1. West African Research Center Centre de Recherche Ouest Africain (WARC / CROA)
Pour l’Excellence et la Coopération dans la Recherche et l’Expression Culturelle Ouest Africaine

2. WARC HISTORY
The West African Research Center (WARC) is the overseas research center for the West African Research Association (WARA) and the Association de Recherche Ouest Africain (AROA).
It is located in a residential area at Fann Residence, Dakar, Senegal. WARC is a center for academic exchange between West African, American and other overseas scholars that encourages research on the region of West Africa.

3. WARC HISTORY
The idea for the overseas center came about in May 1992 and was implemented in the Fall of Since its inception, WARC has grown both in terms of staff and influence as it continues to connect researchers in the USA and other parts of the world with researchers in the region of West Africa interested in common issues.

4. WARC HISTORY
Since 1992, WARC has been managed by academics : Dr Eileen Julien, Indiana University (1993 – 1995), Dr Leigh Swigart, University of Pennsylvania (1995 – 1997), Dr Robert Mortimer, Haverford University ( ), Dr Fiona McLaughlin, University of Kansas (Jan – Oct. 1999), Dr Wendy W. Fall, Kent State University (1999 – 2004). The current Director is Dr Ousmane Sene, a faculty in the Department of English, University Cheikh Anta Diop. .

5. OBJECTIVES
WARC promotes scholarly research on West Africa and the Diaspora and works to foster cooperation between American and West African researchers, students and artists and the other colleagues from other parts of the world. In its development from initial conception to project planning, the Center has been promoting the active participation and cooperation of both West African, American, and other overseas scholars in order to identify and meet the needs of both communities.

6. WARC specifically aims to:
OBJECTIVES
WARC specifically aims to:
Encourage collaborative research between American and West African researchers, universities, and other relevant institutions in the rest of the world through a program of research fellowships and the organization of colloquia, seminars, and workshops on topics of both general and scholarly interest.
Make available to West African and visiting researchers a research library, computer facilities, and a computer network capable of sustaining significant research efforts by providing up-to-date data and information on West Africa and the Diaspora.

7. OBJECTIVES
Provide a forum in which both local and foreign researchers may conduct and share their work, and create a transnational community of scholars and researchers.
Promote interdisciplinary approaches and considerations of gender in the study of West Africa and the African Diaspora.
Gather, catalogue, and disseminate the results of research on West Africa.

8. ACTIVITIES
The Center sponsors international colloquia, research programs, and round tables on published research, lectures and workshops by visiting and local scholars and writers.
WARC has administered an annual short-term research fellowship competition for scholars from West Africa to travel to various universities and other higher learning institutions in the world, assisted foreign scholars conducting research in Senegal and West Africa, sponsored internships for graduate students, and served as the host institution for individual and group projects of overseas students and Faculties.

9. WARC also conducts other activities such as::
Mini-seminars
Grants
Internships
Researchers’ affiliations
Research Clearances
Visa
etc.

10. SPONSORSHIP
The Center's current sponsors include the Government of Senegal, the U.S. Department of Education, the Fulbright Program, USIA and others.
Membership in the USA and other parts of the world is arranged through WARA while from the West African side, AROA has members in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote D'Ivoire, The Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Togo.
WARA and AROA are the governing bodies of the West African Research Center .

11. FACILITIES
Computer Lab
Conference room
Restaurant
Library
Offices

12. PROJECTS and ACTIVITIES
Bouki Blues Festival (BBF)
Bouki Blues Festival is conceived as an integrated educational project bringing together scholars, artists, and the target populations in order to perform the cultural connections, not only talk about them. This project would also be incomplete if limited to urban areas. Participants will have the opportunity to discover the rural milieu where African culture is still very vibrant. The rural population also needs to be associated with international cultural events hitherto limited to big cities. That is why, with each edition of the festival, Jiloor Jijak the village where poet and former president Leopold Senghor grew up is a privileged destination.

13. PROJECTS and ACTIVITIES
TICFIA PROJECT
Diversity and Tolerance in the Islam of West Africa will make accessible a wide array of currently unavailable materials from and about the countries of Senegal and Ghana, their Muslim communities, and the relations of those communities with the practitioners of other faiths. Building on the innovative, cutting-edge technology of the African Online Digital Library (AODL) developed through National Science Foundation funding this project will create digital copies of unavailable or hard-to-access materials from archives and Africanist researchers in Senegal and Ghana, preserve them in a digital repository in the US, and develop web-based public and educational resources in thematic galleries geared towards a broad range of international, historical and area studies.

14. PROJECTS and ACTIVITIES
ALMA PROJECT: African Language Material Archive
The West African Research Association, which originally conceptualised ALMA, was subcontracted to facilitate the necessary work. ALMA is an initiative that aims at increasing dissemination of, and access to materials published in indigenous African languages, thereby aiding the retention of vernacular literacy in Africa. The creation of ALMA involves the identification, collection, and digitalization of published materials and their subsequent production in both CD-ROM and web formats. Senegal and Gambia were chosen for the ALMA pilot since they share several prominent languages, Wolof, Pulaar, and Mandinka, in which publication has been plentiful. The proximity of publication sources to WARC will also enable the efficient transfer of selected Senegalese and Gambian materials to the ALMA processing site.

15. PROJECTS and ACTIVITIES
CREPOS
The CREPOS project (Center for Research on Social Policies) has been operating at the West African Research Center (WARC) since Tuesday May 2nd , The project is implemented by a group of researchers and academics spearheaded by Prof Momar Coumba Diop. In cooperation with the West African Research Center where it is headquartered, CREPOS offers to junior researchers in Dakar a number of workshops on research methodologies. The workshops are supervised by Prof Ibrahima Thioub, AROA President and chair of the Department of History, UCAD (University Cheikh Anta Diop).

16. PARTNERS Gouvernement du Sénégal Department of Education (USA)
CAORC (Council of American Overseas Research Centers)
Université Cheikh A. Diop
Université Gaston Berger de St-Louis
Université de Ziguinchor
IFAN
CODESRIA
Universités et Institutions Américaines
etc.

17. WARC STAFF Pr Ousmane Sène, Director
Mr. Niang Admin./Fin. Dir Mrs Samba Adm.Ass M. Dieng Prog. Ass Mrs Dieye Librarian
Maguette Thiombane M. Sana Maint.Sec Mrs Diom Maint Mr. Ba Sec Mr. Diedhiou Sec.

18. Admin/Finance Director
MANAGEMENT
ORGANIZATIONAL CHART
Director
Admin/Finance Director
Computer/Technical Manager
Admin. Assist.
Librarian
SUPPORT STAFF
Security
Maintenance
Assist. Librarian
Restaurant
WARC ASSOCIATES
TICFIA / ALMA Projects
CREPOS Project
Peace Initiative in West Africa
Study Abroad Programs
I.F.P.
Bouki Blues Festival

19. International Fellowships Program (IFP)
The Ford Foundation International Fellowships Program (IFP) was launched by the Ford Foundation in 2000 to provide opportunities for advanced study to exceptional individuals who will use this education to become leaders in their respective fields, furthering development in their own countries and greater economic and social justice worldwide. To ensure that Fellows are drawn from diverse backgrounds, IFP actively seeks candidates from social groups and communities that lack systematic access to higher education.
The IFP-Senegal Program has been associated
with WARC since November 2007.

20. Study Abroad Programs
A number of US University study abroad programs operate at WARC. They include the Minnesota Studies in International Development (MSID-University of Minnesota), the Michigan State University Program in Dakar, The Wells College Program, etc.
The Study Abroad Programs are managed by experienced staff associated to WARC.

21. The WARA/WARC Peace Initiative in West Africa

22. WARA/WARC Peace Initiative in West Africa
A three year WARA initiative funded by the US State Department to promote peace building and conflict prevention through the exchange of ideas and experience within the region as well as by supporting scholarly research and exchange.
The aim is to make space for nuanced understandings of peace and conflict that go beyond facile explanations such as those built on essentialist understandings of religion and ethnicity.
The project activities engage and directly benefit key scholars, activists, and journalists from the various countries comprising West Africa, as well as select American academics with professional interest in the study of peace and conflict resolution in West Africa.

23. WARA/WARC Peace Initiative in West Africa
 PROJECT OVERVIEW
This multi-faceted project will include
1) three major regional conferences
2) an institute for journalists
3) a fellowship program.
The third of the regional conferences will serve to bring together the participants in the latter two programs, and thus integrate and provide thematic cohesion for the entire project.
The project also supports several other complementary activities (publication and distribution of working papers and conference proceedings, transformation of the Special Court of Sierra Leone into an African Judicial Training Center, a Youth Forum…)

24. CONTACTS Rue E x Léon Gontran Damas, Fann Résidence
BP: 5456 Dakar Fann
Tel: / Fax:
Web: /