1. ETD Initiatives in Africa By Felix N. Ubogu University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. E-mail: Felix.Ubogu@wits.ac.zaFelix.Ubogu@wits.ac.za

2. ETD Initiatives in Africa (1) Egypt and South Africa have computerised bibliographic databases of theses and dissertations (most records with abstracts) Selected institutions in other African countries participate in the DATAD (database of African theses and dissertations) programme DATAD is under the auspices of the Association of African Universities (AAU) DATAD was funded by the Partnership for Higher Education in Africa, an initiative of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Ford Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation.

3. New DATAD members Pioneer DATAD members

4. UNESCO Sponsored ETD workshops South Africa (University of the Witwatersrand) in 2003 Ethiopia (Addis Ababa University) in 2004 In both countries, decision was made to establish national ETD projects In South Africa, a National ETD Project is driven by the Committee for Higher Education Librarians of South Africa (CHELSA) and sponsored by the National Research Foundation (NRF).

5. Consortia Initiatives Some African countries participate in the Cyberdocs programme In Algeria the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research has decreed that an electronic copy of every Masters and PhD thesis defended in every academic institution must be deposited at CERIST Research Centre Many African countries now have academic library consortia One of their key goals is the establishment of institutional repositories and digitisation of materials

6. University of Johannesburg University of Pretoria University of the Witwatersrand University of the Free State Stellenbosch University University of the Western Cape Rhodes University University of South Africa Durban University of Technology

8. Conclusion General awareness among many universities in Africa of the need to create institutional repositories, especially digital repositories of theses and dissertations (TDs) Some universities are now requesting students to submit digital copies of their TDs Challenges include lack of infrastructure and skills