Speakers' biographies |
Sponsors & contributors |
Sponsors & Contributors
African Books Collective (ABC)
African Books Collective (ABC) comprises 114 independent African publishers from 19 African countries. Its mission statement is: "African Books Collective, founded, owned and governed by African publishers, seeks to strengthen indigenous African publishing through collective action and to increase the visibility and accessibility of the wealth of African scholarship and culture".
ABC markets and distributes African-published books worldwide. The strategy is largely commercial, to achieve the cultural aims. Some 1,500 titles are stocked, largely virtually through Print-on-Demand; and selected titles are stocked with a wholesale partner. Michigan State University Press is ABC's partner for distribution in North America. ABC is pursuing a self-sufficient commercial strategy; and support from funding agencies is applied for development and capacity building in African publishing. The titles are largely English language - scholarly titles, literature, and children's books. ABC's list includes many of Africa's top scholars and writers.
www.africanbookscollective.com
African Publishers Network (APNET)
Established in 1992, the African Publishers Network (APNET) is a pan-African, non-profit network with a secretariat in Accra, Ghana. APNET brings together national publishers' associations (from 46 member countries) and publishing communities to strengthen indigenous publishing throughout Africa.
APNET's vision is the transformation of African peoples through books, and its mission is to strengthen African publishing through networking, training, trade promotion, and advocacy, in partnership with other stakeholders, to fully meet Africa's need for quality, relevant books.
In its Strategic Plan 2006 - 2009, APNET will utilize its membership network, its website, and the African Publishing Review (APR) to become the hub for information exchange. This is intended to become the nerve centre of African publishing. APNET's overall objective is to ensure that the development of indigenous publishing proceeds smoothly, both materially and structurally. To achieve this, APNET will also offer training, Intellectual Property workshops, trade promotions, and will plan and organise book publishing related events and conferences.
www.freewebs.com/africanpublishers
Book Aid International
We are a UK-registered charity, established in 1954 in response to the huge demand for books and journals overseas, where education is the route out of poverty.
Book Aid International:
- Sends over half a million books and journals each year to partners in 17 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, and Palestine
- Works with local partners to ensure resources go where they are needed most
- Supports the local book chain through African book purchase schemes
- Builds local capacity, strengthening the books and information sector in sub-Saharan Africa
- Campaigns for change, to ensure government commitment to the development of libraries and literate environments
We send books in the subjects our partners request - 80% are donated by the UK book trade, so the quality is as new. Our partners include libraries, schools, colleges, refugee camps, hospitals, prisons, and community centres.
Fahamu
Fahamu (the word Fahamu means ‘understanding’ or ‘consciousness’ in Kiswahili) has a vision of the world where people organise to emancipate themselves from all forms of oppression, recognise their social responsibilities, respect each other’s differences, and realise their full potential.
Fahamu supports the struggle for human rights and social justice in Africa by:
- Supporting social justice advocacy through the innovative use of information and communication technologies
- Stimulating debate, discussion and analysis
- Distributing news and information
- Developing training materials and running distance-learning courses
Fahamu focuses primarily on Africa, although we work with others to support the global movement for human rights and social justice.
Fahamu comprises a small core of highly skilled and experienced staff based in Oxford (UK), Cape Town (South Africa) and in Nairobi (Kenya). They also have a network of Associates located in Africa, UK and elsewhere. Fahamu also works with a wide range of international partners. Their work is made possible through the commitment of volunteers and interns and through generous support of funders and by individual donations.
HSRC Press
The HSRC Press is a non-profit publisher committed to the dissemination of high quality social science publications, in print and electronic form. The HSRC Press is a hybrid press, with a mandate to disseminate HSRC research output and other valuable social science research. It supports the social science research community through a strong commitment to 'opening access to quality social science in Africa'. Some of our distinguishing features include:
Free access to information via our open access electronic publishing model;
Our print publications do not go 'out of print' when market demand drops; instead our electronic publishing model enables us to archive material and supply copies in small quantities;
Our print-based publications are significantly more affordable as the sale prices for print based publications do not include profit margins;
Unusual attention is paid to each publication we produce as we are not constrained by the commercial demand of publishing a large numbers of titles annually;
The formal peer-review process guarantees the highest academic quality.
The Press has a very active local and international marketing programme, in addition to collaborating with foreign publishers on specific titles.
International Development Research Centre (IDRC)
Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC) is one of the world's leading institutions in the generation and application of new knowledge to meet the challenges facing developing countries. IDRC funds applied research by researchers from developing countries on the problems they identify as crucial to their communities. IDRC builds local capacity in developing countries to undertake research and create innovations, believing that people from developing countries must take the lead in producing and applying knowledge for the benefit of their own communities. IDRC also fosters alliances and knowledge sharing between scientific, academic, and development communities in Canada and developing countries.
IDRC's headquarters are in Ottawa, Canada, with regional offices in Cairo, Dakar, Nairobi, New Delhi, Montevideo, and Singapore. IDRC publications are available free online and are distributed internationally in book form and on CD-Rom. For more information, write to IDRC at info@idrc.ca or visit our website, www.idrc.ca
Oxfam GB
Oxfam GB is an international development and relief organisation, one of thirteen members of Oxfam International. Oxfam works with others to overcome poverty and suffering... with partners, with volunteers, with supporters and staff of many nationalities - part of a global movement to build a just and safer world.
Oxfam publishes materials for development policy, practice and research, to support its advocacy and campaigning work, to share good practice, and to contribute to debates on development and humanitarian issues. It also co-publishes with other agencies and with commercial partners.
Oxfam Publishing produces books, journals and online policy and research resources to support Oxfam's work. All its output is listed at its website www.oxfam.org.uk/publications and all recent materials are freely available online as pdf files. Books and journals are also available in hard copy through traditional publishing channels.
Practical Action Publishing
Practical Action Publishing is a not-for-profit publishing company working in alignment with the international development work pursued by the Practical Action group. Since 1974 we have published and distributed books and journals of relevance to the work of development practitioners worldwide.
www.practicalactionpublishing.org
The World Bank
The World Bank is a vital source of financial and technical assistance to developing countries around the world. It is not a bank in the common sense. It is made up of two unique development institutions owned by 185 member countries: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA). Each institution plays a different but supportive role in the Bank's mission of global poverty reduction and the improvement of living standards.
The IBRD focuses on middle income and creditworthy poor countries, while IDA focuses on the poorest countries in the world. Together they provide low-interest loans, interest-free credit and grants to developing countries for education, health, infrastructure, communications and many other purposes.
CODESRIA
The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) is an independent organisation whose principal objectives are to facilitate research, promote research-based publishing and create multiple forums geared towards the exchange of views and information among African researchers. All these are aimed at reducing the fragmentation of research in the continent through the creation of thematic research networks that cut across linguistic and regional boundaries.
Speakers' Biographies
Professor Francis Wilson
- Emeritus Professor at the University of Cape Town and founder of SALDRU, the Southern Africa Labour & Development Research Unit.Professor Francis Wilson is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Cape Town where he taught economics for forty years.
He grew up in the Eastern Cape, was trained in physics (at UCT) and economics (Cambridge).
In 1975 he founded SALDRU, the Southern Africa Labour & Development Research Unit. His main research work has been in labour (gold mines; migrant; farms), history, data collection and in poverty about which, to find out more, he directed the second Carnegie Inquiry into Poverty and Development in Southern Africa during the 1980s and co-ordinated one national and one local integrated household survey in the 1990s.
He has been chairperson of council at the University of Fort Hare, and of the National Water Advisory Council. A recently completed short history of South Africa [Dinosaurs, Diamonds & Democracy] is in the press and due to be published in October.
Richard Crabbe - World Bank
Richard Crabbe is Senior Publications Officer at the World Bank. Prior to joining the Bank in 2002, he was General Manager/CEO of Africa Christian Press in Accra, Ghana.
He is currently a member of the Diversity, Recruit, and Retain Committee of the American Association of Publishers and a Steering Committee Member of the Working Group on Books and Learning Materials, Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA).
In his 30-year career in publishing, he has served as Chairman, African Publishers’ Network (APNET); Member, Executive Committee of the International Publishers Association (IPA); and Member, UNESCO Publications Board. Other involvement includes Director/Council member, Book Aid International, UK, and Board member, Media Associates International, USA.
Educated in Ghana and the U.S., Richard holds a graduate degree in Communications and a Bachelor’s in Biochemistry.
Garry Rosenberg
- HSRC PressGarry Rosenberg is Director of the HSRC Press, a not-for-profit publishing unit dedicated to the dissemination of policy-relevant social science and humanities. Prior to this he has worked in muti-national and indigenous South African publishing companies. He holds postgraduate qualifications in literature, education and business studies.
Professor Olajide Oloyede
- Professor of Sociology at the University of the Western Cape and current Editor of the African Sociological Review published by CODESRIAOlajide Oloyede studied sociology in England and Sweden (Uppsala) where he obtained his PhD. He is currently Deputy Dean (Research) in the Arts Faculty at the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town where he teaches sociology in the Department of Anthropology and Sociology.
He previously taught and researched in Nicaragua in the mid 1980s, and in England, Finland and, briefly, Nigeria in 1992 at the University of Lagos.
He joined the University of the Western Cape in 1999 where he became Head of Anthropology and Sociology before being head-hunted to set up the Centre for Development Studies at the University of Fort Hare and was the first Director of the Centre for three years before moving back to England and then returning to the University of the Western Cape.
He researches in the sociology of health, and politics, and sociology of sociology, as well as in medical anthropology in which he made his substantial contribution published in an issue of Medische Anthropologie in 2002, which was dedicated to his piece. Olajide Oloyede is very active in sociology and university affairs.
He is a past vice president of the South African Sociological Association and currently edits its journal, South African Review of Sociology. He is also the Managing Editor of the CODESRIA journal, African Sociological Review. He serves on many committees at the University of the Western Cape.
Piyushi Kotecha
- CEO of SARUA, the South African Research Universities AssociationPiyushi Kotecha is the CEO of SARUA, the Southern African Research Universities' Association.
SARUA's mission is to provide a platform for dialogue and collaboration in the area of higher education in Southern Africa.
SARUA's membership includes public universities from Angola, Botswana, DR Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Ms Kotecha was previously CEO of both Higher Education South Africa and the South African Universities' Vice-Chancellors' Association.
She obtained her MA in Education from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa.
Ineke Buskens
-Founder, Research for the Future, Cape TownIneke Buskens is a cultural anthropologist with a passion for research methodology and women’s empowerment and a deep appreciation of cultural diversity and individual human uniqueness.
Having graduated in Leiden, the Netherlands, she has lived in Ghana, India, and Brazil, and since 1990 in South Africa. From 1990 to 1995, Ineke was head of the Centre for Research Methodology at South Africa’s Human Sciences Research Council and, in 1996, founded Research for the Future.
Ineke now leads the Gender Research into ICTs for Empowerment (GRACE) Networks in Africa and the Middle East, which involves 28 research teams undertaking research in 18 countries.
Eve Gray
In a career divided between lecturing and publishing, Eve Gray has had more than 20 years publishing experience in South Africa and Europe, covering the gamut of publishing tasks, from early experience in a printing works in Cape Town, through translation, editorial and production project management of high quality illustrated books in Belgium, to publishing directorships at Wits University Press, Juta Academic Publishing and the University of Cape Town Press.
To her business experience, she adds broad industry knowledge, gained in her involvement in copyright, development and training affairs in the PASA.
She currently runs a publishing strategy consultancy, Eve Gray & Associates, specialising in digital media and print on demand and their potential for publishing in Africa; scholarly and research publication from an African perspective; and copyright and intellectual property issues, including the potential for Open Access in African publishing.
Bishop Geoff Davies
- Southern African Faith Communities' Environment Institution, South Africa.Bishop Geoff Davies is Executive Director of the Southern African Faith Communities’ Environment Institute (SAFCEI). Prior to its formation in 2005 he was based in Kokstad for seventeen years where he was the first Bishop of the newly formed Anglican Diocese of Umzimvubu, covering East Griqualand and the northern half of the former Transkei. During this time he promoted and supported community based sustainable agriculture projects and called for churches to be centres of environmental learning and good practice.
Between 1981 and 1987 he was Director of the Department of Mission for the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. That position, like his current position with SAFCEI, is essentially one of communication. Communicating the challenges of mission to the Church and now communicating the challenges of climate change and the environmental crisis in general to all the faith communities, as well as to civil society and government.
He was born and educated in Cape Town, studying history and social anthropology at the University of Cape Town (UCT). He worked as a journalist and a teacher before reading theology at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He was ordained priest in St. Paul’s Cathedral and served in a parish in South Kensington, London, before returning to Africa to be priest-in-charge of the mission parish of Serowe, Botswana, a stark contrast to London.
Professor Mike Morris
- Visiting Professor and Principal Researcher, School of Economics, UCT; Research Professor, School of Development Studies, UKZN .Professor Mike Morris has a long engagement in policy oriented research, working with government, and assisting firms and industries. He has assisted the South African Department of Trade and Industry, the provincial governments of KwaZulu-Natal, Western Cape and Northern Province with industrial policy work.
He has also worked with the International Trade Centre (Geneva) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (Vienna). He has undertaken research and policy work for a number of international agencies including the European Union (EU), Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), DANSET, International Development Research Centre (IDRC), and the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC).
He has published widely in the areas of globalization, the impact of Asian Drivers on Africa, global value chains and international competitiveness, industrial development and policy, clusters and learning networks, sectors and innovation, and economic development. He is also director of a company (Benchmarking and Manufacturing Analysts) which assists firms and government with upgrading, competitiveness and industrial strategies. He currently Heads a networking project, PRISM (Policy Research in International Services and Manufacturing) in the School of Economics at UCT.
Rebecca Hodes
- Director of Policy, Communications and Research, Treatment Action Campaign, South AfricaRebecca Hodes is the head of policy, communication and research at the Treatment Action Campaign. Her department keeps the organization of 13,000 members up to date with important scientific and operational developments in HIV, and produces most of TAC’s publications, including Equal Treatment magazine – with a readership of approximately 70,000.
Rebecca recently completed her doctorate on 'HIV on South African television' at Oxford University. This was her third thesis written about HIV activism and the work of the Treatment Action Campaign and its partners.
Rebecca spent her undergraduate years at Rhodes University, where she co-founded the Students HIV/AIDS Campaign. Her work has been published in the Journal of Southern African Studies, the Oxonian Review of Books and various newspapers. Rebecca is privileged to live and work in Cape Town.
Brian Wafawarowa
- New Africa Books and International Liaison office PASARuth Kagia
- The World Bank, Country Director for Southern Africa, former head of the Education for All - Fast Track InitiativeRuth Kagia, appointed Country Director: Botswana, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mauritius, Namibia, South Africa, and Swaziland in the Africa Region August 1, 2008. She is based in Pretoria, South Africa
Ms. Kagia, a Kenyan national, joined the Bank in August 1990 as an Education Specialist. For the first six years at the Bank, she worked as an education specialist in the Africa and the East Asia Regions. She has served as a HD Sector Manager in the Africa region, a Director for Strategy and Operations in the Human Development Network anchor, and an Education Sector Director for Education. Ms. Kagia has provided strategic oversight and coordination of the Bank's education sector staffing and sector work program. She has also led the implementation of the Millennium Development Goal agenda on education including the establishment of the EFA-fast track initiative as well as the preparation of several policy and strategic documents in education including reports on secondary education, education in post-conflict countries, education and economic growth.
Before joining the Bank Ms Kagia worked in Kenya and the South and Eastern African region where she held several senior positions in teaching, research and management as well as an assignment with UNICEF. Ms Kagia holds degrees from the University of Nairobi and Harvard University.
Jonathan Carter
- Policy Analysis and Capacity EnhancementJonathan Carter, is a senior researcher in Policy Analysis and Capacity Enhancement. He has an academic background in Agricultural Economics. Main areas of work have included local government financial management and performance assessments, costing of government legislation and has more recently looked into the role of social networks in service delivery and financing early childhood development.
Ben Turok
- ANC MP and Director of the Institute for African AlternativesBen Turok, is a veteran of the ANC having participated in the Congress of the People in 1955 and drafted the economic clause of the Freedom Charter. He has been an ANC Member of Parliament since 1994, was head of the RDP Commission in the Gauteng Cabinet, and then moved to the National Assembly where he is about to start his fourth term.
He has been involved in economic policy making in the ANC since 1991. He went into exile in 1966, became an academic, teaching and lecturing at various universities in the UK and across Africa. He is a visiting professor at the University of KZN. He has degrees in engineering, philosophy and politics and has published 18 books on Africa and South Africa in the areas of development economics and politics.
His autobiography, Nothing But the Truth was a finalist in the Sunday Times competition in 2004. He is the founder and editor of New Agenda, S A Journal of Social and Economic Policy. His latest book titled “ From The Freedom Charter to Polokwane, the Evolution of ANC Economic Policy”
Robert Cornford
- Communications Manager, Oxfam GBRobert Cornford, is currently a Communications Manager in the Policy and Practice Communications Team of Oxfam GB where he is responsible for the promotion and marketing of Oxfam's materials (both print and online) for "development professional" audiences.
He has worked for Oxfam since 1990 in various publishing-related posts, Before that he worked for 21 years in commercial publishing including 17 years for Longman (two of which - 1977-1979) were with Longman South Africa "when it was a very small player in the education sector. I worked on the early stages of the Molteno Project Breakthrough to Literacy in African languages". He is a graduate in History and English from the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom.