South Africa’s UCT MBA is Top Value for Money

The UCT Graduate School of Business (GSB) full-time MBA programme has been ranked as the fifth best value for money MBA in the world in the Financial Times Global Top 100 MBA Rankings and remains the only African MBA to be ranked in the prestigious Top 100. In 2006, the School was rated in the top four providers globally and given an Award for Excellence by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) for its executive programmes customised for organisations, with a rating of 4.3 out of 5.

Museum for African Art Finds Its Place in New York

According to the New York Times, the Museum for African Art, which has had a nomadic existence since it opened in 1984, will finally gain a permanent home in a new building designed by Robert A. M. Stern, on Fifth Avenue between 109th and 110th Streets. Models and renderings of the new structure, which will face the northeast corner of Central Park, have been unveiled and will comprise 90,000 square feet, including 16,000 square feet of exhibition space.  Officials hope to break ground in the spring of 2008 and complete construction by the end of 2009. The estimated cost is $80 million, of which $49 million has been raised, including $12 million from the city. At the museum’s center will be a great hall entered from Fifth Avenue, with the mullions on the left and a soaring wall on the right, made of richly colored etimoe wood from Ghana, that curves upward to form the ceiling. Founded as the Center for African Art in 1984 by Susan Mullin Vogel, now a professor of art history at Columbia University, the museum gained broad recognition for its innovative conceptual approaches to exhibiting African art. Source: New York Times Online

Quality Workforce Connections Help Retain Talent

A new report by Deloitte Consulting provides guidance organisations should consider on how they can significantly improve bottom-line results by fostering and promoting connections in the workplace. According to the report, "Connecting People to What Matters," creating effective workforce connections to people, purpose, and resources may increase competitive advantage by helping to improve an organisation’s s productivity, innovation, and growth.  The report concludes that changes including more complex technology, diverse workforces and generational differences have made it very difficult for today's workforce to make quality, value-driving connections. The report also concludes that even the most effective recruitment tactics, rich compensation packages, and "hot skills" bonuses won't help employers keep critical talent for the long haul because these tactics don't get to the root of talent churn.  The Deloitte Research/Deloitte Consulting report includes several case studies of top-performing organizations and identifies eight practical tips leaders should consider in creating such effective connections within their organisations. Source: Deloitte

International CSR Directory Goes Online

The world's first printed international corporate social responsibility directory has now gone online at http://www.ethicalperformance.net/csrdirectory.html.  The CSR Professional Services Directory 2007 lists 443 organizations worldwide under 49 different service categories, from consultants to academic institutions, rating agencies to ethical auditors, and training providers to research bodies.  The new online facility enables users to identify, at no charge, providers of services both globally and in different parts of the world.  The CSR Professional Services Directory, sponsored by Cafedirect, is from Ethical Performance, the independent monthly newsletter for socially responsible business.  Source: Ethical Performance

South Africa Scores Highly with a Slender Gender Gap

South Africa ranks 18th out of 115 countries surveyed in the World Economic Forum's (WEF's) latest Global Gender Gap Report, which measures progress made in narrowing the inequality gap between men and women. The report, which covers over 90% of the world’s population and over 20 sub-Saharan countries, measures the size of the gender gap in four areas of inequality between men and women: economic participation and opportunity; educational attainment; political empowerment; and health and survival. Nordic countries Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland topped the WEF's 2006 Gender Gap Index, with Germany, the Philippines, New Zealand, Denmark, the United Kingdom and Ireland completing the top 10 countries with the smallest "gender gap". South Africa also scored well for educational attainment, ranking first overall for equality in primary, secondary and tertiary enrolment. The index mainly uses publicly available "hard data" indicators drawn from international organisations, along with some qualitative information drawn from the WEF's own executive opinion survey - a comprehensive annual survey which in 2006 polled over 11 000 business leaders in 125 countries. http://www.weforum.org/en/initiatives/gcp/Gender%20Gap/GenderGap

Nearly Half a million Angolans have returned since 2002

According to the Angolan Government, the number of Angolans who returned to the country between 2002 and 2006 under the refugee repatriation programme totalled 426,952, approximately 107% of the number forecast.  In 2006 alone, 68,773 Angolans had returned home, mainly from neighbouring countries, while another 809 Angolan failed asylum seekers returned from Belgium, Germany, Holland, Indonesia, Portugal, South Africa, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Zambia.  The Angolan Government’s family locating and reintegration programme aims to find homes for 60,000 children of whom, so far, 54,251 had been reunited with their families and another 17,529 had been placed with new families. Source: ANIP

Financial Times Ranks Top Business Schools

The Financial Times has released details of its top 100 global business school rankings. The survey took in criteria including salaries commanded by graduates, Alumni satisfaction, future career and employment prospects, gender and international diversity and idea generation. The University of Pennsylvania (Wharton) was ranked as number one, with Columbia, Harvard, Stanford and the London Business School ranked immediately behind. Source - The Financial Times

BBC World agrees to promote South African Tourism

South African Tourism and BBC World have signed an agreement for the British broadcaster to undertake an electronic marketing campaign on BBC World on South Africa’s tourism destinations to international tourists. South Africa will be promoted as a tourism destination through advertisements, commercial presentations and online marketing broadcast across Europe, Africa and North America on BBC World’s international 24-hour news and information channel. The advertisements and commercial presentations will showcase destinations in South Africa to audiences in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Italy in Europe, the US and Africa. In exchange, South Africa’s Tourism body will sponsor a number of BBC World programmes.

UCT GSB to boost SA call centre industry with management training

The UCT GSB is launching a landmark programme to address the skills shortage in middle to senior management in the South African Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and Call Centre (CC) industry.  According to the country’s Department of Trade and Industry, the South African BPO and CC industry is fast gaining momentum as a preferred BPO and off shoring destination for the USA and the European market. However, a skills shortage in middle to senior management is a key factor holding back South Africa’s competitiveness in the global call centre industry.  The new Advanced Programme in Call Centre Leadership at the GSB has been developed to address key shortages and to developing management and organisational capacity in the South African call centre industry. www.gsb.uct.ac.za/callcentre.

US$900 million to be spent on Higher Education in Angola

The Angolan Ministry of Education is planning to spend US$900 million on the second phase of the plan to develop higher education, according to Adão do Nascimento, Deputy Minister of Education.  Interviewed by the Jornal de Angola in mid-January, he said the sum was necessary to ensure adequate equipment, teaching staff, libraries and social and academic facilities.  According to the Minister, the plan includes a specific programme for the training of lecturers in Angola and abroad.  Source: ANIP

Challenging Gender Discrimination in African Universities

In developing country universities, women staff members are under-represented in senior teaching and management positions, enrolment of female undergraduates is increasing but far too few are studying science and technology subjects and research and action are needed to identify the factors that slow or promote gender equity and identify examples of replicable good practice.  These are some of the findings of a research report from the University of London that adds to the limited literature on gender discrimination in higher education by assessing progress towards gender equity in universities in South Africa, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda. It shows that while universities can reproduce gender inequalities, they also have potential to challenge them.  Barriers to women’s entry into ‘non-traditional’ subject areas such as agriculture, veterinary science, engineering and computing include poor careers advice, lack of role models, negative attitudes from families and fear of being in a minority.  Some universities are consciously tackling gender discrimination and have affirmative action initiatives to promote gender mainstreaming. L.Morley@sussex.ac.uk

2008 Women’s Leadership Scholarship

The Women's Leadership Scholarship (WLS) program (formerly the Native Leadership Scholarship) creates educational opportunities for women activists, grassroots leaders, and organizers from the Global South and/or from indigenous groups. WLS invests in women's leadership by supporting non-doctoral graduate education in human rights, sustainable development, and public health in many places around the world.  The Women's Leadership Scholarship Programme is accepting applications from women, grassroots leaders, organisers and activists from the global south and/or from indigenous groups, who wish to pursue non-doctoral graduate studies in human rights, sustainable development, and public health at accredited institutions worldwide.  http://www.nativeleaders.org/index.html

Entrepreneurship for Emerging Economies Conference

The Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University Business School, Management College of South Africa, Tshwane University of Technology Business School and Potchefstroom Business School, North West University will be hosting a conference with the theme “Entrepreneurship for emerging economies” in Mauritius in August, 2007.  The aim of the conference is to provide a forum for the dissemination of research findings associated with entrepreneurship for specific regional environments to be used by entrepreneurs, policy makers and institutions of learning. It is also a goal of the conference to foster inspiration, skills, ideas, and fun. Papers/abstracts are invited on any of the key themes listed above and all submissions will be blind reviewed and acceptance/rejection is based upon quality and relevance to the conference. Annalize.Schoeman@nmmu.ac.za Tel: +27-41-504-3748

Rotary World Peace Fellowship and Conflict Studies Programme

The Rotary Foundation is now accepting applications for the Rotary World Peace Fellowship. Located in seven leading universities around the world, Rotary Centers provide Fellows the chance to study in a master’s level program in conflict resolution, peace studies, international relations, and other related disciplines.  Rotary World Peace Fellows work toward mediation, conflict resolution, and peace where there is war. Understanding where there is disharmony. Food security where there is hunger. Health care where there is disease. Education where there is illiteracy. Conservation where there is environmental degradation and sustainable economic development where there is poverty. Successful candidates would pursue a master’s degree in international studies, sustainable development, peace, and conflict resolution at one of the six Rotary Center university partners. Applicants must be committed to peace and have proven experience in their field. http://www.rotary.org/foundation/educational/amb_scho/centers/scholars/index.html

Portugal links with Africa to promote Biodiversity for Development

A strategic partnership between Portugal and Africa to promote biodiversity for development has been launched in Nairobi, Kenya.The strategic partnership will promote capacity building through training and exchange of experiences and best practices among the national focal points for the Convention on Biological Diversity, its Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety and the focal points of the Action Plan of NEPAD’s Environment Initiative and other senior policymakers. A series of training workshops will be organised jointly by the partners on issues of critical importance to the implementation phase of the Convention and its protocol in the context of the environment component of the NEPAD initiative. The signatories will facilitate the exchange of experts, study tours and fellowships between Portugal and selected African countries; establish information networks and databases to facilitate the exchange of information on best practices and lessons learned; and disseminate this information to all interested regions, with a view to promoting similar initiatives with other regions and parties to the Convention.

Egypt leads the way in North Africa with NEPAD e-Schools

The Egyptian Minister of Education, Dr Yousry Al-Gamal, has officially launched the NEPAD e-Schools Demonstration Project in Egypt. The project is a joint venture of the Egyptian Government, HP Consortium, Oracle Consortium and the NEPAD e-Africa Commission.Egypt is the sixth country and the first in North Africa to launch the project after Uganda, Ghana, Lesotho, Kenya and Rwanda. The NEPAD e-Schools Project is led by the NEPAD e-Africa Commission, the NEPAD information and communication technology (ICT) task team responsible for developing the NEPAD ICT programme and implementing related projects. The project focuses on providing end-to-end ICT solutions that will connect schools across Africa to the NEPAD e-Schools Network and the Internet. The HP and ORACLE Consortia, and a number of other private companies are sponsoring the demonstration project, consisting of six schools in each of the 16 participating African countries, for a period of 12 months.

In each country, the project aims to transform all African secondary schools into NEPAD e-Schools within five years of implementation start date and all African primary schools within 10 years of implementation start date. In total, more than 600,000 schools across the continent will enjoy the benefits of ICT and connectivity to the NEPAD e-Schools Satellite Network on completion of the project. Source: NEPAD

Short-term Expatriate Academic Exchange Programmes for South Africans

South Africa plans to attract expatriate academics to share their skills in short exchange programmes and research projects, as an alternative to moving back to South Africa, according to the country’s Education Minister.  In line with its intentions to attract South Africans back to the country, even for short periods, the Government is considering developing a mechanism to keep contact with skilled South African professionals working abroad and to provide opportunities for them to contribute their ideas and knowledge. South Africa aims to achieve 6% economic growth between 2010 and 2014 and to halve poverty and unemployment by 2014 and some of the critical skill sets needed include engineers, ICT and tourism professionals.

IFC Seeks Sustainable Emerging Markets Companies

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) and SustainAbility, an international consultancy and think-tank, are launching new research into companies in emerging markets. The hunt is on for emerging-market businesses that have achieved investment-grade status through good environmental, social and governance practices. This work will build on a new publication: Developing Value 2 - a sequel to the 2002 original that IFC produced in partnership with SustainAbility. The International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, is the largest multilateral provider of financing for private enterprise in developing countries. IFC provides financial products for private sector investments, mobilizes capital in international financial markets, facilitates trade, helps clients improve social and environmental sustainability, and provides advisory services to businesses and governments. www.ifc.org/africa