The School of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, in partnership with the City of Dakar and the École Supérieure Polytechnique in Senegal, developed this project to map and analyze a set of indicators relating to shelter, social development, environmental management, and economic development. This participatory action research project uses a partnership approach to map and subsequently analyze selected urban indicators using GIS. The project has also developed a set of web-based training modules. Selected staff based in Senegal will develop their skills to use GIS and analyze urban indicator data through participation in this research project. The terms of reference proposed in the UCGIS research proposal are fairly specific and require a clear set of deliverables. In response, our project addresses two key objectives:

  • Develop a collaborative approach to conducting indicator-based analyses using GIS.
  • Develop a web-based, capacity building program that will allow researchers and students in developing countries (in this case, Senegal) to use GIS concepts and ArcView software to map and analyze local indicator data at a range of scales.

General Project Description

This project is divided into four interrelated and co-occurring tracks to support the development and dissemination of information technology and computing.

Track One:
 Training Track. Senegalese students who have completed their MA degree in Senegal will be funded as students with research assistantships to undertake graduate studies leading toward a Ph.D. in a UW-Milwaukee multidisciplinary studies program with a focus on library and information science. Areas of specializations and dissertation research undertaken by this group of young scholars are jointly shared and supervised by faculty at the two universities as part of the cooperative agreement between of University of Cheikh Anta Diop-Dakar and UW-Milwaukee.
Track Two:
 Training Track. There is an on-site training track at the University of Cheikh Anta Diop-Dakar. Faculty from UW-Milwaukee serve as consultants and act in the capacity of co-faculty members at the University of Cheikh Anta Diop-Dakar. They come to Senegal to assist and guide the development of course series, computing proficiency, technology certification (Microsoft), and development of programs for the implementation of computing facilities in Senegal and throughout the West African region.
Track Three: The research team established at the University of Cheikh Anta Diop-Dakar a Center for Information Policy Research as an affiliate of UW-Milwaukee’s center. The development of an interdisciplinary team of scholars is critical to fulfilling the center’s mission to research, advocate, and recommend policies concerning the development of information technologies on the African continent.
Track Four: Program development and implementation of Information Technology centers. Here attention focuses on implementation activities and experimentation with differing models of dissemination as a link into the research track (track three). A central theme in this track is a focus on evaluation and the refining of dissemination activities to insure the long-term sustainability of computing access to an African-based population.
 

 

  
The School of Library and Information Science, in collaboration with the Department of Anthropology will be the key collaborating units at the UW-Milwaukee on this to develop at the University of Cheikh Anta Diop-Dakar and its consortium university campus the capacity for information technology dissemination in the West African region.

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the University of Cheikh Anta Diop-Dakar have in place an inter-institutional agreement signed in 2001. Under this grant the partnership will be administered in the U.S. by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus (School of Library Sciences in cooperation with the College of Letters and Sciences) and in the University of Cheikh Anta Diop-Dakar (with the Faculty of Human Sciences and Library Science).