquire the necessary skills in the field of Translation and Conference Interpretation as well as in the development of African and cross-border languages.