Second ISTR Africa Regional Conference Held
by Alan Fowler, ISTR vice-president
An interesting and successful 2nd ISTR Africa regional conference took place in Nairobi from November 6th to 8th. The event was hosted by the Kenya Institute for Policy Analysis and Research (IPAR). The theme "Questioning the Concept of Civil Society in Africa," was chosen not to reject existing conceptualisations, but as a challenge to deeply interrogate the relevance of contending notions of civil society in relation to Africa's historical and contemporary conditions. One plenary panel focused on asking why question the concept of civil society.' A second was devoted to understanding and analysing the interplay between tradition and modernization in the emergence and behaviour of civic formations and configurations. Papers were clustered around sub-themes, including: concepts, theories and research approaches; emergence and relations with governance (in Anglophone, Francophone and conflict settings); urban perspectives; civil society and official aid; and NGO roles and relationships.
The conference attracted some forty participants, twenty papers were presented by authors from 12 African and 4 other countries. ISTR was able to raise funds to support 15 scholarships.
At the closure, participants endorsed a process that would explore how best to establish a vibrant African research network dedicated to study of the Third Sector and civil society. The following initiative was proposed and will be discussed by the Africa group at the ISTR conference to be held in Cape Town in July 2002:
- The new Centre for Civil Society at the University of
Natal will establish a list serve of conference participants and ISTR
African members.
- A briefing paper about the merits of a research network
will be written and circulated to members. Recipients will be asked to
share this with their own networks and seek feedback about if and how a
research network should be designed and located.
- The feedback will be processed by a small network
development committee and converted into a concept paper that will be
circulated to members and African participants at the Cape Town
conference. The concept paper will put forward a design or design options
and agenda(s) for a panAfrican civil society research network. The
network development committee is comprised of Alan Fowler (chair), Roch
Mongbo, Emmanuel Akwetey, Phiroshaw Camay, Susan Booysen, and Adam Habib
(list serve host).
- The meeting recognised the importance of direct discussion
with existing African research networks. These interactions would explore
ways of engaging and collaborating to achieve mutual benefits for members.