African network of DAAD excellence centers meets in Accra

Thirty-two representatives from the eight DAAD-sponsored Centres of Excellence in Africa gathered for the seventh DAAD Network Meeting. It was hosted by the Ghanaian-German Centre for Development Studies (GGCDS), run by ZEF in collaboration with the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER), University of Ghana, from March 3-5, 2016.

At the opening ceremony at ISSER, the Ghanaian Minister of Communications, Hon. Dr. Edward Omane Boamah, The Deputy Minister of Education Hon. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, and the German Embassy's Deputy Head of Missions, Mr. Bernard Abels gave speeches emphasizing the important role of the DAAD Centres of Excellence for the internationalization of research for development and academic capacity building.

Subsequently, the participants from Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Namibia, DR Congo, South Africa and Germany retreated to Akosombo to focus on the main topic of improved research capacity. They shared experiences and developed strategies to build and strengthen research partnerships and explore future possibilities of the centres.

The broad diversity of the eight individual centres’ thematic orientations fostered a lively exchange between the scientists and enabled fruitful discussions as well as reciprocal learning from the work of their peers.