Capacity & Networking Project (CANP)
The Mathematical Sciences in the Developing World
CANP is a major development focus of the international bodies of mathematicians and mathematics educators (International Mathematical Union, IMU & International Commission on Mathematical Instruction, ICMI) in conjunction with UNESCO and International Congress of Industrial and Applied Mathematics, ICIAM. The project is a response to Current Challenges in Basic Mathematics Education (UNESCO, 2011).
CANP aims to enhance mathematics education at all levels in developing countries so that their people are capable of meeting the challenges these countries face. It will develop the educational capacity of those responsible for mathematics teachers, and create sustained and effective regional networks of teachers, mathematics educators and mathematicians, also linking them to international support.
CANP consists of an on-going series of programmes in a different developing region each year. The first programme will be in Mali in September, 2011. The second will be in Central America in 2012. The third will be in South East Asia in 2013 to build on existing developing initiatives in Cambodia and Nepal.
Each programme will have, at its centre, a two-week workshop of about forty participants, half from the host country and half from regional neighbours’. It will be primarily aimed at mathematics teacher educators, but will also include mathematicians, researchers, policy-makers, and key teachers. Each workshop will have associated activities such as public lectures, satellite workshops for students, or exhibitions reaching out to a board audience. The coordination of the workshop will be undertaken by a group of eight with equal participation by mathematicians and mathematics educators from the region and from the international IMU/ICMI/ICIAM community. Programme coordinators will be appointed by ICMI in consultation with IMU and ICIAM.
The program, and in particular the workshop, will build on existing activities in the region and will not seek to reproduce or compete with existing development programmes. It will include a follow-up after one year to ensure continuity and for evaluation. A post-workshop and a 1-year report will be produced for each programme. ICMI will ensure that the experience of earlier programmes will be used for the design of later ones.
The first programme will be held in Bamako in Mali in September, 2011. Other participating countries are: Burkina-Fasso, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, and Senegal. Mali was selected as host because there is an existing link with European mathematics educators, and there also exists a UNESCO office in Bamako that will assist coordination and support.
We are seeking sponsors to fund the balance for the first program in Mali as well as support of the second and third programme in Central America and South East.
The Capacity & Networking Project is a major international initiative in the mathematical sciences in the developing world to help exchange information, share the state of the art research, and identify strategies for addressing barriers to enhance mathematics education and to conduct to building a sustainable network for policy makers, scholars and practitioners across those targeted regions.