The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic was met with a significant amount of concern about how African economies were going to cope, given their relatively weak position in several areas. The pandemic quickly exposed how fragile the health systems and institutions in Africa were.

Defining a Role for Research Universities

The African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA) hosted an international conference and workshops on 18-20 November 2019 in Nairobi under the theme “Africa and the Fourth Industrial Revolution: Defining a Role for Research Universities”.

The world is being ushered into a new industrial future, which is set to change in a fundamental way, how people live daily. The Fourth Industrial Revolution will be fundamentally different from earlier industrial revolutions in its scope and complexity, as well as its scale.

The 2017 UNU-WIDER Development Conference took place on 5-6 April 2017 at the ISSER Conference Centre of University of Ghana. The conference, which was jointly organised with the African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA), was under the theme of “Migration and Mobility – New Frontiers for Research and Policy”. His Excellency Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, Vice President of the Republic of Ghana, and Her Excellency Ms Pirjo Suomela-Chowdhury, Ambassador of Finland in Accra, formally opened it. The two-day conference had two keynote speakers, three plenary sessions, and over twenty parallel and poster presentation sessions

Inaugural conference identifies collaboration themes, strengthens pan-African networks. “Africa cannot be free if we do not adequately replicate in good measure the high level skills and pioneering research required to foster inclusive development on the continent, whilst making a unique, valuable contribution to the global knowledge economy,” comments Prof. Ernest Aryeetey, Secretary-General of the African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA), at the inaugural conference of ARUA, which runs from 3-4 April 2017 at the University of Ghana.