Topic Resources
Agenda 2063 is Africa’s development blueprint to achieve inclusive and sustainable socio-economic development over a 50-year period.
Continental Artificial Intelligence Strategy
Promoting Africa’s growth and economic development by championing citizen inclusion and increased cooperation and integration of African states.
Promoting Africa’s growth and economic development by championing citizen inclusion and increased cooperation and integration of African states.
Agenda 2063 is the blueprint and master plan for transforming Africa into the global powerhouse of the future. It is the strategic framework for delivering on Africa’s goal for inclusive and sustainable development and is a concrete manifestation of the pan-African drive for unity, self-determination, freedom, progress and collective prosperity pursued under Pan-Africanism and African Renaissance.
H.E. Mr. Paul Kagame, President of the Republic of Rwanda, was appointed to lead the AU institutional reforms process. He appointed a pan-African committee of experts to review and submit proposals for a system of governance for the AU that would ensure the organisation was better placed to address the challenges facing the continent with the aim of implementing programmes that have the highest impact on Africa’s growth and development so as to deliver on the vision of Agenda 2063.
The AU offers exciting opportunities to get involved in determining continental policies and implementing development programmes that impact the lives of African citizens everywhere. Find out more by visiting the links on right.
The African Academy of Languages, ACALAN is the African Union Specialised agency charged with the promotion and development of African languages as a means for fostering continental integration and development. It is headquartered in Bamako, Mali
The organisation was established in Mali in December 2000 by Presidential Decree as the Mission for the African Academy of Languages (MACALAN). It was transformed into ACALAN in January 2006 and became a specialised institution of the African Union when its statutes were adopted by the Sixth Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the Heads of State and Government of the African Union.
ACALAN’s main objectives are to:
To deliver on its mandate ACALAN aims to
ACALAN has five organs which oversee its mandate: the AU Specialised Technical Committee (STC) on Youth, Culture and Sports, which is its supreme organ; the Governing Board (highest policy organ), the Assembly of Academicians, the Scientific and Technical Committee and the Executive Secretariat.
ACALAN’s working structures are the National Language Structures (one in each Member State) and the Vehicular Cross-border Language Commissions (one for each vehicular cross-border language).
ACALAN has several key projects that it is undertaking.
The Linguistic Atlas for Africa (LAA) is one of ACALAN’s key projects and it aims to produce precise knowledge about the number of African languages, their interrelations and dialectical variations. The Linguistic Atlas is divided into the Regional Economic Communities (RECs). ACALAN is working on completing the cartographic aspects of the atlas for the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) chapter plus Mauritania which will be availed in print and electronic format in all the languages in the 15 Member States of ECOWAS.
ACALAN actively supports post-graduate level students in African languages and linguistics. Its key project is the Pan-African Master’s and PhD Programme in African Languages and Applied Linguistics (PANMAPAL) which aims to train qualified linguists, language professionals, educators and other practitioners to become specialists in African languages.
The Pan-African School for Translation and Interpretation (PASTI) is an ACALAN project that trains young Africans in the profession of translation and interpretation so as to enable African languages become true working languages and languages of instruction in a multilingual context.
In the area of Terminology and Lexicography (TLP) , ACALAN trains dictionary compilers and terminology developers; and provides research, support, counsel services in these fields in the major African languages. In addition, ACALAN has produced dictionaries in Ikinyarwanda–Kiswahili–English; English–Kiswahili–Kinyrwanda; Euegbefiala–Ewe–English; English–Ewe; Mandenkan–Bamanankan; and an online Hausa spell checker.
The Stories Across Africa (SAA) project aims to produce anthologies of stories for children to enjoy in their own languages as a means of instilling the culture of reading in them.
Finally the African Languages and the Cyberspace (ALC) project aims to promote African languages in the cyberspace and apply Human Language Technologies to them.
(Read about ACALAN’S work in promoting Kiswahili as covered in this issue in the article The case for Kiswahili as a language of wider communication in Africa)
Find out more about ACALAN
Website: www.acalan-au.org and www.acalan.tv
Email: acalan@Africa-union.org Tel: +223 2029 0459
Twitter: @AcademyAcalan
Facebook: ‘African Academy of Languages Acalan’
Agenda 2063 is Africa’s development blueprint to achieve inclusive and sustainable socio-economic development over a 50-year period.
Continental Artificial Intelligence Strategy