Developing OR in Africa:initiatives of IFORS and
EURO
Graham K. Rand Alexis TsoukiasIFORS Vice-President, 1998-2000 Secretary, EUROhttp://www.ifors.org http://www.euro-online.org
Department of Management Science, LAMSADE-CNRS, Lancaster University Université Paris Dauphine
IFORS
International Federation of Operational Research Societies
founded in 1959 by UK, USA and France
IFORS
45 national Operational Research Societies,
in four regional groupings
IFORS
EURO NORAM APORS ALIO
Austria Hungary Spain Canada Australia Argentina
Belarus Iceland Sweden INFORMS China BrazilBelgium Ireland Switzerland Hong Kong ChileBulgaria Israel Turkey India MexicoCroatia Italy United Kingdom JapanCzech Netherlands Yugoslavia KoreaDenmark Norway MalaysiaFinland Poland New ZealandFrance Portugal The Philippines Germany Slovakia Singapore Greece South Africa
IFORS Triennial Conferences
1957 Oxford 1972 Dublin 1987 Buenos Aires1960 Aix-en-Provence 1975 Tokyo 1990
Athens1963 Oslo 1978 Toronto 1993 Lisbon1966 Boston 1981 Hamburg 1996 Vancouver1969 Venice 1984 Washington 1999 Beijing
2002 in Edinburgh
IFORS Triennial Conferences
and 2005 in USA
Aloha
IFORS PUBLICATIONS
• International Transactions in Operational Research
• International Abstracts in Operations Research
• Newsletter• OR in Developing Countries Newsletter
Developing Countries
• form a subset of the IFORS national members
• particularly in APORS and ALIO regions
• though many DCs have no OR Society
IFORS and DCs - a brief history
• Japan 1975• Washington 1984• First Teachers’ Workshop, Ahmedabad 1986• First ICORD conference, Ahmedabad 1992• OR for Development Prize
Africa
• The only African OR Societies affiliated to IFORS are in Egypt and South Africa
• a society has recently begun in Tunisia and another was created in Algeria
IFORS African Initiatives
• Creation of a network
• Support of conferences
• Co-operation with EURO initiatives
Africa OR Network
Why?Because only African OR Societies are Egypt and South Africa
yet many Africans have been educated in OR
Africa OR Network - current membership
62 in total
Nigeria 18 Zambia 3Kenya 10 Mozambique 3Zimbabwe 6 Ghana 2Algeria 5 Tanzania 2
Tunisia 4 Namibia 2 Morocco 3
(Lesotho, Uganda, Botswana, Congo 1 each)
Africa OR Network - main conclusions
• All wish for contact and the development of a network
• All are happy about ORSSA involvement in developing a network
• All but four want regional groupings
Africa OR Network- Key issues
• what should be supplied to the network members
• ways to contact others
ICORD Conferences International Conferences on OR for Development
• Purpose• Four held so far
– Ahmedabad 1992– Rio de Janeiro 1996– Manila 1997– South Africa 2001
• And one planned– India 2002
EURO African initiatives
• EURO considers the creation of permanent OR structures within the African continent to be of strategic importance.
• EURO objective: create in the near future as many as possible OR societies (not necessarily national) in Africa.
What EURO does?
• EURO Africa project: 15000€ during 2002 in order to
support projects which aim to establish OR structures
(details in http://www.euro-online.org)
Actions
• Before Summer 2001 a call for bids circulated widely (more than 100 addresses).
• More than 10 projects have been received.
• 2 projects have been accepted.
Projects in progress
• Conference in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), 5-7 January 2003, organised through the RAMAD (Réseau Africain Mathématiques de la Décision: universities from more than 10 West African countries).chair of the PC: Jacques Teghem ([email protected])chair of the OC: Blaise Somé ([email protected])
Projects in Progress
• Conference in Dar Es Salaam (Tanzania), June 2003, organised by Universities in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda (with the support of ORSSA).
• Establishment of ORSEA (Operational Research Society of East Africa)Organiser: Joe Kakeneno [email protected]
Further Projects
• Re-conduct the Africa project budget for 2003.
• Further fund raising with International Organisations in order to support OR in Africa.
• Insert the Africa project within the EU FP6