Globelics 2009 - The Global Network for the Economics of Learning, Innovation, and Competence Building Systems (Globelics2009)

Inclusive Growth, Innovation and Technological Change: education, social capital and sustainable development¡¯

Organized by:

The Global Network for the Economics of Learning, Innovation, and Competence Building Systems (Globelics)

UNU-MERIT (Maastricht, The Netherlands)
CRES, UCAD (Dakar, Senegal)

Date: October 6-8, 2009
Place: Dakar, Senegal

GLOBELICS (Global Network for Economics of Learning, Innovation, and Competence Building Systems) is an international network of scholars who apply the concept of "learning, innovation, and competence building system" (LICS) as their framework and are dedicated to the strengthening of LICS in developing countries, emerging economies and societies in transition. The research aims at locating unique systemic features as well as generic good practices to enlighten policy making relating to innovation, competence building, international competitiveness, regional development, labor market and human capital development. In an increasingly global and knowledge-based competition, management strategies need to be based upon an understanding of these framework conditions and the public policies which seek to regulate the environment.

GLOBELICS has regional chapters in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Apart from providing training for PhD scholars through the Academy at Lisbon and Tampere GLOBELICS organizes annual conferences. Until now six such conferences have been organized. The first GLOBELICS conference was held in 2003, at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, it was followed by the second conference at Beijing, China (2004), the third conference at Tshwane (Pretoria), South Africa (2005), the fourth in Trivandrum, India (2006), the fifth in Saratov, Russia (2007) and the sixth in Mexico City (2008). All six conferences were attended by leading scholars in the field from the developed and developing worlds.

For the seventh conference to be held in Dakar (Senegal), papers that contribute
to the understanding of the role of technology and innovation in achieving sustainable growth and development in the broadest sense of the term are invited. Apart from many of the LICS traditional topics, papers with a focus on African issues and in particular on the role and contribution of education, human capital and health on development, inequality patterns, entrepreneurship and new forms such as micro-finance and micro-insurance of financial innovation and inclusion, agriculture and fishing and sustainable development, etc.
The conference will be organized around a number of themes on the following broad issues:

Innovation, education, health, inequality and development
Population dynamics, gender equity, migration and development
Agriculture, fishing, biofuel, energy systems, water supply, transport, tourism and sustainable development
Innovation and entrepreneurship: indigenous knowledge systems and traditional sectors (e.g. agriculture, handcraft, fashion, clothing, music, eco-tourism, etc.)
The role of new ¡®horizontal technologies' (ICTs and biotechnologies) and local competitiveness; factors of attractiveness and embeddedness of MNCs in local/regional/national systems
Privatization of knowledge, Intellectual Property Right (IPR) and development
Financial innovation and development: the role of microfinance and micro-insurance
International cooperation and national innovation policies facing global challenges
Spanning three days, the conference will include a variety of sessions: plenary, invited parallel, panel; and special sessions on contributions to innovation activities in the cultural sector (fashion, clothing, music, etc.) and African entrepreneurship.

Submissions: The conference organizing committee invites submission of full papers to be presented on the conference topics by March 31th, 2009, via:

the website or to Th¨¦ophile Azomahou and Luc Soete Program Chairs (globelicsdakar-AT-merit.unu.edu). We especially encourage young researchers to submit their research.

Acceptance of participation will be based on full papers only (at least a first draft). The selection of contributions will be based on a review by the Conference Scientific Committee upon novelty, academic quality and relevance to the themes of the conference. Authors of accepted papers will be notified by April 30th, 2009. All presented papers will be placed on the Website of the conference.

PhD students¡¯ paper competition: Ph.D. students currently in programs of developing countries may enter the PhD students' paper competition. Winners will receive free accommodation and travel support, a small grant to support their research and a diploma.

All participants with accepted papers will be provided local hospitality for three days (October 6-8, 2009). Participants from developing countries with accepted papers will also be provided some travel support. The Globelics Board will be mobilizing resources for providing such travel support. Participants should be prepared though to pay for all other expenses in the hotel like mini bar, telephone, laundry, etc and outside like the city tour, other social events etc.

Globelics Dakar 2009 Committee
Chairpersons: Th¨¦ophile Azomahou (UNU-MERIT, The Netherlands), Luc Soete (UNU-MERIT, The Netherlands).
Abdoulaye Diagne (CRES, Senegal), Mbaye Diene (CRES, Senegal), Abdelkader Djeflat (University of Lille, France), Mulu Gebreeyesus (UNU-MERIT, The Netherlands), Micheline Goedhuys (UNU-MERIT, The Netherlands), Dave Kaplan (University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business, South Africa), Mammo Muchie (Aalborg University, Denmark).

Globelics Scientific Committee
Susan Cozzens (USA), Peter Gammeltoft (Denmark), Shulin Gu (China), Jorge Katz (Argentina), Helena Lastres (Brazil), B.A. Lundvall (Denmark), Rasigan Maharajh (South Africa), Franco Malerba (Italy), Sunil Mani (India), Dick Nelson (US), Banji Oyelaran-Oyeyinka (The Netherlands), Slavo Radosevic (UK), Rajah Rasiah (Malaysia), Peter Senker (UK), Luc Soete (The Netherlands), Judith Sutz (Uruguay), Alexandre O. Vera-Cruz (Mexico), Rainer Walz (Germany).

Organizing Committee
Wilma Coenegrachts (The Netherlands), Aissatou Mathurin Diop (Senegal), Awa Diop (Senegal), Mulu Gebreeyesus (The Netherlands), Micheline Goedhuys (The Netherlands), Alhadji Ly (Senegal), Mari¨¨tou Mbaye (Senegal), Fatou Ciss¨¦ Ndiaye (Senegal), Mar Cathy Dieng Sylla (Senegal), Aboubacry Thiam (Senegal).