She Will Innovate Competition: Technology Solutions Enriching the Lives of Girls

Competition News

Intel Corporation and Ashoka Changemakers are launching this online competition to find the world's most innovative solutions that equip girls and women with new digital technologies—enabling them to live healthier, smarter, and more meaningful lives.

Submit your solutions, or nominate a project, to empower women around the world. The final competition deadline is August 15, 2012.

Three winners will each receive a cash prize of US $10,000.

Join us in congratulating our Early Entry Prize winners:

eAcademy for Conscious Change

ICT Solution for JANMA Clean Birth Kit

Guidelines and Criteria

Who should enter:

The competition is open to solutions from around the world, with special consideration for innovations developed for women by women aged 18 to 34. We can only accept your entry in English, Spanish, Portuguese, or French.

Intel employees are not eligible.

Why you should enter:

• Join Ashoka Changemakers’ global online community that supports the impact you are making on the ground.
• Gain visibility with our community and our competition partner, Intel Corporation.
• A chance to win!

What you can win:

• One of three US$10,000 cash prizes in unrestricted funding to boost your project.
• One of two US$500 cash prizes (if you enter before July 18, 2012).

How to enter:

• Take a look at this video or read these step-by-step instructions.
• Read these tips about how to make your entry stand out.

Read all the fine print below to learn more about how you can win.

Competition Guidelines

The competition is open to all types of individuals, organizations, and collaborations from all countries as long as solutions apply directly to bettering the lives of women through information and communication technologies. We consider all entries that:

• Reflect the theme of the competition: She Will Innovate: Technology Solutions Enriching the Lives of Girls.
• Identify innovations that accelerate women’s socio-economic progress by empowering them with digital solutions to improve women’s health, education, and well-being.
• Indicate growth beyond the conceptual stage and have demonstrated impact and sustainability. We support new ideas at every stage and encourage their entry. The judges are better able to evaluate programs that are beyond the conceptual stage and have demonstrated a proof of impact.
• Are submitted in English, Spanish, Portuguese, or French.

Please complete the entry form in its entirety and submit by August 15, 2012.

Assessment Criteria

Winners of the She Will Innovate: Technology Solutions Enriching the Lives of Girls competition will be those that best meet the following criteria:

Innovation: This is the knock-out test; if the work is not innovative, the judges will not give it a high ranking. The entrant must describe a systemic or disruptive innovation with the potential to give women access to income-generating opportunities, health care, or education through digital technologies. The best entries will be those that demonstrate a substantial difference from other initiatives in the field and have the possibility for large-scale, global replication.

Social Impact: It is important that the competition entry provides a system-changing solution for the issue it addresses. Some entries will have proven successes at the local level, while others may have already engaged millions of people across the country. Initiatives must maximize the opportunity for collaboration in engaging women, their families, and their communities with tech innovations. The best solutions will have demonstrated impact, as well as the potential for scaling-up and replication.

Sustainability: The proposals must have a clear outline for reaching long-term goals and securing financial backing—entries should describe not only how they currently finance their work, but also how they plan to finance it in the future. They should also have a realistic time frame for implementation. Proposals should highlight the support they have received from both the public and private sectors.

Competition Deadlines, Procedures, and Rules

Online competition submissions are accepted until August 15, 2012. At any time before this deadline, competition participants are encouraged to revise their entries based on questions and insights that they receive through the Changemakers online discussion. Participation in the conversation enhances an entrant’s prospects in the competition and provides the community and the judges with an opportunity to understand the entrant’s project more completely.

There are five main phases in the competition:

• Entry Stage: Beginning June 6, 2012, entries can be submitted until 5 p.m. EST on August 15, 2012, and throughout this stage anyone can participate in an online review discussion with the entrants.
  • Early Entry Deadline, July 18, 2012: Entries received by 5 p.m. EST on July 18, 2012 are eligible for the Early Entry prize.
  • Entry Deadline: August 15, 2012, 5 p.m. EST
• Online Review and Finalist Selection, August 15 – October 17, 2012: Online review and discussion continues. Simultaneously, a team of Ashoka staff and shortlisters, followed by a panel of expert judges, nominate the 10-15 best and most innovative entries as finalists.
• Voting and Winners Selection, October 17 – November 7, 2012: The Changmakers community votes online to select three winners from the field of finalists
• Winners Announced, November 14, 2012: The Changemakers competition winners—the finalist individuals, organizations, or partnerships selected by the Changemakers online community—will each receive a cash prize of US $10,000.

Prizes

Early Entry Prize:

Early entries received by July 18, 2012 will be eligible to win one of two cash prizes of US $500. Being an Early Entry Prize winner does not preclude you from winning the competition in any way, nor guarantee finalist status. All entries will be evaluated on an equal basis at the completion of the entry period according to the Changemakers criteria.

Winners:

Three winners, as selected by the Ashoka Changemakers online community to best exemplify the competition assessment criteria from the pool of finalists, will each receive a cash prize of US $10,000.

She Will Innovate Idea Award:

$5000 awarded to the most innovative early stage initiative that shows great potential for social impact and sustainability.

Winners will be announced November 14, 2012.

Participation in the competition provides the opportunity to receive feedback about your solution from fellow entrants, Changemakers staff, judges, expert commentators, and the Changemakers community. Showcasing your market-based solution, and the challenges involved in creating social impact through community engagement, advises potential investors about how best to maximize the strategic impact of their future investments.

Disclaimer—Compliance with Legal Restrictions

Ashoka complies fully with all U.S. laws and regulations, including Office of Foreign Assets Control regulations, export control, and anti-money laundering laws. Any grants will be awarded subject to compliance with such laws. Ashoka will not make any grant if it finds that to do so would be unlawful. This may prohibit awards in certain countries and/or to certain individuals or entities. All recipients will comply with these laws to the extent they are applicable to such recipients. No recipient will take any action that would cause Ashoka to violate any laws. Additionally, Ashoka will not make any grant to a company involved in the promotion of tobacco use.

Click here for the complete details.

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Top Annual Entertainment Events in Nigeria

Top Annual Entertainment Events in Nigeria

The following are the top annual events in Nigeria in no particular order or rank.

1. Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria (MBGN)
2. Calabar Carnival
3. Lagos Carnival
4. Abuja Carnival
5. African Movie Academy Awards (AMAA)
6. Eko International Film Festival
7. AFRIFF International Film Festival
8. Abuja International Film Festival
9. iREP International Documentary Film Festival
10. Lagos Book and Art Festival
11. Garden City Literary Festival
12. Arise Magazine Fashion Week
13. Hip Hop Awards
14. Nigerian Entertainment Awards
15. Tava Awards
16. Rhythm Unplugged
17. Summer Jam Fest.

The above top annual entertainment events in Nigeria are based on their popularity online and offline for attracting local and international audiences in terms of general entertainment and for the public friendly environment of the location of each event and the commercial benefits to the organizers, sponsors and host communities.

The organizers and sponsors of the international film festivals and carnivals need to up the ante of their events to fully realize the social and economic benefits, because these events can create thousands of jobs and generate millions of dollars through the commercial activities at the venues and environs and the patronage of the hospitality industry as popular international film festivals and carnivals have become million dollar international tourist attractions in the U.S.A, UK, France, Italy, German, Brazil, South Africa and other countries. Well informed sponsors can really maximize the potential benefits of these annual events as sponsors do at similar events in America, Europe and Asia. For instance, automakers and dealers can use international film festivals and carnivals to promote and market their cars and SUVs since these vehicles are integral parts of the film industry used by the production crew and cast. In fact all products and services used in the society can be exhibited at film festivals, including household goods, because a film festival is the celebration of life in motion pictures. So, all the products and services we use in life can be exhibited at the venues of film festivals.


Film festivals are also appropriate venues to launch and promote new or ongoing products, programmes and services of private and public organizations. Governments can show documentaries of what they have done for the citizens and private companies can show commercials of their products and services as short films or documentaries at film festivals and engage the audiences in focus or target group discussions during interactive sessions before and after screenings.

Companies making electronics and beauty products can promote and market their products and services at the music events and of course the book publishers, book sellers and printers and the manufacturers of paper, printing machines and packaging machines can use the book fairs to promote and market their products and services to the participants and attendees.

For Further Inquiries and Consultation on the potential benefits of these annual events in Nigeria, contact Nigerians Report by email: publisher@nigeriansreport.com

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FELA: 15 YEARS AFTER..... Constructing Fela’s Dramatic Narrative for Cinema

Fela Anikulapo-Kuti

FELA: 15 YEARS AFTER..... Constructing Fela’s Dramatic Narrative for Cinema

~ By Femi Odugbemi


For a nation with a vibrant motion picture industry, our response to the colossal resource that the life story of late Afrobeat impresario Fela Anikulapo presents is unsettling and queries our understanding and our appreciation of the narrative drama and approaches to which the “Fela phenomenon” lends itself. It is a damning reality that more than a decade and half since Fela’s death, not a single local production, feature or documentary or stage, has profiled any aspect of Fela’s life or captured the essence of his struggle. Our reluctance to embrace this incredible life story for its powerful dimensions of gripping drama and historical significance may be the greatest failure of our blossoming creative industries. Fela was the soundtrack that helped Nigerians confront and get through the worst of times with the military dictatorships and political avarice of corrupt regimes. Fela was about sex, an unsophisticated mating call captured in the sensuous gyrations of scantily-clad dancers in chicken-mesh cages. Fela was about drugs and addictions and the high cost of communal rebellion. Fela was resistance to systemic corruption and the oppression of power. Fela was a sacred communion between artist and audience – male and female, black and white, educated and illiterate, pimps and prostitutes, pastors and players, addicts and artistes. Fela was much more than the sum of his parts –he shouldered enormous risks and with unimaginable courage did things the rest of us can only dream of. The Fela story in film, is a narrative mirror that will afford us a glimpse at the naked soul of our national character from the prisms of our political history. Telling the “Fela story” is elusive to many filmmakers for daunting reasons. Firstly, it is a narrative that transcends the strict relation of facts and chronology yet affirming a personal vision that is both objectively informed and subjectively charged. And with an audience already fed fat by popular myth, the research exposes the filmmaker to an overload of myth that may or may not be historically false! Thus, there is from within the creative wells of the innocent narrator a contradictory insistence on both accuracy and license.

A scene from the musical of Fela on Broadway, USA.

It is in the end a balance of understanding between biography and myth. The narrative of Fela’s life and times therefore is less about music than about a consciousness – his music was the soundtrack steering our experience of his philosophy and politics. It is trite but significant to repeat the obvious -Fela was a highly multi-dimensional subject with a varied audience.

The second challenge of creating a narrative of Fela’s life arises from grappling the very complicated character himself, as a protagonist and the various contradictions his life presented: The son of a reverend gentleman, who became the High Priest of the caricature “Shrine” that was home to his fiery performances.

A classicallytrained musician with a privileged education in England, who became the creator of a violent fusion of jazz layered with rich rhythmic percussions and lyrics in the colloquially visual pidgin language most accessible to the deprived and disadvantaged populations of Africa. For a filmmaker, a director, or storyteller trying to create a narrative of Fela, the daunting challenges in the immediate beginning will be to define what Fela was, what people’s expectation of that narrative would be and exactly what part of his life you would isolate to dramatise in the narrative.


Published on Jun 25, 2012 by Dvworx
Femi Anikulapo Kuti is no doubt a living legend whose music has helped to sustain Afrobeat with new energy and inspiration for upcoming musicians. Who is the Femi Kuti that we do not know?


Normally, biographies tend to take a portion of the subject’s life and try to dramatise it in a three act structure; whether it is documentary, drama, stage play or biography as a musical, the concentration is on aspects of the subject’s life that are most impactful and not usually the whole of the life.

The creative or interpretative challenge is to demonstrate certain values or incidences that are representative of the subject’s character and values, but more than anything, of the subject’s impact on a community or on an institution.

Strangely enough, I have been somewhat fated to experience at very close quarters a few brilliant visual narrators struggle to define the dimensions of Fela in a motion picture narrative. First, was celebrated documentary director John Akromfah of Smoking Dog Films UK, who has spent the last decade or so trying to piece together enough footages to construct a documentary narrative of Fela from a perspective that defines what his music and personality means historically and culturally.

I spent many hours with John in Accra ruminating on the difficulty of a Fela narrative simply because his life unfolded in measures drama unlike that of any regular biographic subject and the incidences of his life were so profound that they demanded individually in of themselves a film! For example, the whole story of how Fela’s house was burnt by soldiers and the drama and tragedy of that incident is a three-act film on its own!

And one loaded with intrigue, suspense, action and characters that were as compelling as any fictional explication could conjure. Before I met John though, I had also watched the French documentary Fela Kuti: Music is the Weapon by StephaneTchal-Gadjieff and Jean Jacques Flori.

That was shot in 1982 and basically focused its narrative on Fela as avant garde, urban revolutionary whose music is inspired by the politics and poverty of his country. It was an interesting effort and I have since screened the film at one of our monthly documentary screenings at IREP. But that effort had a typical problem of films about Africa produced by filmmakers from outside of the African experience –its perspective betrayed a measure of condescension which I am sure even Fela himself would have found uncomfortable at best.

As I have stressed time and again at the iRepresent Documentary Film Forums, the abiding challenge for Africa in these narrative expression has always been who is telling the story of the African experience and from what perspective? My second memory of interrogating a motion picture narrative of Fela’s story is the aborted autobiographical film The Black President produced by Fela himself and directed by veteran professional Alex Oduro. Of course the bulk of the footage already shot was lost in the inferno that erupted after soldiers invaded Fela’s home in Idi-Oro in the “unknown soldier” saga.

But the bits I had the privilege of viewing from the rescued footage gave interesting insight into what Fela himself viewed as the most engaging drama of his life. He obviously viewed the irony of his upbringing in a strict Christian family and the African cultural ethos he would embrace in latter life as the heart of his biographical narrative –the son of the reverend gentleman now the Ifa priest of the Africa shrine! If there was anything that was clear from that, it was that Fela himself had an acute sense of the drama of his own life and wanted the opportunity to steer the narrative of its historical archiving.

The contradictions was truly the narrative of the drama of Fela. For any storyteller, the more interesting aspect of Fela’s subconscious motivations as the central character of this narrative must be his rugged individualism which ensured that his political interventions, for instance, as founder of the political party “Movement of the People” (MOP) may be his best forays in improvisational art, because he simply made it up as he went along.

Yet in his espoused political philosophy, he projected an idealistic view of what constituted political revolution and saw himself in the mould of transformational political heroes like Burkina Faso’s Thomas Sankara, Cuba’s Che Guevera and Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah. My next encounter with the ‘Felastory’ as film was several months ago when UK filmmaker, Steve McQueen, came into Nigeria to walk the physical spaces of the Fela legend and recce locations for the shooting of the much-rumoured feature. I was McQueen’s local fixer. We visited the sites of Fela’s life story –from the old family house in Abeokuta to his resting place at Kalakuta Republic in Ikeja.

Steve McQueen, a wellawarded experimental film director had, prior to his visit, buried himself for months in everything and anything he could find as research on Fela. Yet, by the time we would sit and talk with Femi Kuti and hear the inside stories of Fela taking a coffin to Dodan Barracks, the seat of government in 1979, McQueen had found a slice of narrative in Femi Kuti’s reminiscences that best demonstrated Fela’s most enduring character profile –his contradictions -courage, daring, impetuousness, recklessness all wrapped in a bravura that left his most rabid antagonists speechless! My most recent and perhaps most rewarding encounter with a narrative of the Fela’s story, however, was the most filmic though not designed for film.

The award-winning Broadway play, FELA! produced by Shawn Jay Z Carter, Will and Jada Pinkett-Smith, which came to Nigeria and played to sold-out audiences at the shrine and at Eko Hotel Victoria Island, Lagos. It was perhaps the first definitive explication of Fela’s biographical narrative that may also now have defined the smartest creative approach. FELA! on Broadway expressed the narrative of the Fela phenomenon in a three dimensional presentation that I think may finally have defined how all storytellers in the motion picture realm must layer their profile of Fela’s life story. The music is one dimension. Fela’s Africanist ideology is a second dimension.

And of course his confrontational activism is the third dimension. Fela on Broadway revealed that rather than looking for the events and timelines in Fela’s life to guide or form the three act structure of the narrative, perhaps the dimensions of his experiences can be tracked in small digestive capsules, with the music being representative of melodic timeline of the story’s structure. Going forward, everybody that seeks to create a narrative of Fela must now speak to those three dimensions, whether it is film, book, play or musical.

What FELA! on Broadway did was create for us a template with which to attack the biographical narrative of this African colossus. In this milestone of the anniversary of his passing, Fela’s life story looms as an important part of our history we owe the future generations of this country to experience. The timelessness of Fela is demonstrated in the unprecedented global acceptance of his Afrobeat music.

Today there are over 100 Afrobeat bands in global hotspots like New York, Paris and London and Hong Kong. The music is finding definition and new expressions. The blasting of horns, the violent beat and the jazz defined solos, have all become a staple of world music.

The most interesting revelation of my encounters with the Fela story, 15 years after his passing is that the narrative is open-ended. His consciousness is like a body of prophecy that is gradually, but continuously manifesting long after his death.

The things he talked about -our country, the confusion, the political defections, the lack of democratic ethos, the poverty and the corruption are still there. When Fela labelled himself the Black President, maybe we were mistaken in imagining that he fell short of his ambition at his death. His voice is immortalised as that beacon of popular leadership and courage for Africa and Africans in the diaspora. Now, we need filmmakers and visual storytellers who will immortalise in cinema, a Fela narrative structure that acknowledges the dimensions of his impact and honours the “truth” of his character.


~Femi Odugbemi is Co-Founder/Executive Director of i-Rep International Documentary Forum and MD/CEO of DVWORX Studios Lagos.

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Nomoreloss Warns Dirty Singing Hip Hop Artistes in Nigeria

Nomoreloss. Photo Credit:Nollywood Gossip.

Nomoreloss Warns Dirty Singing Hip Hop Artistes

The young Nigerian musician Muyiwa Osinuga, popularly known as Nomoreloss who is also one of the judges on MTN Project Fame West Africa is not happy with irresponsible hip hop singers in Nigeria, because of their dirty songs. In an interview with Street Talk in the current edition of My Streetz magazine, Nomoreloss said that his concern for Nigerian music presently is the rampant obscene behaviour of the majority of the young artistes who have a penchant for pornographic songs and music videos.

“My concern for music right now are the use of words by the artistes who don’t censor their lyrics and those that cannot be bothered to write any. My word to them is this; YOUR CHILDREN WILL ONE DAY PLAY BACK YOUR WORDS AND SEE HOW YOU DAMAGED LIVES”.

These irresponsible Nigerian hip hop artistes are more driven by hunger for fame and money than talent, because most of them have little or no education in the basic rudiments of music and are only desperate for fame and fortune. And since pornography is a very popular merchandise in Nigeria, they simply produce pornographic songs and videos to sell to legions of Nigerian youths and pedophiles who are among the most promiscuous people in the most populous country in Africa where over 500, 000 people are infected with the HIV and living with AIDS. But these deviant fringe of Nigerian entertainers would not have been so irresponsible and wayward if the so called National Broadcasting Commission and other authorities like the Performing Musicians Association of Nigeria and the Broadcasting Organization of Nigeria (BON ) have not failed in the regular monitoring and evaluation of the programmes on radio and TV stations in Nigeria, because the desperate Nigerian radio and TV stations don’t seem to have rules and regulations on what they broadcast. They just play anything given to them by these desperate artistes who simply use their whims and wits and some money to get the corrupt Nigerian radio DJs and TV VJs to play their useless hip hop ditties called songs in regular rotation. These pornographic music CDs and videos are terrible and should not have been accepted for public broadcast. But these unscrupulous DJs and VJs who apparently have no better sense of judgment don’t care about the grave consequences of these pornographic songs and videos since most of them are voyeurs who enjoy the sexual abuse of impressionable and vulnerable children and young adults who listen and gyrate to these dirty songs and watch the obscene music videos. No wonder these ignorant and nonchalant children and young adults end up with mass failures in their school examinations and damaged lives as Nomoreloss noted.


~ By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima

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Conference on the Role of Private Universities in Higher Education in Africa

Babcock University, a Seventh-day adventist university officially inaugurated in 1999, was recently ranked by Webometrics, a world acclaimed university ranking organization, as the foremost Nigerian private university.

7 Aug 2012 10:19 Africa/Lagos


Conference on the Role of Private Universities in Higher Education in Africa

ADDIS ABABA, August 7, 2012/African Press Organization (APO)/ -- INVITATION TO REPRESENTATIVES OF THE MEDIA


When: Wednesday, 08 - Friday, 10 August 2012 9:00am daily

Where: African Union Commission Old Building Conference Complex, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.


Who: Jointly organized by African Union Commission (AUC), The Association of African Universities (AAU), and St. Mary's University College (SMUC).


Objectives:

The conference is being organized to achieve the following objectives:


• Assessing the impact of private higher education provision on the revitalization of higher education in Africa;

• Determining pedagogical reforms that would contribute to the core functions of teaching, learning and research in private universities;

• Exploring areas for effecti9ve collaboration in research between public and private universities in Africa;

• Reviewing the impact of globalization on the ‘true' values in higher education in Africa with particular emphasis on the ‘commodification' of higher education as a tradable good under the General Agreement on Trade and Services (GATs); and

• Making recommendations for the maintenance of the maximum social benefit to be derived from the persuit of higher education.


Expected outcomes:


The conference is expected to produce the following outcomes:

• Commissioned papers and policy briefs as advocacy tools on quality assurance and accreditation issues in private universities;

• Facilitate collaboration and building of synergies between public and private universities in Africa;

• Contribute to strategic planning and pedagogical reforms towards the pursuit of the three core functions of teaching, learning and community service in private universities; and

• Provide an enhanced platform for networking amongst private universities in Africa.

Participants:

The participants expected at the conference will include vice- chancellors, rectors, presidents, and principal of public and private higher education institutions, as well as researchers, scholars; policy makers, development partners and other stakeholders.


Background: This Conference is being organized as the 10th in the series of consultative annual conference on private higher education provision organized by St. Mary's University College (SMUC) to promote dialogue and better understanding of their roles in the society. This year, SMUC is partnering with the Association of African Universities (AAU), which is the apex higher education body in Africa, to broaden the scope and theme beyond the Ethiopian experience, as had been in the past.


The Association of African Universities (AAU) is an international non-governmental organisation set up in November 1967 by universities in Africa to promote cooperation among themselves and between them and the international academic community. It has a current membership of 270 institutions comprising universities and other higher education institutions drawn from all parts of the continent. Its headquarters is in Accra, Ghana, and it officially operates in three working languages, English, French and Arabic. The AAU has over the years become the major actor and coordinator of activities for African higher education, including the implementation of regional programmes in research, leadership development, ICT capacity building, academic staff exchange, student fellowships, management and dissemination of scholarly information, gender, HIV/AIDS and quality assurance.


Journalists are invited to cover the Conference on the Role of Private Universities in Higher Education in Africa from Wednesday, 08 to Friday, 10 August 2012.

Attached the program of event:

Tuesday, 7th August 2012

16.00 – 18.00 Arrival/ Registration

Wednesday, 8th August 2012

08.30 – 09.00 Arrival/ Registration Continued

09.00 – 09.10 Opening Remarks by Organisers/Introduction of Participants

09.10 – 09.20 Introduction of Chairman, Keynote Speakers & Guests of Honour

09.20 – 09.30 Chairman's Opening Remarks

09.30 – 09.50 Short Addresses by (i) AAU Secretary General; (ii) VC of St. Mary's University College; (iii) VC of Covenant University

09:50 – 10:00 Message from AUC Commissioner His Excellency Jean-Pierre O. Ezin

10.00 – 10.15 Welcome Address by H.E. Ato Demeke Mekonnen, Minister, Ethiopian Ministry of Education

10.15 – 10.30 Keynote Address on the theme: The Role of Private Universities in Higher Education in Africa Prof. Olugbemiro Jegede, Secretary to the Government of Kogi State, Nigeria/Former AAU Secretary General

10.30 – 11.00 Group Photograph/Health Break

11.00 – 12.00

Chair: Dr Teshome Yizengaw, Africa Program Officer, Higher Education Development

Rapporteur: Ato Samson Tilahun, SMUC, Ethiopia


Plenary Presentation on the subtheme Public-Private Partnership in Higher Education in Africa Dr. Rajendar Dhoj Joshi


Plenary Presentation on African Union Commission's Programs on Higher Education AUC Representative


12:00 – 12:30 Discussion

12.30 – 13.30 Lunch Break

13.30 – 15.10 Parallel Sessions


Panel 1: Public-Private Partnership in Higher Education in Africa


Chair: Professor Belay Kassa

Rapporteur: W/t Selamawit Negasi, SMUC, Ethiopia


13:30-13:50. Financing University Education through Public-Private Partnership at Midlands State University in Zimbabwe. Jephias Matunhu, Midlands State University, Zimbabwe


13:50-14:10. Financing Higher Education in Kenya: Public-Private Partnership Approach Calleb Gudo (PhD), KCA, Kenya


14:10-14:30. Public-Private Partnerships for Research in Private Universities in Uganda. Kukunda Elizabeth Bacwayo (PhD), Uganda Christian University


14:30-14:50. Deregulation, Private-Public Partnerships, and Private Universities in Nigeria Prof. Anthony Osagie, Benson Idahosa University, Nigeria


14:50-15:10. Discussion


Panel 2: Private Higher Education Provision in Africa: Strategies for Success and Opportunities


Chair: Mr Tedla Haile

Rapporteur: Ato Goitom Abrha, SGS, SMUC


13:30-13:50. Study Conditions at a Private University in Tanzania: A Perspective on Students' Experiences Bernadette Müller (PhD) and Max Haller University of Graz, Austria


13:50-14:10. Distance Education as a Tool for Development: The prospect of private distance education in Ethiopia Taye Mohammed and Tesfaye Teshome (Associate Professor), HERQA


14:10-14:30. Private Higher Education in Africa is a better alternative: The Case of Monash University, South Africa Geoffery Sestswe (Professor), Monash University, South Africa


14:30-14:50 21st Century Private Higher Education in Africa: Improving the quality of Curriculum Development with Financial Intelligence Samuel Faboyede

Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria


14:50-15:10. Discussion


15.10-15.30 Health Break


15.20-16.50


Parallel Sessions


Panel 1: Private Higher Education at the Crossroads: Strategic Planning and the Pursuit of the Public Good


Chair: Dr. Kebede Kassa

Rapporteur: Dr. Eyilachew Zewdie, SGS, SMUC


15:30-15:50. Private Universities, Endogenous Knowledge Regime and Problem Solving Scholarship in Africa: A Polycentric Planning Perspective. S., R. Akinola (PhD), Covenant University, Nigeria


15:50-16:10. Private Higher Education Institutions in Ethiopia: Opportunities, Challenges, and Ways Forward. Kassahun Kebede and Tesfaye Teshome (Associate Professor), HERQA, Ethiopia


16:10-16:30. Higher Education in Africa and the Role of Private Universities: A Focus on Nigeria. Iruonagbe, Tunde Charles (PhD), Covenant University, Nigeria


16:30-16:50. Discussion


Panel 2: Private Higher Education Provision in Africa: Strategies for Success and Opportunities


Chair: Prof. Daniel Aina, VC Adeleke University, Nigeria

Rapporteur: Dr. Nigussie, SGS, SMUC


15:30-15:50. Performance of the Higher Education Sub-Sector in Ethiopia. Fitsum Zewdu, Ethiopian Economic Association, Ethiopian Economic Policy Research Institute, Ethiopia


15:50-16:10. Bridging the Gap in Education: The Role and Impact of Privately owned Learning Institutions in Zambia. Velenasi Mwale Munsanje, M., Evelyn Hone College, Zambia


16:10-16:30. Students' Expectations and Attitude towards Foreign-supplied Post-Graduate Programmes through Ethiopian Private Higher Education Institutions. Rakshit Negi (Ph.D) and Guta Kedida, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia


16:30-16:50. Discussion


16:50 – 17:20 Chair: Professor Olugbemiro Jegede

Rapporteur: Dr. Eyilachew Zewdie, SGS, SMUC


Plenary Presentation on the subtheme Funding of Private Universities in Africa Dr Mrs Esther O. Asekun-Olarinmoye

17:20 – 17:35 Discussion

17:40 End of session

Thursday, 9th August 2012

08.30 – 09.00 Welcome/Review of Day's Activities


09.00 – 10.00 Chair: Prof. Aize Obayan, Vice Chancellor, Covenant University, Nigeria

Rapporteur: Rahel G/Chirstos


Plenary Presentation on the subtheme Quality Assurance and Accreditation of Private Universities in Africa: Challenges and Opportunities Prof. Barney Pityana, Rector Anglican Theological Seminary, South Africa


Plenary Presentation on the subtheme Private Higher Education at the Crossroads: Strategic Planning and the Pursuit of the Public Good Professor Paul Omaji


10:00 – 10:15 Discussion

10.15 – 10.30 Health Break

10.30 – 12.40 Parallel Sessions


Panel 1: Quality Assurance and Accreditation of Private Universities in Africa: Challenges and Opportunities


Chair: Dr. Getnet Tizazu, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia

Rapporteur: Dr. Wondimagegn Chekol, Quality Assurance Office, SMUC, Ethiopia


10:30-10:50. Implementation Barriers to Internal Quality Assurance in Private Higher Education in Ghana. John Kwame Boateng (PhD), Wisconsin International University College


10:50-11:10. Quality Assurance Challenges and Opportunities faced by Private Universities in Zimbabwe. Evelyn C. Garwe (PhD), Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education, Zimbabwe


11:10-11:30. Collecting Feedback from Students in Ethiopian Private Higher Education Institutions (HEIs): Implication for Quality Assurance and Enhancement. Melaku Girma, St. Mary's University College, Ethiopia


11:30-11:50. Internationalization and Quality Assurance in a Private University College. John Kwame Boateng (PhD), Wisconsin International University College


11:50-12:10. Cross-Border Partnership and Collaboration in Maintaining Quality Education in Private Higher Education Institutions in Africa: Some Selected Cases from Ethiopia. Wondimeneh Mammo (Asst. Prof.), Alpha University College, Ethiopia.


12:10-12:40. Discussion


Panel 2: Private Universities in Community Service in Africa


Chair: Professor Paul Omaji, VC Salem University

Rapporteur: W/ro Ergogie Tesfaye, Gender Office, SMUC


10:30-10:50. University-Community Engagement for Sustainable Development: An Analysis of the Context of Private Universities in Zimbabwe. David Chakuchichi (Prof.), Zimbabwe Open University


10:50-11:10. Higher Education and Entrepreneurship Development: What roles are private universities playing in Ethiopia? Hailemelekot Taye, St. Mary's University College, Ethiopia


11:10-11:30. Higher Education as an Agent of Inclusive Development: The Role of Private Universities in Africa. Tsitsi Chataika, University of Zimbabwe


11:30-11:50. Knowledge about HIV/AIDS, Risk Reduction Behaviors and Readiness to undergo Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT): Focus on Public and Private College Students in Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia. Kabtamu Ayele Jimma (Asst. Prof.), Asela College of Teacher Education, Ethiopia


11:50-12:10. The Role of Private Higher Education Institutions in Student Readiness for HE. Misganaw Solomon, SMUC, Ethiopia


12:10-12:40. Discussion


12.40 – 13.30 Lunch Break

13.30-14.00 Chair: Professor Barney Pityana, Rector Anglican Theological Seminary

Rapporteur: Dr Daniel Kubuafor, AAU


Plenary Presentation on the subtheme Private Universities in Community Service in Africa Professor Everett Standa

14.00 – 14.15 Discussion

14.40 – 15.40

Parallel Presentations


Panel 1: Quality Assurance and Accreditation of Private Universities in Africa: Challenges and Opportunities


Chair: Dr Getnet Tizazu, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia

Rapporteur: Dr. Mulugeta Taye, SGS, SMUC


14:20-14:40. Quality Assurance and Accreditation of Private Universities in Uganda: Challenges and Opportunities. Francis Otto and Benon Musinguzi, Uganda


14:40-15:00. Academic Staff Capacities in Private Universities in Tanzania. Simon Peter Ngalomba, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania


15:00-15:20 Assessing Graduate Employability Skills: Implications for Quality in Higher Education. Zenawi Z., (PhD), Assefa A., Biadglign D., & Tsegazeab K., Mekelle University, Ethiopia


15:20-15:40. Discussion


Panel 2: Private Universities in Community Service in Africa


Chair: Professor Aize Obayan, VC Covenant University

Rapporteur: Dr. Bekabil Fufa, SGS, SMUC


14:20-14:40. Private Uuniversities in Community Services: Bridging the Gap in the Provision of Appropriate Sanitation. Chigunwe Gilliet and Ndoro Mercy, Zimbabwe


14:40-15:00. Factors Dictating Students' Career Choice in the Ethiopian Higher Education Environment. Asaye Teklu, St. Mary's University College, Ethiopia


15:00-15:20. The Role of Private Higher Education Institutions in Community Service in Africa: The Ashesi Approach, Elspeth Adzo Ashie, Ghana


15:20-15:40 The Engagement of African Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Response to HIV/AIDS Daniel Kweku Kubuafor (PhD), AAU, Ghana


15:40-16:00 Discussion


16:00 – 16:30 Health Break

16.30-17:00 The International Fellowship Program of AAU, Araba Botchway, AAU

17:00 -17:15 Adoption of the Addis Ababa Declaration on the Role of Private Universities in Higher Education in Africa Professor Michael Omolewa, Former President of the General Conference of UNESCO

17.15 – 17.30 Closing Remark Tedla Haile, Executive Vice President, SMUC, Ethiopia

Friday, 10th August 2012

09.00 – 12.30 Excursion (Optional) to Entoto Mountain- Menelik Museum, Addis Ababa University Museum (Site of objects related to Emperor Haile Selassie), Trinity Cathedral (Ark of Covenant Site)

12.30 – Departure

Source: African Union Commission (AUC)

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Andy Garcia Narrates New Documentary Featuring Stories of Cuba's Former Political Prisoners

Celebrating Life in Union is a story of human resilience, community, and brotherhood. It follows a group of former Cuban political prisoners through their memory of imprisonment and their half century fight with the aging Castro regime. Having developed a strong community for themselves that now crosses three generations in Union City, NJ they struggle with the realization that their own mortality may come before they can return to their homeland.



7 Aug 2012 13:35 Africa/Lagos

Andy Garcia narrates new documentary featuring stories of Cuba's former political prisoners

NEW YORK, Aug. 7, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Celebrating Life in Union, a new documentary narrated by Andy Garcia, will premiere at the 2012 New York City International Film Festival at Tribeca Cinemas, August 14 at 6: 00p.m. The film unveils the tragedy and brotherhood of a group of former political prisoners from the Cuban Revolution, who fought for, and then were betrayed by their leader, Fidel Castro.

Director and human rights activist Gladys Bensimon, known for her award-winning documentary Crossing our Borders, learned that a group of these former prisoners, now in their 70s, was living and gathering weekly in Union City, New Jersey. She began attending the meetings as her curiosity grew about what really happened to the people of Cuba during the Revolution. Garcia, a Cuban-American, joined the project to support the former prisoners and to help tell their stories.

"These men were young and passionate when they initially joined Fidel Castro's revolution in Cuba to overthrow dictator Fulgencio Batista," said Bensimon. "They were students, teachers, farmers, businessmen who sacrificed everything to change Cuba for the better. After all that effort, they were betrayed by Castro and forced to lead a counter-revolution in the Escambray Mountains."

Celebrating Life in Union juxtaposes the former prisoners' stories with the stories of their families, who prayed they survive the firing squads that claimed the lives of thousands in a tumultuous Cuba. The men recount the physical and mental abuse they endured during their decades incarcerated. Thousands paid with their lives and many more with their freedom and sanity to fight for a free Cuba.

"I didn't want their stories and the human rights violations of the Castro regime to be forgotten," said Bensimon. "We need to remember what our freedom is worth, and pay respect to those who are brave enough to fight for it."

For more information about Celebrating Life in Union, visit celebratinglifeinunion.com or on Facebook at facebook.com/CelebratingLifeInUnion.

To attend the New York City International Film Festival, visit nyciff.com

About HBR Production Company
HBR Productions is an award-winning multilingual film and video production company with over 20 years of experience in a wide range of genres including commercials, features, animated shorts, short narrative films and documentaries, located in Hoboken, NJ. HBR is led by Gladys Bensimon, an award-winning producer/director, and the President of the company.

Contact:
Gladys Bensimon
HBR Production Company
732-598-4278
gbensimon@gmail.com
www.hbrproductions.com

SOURCE HBR Production Company

Web Site: http://www.hbrproductions.com

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