News

A high-level delegation from the University of Botswana (UB) and Michigan State University (MSU) who are part of the Alliance for African Partnership (APP) consortium recently paid Southern African Development Community (SADC) Executive Secretary, Mr Elias Magosi, a courtesy call to foster collaborations aimed at transforming the region.

Proposed areas of collaborations include, youth transformation, entrepreneurial incubation facilities in institutions of higher learning, documentation for success stories, promoting indigenous crops and providing opportunities in the advancement of knowledge-based economy.

Speaking at the high-level engagement meeting, MSU Interim Provost, and Executive Vice President, Professor Thomas Jeitschko, stated that as members of the consortium they were committed to education, research, and capacity building of the African region.

“We look forward to leveraging our expertise, our resources and the incredible wealth of knowledge that exists with both organisations,” reiterated Professor Jeitschko.

Furthermore, according to AAP Africa Director, Professor Richard Mkandawire, they were looking to explore the possibility of signing a memorandum of understanding with the secretariat to implement concrete interventions with several other affiliated   institutions.

In response the SADC Executive Secretary indicated that creating meaningful partnerships was a priority for the secretariat as it contributed to credible documentation of information that guided ministerial committees to make informed decisions.

“Our job is to facilitate that process. It’s also to make sure that we produce proper polices, proper strategies, proper instruments to propose new agreements and so forth,” said Mr Magosi.

In addition, he emphasised that think tanks such as AAP were providing a generation of knowledge and deeper analysis of issues and problems that would contribute significantly to society.