Overview of Operations Research Society of Eastern Africa

Background

The establishment of the Operations Research Society of Eastern Africa (ORSEA) is a result of the resolutions of the fourth International Conference on Operations Research in Development (ICORD) that was held in South Africa in May 2001 as part of the EURO Operations Research Society–Africa (EURO ORS-A) initiative for the networking of operations researchers within Africa and between African countries and other parts of the world. At this conference, the issue of Operations Research (OR) activities in Africa was discussed and it was observed that, OR activities in Africa are not given the attention they deserve. Thus, one of the conference resolutions was that African OR professionals and practitioners should endeavour to form national or regional societies that would spearhead/foresee OR related activities in the area. Further to that resolution, and with support from the EURO-Africa Project, the first Africa Conference of Operations Research (ACOR-1) organised by the Association of West Africa universities was held. At the same time, ORSEA organized and held its first international conference on Operations Research and Development (ORDA) in East Africa on September 17 to 19, 2003, with support from EURO ORS-A and Makerere University Business School, University of Dar-es-Salaam Business School and University of Nairobi Faculty of Business and Management Sciences.

Today, ORSEA is a regional body for Eastern Africa whose founder members are the institutions mentioned in the previous paragraph. Each participating country (Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda) has already established a country chapter. Currently, the Department of Management Science and Project Planning in the Faculty of Business and Management Sciences, University of Nairobi provides the Secretariat and also acts as the coordinating office of ORSEA activities.

Purpose of ORSEA

The ORSEA was formed in order to undertake activities that will help to achieve its core purpose, that is to foster the development of OR in Eastern Africa for the benefit of its people and in particular for socio-economic development. The objectives of Society are fourfold and are to:

• ▶ Bring together existing OR resource persons, particularly trainers, researchers, and practitioners in order to provide an opportunity for the exchange of knowledge, information and experiences among themselves and with others around the world and hence support the development of OR training and research activities in the region.
• ▶ Provide a forum for promoting OR activities and applications in the East African region in collaboration with the rest of the world.
• ▶ Offer an interface between training institutions and practitioners thereby facilitating the development of curricular and teaching methodologies that are responsive to the needs of the economies within the region.
• ▶ Create and develop sustained ownership and partnership among the general public, public and private sectors, business community and the academia on the application of OR for socio-economic development.