During the first week of November 2001, the Executive Secretary visited the Sudan Chapter to discuss the preparations for the 7th OSSREA Congress. The Chapter has selected the theme and prepared a preliminary concept paper which will be refined by the secretariat. The theme selected is “The quest for social peace in Africa: Transformation, democracy and public policy”. Negotiations are taking place with a number of hotels that could be used as conference venues. On the invitation of the Executive Secretary, Prof. John Shiundu had visited OSSREA and discussed with him a number of issues related to future activities that may be proposed to the 7th Congress. He also had a chance to comment on the concept paper prepared by the Sudan Chapter.
During the last two weeks of November, the Executive Secretary visited Norway and The Netherlands. In Norway, he
discussed future plans for collaboration with two partners, namely, the Centre for Development Studies (the University of Bergen) and Chr. Michelsen Institute. OSSREA and the two institutions have joint projects which are phasing out and there was need to see what future activities may be organized.
In Oslo, the Executive Secretary met with the responsible Programme Officer in NORAD and was informed of the planned visit of the NORAD Officials to OSSREA in mid February 2002. The issue of collaboration with Norwegian institutes was discussed and the NORAD official expressed her support for this collaboration.
During the visit to The Netherlands, a meeting was held with the responsible project officers in the ISS and then with the responsible officer in The Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Both meetings were focused on future activities and plans for new projects.
During his visit in The Netherlands, the Executive Secretary acted as an external examiner for a Ph.D. candidate at the ISS. He also took part in the evaluation of the Research School for Resource Studies for Development (CERES).