The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) organizes meetings at which African ministers of economic development and planning devise regional policies. The ministers have charged the ECA with building national and regional capacity in science and technology. Besides bringing together experts in using compatible standards for information systems, it holds roundtables for the creation of national information and communication infrastructures to support decision making at all levels. Public and private sector science and technology leaders are being convened to address major development issues.

Trade in services, including transportation, finance, and telecommunications, with their demands for skilled labor, is critical for sustaining national development. The Coordinated African Program of Assistance on Services (CAPAS), created by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, is funded by bilateral and multilateral donors to help countries strengthen their service sector policies and their competitiveness in trade in services. CAPAS has supported researchers' and policymakers' analysis of the service sector and related policy issues in Benin, Burundi, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe, and the effort is being replicated in Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland, and Zambia.

At a 1996 international conference sponsored by the Corporation and the World Bank and held on the Internet, some 300 participants discussed the role of foundations in promoting development. The meeting was followed up by a face-to-face conference, on knowledge for development in the information age, funded and organized by the World Bank and the Canadian government and held in June 1997 in Toronto. A Corporation-supported symposium organized by the National Academy of Sciences was held at the conference. The symposium brought together scientists and foundation leaders to produce an agenda for action by foundations and the World Bank in building science and technology capacity in developing countries.

As a result of the rapid growth of Ghana's foreign investment and its creation of a parliamentary subcommittee on science and technology, the climate for furthering science and technology has become increasingly favorable. A team of researchers under the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research has synthesized a range of science and technology policy studies for distribution to academics, policymakers, and private sector representatives. The compendium will be discussed at council-sponsored meetings to review strategies for integrating science and technology policies with economic planning.

Researchers at the University of Dar es Salaam are attempting to foster an environment conducive to policy dialogue among the producers and users of scientific and technological knowledge. The team has created a compendium of Tanzania's science and technology policy studies, which will be distributed among academics and practitioners in the public and private sectors. Two meetings to set national priorities and review approaches to science and technology development are expected to result in the formation of national working groups that will deliberate on selected topics. The university is also creating a database of information on the nation's science and technology activities.

A compendium of Zimbabwe's science and technology policy studies is being issued to academics, policymakers, private sector leaders, and representatives of nongovernmental organizations. Recipients will attend two meetings. At the first one, sectoral and thematic working groups will address national priorities and strategies and make recommendations for action. From the groups' reports, participants at the second meeting will create a framework for national science and technology policy reform. The framework will include a secretariat to coordinate meetings of the groups, build a database on science and technology activities in Zimbabwe, and synthesize working group recommendations into policy papers for government consideration.

Grants from the Corporation and other donors are supporting the University of Cape Town's University Science, Humanities, and Engineering Partnerships in Africa. The aims of the partnerships are to promote collaboration among researchers in the generation and dissemination of knowledge in these fields and to build related institutional capacity at universities in southern Africa. Funds are applied to postgraduate fellowships, courses, research exchanges for scholars, the purchase of computer software and library materials, and research support to the fellows as they return to their home institutions.

At a 1996 international forum, the New York Academy of Sciences presented its case studies of the contributions of science and technology to economic development in seven states and one city in the United States. The economic and demographic characteristics of the sites are similar to those of many middle-income developing countries. The studies revealed ways that partnerships of academic, corporate, and public officials can generate development strategies. The academy is organizing a 1998 conference for business, university, and government leaders in Africa to consider ways of fostering similar partnerships there. Conference papers and proceedings will be distributed in the continent and placed on the academy's World Wide Web site.

The Sub-Saharan Africa Program of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) aims to improve African scientists' and policymakers' access to scientific information and to publicize Africa's scientific progress. The program has held symposia on scientific activities in Africa and roundtables at which policymakers, development specialists, and representatives of donor organizations and technical assistance agencies have discussed issues in science and technology. The symposia and the roundtables have resulted in book-length publications that reach large audiences in the United States and in African countries. The symposium at AAAS's 1997 meeting focused on the economic potential of Africa's marine resources.

In 1992 the Association of African Universities designed a program to provide information on science and technology research to its members, of which there are now 135, and to other institutions of higher education in Africa. The program also promotes scientific and technological linkages between universities and the private sector in the continent. The association is building a regional database on science and technology research results at African universities and publishing a handbook of technological findings. In addition, it is issuing a twice-yearly newsletter to inform member universities and potential users of research results in the private and public sectors.

Since 1988 the University of Zimbabwe has been developing a scientific information system that includes electronic mail, Internet connectivity, and cd-rom and desktop publishing capability. The university is now creating a local area network to link its teaching and administrative departments, its main library, and its medical library. Staff members and students are being trained in the use of the new technologies. Beyond improving communication and information exchange, the network will offer departments easier access to library databases and enable the university to become an international node for accessing the Internet.

A 1993 education reform program launched by Ghana's government calls for additional university graduates and advanced postgraduate personnel in agriculture, mathematics, and the sciences. The aim is to staff the secondary, technical, and vocational schools that have been created for science-led development. The University of Cape Coast, the only institution accredited to train teachers for Ghana's schools, is attempting to strengthen its research and training infrastructure. It is creating a computerized management information system and a local area network that includes a database for departmental lectures. The network will also acquire access to the Internet.

The International Health Policy Program (IHPP), based at the Institute of International Education, has been cosponsored by the Pew Charitable Trusts in collaboration with the Corporation, the World Health Organization, and the World Bank to improve the allocation of developing countries' resources for health care. The IHPP gives grants and technical support to governmental and nongovernmental organizations in eleven Asian and African nations for research in health policy. It is now studying the effects of the research efforts on health policies and whether the changes are leading to the more efficient use of resources and to better health among disadvantaged people. A final report for governments, the donor community, and researchers is being issued in 1998.

IHPP teams in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda have concentrated on the allocation and use of health ministries' resources, the financing of health services, and the shift of responsibility for health systems from the public to the private sector. The teams are using the results of their analyses to recommend more effective, efficient, and equitable health policies. IHPP staff members are holding workshops at the World Bank and in the five African countries to help the teams prepare manuscripts on the projects. Published results will be presented at international meetings attended by academics, policymakers, and representatives of donor organizations.

National health accounts, which describe the sources and uses of all funds for a country's health sector, are being recognized by a growing number of developing nations as a valuable tool for formulating cost-effective and equitable health policies. Preparing a national health account for Nigeria is the current focus of the IHPP team based at the University of Ibadan. Team members are drawing on literature reviews and surveys concerning Nigeria's health services, household expenditures, and donor and nongovernmental organization funding in order to estimate the availability and distribution of health resources. Findings will be presented at policy workshops for Nigeria's local, state, and federal policymakers.

Uganda is witnessing major changes in its health care system, including the establishment of user fees and health insurance, the private sector's growing role in delivering services, and a proliferation of external donor agencies providing loans and grants to support the health sector. IHPP researchers based at the Uganda National Council for Science and Technology have been analyzing ways to develop efficient, effective, and equitable health policies. They are now studying the impact of external donor assistance on the nation's health care system. The research will include case studies of donor agency activities in Uganda and of the planning processes of donors in their home countries.

The nongovernmental Council on Health Research for Development was founded in 1993 to increase international support for essential national health research, a strategy by which policymakers join with researchers and health care providers to analyze local and national health problems and set priorities for delivering health care. Some forty countries worldwide are developing or implementing the strategy. In addition to holding national consultations and sponsoring roundtable meetings with donors and international organizations, the council promotes the creation of regional networks enabling countries to share experiences. The Corporation's support of the council's work in sub-Saharan Africa is joined by funding from governments and bilateral aid agencies.

The Takemi Program in International Health, based at the Harvard School of Public Health, offers advanced training for midcareer health professionals, primarily from developing countries, who are concerned with health policy and management. Ten-month fellowships for researchers and practitioners in health policy enable them to sharpen their analytical skills and broaden their international contacts. Visiting professorships for distinguished scholars and prominent experts in the health field are also provided. The program receives additional major funding from the Japan Foundation and the Merck Company Foundation. The Corporation's support is for scholars from sub-Saharan Africa.

The goals of the Pan-African Association of Anthropologists are to reduce the isolation of young African anthropologists working in the continent and to enhance their professional skills. The association has created four research networks, including the Network of African Medical Anthropologists, which trains medical anthropologistsCscientists who study the effect of social and cultural characteristics on the health of populationsCto devise and implement informed health policies and programs. The association's training program is expected to establish electronic linkages among more than fifty faculty members in twelve medical anthropology departments at African universities.

The Fundaciòn Mexicana para la Salud (FUNSALUD) was created in 1985 by entrepreneurs and health leaders to mobilize private funding for health research in Mexico. With support from its business partners, the Mexican government, U.S. foundations, and international organizations, it has become a full-fledged grantmaking and operating foundation, concentrating on maternal and child health, nutrition, gastrointestinal diseases, and health policy. FUNSALUD is managing a clearinghouse of information on health systems reform within its permanent Center for Health and the Economy, developing a network of health foundations in Latin America, and strengthening its dissemination efforts, particularly the English-language publications program.

The Prevention of Maternal Mortality Network, an anglophone West African operations research effort, concluded its work in 1996. Twenty-eight papers presenting cost-effective strategies for improving emergency obstetric care and mobilizing community support will be published in a special issue of the International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics. Columbia University's Center for Population and Family Health, which coordinated the network, is publishing the issue, producing a book of research abstracts, and distributing a final evaluation to the teams. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation also provide support.

As part of its effort to reduce maternal mortality in anglophone West Africa, Columbia University's Center for Population and Family Health and a network of eleven multidisciplinary research teams worked to create sustainable ways of improving access to and the quality of maternal health services. The teams have now organized the Regional Prevention of Maternal Mortality Network, based in Accra, Ghana. With funding also from the United Nations Development Programme, the network is disseminating research findings in Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria and producing materials to support new teams in East Africa and francophone West Africa.

The Forum for African Women Educationalists, a group of cabinet members, university vice-chancellors, and other senior policymakers, seeks to improve African girls' access to education. Besides helping education ministers make better policy choices in the use of existing funds for education, the forum awards grants to support innovative ways of increasing educational opportunities for girls. Consultations for policymakers as well as brochures, posters, and videos for the public promote the message that allowing girls to go to school, helping them stay there, and ensuring that they graduate are essential for national development. The forum, which has seventeen national chapters, is also funded by private and bilateral donors and United Nations agencies.

The African Women's Development and Communication Network (femnet) is the main regional network of organizations involved in women's development issues in Africa. femnet is now monitoring follow-up of the recommendations of the platform of action adopted at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing in 1995. In addition to expanding its two newsletters' coverage of women's issues, the network is computerizing its documentation center and expanding the center's collection of print and audiovisual materials. The Interchurch Organization for Development Cooperation provides additional funding.

The African Medical and Research Foundation conducts projects in community-based primary healthcare, aids and malaria prevention, family planning, and health education throughout eastern and southern Africa. Its women and development unit works with governments and nongovernmental organizations in addressing women's health issues. In addition to integrating women's and girls' health into the foundation's activities, the unit trains and assists ten groups in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda in evaluation, fund-raising, and financial management in order to strengthen their ability to develop women's health projects. Support also comes from governmental aid agencies and private donors.

The Women's Health Project was founded by a group of women's health activists and is based at the Centre for Health Policy at the University of the Witwatersrand. The project, which addresses the lack of information about women's health and the exclusion of women from South African health policy development, has built a network of 3,000 practitioners, activists, and researchers. Staff members prepare recommendations aimed at improving health services for women, organize health education workshops for women's groups, and train health service providers in reproductive health. They also produce publications, maintain a resource center, and participate in international conferences. Funding also comes from government aid agencies and other donors.

As a result of the work of the University of the Witwatersrand's Gender Research Project, South Africa's 1996 constitution contains substantial protection for women's rights. The challenge now is to ensure that these rights are realized. Project staff members are continuing their independent research and advocacy in constitutional law, customary law, employment law, and access to justice. They are also working with women's, labor, community, and human rights groups to formulate law reform proposals, which will be shared with policymakers at all levels. Briefs for relevant court cases will also be produced. The Ford Foundation, Novib, and the Human Science Research Council furnish additional support.

The Women's National Coalition, which comprises seventy South African women's organizations of all races and political persuasions, was founded in 1992 to ensure the inclusion of women's perspectives in the drafting of the nation's constitution. With further support from the Ford Foundation, the coalition is organizing advocacy campaigns in six areas of concern to women: violence, the workforce, health, education, economic empowerment, and power and decision making. Facilitators from member organizations in five provinces, all of them poor, are being trained to conduct educational workshops on these subjects.

The African Gender Institute was created in 1996 by the University of Cape Town's Equal Opportunity Research Project. Through the institute's associate program, African women leaders spend several months pursuing their scholarly interests, particularly those related to gender policy research. The institute, which is also supported by the Ford Foundation and the government of Norway, has launched a documentation center on gender equity, a program to encourage equity for men and women in allocating educational resources elsewhere in Africa, and workshops on the issue of sexual violence at universities.

The University of the Western Cape, which was the intellectual base for the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, has, through its Community Law Centre, become engaged in efforts to define and build a postapartheid society. The Women and Human Rights Project, one of three programs at the law center, is continuing to develop a collection of national, regional, and international books, periodicals, and reports related to the protection of women's rights. The project is holding workshops on the use of these materials, publishing a newsletter, and creating a World Wide Web site. The Ford Foundation and the Swedish Agency for International Development also provide funding.

Women and Law in East Africa is a research project that documents the legal treatment of women in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, countries with similar legal systems and traditions. The project trains its investigators in field research methods to enable them to document laws and practices concerning women's rights. Teams from each country have studied statutory and customary laws on inheritance and succession, findings from which have been disseminated to women's rights groups and policymakers. The research is now focusing on marriage laws and legal access to family resources. Additional funding comes from the Ford Foundation and the Swedish Agency for International Development.

The International Federation of Women Lawyers, Kenya Chapter, is dedicated to enhancing the legal status of women in that country. The chapter provides free legal assistance to women, holds workshops for community leaders and government officials on domestic violence, and monitors Kenya's compliance with international conventions regarding women. Through reviews of government policy documents, court and police records, media reports on women's rights violations, and its own case files, the chapter has built a women's rights database, information from which is released in an annual report on the status of women in Kenya. International and local donors provide additional support.

Established in 1987, the Civil Liberties Organisation was the first human rights advocacy group in Nigeria. Research by its Women's Rights Project in 1996 identified many laws and policies as well as community mores that adversely affect the reproductive rights and health of women. The project is therefore holding educational workshops for two major audiences on women's reproductive and legal rights: local-level health service providers and influential members of the community. The aim is to encourage participants to become agents of change within their communities in support of the enlargement and exercise of women's rights generally.

The Africa Leadership Forum of the Africa Leadership Foundation educates African policymakers about ways to achieve peace and stability within and between countries. Since 1991 the forum has promoted the Conference on Security, Stability, Development and Cooperation in Africa, a framework for achieving peace in the continent. Several member states of the Organization of African Unity, the body that must adopt the conference before its provisions can be applied, have expressed support for it. The forum is intensifying efforts to promote adoption of the conference and to engage young leaders, including women, in all its activities. Further support comes from the Friedrich Naumann Foundation and the United Nations Development Programme.

Since 1992 the International Peace Academy has worked with the Organization of African Unity (OAU) to develop a multilateral conflict management program. The Task Force on Peacemaking and Peacekeeping in Africa, a group of academy and OAU staff members and consultants, has prepared a report evaluating options for implementing the program. The academy holds consultations enabling women's groups and other nongovernmental institutions to consider roles they might play in conflict management and to build support for the program. It is also overseeing the creation of a database of institutions, scholars, and others who could assist the oau in implementing it.

Findings from the Brookings Institution's case studies of the origins of conflict in Southern Africa, the Horn of Africa, West Africa, and Sudan have been used as the basis for recommending policies and institutional change that might result in increased political security and economic and human development for the continent. At a 1996 conference, scholars of international law and specialists on Africa and international relations analyzed the studies and discussed the conclusions of the final volume of Brookings' series on conflict in Africa. In addition to publishing the conference results and analyzing their policy implications for the United States, Brookings has begun planning further research on issues of sovereignty and leadership in Africa.

Joseph N. Garba, a former foreign minister of Nigeria, ambassador to the United Nations, and president of the UN General Assembly, is continuing to assess the challenges of peacekeeping in southern Africa since the end of the Cold War. He has organized two conferences: one featuring case studies outlining the future role of the military in each country in the region in light of impending changes in South Africa, and the second on restructuring security forces and disarming civilians in that country. In addition to publishing and disseminating the recommendations from his work in South Africa, he is exploring ways to apply them in West Africa and in the Great Lakes region of East-Central Africa.

The Association of African Women for Research and Development has 559 members — researchers, academics, policymakers, and civil society leadersCand chapters in seventeen countries. By sponsoring workshops and seminars, it aims to build African women's capacity for research and advocacy so that they can make an impact on policies that most affect them. Following a 1996 evaluation, the association is attempting to reconfigure its institutional structure, improve training and fund-raising, revise program priorities, and increase membership. It is also resuming production of its quarterly newsletter, which promotes networking among the chapters and communication between the chapters and the secretariat.

At a 1992 international conference, nongovernmental and business leaders identified the need to better coordinate the policies of donor agencies and recipient countries. The Global Development Initiative was subsequently launched at the Carter Center to formulate approaches for donorBrecipient country partnerships. In missions to Guyana, chosen as the first test case, program staff worked with the finance ministry to promote collaboration with donors and creation of a long-term development strategy. Besides assisting with the strategy's implementation, the center is assessing the feasibility of testing the model in an African country. Support also comes from foundations and from bilateral and multilateral donors.

Since 1991 the Organisation of Rural Associations for Progress and the Synergos Institute have led planning efforts for a community foundation in western Zimbabwe. The aim of the foundation, which was launched in 1997 and is making grants starting in 1998, is to assist development initiatives in the country's three poorest provinces. It will build on local traditions of self-help and on qogelela, a group savings practice whereby families in a community pool their funds to make investments. Qogelela funds will form part of the foundation's endowment. The foundation works with other civil society organizations in Zimbabwe and elsewhere.

With funding also from the Ford Foundation, a National Summit on Africa is to be held in 1999. Modeled on United Nations conferences, the summit will foster debate on the importance of Africa to the United States and will present a new agenda to guide U.S. involvement in the continent's renewal. Preparatory meetings are being held on such themes in U.S.-Africa relations as peace and security, democracy and human rights, trade and investment, and sustainable development. Recommendations from the meetings will result in a draft agenda for action to be considered at the summit. The development organization Africare served as fiscal agent for this grant.

The American Assembly was established in 1950 at Columbia University to foster discussion and elicit independent conclusions on matters of public concern. With further support from the Ford Foundation, in 1997 it held an assembly on Africa and U.S. interests, the first since 1958 to focus exclusively on the continent. U.S. leaders from business, labor, academia, government, and the media discussed African democratization, economic development, health, population growth, the environment, and peace and stability. Background papers and a report on how U.S. policy can most productively address these issues were disseminated in print and on the World Wide Web.

The Africa Policy Information Center offers information on Africa to a wide variety of audiences in the United States. Its Africa Policy Electronic List provides e-mail documents — some produced by the center and some by other organizations — on African issues that are relevant to current U.S. policy debates. The core of the center's publications program is a series of short background papers and issue briefs, which are supplemented by longer policy studies. Support also comes from the Ford Foundation.

The Constituency for Africa is an independent national network of African American groups working to improve the effectiveness of U.S. policies toward the continent. In addition to organizing town hall meetings to discuss African policy matters, the constituency holds an annual meeting in conjunction with the Congressional Black Caucus's activities each September. It is now setting up institutional structures that will enhance its effectiveness as a coalition of organizations interested in Africa. The Ford Foundation provides additional funding.

The African-American Institute was established in 1953 to foster development in Africa and promote cooperation between Americans and Africans. More than 20,000 Africans have benefited from its short- and long-term education and training programs, and many have returned home to assume leadership positions in education, business, politics, and the professions. The institute, which has been funded primarily by U.S. government agencies, is embarking on a comprehensive strategic planning process to sharpen its priorities, identify new program areas, and create an organizational and management structure that can be sustained with reduced support.

In 1996 the Aspen Institute's Congressional Program held a meeting on the future of this nation's foreign assistance program. U.S. and other experts from a variety of fields suggested ways of framing aid programs not only to win public and political support but also to address the needs of developing countries. Two 1997 meetings, funded also by the Rockefeller Foundation, enabled foreign policy and foreign assistance specialists to follow up on these recommendations. At the first meeting, participants explored conceptual links between foreign policy and foreign assistance; at the second, they recommended options for structuring an aid program linked to high-priority foreign policy goals.

The Africa Fund was created in 1966 to increase U.S. support for constructive foreign policy toward the newly independent nations of Africa. It is now reaching out to state and local officials to broaden the Africa policymaking process beyond the Washington foreign policy community. Using a constituency-building model that emphasizes personal contact through meetings, telephone calls, and mailings, the fund has built a core of 250 knowledgeable decision makers willing to take positions on U.S. policy toward Africa. These officials engage in travel exchanges with their African counterparts and consult with national officials to devise strategies for improving policies toward Africa.

The National Policy Association brings together U.S. officials from the public and private sectors to consider a variety of economic and social issues. In a project to reexamine the goals and strategies of U.S. foreign aid and development assistance, it is holding meetings for representatives of government, voluntary organizations, business, and labor. Recommendations on U.S. assistance will be contained in a report. A quarterly newsletter, online services, and resource packets have been created to encourage a continuation of the discussions. Further support comes from the U.S. Agency for International Development and from in-kind donations and unrestricted contributions to the association.

Since the end of the Cold War, the United States' policy toward Africa has been based mainly on humanitarian and development assistance. With reductions in bilateral aid, commercial ties are becoming a promising area for new policy initiatives. To broaden the scope of debates over the role of the private sector in promoting development in Africa, the Center for Strategic and International Studies hosted an April 1997 meeting for African and U.S. policymakers, scholars, and civil society leaders. The focus was on ways of cultivating mutually beneficial trade and investment relationships between African countries and the United States. The United Nations Development Programme also provided funding.

The Investor Responsibility Research Center, which conducts impartial research on business and public policy issues relevant to major corporations and their shareholders, is a major source of information on multinational companies that have links with South Africa. Its new Southern Africa Investment Information Project assists small and medium-sized firms interested in investing in that region. The center is developing a database of multinational firms with business interests in southern Africa, preparing annual directories and monthly updates that highlight multinational investment trends in the region, and identifying potential business ventures.

The democratization and market-oriented economic reforms occurring in Africa are rarely reflected in popular reporting in the United States. To fill the void, former U.S. congressman Howard Wolpe has analyzed political and economic changes in the region, U.S. policy interventions there, and American interests in southern Africa. Through newspaper articles, radio and television interviews, and roundtables held by the Brookings Institution's Africa Program, Wolpe has disseminated the results of his studies to U.S. policymakers, opinion leaders, and journalists reporting on Africa. He is now preparing a volume on the relevance to this country of South Africa's political, social, and economic transformations.