SASA conference
The South African Statistical Association organized a successful international conference from 27th to 31st of October, 2008. The conference was held at the University of Pretoria in Pretoria formally a white-biased university. Many internationally known statisticians all over the globe showcased their work in statistics by presenting papers. I happened to present a paper titled “stochastic optimization model for monitoring millennium development goals: case of HIV/AIDS”. It was well received by my audience. The same paper was chosen to be presented at the inaugural workshop of seminar series organized by Statistics South Africa on the 31st October, 2008.
Ronald Wesonga is a Statistician and a Specialist in Statistical Computing. Over the last decade, he has developed vast experience in data management...
January 17th, 2010 at 6:02 am
Despite your suggestions I have to put another comment: Is Africa a dying continent? The nightmare of hunger, killing machines and war seems to be without end. I?s hard to watch TV without having the impression that Africa is the lousiest place on earth. So a good thing you talk about it. But will it eventually change? We can just leave our whishes for the moment, as long as african tribal disputes are more important for the people there than the nucelar weapons of US.
January 18th, 2010 at 10:29 am
To understand Africa, one may require a multifaceted approach (multipolynomial approach) that considers an interplay of many factors. I wouldn’t like to believe that Africa is the lousiest place on earth because Africa is the only place on earth endowed with innumerable and in most cases untapped natural resources, let alone more stable weather conditions, with less natural calamities like earth quakes, tsunamies, heavy cyclones etc.. The people in Africa are the most courteous on planet earth and also most reserved… Furthermore, one may argue that the endless hunger, killings machine and war are to some extent a creation of the non-Africans who develop specific objectives that are not pro-Africans and given their sophistication, the overall outcome is normally non-accountably enormous in terms numbers of lives lost.
However, when you disregard the generalisation of Africans, but consider individuals, you will realise that the best human beings on planet earth are actually Africans! So, how best do we cooperate to make the world a better place for ALL? The UN makes suggestions through development of MDGs, Individual countries have their own NDPs, etc. Who then is accountable for the M&E of those development plans? What is the level of seriousness to implement?