The University of Nigeria (UNN) has joined the Virtual Institute as its 39^th core university member, bringing the number of countries represented in the Virtual Institute to 13 in Africa and 42 worldwide.

We owe the first contact with the University to Hilary Nwokeabia, of  UNCTAD's Division on Investment and Enterprise. Discussions about Vi membership began in July of last year, during a visit from UNN’s Vice-Chancellor and his Senior Special Assistant.
 

Seventeen academics and students from Vi Kenyan affiliate member, Moi University, gathered to discuss the findings of UNCTAD's Information Economy Report 2012 during their first Vi videoconference, held February 13.

The report, focusing on the software industry and developing countries, was presented by one of its co-authors, Cécile Barayre-El Shami (pictured, left).

"Kenya is a leader in the development of mobile money services, and, together with Uganda, it has also been heading the development of e-commerce cyberlaws in the East African Community," she said, underlining the importance of the topic for the country and the region.

The first Vi videoconference of the year, held February 8, gathered 20 students and lecturers from the Faculty of International Economic Relations of core member, the Belarus State Economic University (BSEU), for a presentation on the global economic outlook and policy challenges delivered by Nicolas Maystre (pictured. left), of UNCTAD’s Division on Globalization and Development Strategies. This very first videoconference for BSEU was hosted by the United Nations Development Programme office in Minsk.

The recently launched Master's in International Economics and Trade Policy of Vi core member, Belarus State Economic University (BSEU), got off to a great start thanks to a big helping hand from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) project led by German member, the University of Applied Sciences (HTW) Berlin. 

The DAAD Partnership on Economic Development Studies, involving nine Vi member universities, has been promoting graduate teaching and research in the field of international economics since 2009. The cooperation with BSEU has provided training for teaching staff, advice on curriculum design and visiting lecturers for the new Master’s. 

“It is good to hear that the seeds that we have tried together to sow become fruitful,” writes HTW’s Jan Priewe. “The initial decision to include BSEU in our network was pushed by Vlasta Macku (Vi’s Chief), and we followed her advice.”

Virtual Institute's Spanish partner, the Fundación Centro de Educación a Distancia para el Desarrollo Económico y Tecnológico (CEDDET), reports great success with the capacity building activities developed under a project grant from the Vi made possible with funding from the Government of Spain.

The project, running from October 2011 to October 2012, involved the delivery of an online course on international economic law and the development and facilitation of an expert network on the topic.