The Ebola outbreak has been taking its toll on many highly anticipated conferences — even in countries where no case of Ebola has occurred.
The good news is that on Oct. 20 the World Health Organization officially declared that Nigeria is now Ebola free, meaning most of the planned conferences in that country are still a go.
Nevertheless, many other up-coming energy and agriculture conferences you may have read about here at AFKInsider have recently announced postponements or re-locations. In many cases, the registration forms remain the same even if the location has changed and those participants already registered will get automatic re-registration.
Organizers of the Cote d’Ivoire International Mining, Energy/Oil & Gas and Infrastructure Summit (CIMEOGIS 2015), that was scheduled in Abidjan, Cote d’lvoire for earlier this month, have postponed the event until sometime during the first quarter of 2015. According to the organizers, new dates will be “announced as soon as possible.”
And the much anticipated Solar & Off-Grid Renewables West Africa Conference that was to take place in Ghana Sept. 16-17 was postponed until a yet to be determined date in the first half of April 2015.
In fact, Ghana has been hit hard by conference cancellations.
Ghana
Although no case of Ebola has occurred in Ghana and the World Health Organization does not recommend any travel or trade restrictions, the Government of Ghana had, as a precautionary measure, ordered on August 14 that no international conferences and trade fairs should be held in Ghana until after at least November 15 — or until further notice.
With that announcement, the 3rd West African Clean Energy & Environment Exhibition & Conference (WACEE) that was to take place Nov. 3-5 in Accra, Ghana, was re-scheduled by the organizers — the Delegation of German Industry and Commerce in Ghana (AHK) — to Feb. 10-12, 2015.
And the venue of the inaugural Conference on Land Policy in Africa has been changed from Accra, Ghana, to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, at the African Union Conference Center, though the date of Nov.11-14 remains the same. The conference, co-hosted by the Land Policy Initiative (LPI) and the Forum on Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), will still convene under the theme “The next Decade of Land Policy in Africa: Ensuring Agricultural Development and Inclusive Growth” in support of the 2014 African Union Year of Agriculture and Food Security. It will focus on the six sub-themes of: inclusive agricultural growth; land governance frameworks; women’s land rights; land rights under different tenure regimes; experiences and best practices in land policies; and land administration.
Burkina Faso
The 2nd edition of the international conference on solar energy, AfricaSolar 2014, that was meant to be held Nov. 20-22 in Ouagadougou, Kadiogo, has been postponed to a later date. Organized by the International Institute for Water and Environmental Engineering and the Ministry of Mining and Energy of Burkina Faso, the conference will still convene under the theme “Solar Market in Africa, Strengths and Weaknesses,” though no new date has been set.
This year’s African Microfinance Week that was scheduled for Dec.1-5 in Ouagadougou has also been re-scheduled to the second quarter of 2015 due to the travel restrictions in those West African countries affected by the Ebola virus. The conference aims to bring together the “key players to discuss the future of microfinance, the financing of microfinance institutions and partnerships between regional and continental networks” and organizers felt that because “it is essential that the African Microfinance Week gathers representatives of all African countries, the event will be postponed to ensure maximum attendance.”
Democratic Republic of Congo
The AgriBusiness Forum 2014, which was scheduled from Oct. 26-29 in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, has been postponed until March 22-25, 2015. The Sept. 30 joint cancellation letter from the organizers and the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Minister of Agriculture read:
“While acknowledging the efforts made by the Government of DR Congo to contain the Ebola virus in the sector of Djera, Territory of Boende in the Equateur Province, and after discussions between the DRC Government, EMRC and AgriBusiness Forum partners the logical conclusion was to postpone the event.”
Organizers say the original program will remain unchanged, focusing on agricultural modernization, inclusive growth and responsible finance. The original registration forms, which have already been sent, also remain valid.
