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Participation of OSSREA Staff in International Seminars and Workshops
International Seminar on Peace and Conflict Research
An international seminar on “New Challenges on Peace and Conflict Studies: What Role for the Third World?” was held from 19 to 23 September 2002 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The seminar was organised and hosted by the Latin American Research Council (El Consejo Latinamericano de Ciencias Sociales (CLACSO)) in collaboration with the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida). Representatives of selected regional research networks based in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean presented a report on conflict and peace research in their respective region. The seminar identified common research themes and operational modalities for future collaboration.
About 29 participants who came from 18 countries attended the seminar. Participants of Latin American countries came from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Mexico, Uruguay and Venezuela. Asian participants came from Malaysia, Singapore, and Vietnam. African participants came from Angola, Ethiopia, South Africa, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. Mr. Alemayehu Azeze, Program Officer, represented OSSREA.
Digital Print and Print-On-Demand Workshop for African Publishers
The African Books Collective (ABC), an international distributional agency that disseminates African publications worldwide, organised a digital print and print-on-demand (POD) workshop for a selected number of African publishers. Digital printing is the process of printing directly from computer to machine a limited number of copies as desired. This process can be used for print-on-demand, a system utilizing the printing technology to digitally print single or more copies of a given work to a firm order from a customer. When a publisher sends a Portable Document File (PDF) to the printer, the latter sets it up in a form suitable for later printing directly from computer to printer and saves the file in its virtual library until the customer gets an order for the book and instructs the printer to produce the required number of copies.
A pilot print-on-demand project was initiated by Fourth Dimension Publishing Co., Nigeria (FDP), with the facilitation and technical support of African Books Collective (ABC). The project was a three-way operation between FDP, ABC and Lightning Source UK (LSUK, the leading producer of POD). Based on the experience gained from this arrangement, ABC decided to expand its facilitation services to its publishers. As a first step in this direction, ABC arranged for its partner publishers to orient themselves about digital print technologies and the POD.
Accordingly, ABC organised the two-day workshop on digital print and Print-On-Demand (POD). The workshop was held on November 14 and 15 at Charney Manor, a small conference centre on the outskirts of Oxford, United Kingdom. It was attended by representatives of 12 African publishers, i.e., one each from Ethiopia, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Senegal, and Uganda, and two each from Nigeria, Ghana and Tanzania. While most of the publishers were commercial enterprises, two were from regional research organisations (CODESRIA and OSSREA), and three from university-affiliated presses (Dar es Salaam University Press, Zimbabwe University Press, and Kachere from Malawi). Dr. Taye Assefa, Publications Officer of OSSREA, was one of the workshop participants.
Planning for HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa: An Advanced Study Workshop for Professionals
A study workshop on “Planning for HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa: An Advanced Study Workshop for Professionals” was held from 28th October to 15th November 2002 in Durban, South Africa. It was organised by the Health Economics and HIV/AIDS Research Division (HEARD) of the University of Natal, South Africa. The objective of the study workshop was to equip participants with the tools for assessing the impact of HIV/AIDS and planning for its consequences.
The workshop was attended by about 50 participants who came from Burundi, Botswana, Brazil, Colombia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Swaziland and Zimbabwe. Participants represented government departments, private sector, teaching and research organisations, UN agencies, and NGOs involved in HIV/AIDS. Mr. Alemayehu Azeze, Program Officer of OSSREA, participated in this workshop.
International Training in Environmental Conflict Management
OSSREA’s Program Officer, Ms. Rahel Mesfin, attended an international course on Environmental Conflict Management at the University of Peace from 26 November to 7 December 2002 in Ciudad Colon, Costa Rica. The overall objective of the course is to enhance the capacity of groups active in the field of natural resources management.
The training also involved a field trip to Ballena Marine Park, where the establishment of the park has resulted in conflict between the fishermen and local community on one side and the Ministry of Environment on the other side.
At the end of the training, participants were given certificates of attendance and a feedback report on their performance.