Addis Ababa — This is to invite your participation in "International Policies, African Realities", an electronic roundtable co-sponsored by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the Africa Policy Information Center (APIC), Washington, D.C.
The objective of the Roundtable is to provide an electronic space in which Africans, North Americans and others can discuss what policy perspectives and understandings of African reality should shape international engagement with Africa.
It is to be chaired by Dr. K.Y. Amoako, Executive Secretary of the ECA, Dr. Julius Ihonvbere, the Ford Foundation, and Ms. Adwoa Dunn-Mouton, APIC. The principal moderator will be Dr. AbdouMaliq Simone assisted by Ms. Karin Santi (APIC) and Ms. Mercy Wambui (ECA) as co-moderators.
The Roundtable will try to use the opportunities opened up by new electronic communication technologies to come up with new ways of putting together and conveying African knowledge. It will experiment with means by which African- initiated content and perspectives can be projected into policy debates on African issues taking place outside the continent. It will build on the innovative ECA electronic conferences preceding the ECA's 40th anniversary (AFR- FEM, March-May 1998) and the African Development Forum (June-October 1999), as well as on APIC's capacity to relay information on Africa to diverse constituencies within the U.S., Africa, and elsewhere.
The Roundtable will run from January 8 - May 8, 2000, and will be divided into four month-long sessions. Each session will focus on a specific theme. The themes include in order:
- Economy and Development, - Democracy and Human Rights, - Peace and Security, and - Education and Culture.
Each session is to be introduced by several panellists, responsible for opening remarks and interchange before being opened up to 20 days of comment from Roundtable respondents and general participants. As with such a panel at an in-person conference, the selection of high-quality panellists and giving them an opportunity to speak first will set the tone of the discussion. During the three-week discussion period for each topic, the audience will have its chance to contribute, with the moderators taking the responsibility to ensure that contributions from the floor are pertinent to the discussion. The lyris listserv software utilized by Bellanet will allow participants to join the discussion by e-mail or from the web, and the archive of discussions will be available for access by an even wider audience. A book-length publication will be prepared following the conclusion of the Roundtable.
For additional information on the Roundtable please contact Karin Santi (karin@africapolicy.org) or APIC (Tel 202 546 7961; Fax 202 546 1545; E-mail apic@igc.org)
* Panellists Confirmed as of late November, 1999
Economy and Development
Paulina Adebusoye, Economic Commission for Africa Taoufik Ben Abdallah, Syspro, ENDA Tiers Monde Yassine Fall, AAWORD Yao Graham, Third World Network Thandika Mkandawire, UN Research Institute on Social Development Dominique Njinkeu, African Economic Research Consortium Jacqueline Nkoyok, Confederation of Central African NGOs
Democracy and Human Rights
Tade Aina, Ford Foundation Mazide N'Diaye, Forum of African Voluntary Development Organizations
Peace and Security
Jakkie Cilliers, Insitute for Security Studies Angela Hakizimana, Women for Peace Network Hussein Solomon, ACCORD Chidi Odinkalu, Interights George Wachira, Nairobi Peace Initiative
Education and Culture Lalla Ben Barka, Economic Commission for Africa Lupwishi Mbuyamba, UNESCO Luanda
For further information please contact Peter da Costa, Cabinet Office of the Executive Secretary, UN ECA, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Tel: +251-1-51-58-26 (direct) or 251-1-51-72-00 (main switchboard), Ext. 354866 Fax: +251-1-51-22-33 E-Mail: ecainfo@un.org
