The FIG Africa Regional
Network
- Developing capacity in Africa
Jennifer Whittal,
FIG Africa Regional Capasity Network
"The FIG Capacity
Development Network (CDN) is playing a leading role in bringing regional
member associations and academic members together using a networking
approach. This is based on enhancing communication in the region and
promoting the ideals of the FIG. Our Facebook site is the principal
platform for communication. We share FIG events as well as MOOCs,
education opportunities, FIG Foundation and other information of
interest in building capacity in Africa. Please LIKE the Facebook page
@FIGARN to stay connected"
Leading together
The FIG ARN has a distributed leadership
structure with representation from the North, West,
East, Central and Southern African regions. Within
each of these regions is a YSAN champion. The ARN is
also expanding its contact list through google forms
https://forms.gle/xJxGQLHqwhkB6uwEA, but the
principle means of communication is the Facebook
page in preference to email.
Supporting tertiary education
We are currently running various themed Groups on
the page to facilitate sharing of resources for
remote tertiary education in Africa. Groups for
teaching land law, GIS, plane surveying, and GNSS
are some of the first Groups to be established. We
face challenges that demand a different response to
delivery compared to the solutions appropriate in
the developed world. These challenges include lack
of hardware and lack of internet connection
(including cell phone connection), and inability to
purchase data for essential connectivity. Lecturers
in Africa must therefor deliver non-synchronised
content with very low data requirements. Videoed
lectures and online tutorials should be reduced to a
minimum or avoided. The Facebook @FIGARN Group
platform will facilitate sharing of methods and
resources but will not be a repository for teaching
materials. Although set up for African educators,
this Facebook page and these dedicated Groups are
open to all. If you who would like to contribute to
this community then first LIKE the Facebook page
@FIGARN and request to join the appropriate Group.
Getting together
At every Working Week and Congress the ARN has a
dedicated breakfast meeting or session along with
the Young Surveyors Africa Network (YSAN).
Presentations related to capacity building in Africa
are also included and the needs of the collective
may be gauged through a live questionnaires, for
example, using Mentimeter. Our future events are
posted on our Facebook site – they are currently in
the process of change.
The FIG ARN also aims to address the language divide
in Africa. We held a joint conference with the FGF
Universities in Senegal, Dakar in November 2019. A
dedicated breakfast meeting mirrored those at the
FIG conferences – here we promoted the ARN to
francophone Africa. We are very grateful for the
invitation from the FGF and the extraordinary
lengths the member association hosting the
conference (ONGES) and FGF organisers went to in
their inclusion of the ARN and English-speaking
participants.
What are the needs?
An ARN online survey has been conducted to gauge
needs for capacity development. The information is
disaggregated into professional, academic and YSAN
but only the summary is presented below.
Member associations need to promote involvement with
and inclusion of the young surveyors, particularly
facilitating mentoring programmes. Networking
opportunities are highly valued, while the most
pressing needs are for knowledge and skills
development both in technical aspects of our work as
well as in the softer skills such as business,
legislation, communication.
Read our annual report
here
LIKE us on FACEBOOK – use this in your search
engine to find us: @FIGARN
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