ICED2023 AFRICA-DESIGN WORKSHOP REPORT

Theme: Towards Mutual Collaboration in Africa and Beyond 

Monday, 24th July 2023 

Hosted by The Design Society

Report Written By: Dunja Stevanovic and  Michelle Wanyang’ 

 

Executive Summary 

AFRICA-DESIGN was featured at the ICED23 Conference that was hosted in-person in Bordeaux, France from the 24th to the 28th of July, 2023 as a hybrid workshop. The workshop built on activities undertaken under the Design Society’s Africa-Design Initiative since 2019. This includes previous workshops and publications at ICED 2019, DESIGN 2020, ICED 2021, and DESIGN 2022 that explored the state of the art and the needs for mutual learning activities on design for sustainable development in Africa.

This year's workshop presentations and discussions included content on the creation of an African Chapter, an information session on Publication Opportunities for African-based/African-affiliated scholars and a session on Journal Special Collection on Design in Africa. With the foundation of the African Chapter already established through the AFRICA-DESIGN initiative of the Design Society, which has been conducting activities that promote Design for Sustainable Development in Africa.

The African chapter would aim to address issues, focus on goals and aspirations that affect and interest Africa. The potential opportunities for the African Chapter entail, creating stronger opportunities to reach out to other regions; supporting  knowledge-sharing platforms, particularly around Design Science; providing a platform for a fair and uniform participation of people from Africa; promoting  an African approach to design research, education, and practice and addressing challenges in Design Science. 

The objectives of the workshop were:

• To explore the potential of forming an African Chapter of the Design Society.
• To explore the formation of a Design Science Journal Thematic Collection on Design in Africa.

This report includes summaries of discussions, key findings and recommendations, major challenges and proposed next steps. 

The creation of the African Chapter for The Design Society is a keen priority for the current Steering Committee of AFRICA-DESIGN and persons interested in contributing to the Chapter are encouraged to contact any of the members of the steering committee or to register their interest by emailing africa-design@designsociety.org or africadesignsociety@gmail.com. 

 

Background 

 

AFRICA-DESIGN was featured at the ICED23 Conference that was hosted in-person in Bordeaux, France from the 24th to the 28th of July, 2023 as a hybrid workshop. The workshop built on activities undertaken under the Design Society’s Africa-Design Initiative since 2019. This includes previous workshops and publications at ICED 2019, DESIGN 2020, ICED 2021, and DESIGN 2022 that explored the state of the art and the needs for mutual learning activities on design for sustainable development in Africa. This year's workshop built on and continued to contribute to the AFRICA-DESIGN’s mission that seeks to build a network of design researchers, educators, and practitioners based in African countries and beyond, with particular emphasis on design for sustainable development; with a priority of linking them with colleagues in the worldwide design community. This year's workshop presentations and discussions included content on the creation of an African Chapter, an information session on Publication Opportunities for African-based/African-affiliated scholars and a session on Journal Special Collection on Design in Africa.

 

Objectives

The objectives of the workshop were:

• To explore the potential of forming an African Chapter of the Design Society.
• To explore the formation of a Design Science Journal Thematic Collection on Design in Africa.

 

Format of the Workshop and Chronological Summary of the Workshop: 

 

13:45 Welcome and Introductions

Introduction by Dr. Shibwabo

 

Welcoming and introductory remarks were held by Dr. Shibwabo who welcomed participants to the workshop, introduced the AFRICA-DESIGN team and the work we do. The participants also attempted an icebreaker game, guessing capital cities of African countries.

 

14:00  Session 1:  African Chapter

Session Presenter: Bernard Shibwabo

Invited Speaker: Ola Isaksson (Nordic Chapter, Design Society) 

 

Session Recap 

The first session of the workshop focused on the proposed creation of an African Chapter within The Design Society. A presentation was made by Bernard Shibwabo. During the presentation, it was highlighted that chapters are an integral part of the Design Society, with a purpose to enhance regional activity and development. With chapters from North America, Asia and the Nordic regions already in existence, the African chapter would aim to address issues, focus on goals and aspirations that affect and interest Africa. 

Furthermore, the potential opportunities for the African Chapter entail the following: 

• Creating stronger opportunities to reach out to other regions.
• Supporting  knowledge-sharing platforms, particularly around Design Science.
• Providing a platform for a fair and uniform participation of people from Africa.
• Promoting  an African approach to design research, education, and practice.
• Addressing challenges in Design Science.

The foundation of the African Chapter has already been established through the AFRICA-DESIGN initiative of the Design Society, which has been conducting activities that promote Design for Sustainable Development in Africa. Therefore, presenting an opportunity that can be learned from during the formation of the African Chapter which is a more formal and broader  entity. The African Chapter will be more general in scope and AFRICA-DESIGN, would become one ‘initiative’ within the Chapter.

Questions discussed in the breakout rooms:

1. What may be the value of an African Chapter of the Design Society to you?
2. What activities would you suggest the chapter undertakes so as to reach its vision and mission?
3. What can be funding mechanisms to support the chapter activities?
4. What organisational structure would you want the chapter to have?

Breakout Room Discussion Summary

The discussions about the value that the African Chapter of the Design Society could potentially provide primarily included mutual learning aspects, knowledge transfer, increased collaboration and networking opportunities. These could foster partnerships across the region and beyond, an avenue to be able to access the design community, research collaboration, knowledge sharing between countries, as well to facilitate student and faculty exchange. In addition, the chapter can be a way to improve societal challenges and further address sustainability issues on the continent. 

Suggestions for the chapter to achieve its vision and mission included ascertaining a clearly defined scope, being ‘African-centric’, incorporating sustainable development, but also allowing room for the mission and vision to evolve over time. The activities proposed during the discussions consisted of holding conferences, workshops or seminars on a regular basis, co-supervisions of PhD or Masters students, and the exchange of staff and students. In addition to this, a focus on marketing and extending this to the younger generation through, for example, running competitions to encourage people to become a part of the chapter.

Funding mechanisms to support the activities undertaken by the chapter included several suggestions such as African Unions whose agenda is based on promoting innovation, national research funds, foundations, the World Bank, EU funding, grants, partnering with organisations to support the chapter, sharing design calls within the network, collaboration efforts or proposals to apply for funding. Further ideas such as an annual subscription or social activities incurring a fee were proposed. 

The organisational structure for the chapter could be adapted from the other chapters and adapted to the African context. Suggestions of an advisory board and a steering committee from different African regions that have oversight function, but members with specific roles such as, financing or conference organisation can be beneficial in driving the chapter forward. In addition, having leaders in specific topics, for example, energy, health or sustainability to lead related activities. Producing a newsletter about projects and activities can also hold interest and attract new members to join. 
 

15:05  Break

15:15  Session 2: Publication Opportunities for African based scholars

Session Presenter: Dr. Shibwabo (Strathmore University) 

 

In this session, Dr Shibwabo shared with the participants that: 

From 1 July 2023, authors from over 5,000 institutions in 107 countries will not need to apply for funding to publish under the Cambridge Open Equity Initiative, which covers 400 Cambridge journals. Under the current (pre-existing) system, without fee waivers, Article Processing Charges for gold open access publications are typically around £2,000 or $3,000, varying by journal.  

With this announcement, no application will be required and authors are automatically recognised as eligible for open access to  publish once their paper has been accepted. The authors eligibility will be determined by the corresponding authors’ affiliation. The Cambridge Open Equity Initiative aims to accelerate this transition, particularly for scholars outside of high income countries.

More information can be found here:   Cambridge Open Equity Initiative 

 

15:20  Session 3: Design Science Journal- Thematic Collection on Design In Africa 

Session Presenter: Panos Y. Papalambros (Design Science Editor-In-Chief)

Session Moderator: Peter Oviroh 

 

Session Recap

In this session, Prof. Papalambros introduced  the attendees to the Design Science Journal, which is a collaboration between the Design Society and Cambridge University Press and was first published in 2015. It publishes work on the creation of artefacts and their embedding in our physical, virtual, psychological, economic, and social environment.Its mission is to make rigorous design research widely accessible across multiple disciplines; complement existing journals. It is currently Open-access and has also significantly reduced paper fee for DS members. Essentially it is a scientific journal publishing research papers, review papers, position papers, practice briefs.

As part of it, collections of articles on a particular theme appear typically within a year. Accepted articles are published immediately online but are identified and tagged as belonging to that thematic collection (TC). A Guest Editors’ team manages the manuscripts submitted for the collection. Manuscripts are reviewed as usual.

Some Open-Ended thematic collections include;

• Design Science Clusters of Merit
• Design Practice Briefs

Current On-going thematic collections at the journal include; 

• Co-Design with Non-Designers
• Design For Sustainable Development
• Advanced Systems Engineering in Research and Education
• Design Education
• Understanding People: Extensions of Human Computer Interaction

In line with this, there is a proposed thematic collection on Design Research, Education, and Practice in Africa. The thematic collection is envisioned to provide a unique opportunity to showcase design scholarly activities in Africa at large. This would be a great opportunity to emphasise contributions by African-based/African-affiliated authors and co-authors on design activities related to Africa as well as a great opportunity to continue to develop a network of Africa-based design scholars, educators, and practitioners. It was suggested that the Guest editorial team be based in Africa and that it stay open long enough for a significant number of contributions to be submitted.

After this presentation, attendees went into breakout rooms to discuss the following questions related to the proposed journal:

1. What may be the value-added of the Design Science Journal Thematic Collection (DSJTC)?
2. What themes should we advertise for the DSJTC?
3. What  are avenues for collaboration in writing papers for the DSJTC?
4. Possible Timelines for paper submission? 

 

Breakout Room Summary 

Participants stated that the proposed Thematic Collection would be of value, as it would be a great opportunity to disseminate  and promote African designers' work. It would also be a great opportunity to promote collaboration opportunities. A Need to focus on  ‘hot topics’ was mentioned, some of the thematic areas included; Healthcare, Environment, Energy (Renewable energy), Housing - building structures (need to be suitable for the African context) , Transportation, Smart Agriculture, Education, Sustainability among many others.

Potential avenues for collaboration included; Research Groups on the themes, amongst members in the African Chapter / AFRICA-DESIGN as well as Joint/cross-country work that leads to publications.

Suggested possible Timelines for paper submission were:

• Call open: October 2023
• Abstract deadlines* - 30th November 2023
• Acceptance notification - 30th December 2023
• Workshops: Jan/Feb 2024
• Full paper submission - June 2024
• Decision (incomplete during the discussions)

Other notable contributions were  incorporating a section for final year projects in the journal. 

 

16:15  Reflections,  Follow up Action and Closing Remarks

The closing remarks were made by June Madete and Margareta Norell Bergendahl.

 

16:45 Workshop Ended

 

Key Findings and Recommendations 

• As seen and noted from previous workshops and Baraza’s, there is a lot of interest, commitment, work and projects around design for sustainable development  that have been, are being or will be done in Africa. This is evident through continuous participation  in AFRICA-DESIGN organised events.
• Members are interested in advancing  collaboration opportunities through the inception of the African Chapter and the thematic collection through the Design Science journal.
• In terms of collaboration and partnerships, a gap still exists and more can be done  regarding collaboration after engagement forums such as AFRICA-DESIGN  workshops and barazas. 
• Research and active engagement with necessary stakeholders needs to be done to find out how to alleviate the challenges that hinder collaboration, learning and networking in the design for sustainable development space.
• Design researchers and participants from academia are encouraged to engage the top leadership in their respective universities as a way of encouraging their universities' participation and contribution to  design related activities. 
• In light of promoting participation of members from African countries, there is a need to make the stated events more affordable and accessible to participants all around the globe for diversified and inclusive output that is very welcomed  in the academic and research  fields. It is also encouraged to explore different ways of doing this to promote utmost participation with a suggestion of  introducing cost-sharing.

 

Major Challenges 

• For the first time after the COVID-19 pandemic, this year's ICED 2023 Conference was hosted physically. However, a large number of AFRICA-DESIGN participants were unable to physically join due to the high registration and travel related costs, among other reasons.
• Despite the registration fee  being waived, some registered participants were still not able to attend the workshop.
• As is the case in a lot of virtual workshops, participants all wished there was more time to continue with the conversations and discussions.

 

Next Steps 

• The summary of the workshop will be made available on the AFRICA-DESIGN website.
• The creation of the African Chapter of The Design Society is a keen priority, and persons interested in contributing towards establishing the Chapter are encouraged to contact any of the members of the steering committee or by emailing africa-design@designsociety.org or africadesignsociety@gmail.com.
• Participants are encouraged to join the AFRICA-DESIGN LinkedIn group to remain updated as we look forward to more activities and events leading up to the creation of the Africa Chapter of The Design Society.
• Link to the grouphttps://www.linkedin.com/groups/12284208/ 

 

Acknowledgements 

The Design Society

ICED23 Conference Organisers  

Our Amazing Presenters 

Everyone that took time out to join and participate in the workshop.

The Workshop Organisers: The AFRICA-DESIGN Steering Committee

 

Appendices

Workshop Organisers

Faculty:

Bernard Shibwabo, Strathmore U, Kenya

Richie Moalosi, Univ. of Botswana

Samuel Boahen, KNUST, Ghana

Peter Oviroh, U Johannesburg, S. Africa

Panos Papalambros, U Michigan, USA

Support:

June Madete, Kenyatta U, Kenya

Mugendi K. M’Rithaa, Machakos U, Kenya

Susanne Nilsson, KTH, Sweden

Margareta Norell Bergendahl, KTH, Sweden

Ashuza Romuald, Strathmore U. Kenya

Kelvin Kibunja, Strathmore U. Kenya

Dunja Stevanovic, Botho/KTH, Botswana 

Wanyang’ Michelle, Strathmore/KTH,  Kenya

Participating Institutions:

We acknowledge that this list may not be conclusive.* 

1. Strathmore University, Kenya
2. University of Johannesburg, South Africa
3. KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden 
4. Botho University, Botswana
5. University of Michigan, USA
6. Kenyatta University, Kenya
7. University of Botswana, Botswana
8. Brigham Young University, USA
9. ETH Zurich, Switzerland 
10. Masinde Muliro University, Kenya 
11. Makerere University, Uganda  
12. Delft University of Technology, Netherlands
13. Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), Singapore
14. The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), USA
15. University of Bordeaux, France
16. St. Joseph University In Tanzania (SJUIT)