Pan-African Network celebrates Collaboration at 2nd Annual Conference
Higher education leaders from across the continent recently convened at the University of Nairobi (UoN) for the 2023 Afretec Conference. At the event, attendees reflected on the network’s accomplishments and planned for the year ahead. The African Engineering and Technology Network (Afretec) partners centered discussion around the pillars of entrepreneurship, inclusion and impact, teaching and learning, and knowledge creation.
“As a network, we are proud of the progress that Afretec has made in our effort to build a strong knowledge creation and educational infrastructure on the continent,” says Conrad Tucker, interim director of Carnegie Mellon University Africa, the network’s lead institution. “It was important for all of the partner institutions to come together at this year’s conference to talk about how we can continue to increase our impact.”
Afretec is a pan-African collaboration of technology-focused universities, working together to drive the inclusive digital growth of Africa. Its members include Carnegie Mellon University Africa, the American University in Cairo, University of Lagos, University of Nairobi, University of Rwanda, and University of the Witwatersrand. Afretec is working in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation.
At the conference, the network celebrated the importance of harnessing collaboration in order to drive inclusive digital growth across Africa. Over the past year, Afretec members have joined together and led a number of activities including student bridge programs and faculty enrichment programs. Afretec also recently awarded $3.3M to fund 11 grants, each led by a multi-university research team, to build research capacity and work toward achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals in Africa.
During the conference’s opening ceremony, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Nairobi Stephen Kiama, addressed the integral role that collaboration plays in the network. “Afretec places a strong emphasis on African-led research for local solutions, acknowledging the power of collaboration as the most formidable weapon in harnessing our collective knowledge, resources, and unique opportunities. The network acts as a bridge, connecting brilliant minds and abundant talents within Africa with innovative enterprises. It recognizes that the numerous challenges faced by the continent also present corresponding opportunities, which can only be seized through the right skills and expertise,” Kiama remarked.
Afretec’s pillar of knowledge creation recently announced three research clusters of health, energy and sustainability, and environment. The network’s teaching and learning pillar launched a series of studies on teaching resources and best practices in Africa. Under the entrepreneurship pillar, programs were initiated to build the pipeline of entrepreneurship at partner universities.
Specific Afretec activities held at UoN this year include a design-thinking boot camp between members of the Faculty of Science and Technology, Faculty of Business and Faculty of Engineering. Lastly, under the industry pillar, UoN has also submitted an application for the Intra-Africa Mobility Grant with UoN as the coordinator.
“As a proud member of the Afretec Network, our university is determined to promote digital inclusivity in Africa through talent nurturing, research advancement, and provision of necessary resources for the brightest minds to flourish. Afretec has a noble objective — to foster entrepreneurship and innovation within partner universities, and in doing so, provide solutions to the challenges faced by the African continent,” says Kiama.
This is the second annual conference held for network members. The inaugural conference and network launch was held in 2022 at Carnegie Mellon University Africa, located in Kigali, Rwanda.
