Samuel Gayi, Chief of the UNCTAD Special Unit on Commodities, examined development challenges and policy options for managing the extractive sector during a Vi national workshop for 37 lecturers and students of Tanzanian core member, the University of Dar es Salaam  Business School (UDBS), April 25-26.

As recent natural gas discoveries and plans by Norwegian Statoil to build a liquefied gas production facility may make the country a major exporter of energy to fast-growing markets in Asia, academics at UDBS requested the training hoping to find ways for the sector to lift Tanzania out of poverty.

The first Vi workshop of the year brought together 16 researchers from two South African member universities around the topic of trade policy analysis. Led by Vi economist, Cristian Ugarte, the training took place April 22-25 at North-West University (NWU), Potchefstroom.

The workshop, requested and funded by NWU based on the suggestion of Vi member coordinator, Wilma Viviers, a participant of the Vi/WTO/ITC workshop on trade and trade policy analysis held in 2011, also opened its doors to researchers at South African core member, the University of Pretoria (UP).

The Virtual Institute hosted 73 students and teachers at UNCTAD April 15-19 for the sixth annual Vi study tour for Russian member universities. Counting with the largest participation to date, the one-week training programme involved all five Vi network academic institutions in the country: the State University Higher School of Economics, the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, the St. Petersburg State University, the St. Petersburg State University of Economics, and the North-West Institute.

"I could see how everything works in practice," commented one of the students. "I really appreciated the lectures and I think this week really contributed to my knowledge of economics. In addition, I got a lot of good ideas for my Master’s thesis and it reassured me of my wish to work for an international organization -- UNCTAD, maybe."

The largest university in Togo today joined the UNCTAD Virtual Institute academic network. The membership of the University of Lomé (UL), further enhances the Vi's cooperation with institutions in the Francophonie, now numbering 19 universities and think tanks from 15 countries.

Contacts with UL date back to 2005 when a researcher from their Faculty of Economics and Management (FASEG), Anani Nourredine Mensah, attended the Vi's first regional workshop for Africa on commodities. Following his participation in other Vi workshops, a research project on mining and economic development in Western Africa, and the recent Vi online course on trade and poverty, he began the process of applying for institutional membership at the Vi.

The Vi network today welcomed its first member from the United Kingdom, the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London (SOAS).

The idea of SOAS becoming a Vi member was born in discussions with our former UNCTAD colleague, Alfredo Saad Filho, who, after great contributions to the organization’s research on South-South cooperation, decided to go back to his academic roots, and returned to SOAS at the end of last year. He introduced the idea to the management of the school, and was the driving force behind SOAS's Vi application and membership.