Reducing Poverty, Improving Sustainability in Africa Is Focus of International Conference at Pitt March 29-30

PITTSBURGH—Poverty and political conflict in Africa continue to threaten the Millennium Development Goals set forth in 2002 by the United Nations to help reverse by 2015 the poverty, hunger, and disease plaguing billions of people worldwide. Experts will meet at the University of Pittsburgh March 29 and 30 to discuss Africa’s efforts to reach these goals through four major areas of sustainability: health and the environment, education, gender equality, and conflict mitigation and institutional governance. The free, public two-day conference, titled “Achieving Sustainable Development in Africa,” will be held in Ballrooms A and B of Pitt’s University Club, 123 University Pl., Oakland.

The goal of the conference is to present papers designed to generate innovative, meaningful research that is both theoretically sound and policy driven, said Macrina C. Lelei, director of the African Studies Program in Pitt’s University Center for International Studies.

The conference will feature speakers from Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, and Uganda, as well as from throughout the United States. They will share their experiences and research as to the constraints facing and opportunities available for sustainable development in Africa.

Louis A. Picard, director of the Pitt Graduate School of Public and International Affairs’ Ford Institute for Human Security, which is cohosting the conference, said a panel that includes Pitt PhD students will address the shortfalls Africa faces in light of the Millennium Development Goals’ 2015 deadline.

The conference is presented by, in addition to the African Studies Program and Ford Institute, Pitt’s School of Education and Graduate School of Public Health. For more information visit www.ucis.pitt.edu/africa/Conference2012/SDC.htm. 

###

3/20/12/mab