Focus on Africa: Rethinking Aid Effectiveness and Development Partnerships-Day 1 May 8, 2008

Focus on Africa: Rethinking Aid Effectiveness and Development Partnerships
Free Public Symposium

What makes aid effective? This question has preoccupied students, scholars, practitioners, and recipients of international development for decades.

Join us for this three-day public symposium that will bring together prominent speakers, including scholars from Africa, Canada and the USA, senior officials from the World Bank and CIDA, graduate students, representatives from the corporate and civil sectors, and the local community.

Thursday May 8, 2008
6:30pm – 9:30pm
Four Seasons Hotel - Arbutus Room
791 West Georgia Street, Vancouver

Friday May 9, 2008
9:00am – 5:30pm
Segal Graduate School of Business
Simon Fraser University
500 Granville Street (at Pender), Vancouver

Saturday May 10, 2008
10:00am – 3:00pm
Segal Graduate School of Business
Simon Fraser University
500 Granville Street (at Pender), Vancouver

The overall goal of this event is to engage community members in a process that will help us rethink aid effectiveness (in what has been characterized as a ‘post-aid world’) and the role of various forms of development partnerships within the overall context of meeting the challenges Africa faces in achieving the UN’s Millennium Development Goals.

All three days of this public event are free, but reservations are required. Please call 778.782.5100 or email cs_hc@sfu.ca to reserve space.

Visit www.sfu.ca/community/ and click on Focus on Africa under Upcoming Events for agenda and speaker information. Please check back often as speaker info and the agenda will be updated over the coming week.

Speakers will include:

Edith Grace Kempala, Director, International Affairs, The World Bank

Ms. Ssempala has served as Ugandan Permanent Representative to the African Union, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, and as Uganda’s Ambassador to the United States. She has been instrumental in the passing of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), and the U.S. President’s Emergency Relief Fund for HIV/AIDS. Throughout her career, she has worked to promote global peace and reconciliation, economic development and the advancement of health and wellbeing for poor people throughout the world, especially women and youth.

Dr. Paul N. Mbatia, Chair, Department of Sociology, University of Nairobi

Dr. Mbatia's areas of research expertise include research methods and the sociology of development. While based at Penn, Dr. Mbatia conducted research on the “development industry” in Africa, and he gave public presentations at Illinois Wesleyan University, Louisiana State University, Bryn Mawr College and Arcadia University.

Dr. Peter Rogers, Department of Environmental Studies, University of New England

In addition to teaching courses on the social and political dimensions of environmental issues, Dr. Rogeres' areas of research expertise include the politics of wildlife conservation and protected area management in sub-Saharan Africa and the role of international governmental and non-governmental organizations in these processes. While based at Penn, Dr. Rogers worked on a comparative study of the Serengeti-Mara protected area complex in East Africa and the Great Limpopo protected area complex in Southern Africa. He also taught a seminar on “The Social Dimensions of African Wildlife Conservation”.

Stella Talisuma, Executive Director, Reach Out Mbuya HIV/AIDS Initiative, Uganda.

Ms. Talisuna's experience with and passion for issues related to HIV/AIDS development issues will inform her presentation about on-the-ground responses to the AIDS crisis in Africa, and how development partnerships can effect positive change.

Please visit www.sfu.ca/community/africa for information on more speakers.

Official Website: http://www.sfu.ca/community/africa