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African Working Groups

AFROS is the African Federation of Operations Research Societies. The objective of AFROS is to promote Operations Research in Africa. Its affairs are regulated by an Executive Committee consisting of representatives/alternates of all its member societies. The members of the Federation undertake to co-operate in the advancement of knowledge, interest, and education in Operations Research by appropriate means, particularly the exchange of information, the holding of meetings and conferences, and the awarding of prizes. For small groups of researchers/practitioners interested in a specific Operations Research topic, AFROS provides an organizational framework in the form of African Working Groups. These Groups are a very important part of AFROS. They provide a forum for promoting research in the areas represented by AFROS. African Working Groups should have a meeting at least once a year where the members exchange ideas, experiences and research results, and support each other in research work. In addition to their annual meetings, the groups can organize conferences, sessions in conferences, seminars and webinars.

List of Approved African Working Group:

  1. AWG: Sustainable Development and Poverty Analysis
  2. AWG: Multicriteria Decision Aid
  3. AWG: Healthcare Systems
  4. AWG: Efficiency and Productivity Analysis
  5. AWG: Agri-food Supply Chain Management
  6. AWG: Aviation Industry
  7. AWG: Sustainable Supply Chains and Business Continuity

How to start an African Working Group ?

  1. Select the focus of your working group by defining its main area of interest of Operations Research (a theme, a theory, a subject area, a problem area).
  2. List the institutions involved in your working group.
  3. Determine the type and level of financial support needed for your working group.
  4. Determine the working group’s strategy to publicize and attract African researchers and practitioners.
  5. Define your working group’s correspondence address as well as the group’s contact person.
  6. Submit the following items to the AFROS president.
    • the purpose of the working group.
    • the names, affiliations and countries of the working group members that should be from practice and university/research institute from different countries.
    • a draft of the group’s plan for the activities of the first three years.

Charter of the Working Groups

AFROS does not try to impose unified regulations for Working Groups. Nonetheless, a few general principles are strongly recommended.

  1. Working groups must hold an election for coordinator every three years, but there are no limits on the number of terms. Each group has to define who can vote and how to run the election.
  2. AFROS Conferences will give the opportunity to working groups to organize streams or special sessions on their specific area.
  3. Routine internal information about the groups, such as announcements of future meetings and short reports on previous meetings should be conveyed to the President of AFROS and posted at AFROS website.
  4. Working groups will use stationery displaying the AFROS symbol and mention their affiliation in all their activities.
  5. The dissolution of a Working group will come about if the coordinator of the group feels that, for some reason, the group cannot continue its activity or if the Executive Committee ascertains that the group has in fact ceased to be active.
  6. AFROS will provide financial support for each Working group, the value of which will depend on AFROS’s financial situation. The annual budget will be decided upon an activity plan, to be submitted by the Working group coordinator by December 30, each year.

Submit a proposal to start an African Working Group