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 (teghem@mathro.fpms.ac.be)chair of the OC: Blaise Somé (some@univ-ouaga.bf)

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 joekakeneno@hotmail.com

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