South Africa through the African Doctoral Academy at Stellenbosch University has been invited by the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development's Global Science Forum to prepare a submission to be presented to the Global Science Forum meeting in Japan during October.
This follows an extremely successful OECD Global Science Forum workshop International Research Collaboration in the Areas of Climate Change and Biodiversity which was co-hosted at SU by ADA in May.
The October Forum will focus on capacity development in context to the African Diaspora – specifically the brain drain and brain exchange implications and research collaboration and global migration.
"The Japanese Government recently re-emphasised their focus to strengthen and enhance human capacity development on the African continent through the University of Tokyo," says Prof Frans Swanepoel, Deputy Director of ADA. "An example of this is the well-established and influential Education for Sustainable Development (ESDA) initiative to develop a postgraduate-level education programme for professionals to be engaged in sustainable development in Africa, in partnership with a number of African Universities."
According to Swanepoel up to 40% of African academics and scholars are currently in Diaspora (they. live and work outside the African).
"These people can play a significant role in assisting with the development of Africa's next generation academics (capacity building), by returning to the continent, or be engaged on a part-time basis."
Some critics argue that the rich countries are 'robbing' Africa from its brains (i.e. intellectual capacity that are drawn abroad and stay there), whereas the rich countries argue that they provide an opportunity for brain exchange and international exposure. This has direct implications for future planning of international research collaboration and global intellectual migration. This effect of internationalisation (among others) easily overlooks the human aspect of migration and exchange, which is, as illustrated, uneven globally (many leave and do not return).
According to Swanepoel it is not only important for ADA, but also for Stellenbosch University to be involved in the OECD.
"The mission of the OECD is to promote policies that will promote the economic and social well-being of people around the world. Being involved with the OECD provided the University with an opportunity to influence and direct these policies, specifically focusing on human resource and human capacity development – this is also the mission of the ADA."
In addition the OECD has an internationally-renowned programme on research and knowledge management, which is directly aligned with the work of the Centre for Research on Evaluation Science and Technology (CREST).
For the May workshop ADA partnered with University of Tokyo, the Department of Science and Technology and the National Research Foundation. The workshop was attended by 50 delegates from the African continent, including Dr Monty Jones, FARA and World Food Prize Laureate, Ghana; and Prof Hamid El-Zoheiry, Heliopolis University for Sustainable Development, Egypt. Participants from northern countries, included Prof Alice Pell, Cornell University, Dr DeAndra Beck, National Science Foundation (NSF), and Dr Cameron Bess, USAID from the USA; Prof Kazuhiko Takeuchi, University of Tokyo; and Prof Heinz Gutscher, Swiss Academy of Sciences, Switzerland.
"The May workshop investigated international research collaboration between developed and developing countries. A follow-up activity supported by the OECD will further strengthen and enhance collaboration between these two universities, which will help to position Stellenbosch University to play a central role in the Japanese and in particular the University of Tokyo's capacity development initiatives on the African continent," says Swanepoel.
The University of Tokyo is ranked number one in Asia and 27th in the world, by recently-released Times Higher Education World University Rankings.
