UNU-Cornell Africa Series Background
In 2000, the UN General Assembly adopted the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), as a way to give impetus and concrete deadlines in key areas of development. Africa was meant to be a central concerns in these efforts. Yet, despite the efforts made in recent years in support of Africa's development, the situation on most of the continent remains challenging. Today the consensus is indeed that it will be difficult to achieve in Africa, in time and in full, the objectives of the MDGs.
The reasons for this are multifold, spanning from weak African state institutions, reluctance of the international community to keep its promises, and knowledge gaps in critical areas of development. In this regard, the development community faces the following paradox: while the African continent is one in which the international development community is involved the most, the level of knowledge, of quantitative and qualitative knowledge, is often missing or limited in crucial areas of health, environment, security and others, as well as in their relations. The underdeveloped state of statistical data in a number of strategic areas for African development is a case in point.
It is against this background that the United Nations University and Cornell University have decided to join forces to map out, via a series of conferences (The UNU-Cornell Africa Series), the state of scientific and policy knowledge in three critical areas: Food and Nutrition system (November 2007), From Governance and Development Crises to Security Crises (March 2008), HIV/AIDS and Public Health (May 2008). A final event, to take place in July 2008, will outline the lessons learned from the preceding events and make policy recommendations. This Africa Series is not an end in itself. Through it, UNU and Cornell seek, in cooperation with other UN agencies and African academic institutions to advance knowledge in the aforementioned areas, but also contribute to providing policy recommendations and enhance capacity building in Africa. This joint effort is also meant to feed into the high-level meeting on "Africa's Development Needs", which will be held during the 2008 UN General Assembly.
The Africa Series will bring together leading academic international experts on Africa, with many being from Africa, UN and NGOs practitioners. Four volumes will be published based on these events. An online forum will be created to engage more actors to participate in the discussion of the key areas of the Series. It is also envisioned to maximize outreach of the Series by webcasting the events and utilize video conferencing to interact with universities and experts in Africa.