The 2nd “Euro-Africa Cooperation Forum on ICT Research” organised by the FP7 EuroAfrica-ICT EU-funded project (coordinated by Sigma Orionis) and supported by the African Union Commission (AUC – HRST) and the European Commission (EC – DG INFSO – International Relations Unit) under the Information Communication Technology (ICT) theme of the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) successfully took place on Feb. 4, 2010, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (United Nations Conference Centre – UNCC). This 2nd Forum edition was organised as the only post-event to the “AU 2010 Summit” and the “AU-ECA 2010 Summit Exhibition”.

Held this year in the capital city of Ethiopia and aiming at paving the way for a strengthened and coordinated approach to foster Euro-Africa cooperation, this Conference – the 2nd of its series (the first edition was held in Brussels, Belgium early in 2009) – was a considerable success and continued to provide a forum for discussions on recent developments and perspectives in the field.

In addition to a very exciting agenda (72 chair-persons and speakers/panellists have kindly accepted to contribute to the Conference programme) almost 300 delegates (including over 70 Europeans) coming from 44 different countries have decided to join: Policymakers | Senior representatives from governments | Representatives from international development cooperation agencies | ICT project managers | Programme managers | Heads of research labs | Researchers | IT engineers | Deans, directors, lecturers and researchers from universities and the higher education sector | Managers of NGOs, professional associations, centres of excellence, trade unions, chambers of commerce, etc. | Industry stakeholders | etc. Held over only one day, delegates had a very busy schedule with many interesting and stimulating discussions.

The EuroAfrica-ICT partnership would like to express its most grateful thanks to the large delegations of sub-Saharan Africa and Europe for having taken some time of their busy schedules to participate in this important forum (not to forget special guests coming mainly from the Caribbean and North Africa). There are also many individuals who have helped in getting this Conference off the ground and the EuroAfrica-ICT consortium would like to acknowledge the significant efforts of the EC, the AUC, and the event sponsors/donors.

Click here to access the event proceedings and photo gallery.