ArticlePDF Available

The current state of OR in Africa

Authors:

Abstract and Figures

All the efforts over the last 20 years, by both the International Federation of Operations Research Societies and The Association of European Operational Research Societies (EURO), to promote operations research in Africa have not delivered the desired results. Of the 54 countries in Africa only four are at present members of IFORS with another five that are associated with a formal operations research society. Nevertheless, Africa remains a fertile ground for operations research in many respects. The discipline is ideally suited for addressing many of the multitudes of complex problems facing the continent. In addition, there are countries where academic institutions are offering operations research courses in their curriculum resulting in a growing number of graduates that are familiar with operations research. It should thus be feasible for these graduates and the academics, in the respective countries, to establish operations research societies. This paper endeavours to get a sense of what the current state is of operations research in the continent. From this it is possible to identify countries where there are more than enough activities to justify the establishment of formal professional operations research societies. It is concluded that the current four IFORS member societies can be extended to twenty over the next 3–5 years. The recent establishment of the African Federation of Operational Research Societies has been a major step towards achieving this goal and growth as well as promoting the use of operations research.
This content is subject to copyright. Terms and conditions apply.
1 23
Operational Research
An International Journal
ISSN 1109-2858
Volume 21
Number 3
Oper Res Int J (2021) 21:1793-1825
DOI 10.1007/s12351-019-00516-x
The current state of OR in Africa
Hans W.Ittmann
1 23
Your article is protected by copyright and
all rights are held exclusively by Springer-
Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer
Nature. This e-offprint is for personal use only
and shall not be self-archived in electronic
repositories. If you wish to self-archive your
article, please use the accepted manuscript
version for posting on your own website. You
may further deposit the accepted manuscript
version in any repository, provided it is only
made publicly available 12 months after
official publication or later and provided
acknowledgement is given to the original
source of publication and a link is inserted
to the published article on Springer's
website. The link must be accompanied by
the following text: "The final publication is
available at link.springer.com”.
Vol.:(0123456789)
Operational Research (2021) 21:1793–1825
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12351-019-00516-x
1 3
ORIGINAL PAPER
The current state ofORinAfrica
HansW.Ittmann1
Received: 15 October 2018 / Revised: 22 July 2019 / Accepted: 10 August 2019 /
Published online: 25 September 2019
© Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2019
Abstract
All the efforts over the last 20years, by both the International Federation of Opera-
tions Research Societies and The Association of European Operational Research
Societies (EURO), to promote operations research in Africa have not delivered the
desired results. Of the 54 countries in Africa only four are at present members of
IFORS with another five that are associated with a formal operations research soci-
ety. Nevertheless, Africa remains a fertile ground for operations research in many
respects. The discipline is ideally suited for addressing many of the multitudes of
complex problems facing the continent. In addition, there are countries where aca-
demic institutions are offering operations research courses in their curriculum result-
ing in a growing number of graduates that are familiar with operations research.
It should thus be feasible for these graduates and the academics, in the respective
countries, to establish operations research societies. This paper endeavours to get a
sense of what the current state is of operations research in the continent. From this
it is possible to identify countries where there are more than enough activities to
justify the establishment of formal professional operations research societies. It is
concluded that the current four IFORS member societies can be extended to twenty
over the next 3–5years. The recent establishment of the African Federation of Oper-
ational Research Societies has been a major step towards achieving this goal and
growth as well as promoting the use of operations research.
Keywords Developing countries· History of OR· Emerging application of OR· OR
in africa
* Hans W. Ittmann
hittmann01@gmail.com
1 Institute forTransport andLogistics Studies (ITLS) Africa, University ofJohannesburg, PO
Box524, AucklandPark2008, SouthAfrica
Author's personal copy
1794
H.W.Ittmann
1 3
1 Introduction
There has been very little penetration of Operations Research (OR) into the Afri-
can continent. Over the last twenty odd years both the International Federation of
Operations Research Societies (IFORS) and The Association of European Opera-
tional Research Societies (EURO) were involved in initiatives to stimulate interest
in and promote the use of OR on the African continent (Rand and Tsoukias 2002;
Merchant 2016). There were also educational type efforts during this period, the
aim being to expose more people to OR. Currently there are only three OR socie-
ties in Africa that are members of IFORS. Africa, with a total of 54 countries, is
thus a fertile ground for OR. IFORS is keen to expand and grow its reach across
Africa and the world (Trick 2016). In 2019 IFORS will celebrate its 60th anniver-
sary and after all these years Africa has very little representation in IFORS. At
present IFORS have 51 member countries of which only three are from Africa. In
Africa there are thus almost half the number of countries, worldwide, that are not
members of IFORS.
Towards the end of 2016 a very exciting initiative was launched in Africa
when representatives from various African OR societies and other interested
operations researchers met in Nairobi, Kenya. A summit, the Pan African Opera-
tions Research Society Summit was held in the Lukenya Getaway Hotel Nairobi,
Kenya from 2 to 5 November 2016 to discuss the formation of an African OR
grouping. The outcome of the summit was the establishment of the African Fed-
eRation of Operational research Societies (AFROS) (Oloo 2016; Lindner and
Misra 2017). In July 2018 AFROS held its 1st International Conference in Tunis,
Tunisia (Merchant 2018). These activities have the potential to lead to the estab-
lishment of more OR societies in Africa and ultimately to the creation of a fifth
IFORS regional grouping.
This begs the question: What is the current state of OR in Africa? What has
been happening in the continent as far as OR activities, over the past 20, 30years,
are concerned? Are operations researchers in Africa aware of these activities? Is
OR taught at universities in all African countries and if not, where is it taught? Is
OR used and implemented to solve many of the complex problems that are fac-
ing people, companies, organisations as well as countries in Africa? The goal is
to get a more informed view of the state of the discipline within the 54 countries
across the continent. The focus will be on current OR societies, academic insti-
tutions teaching OR and related activities. History has shown that professional
societies are typically established by academics and therefor the focus on OR at
universities in Africa.
It needs to be stated upfront that the claim is not that what is presented in this
paper is a comprehensive, detailed outline of OR in Africa. The paper is a first,
focusing specifically on Africa, there are certainly many gaps, but it is neverthe-
less, an endeavour to capture as best as possible what is currently happening in
Africa. Hopefully the gaps will be filled over time.
The outline of the paper is to first give some background as well as the sources
of information and then an initial high-level overview of current OR societies on
Author's personal copy
1795
1 3
The current state ofORinAfrica
the continent. The focus then shifts to all the countries on the African continent
and to get a sense of what the state of OR is within each country. The next section
considers OR groupings and networks within the continent. A vision of what the
continent could look like by 2023 is presented. It is only a forecast, or a “dream”,
but it is feasible and something to use to promote and encourage more organized
OR in Africa. Finally, a proposed strategy and a proposed plan to implement the
strategy, with Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), are presented in the penulti-
mate section. Some hurdles that may impact such a venture are listed. The last
section gives concluding remarks.
2 Background, literature review andsources used
There has been an attempt to give a view of OR in Africa (Speranza 2008) based
on the initiatives of both EURO and IFORS. Speranza was quite clear when stating,
at that stage, that OR cannot be considered an established scientific discipline in
Africa. OR teaching was limited to very basic techniques and the attempts to pro-
mote OR through conferences had limited success. A further observation was that
there have been OR activities taking place in various African countries, but these
have been difficult to maintain and capitalise on. Some societies were formed but
then their activities stopped. She believed that training would be the most important
initiative in the continent and that this needed to be coordinated with African pro-
fessors that teach OR, non-African professors that assist those in Africa and that a
network of graduates be established. Some of this has materialised but there is still
much to be done.
Having been invited to present a plenary talk at the 1st OR Practice for Africa
(ORPA-1) conference Caulkins etal. (2005) is very enthusiastic and positive about
OR in Africa. They state: “O.R. has a great future in Africa”; “There are no short-
age of problems that would benefit from OR analysis”; and “There are emerging
communities of O.R. scholars in Africa and opportunities for dissemination to prac-
titioners that were not viable a decade ago”. All very true then and possibly still so
today. There has been progress in the sense that the singular OR society then, South
Africa, has increased to nine countries currently having, or that are associated with,
OR societies. However, the “new era of OR activity in the region”” that Caulkins
etal. (2005) envisaged has not entirely materialised. Things take time in Africa!
There is very little else in the literature that focuses specifically on OR activi-
ties in Africa. White et al. (2011) give a review of OR in Developing Countries
with an emphasis on applications in all countries not just Africa. The same holds for
Kemball-Cook and Wright (1981) while Datta (2000) only considers transportation
problems in developing countries. Smith (1987) focuses on Jordan as a developing
country as does Clayson (1980) but in his case the focus is on Kenya. Lastly Smith
(2008) presents a bibliography of OR applications in West Africa.
What was very noticeable during the literature search process is the spectrum, and
multitude, of literature, that contains the words “Operations/Operational Research”
in the title of a paper that outlines work done in Africa focussing strongly on health
issues. Examples are the eradication of polio (Okeibunor etal. 2015) or combatting
Author's personal copy
1796
H.W.Ittmann
1 3
HIV/AIDS (Kerrigan et al. 2015) in many African countries. These are just two
examples but there are many. It seems to be very important and critical work, but
it is very difficult to see what the real OR content of the work is. The authors are
mainly health people and not OR people. Is this a massive health related OR effort
that the OR fraternity in Africa is missing or ignoring? There are also examples of
real OR work in healthcare, as the paper by Cherlesly etal. (2018) illustrates.
The sources used for this paper vary from extensive Internet searches especially
looking at universities in African countries, to e-mail interactions with lecturers at
universities, and a few other OR personalities as well. It is impossible to look at all
universities so for each country the top two or three universities were considered.
As for lecturers there were known ones, or names obtained via references from oth-
ers, but the numbers were limited. Some of those approached for inputs, responded
comprehensively, others did not respond. The IFORS newsletter was a useful source.
There are two IFORS newsletters relevant in this regard. Firstly, the current IFORS
News, as it is called, and then Direct Connection to Developing Countries, the
IFORS supported newsletter which was incorporated into IFORS News when the
latter was established in September 2007. The focus of Direct Connection to Devel-
oping Countries was entirely on developing countries.
3 Established ORsocieties inAfrica
Out of the 54 countries in Africa there are nine countries that have formal and estab-
lished OR societies or are members of an OR society. The oldest is the Operations
Research Society of South Africa (ORSSA). As from 2017 Zimbabwe, as a country,
is a chapter of ORSSA and is thus considered as one of the nine countries.
The Tunisian Operations Research Society (TORS), the Nigerian Operations
Research Society (INFORN) and the five Eastern African countries Kenya, Tanza-
nia, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda that together form the Operations Research Soci-
ety of Eastern Africa (ORSEA), are the other societies. Table1 summarizes when
each of these societies were established, whether they are members of IFORS and
Table 1 OR societies in Africa
in 2018 Country Society Formed IFORS
member-
ship
EURO
member-
ship
1. South Africa ORSSA 1969 1972 1994
Zimbabwe ORSSA (chapter) 2017 2017 2017
2. Tunisia TORS 2013 2013 2014
3. Nigeria INFORN 2014 2015
4. Kenya ORSEA 2003
Tanzania ORSEA 2003
Uganda ORSEA 2003
Burundi ORSEA 2003
Rwanda ORSEA 2003
Author's personal copy
1797
1 3
The current state ofORinAfrica
EURO respectively. Figure1, on the other hand, gives a geographical map of Africa
highlighting these countries. Each of these societies have a variety of activities and
these include newsletters, journals, websites, conferences, etc. These will be elabo-
rated on in full in this paper. An interesting development in the past year is the fact
that the OR grouping within Zimbabwe joined the South Africa society, ORSSA, as
a chapter.
This arrangement, with Zimbabwe, came into place to allow all the members
from Zimbabwe to share in the benefits of ORSSA while that country (or ORSSA
chapter) is in the process of establishing its own society. That is the aim, but it is not
clear how long the process will take. It is interesting to note that Egypt had an OR
society many years ago and it was a member of IFORS. The Egyptian society does
no longer exist and It is not clear what is happening with organized OR in that coun-
try. The Egyptian society also lost its membership of IFORS some years ago.
4 Southern African countries
In Fig.2 the countries that are in the South of Africa are shown. Each one of these
will be dealt with separately indicating very briefly what OR activities are present in
each country.
Fig. 1 Operations research societies in Africa—9 countries out of 54
Author's personal copy
1798
H.W.Ittmann
1 3
4.1 South Africa (ORSSA)
The Operations Research Society of South Africa (ORSSA) was established in 1969
(Geldenhuys and Rudolph 1997). ORSSA is very active and its activities includes
several regional chapters (five), plus that of Zimbabwe, that meet regularly, a quar-
terly newsletter, a journal, ORiON, that has been published bi-annually since 1985
while ORSSA also has an annual conference (Ittmann and Yadavalli 2010). In addi-
tion, OR is taught at, at least, seven universities in the country (Ittmann 2018). Over
the years other activities include arranging the 18th IFORS international conference
in 2008, two other international conferences in the early 80’s and a very successful
MCDM conference in January 1997. In the 90’s ORSSA initiated a project “OR into
Africa” and one of the outflows of this initiative was arranging the 4th International
Conference on OR for Development (ICORD) held in the Kruger National Park in
May 2001. The ICORD conference established several future objectives and this led
to ORSSA being involved in assisting the East African OR groupings in the forma-
tion and establishment of their own society and in organising its first OR conference.
Furthermore, as part of the African outreach two annual conferences of ORSSA
were held outside the country. In 1996 the 26th annual ORSSA conference was held
in Mbabane, Swaziland. This was held jointly with the Southern African Mathemati-
cal Science Association (SAMSA). In addition, the 40th Annual ORSSA conference
Fig. 2 Southern African countries
Author's personal copy
1799
1 3
The current state ofORinAfrica
in 2011 was held at the Elephant Hills Hotel at Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe and was
co-hosted by the National University of Science and Technology (NUST) in Zimba-
bwe (Evans etal. 2011). Then the 37th annual conference of ORSSA incorporated
the 3nd Conference on Operational Research Practice in Africa (ORPA) as well
as an ORPA/INFORMS workshop on OR education. The society joined IFORS in
1972, it is a member society of EURO and will be celebrating its 50th anniversary in
2019 (https ://www.orssa .org.za/).
4.2 Zimbabwe (ORSSA chapter)
As an outflow of the ORSSA conference held in Zimbabwe in 2011 the OR fra-
ternity in Zimbabwe expressed the desire to become a chapter of ORSSA. A pro-
cess around this was initiated and the Zimbabwe chapter of ORSSA was formally
approved by the ORSSA Executive in June 2017.
OR was introduced in Zimbabwe in the early 1970s at the then University of Rho-
desia. Although not called “operations research” during those years, courses such as
systems engineering, optimization, decision theory, and mathematical programming
were found in several relevant degree programs (Evans 2011). In 2005, in response
to recommendations from industry and commerce, the then Department of Applied
Mathematics at the National University of Science and Technology (NUST) (www.
nust.ac.zw) introduced a 4-year Bachelor of Science Honours Degree in Operations
Research and Statistics. In 2007 NUST Operations Research Society (NORS) was
formed with the aim of promoting OR across the whole country. It is this society that
joined ORSSA as the sixth ORSSA chapter. The 70 odd, very enthusiastic members,
do face different challenges such as finding the foreign currency to pay their annual
ORSSA membership fees. The aim, ultimately, is the formation and establishment of
a separate Zimbabwe OR society.
4.3 eSwatini (previously called Swaziland)
The University of eSwatini (www.unisw a.sz) offers OR I and OR II in the 3rd and
4th under-graduate years, respectively, in the Department of Statistics and Demog-
raphy. The Business School of the University also offers an MBA that includes a
course called Management Science.
After the 26th ORSSA conference that was held in Swaziland there has been
almost no further contact with relevant people in Swaziland. Seemingly there is little
further OR activity in Swaziland.
4.4 Botswana
The University of Botswana (www.ub.bw), in their BSc degree course, has optional
courses in Mathematical Programming, Game Theory, Optimization and Control
Theory as well as an Introduction to Mathematical Modelling. An International con-
ference on Modelling, Simulation and Optimization was held in Botswana in 2006
Author's personal copy
1800
H.W.Ittmann
1 3
where Prof TJ Stewart, of the University of Cape Town, was the keynote speaker in
his capacity as the chair of the IFORS Developing Countries committee.
4.5 Namibia
Within Namibia two of the universities offer OR courses. The University of Namibia
(www.unam.edu.na) offers OR at undergraduate level. The lecturer responsible for
OR is currently doing a PhD in Belgium in Operations Management but she is an
OR graduate from Stellenbosch University in South Africa. The Namibia University
of Science and Technology (NUST) (www.nust.na) offers the following courses in
OR: (1) BSc Applied Mathematics (Hons)—Applied Operations Research; (2) BSc
Applied Statistics (Hons)—Stochastic Processes and Applied Operations Research
and (3) BEng Mining—Operations Research. (Typically, in Southern African uni-
versities a BSc is a 3-year degree. After the B-degree most universities offer a Hons.
degree which is an added fourth year of study for which the Hons. degree is awarded
after which the student can then embark on doing a M-degree).
4.6 Zambia
OR was quite strong during the 60s especially in the mining sector. There were
people trained in OR, in the UK, that moved to the mines in this region during that
time. Some of these OR people later moved to work at mines in South Africa. The
OR mining activities was phased out and now there is almost nothing left. The Uni-
versity of Zambia (www.unza.zm) as well as the Copperbelt University (www.cbu.
ac.zm) are offering OR courses. In the latter case the course is called Optimization.
4.7 Angola
The Catholic University of Angola (www.ucan.edu) offers Quantitative Methods
and related OR courses as part of the undergraduate degrees. The same holds for the
Agostinho Neto University (www.uan.ao).
4.8 Malawi
Several universities in Malawi are offering OR, although it is limited. At the Uni-
versity of Malawi (www.unima .mw), in the Mathematical Sciences Department, the
following two OR-related courses are taught: (1) Linear Optimisation—an under-
graduate mathematics course taught at 3rd year level; and (2) Non-linear Optimi-
sation—an MSc (Mathematics) course taught in the 1st year of a 2-year MSc pro-
gramme. Then at the Catholic University (www.cunim a.ac.mw), there’s a related
course, Management Quantitative Techniques offered at undergraduate level. At the
Mzuzu University (www.mzuni .ac.mw), Linear Programming is offered just as a
topic in the Applied Mathematics course.
Author's personal copy
1801
1 3
The current state ofORinAfrica
4.9 Madagascar
The University of Madagascar, or the University of Antananarivo (www.univ-antan
anari vo.mg) does offer some OR courses. In addition to this, during 2006 plans were
far advanced for the establishment of a Decision Support Unit for Government. A
coup took place and the political situation that resulted was instrumental in that this
initiative has been put on hold since then (Tsoukias personal communication 2018).
There is currently a young female student from Madagascar doing a PhD in OR at
Stellenbosch University (Rakotonirainy and Van Vuuren 2018).
4.10 Mauritius
The University of Mauritius (www.uom.ac.mu) offers a course on Linear Program-
ming plus several electives which includes OR, Optimization and Mathematical
Programming.
4.11 Mozambique
In Mozambique both the University of Eduardo Mondlane (www.uem.mz) and the
Catholic University of Mozambique (www.ucm.ac.mz) offer OR courses during the
latter semesters of the undergraduate degree studies.
4.12 Lesotho, Comores andMayotte
There is no OR offered at the National University of Lesotho (www.nul.ls).
No information around OR activities could be obtained for the Comores and
Mayotte.
5 East African countries
The countries in the East of Africa, Fig. 3, can be divided into two distinct parts
from an OR perspective. Five of the countries are active in the OR sphere while the
others are somewhat inactive and very little is known about the activities which are
ongoing in those countries.
5.1 Operations Research Society ofEastern Africa (ORSEA)
The International Conference on Operations Research for Development (ICORD)
held in South Africa in May 2001 can be considered as the catalyst event for the
establishment of the Eastern African Operations Research Society (ORSEA). This
was also based on a resolution taken at the establishment of the African Operations
Research Network (AORN) in 2003. ORSEA is a regional body for the Eastern Afri-
can OR region with the founding academic members being the Makerere University
Business School in Uganda, the University of Dar es Salaam Business School and
Author's personal copy
1802
H.W.Ittmann
1 3
the School of Business of the University of Nairobi in Kenya. One of the resolu-
tions at the ICORD conference was that African OR professionals, researchers and
practitioners should endeavour to establish OR societies in their respective countries
(Wainaina 2017). It was always the understanding that Rwanda and Burundi were
part of ORSEA but Wainaina (2017) indicates these two countries will “soon join
ORSEA”. For this paper it is assumed that both the countries are now members of
ORSEA.
The 1st International Conference in the Eastern Africa Region on Operations
Research and Development for Africa (ORDA-1) was held in Nairobi, Kenya over
the period 17–19 September 2003. ORDA-2 was held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
on 17–19 November 2004. Both these conferences were later considered to be the
1st and 2nd ORSEA conferences and subsequently these became annual confer-
ences, the venues rotating between the three countries Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
ORSEA held its 13th conference early in 2018 in Kenya and the 14th is planned
to be held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in November 2018 (ORSEA 2018). The
ORSEA conferences have thus been held almost annually. Furthermore, ORSEA
has its own website, which is unfortunately not well maintained. On the website
there is reference to a newsletter as well as a journal. ORSEA started its own jour-
nal in 2011 and editions of this this journal is now published bi-annually with, on
average, 4 papers per edition. The journal papers, except for the first edition, are
Fig. 3 Eastern African countries
Author's personal copy
1803
1 3
The current state ofORinAfrica
available electronically from https ://www.journ als.udsm.ac.tz/index .php/orsea /issue
/view/301. As part of the 10-year anniversary of ORSEA, in 2014, a book titled:
Operations Research in Developing Countries: The Case of Eastern Africa was pub-
lished. ORSEA also initiated formal MSc and PhD programs in OR at the respective
member academic institutions.
5.1.1 Kenya (ORSEA member)
Two of the main universities in Kenya, both located in Nairobi, namely the Univer-
sity of Nairobi (www.uonbi .ac.ke) and the Kenyatta University (www.ku.ac.ke) offer
OR courses. In the case of the University of Nairobi the course Operations Research
I, II and III is offered from 2nd year onwards. There is a view that the University of
Nairobi is leaning too strongly towards Operations Management. The Kenyatta Uni-
versity has a Department of Management Science that offers various OR modules,
both at under-graduate level and post-graduate level.
5.1.2 Tanzania (ORSEA member)
The University of Dar es Salaam Business School (www.udbs.udsm.ac.tz) offers
a course in Quantitative Methods for Business Decisions for under-graduate stu-
dents while it also offers a MSc with Optimization Methods of OR. Recently a PhD
degree program in OR has been started at the University of Dar es Salaam as a joint
collaborative project with the University of Makerere in Uganda and the University
of Nairobi in Kenya.
5.1.3 Uganda (ORSEA member)
The University of Makerere (www.mak.ac.ug), arguably the top university in
Uganda, offers various OR modules within the Department of Mathematics includ-
ing Linear Programming and Stochastic Processes as well as a MSc in Mathematical
Modelling.
5.1.4 Rwanda (ORSEA member)
There is an exciting recent development in Rwanda. The University of Rwanda
hosts the African Centre of Excellence in Data Science (ACE-DS) (https ://aceds .ur.
ac.rw). This is a World Bank project and is one of the 24 Eastern and Southern
Africa Higher Education Centres of Excellence in the World Bank’s ACE II Project.
The main objective of this World Bank initiative is to strengthen selected Eastern
and Southern African higher education institutions to ensure quality post-graduate
education and to build research capacity. The focus of this specific Centre is to train
post-graduate students in areas of statistics, economics, business, computer science,
and engineering to use big data and data analytics to solve development challenges.
One of the areas of specialization is data mining using techniques such as model-
ling and simulation, machine learning and computational statistics. Partners in this
endeavour include Carnegie Mellon University and Microsoft.
Author's personal copy
1804
H.W.Ittmann
1 3
5.1.5 Burundi (ORSEA member)
Within the University of Burundi there is a Centre for Research in Mathematics and
Physics which hosts a Laboratory of Modelling and Intensive Calculus (www.ub.edu.
bi).
5.2 Somaliland
The University of Hargeisa (www.uoh-edu.net) in Somalia offers a 3rd year course in
OR in the Faculty of Mathematics and Statistics.
5.3 Eritrea
Very little is known about OR in this country. However, as part of an exchange pro-
gramme by the Eritrean Department of Human Resource Development with Stellen-
bosch University in South Africa five students from Eritrea did post graduate degrees in
OR during their time at the University (Habte etal. 2003). These students attended the
32nd ORSSA annual conference in 2002. Unfortunately, no more is known about OR
in Eritrea.
5.4 Ethiopia
One of the papers presented at the recent AFROS conference in Tunisia was by a repre-
sentative from the University of Hawassa (www.hu.edu.et) in Ethiopia (Kebedow and
Oppen 2018). There is nothing else that could be found concerning OR in this country.
5.5 Sudan
Two of the larger universities in Sudan offer OR courses. The Sudan University of
Science and Technology (www.suste ch.edu) offers a BSc Mathematics degree which
includes OR I and II while the University of Khartoum (www.uofk.edu) has OR I and
II courses in the 4th and 5th year of under-graduate studies respectively.
5.6 Somalia, Djibouti, South Sudan
Somalian universities do not offer OR courses.
There is no information relating to OR available for the two countries Djibouti and
South Sudan.
Author's personal copy
1805
1 3
The current state ofORinAfrica
6 North African countries
Most of the countries in North Africa, see Fig.4, are very active as far as OR is con-
cerned. There is a long history of OR being offered at universities in most of these
countries. Regular conferences of an OR nature have been held and are being held in
these countries. The proximity of Europe, and especially France, plays a significant
role in the fact that OR has seemingly been thriving in parts of this region. At pre-
sent only Tunisia has a society but the level of OR activities in most of these coun-
tries, except possibly Libya, Mauritania and Mali, is such that all the OR communi-
ties can establish formal OR societies. It is not clear what the impact of the political
situation in these countries are, preventing or prohibiting the OR communities to
proceed to establish societies.
6.1 Tunisia (TORS)
The Tunisian Operational Research Society (TORS) was officially recognized in
Tunisia in May 2013. TORS aims to share, exchange knowledge and promote theo-
retical developments and applications in the operational research field in Tunisia.
The society became a member of IFORS in November 2014 (Haouari and M’hallah
Fig. 4 Northern African countries
Author's personal copy
1806
H.W.Ittmann
1 3
2005; Masmoudi 2015). TORS is also a member society of EURO. The 1st TORS
annual conference was held in Sousse, Tunisia from 12 to 14 June 2015 (Teghem
and Abdelaziz 2015) while the 2nd conference was held at the same venue from 16
to 18 December 2016. The 3rd conference was held in April 2018. The papers at all
three conferences were of a high quality. The developments in Tunisia around OR
over the last number of years are very encouraging www.tors-tn.org.
TORS was a member of IFORS having been admitted as a member in 2005.
However, this membership lapsed in 2011 but was reinstated by 2014. From early
on TORS organized various conferences. In 2012 an ICORD conference, supported
by IFORS, was held in the beautiful island Djerba in Tunisia from 12 to 13 October
(Rodriques 2012).
What is also noticeable is that there are three very similar societies in Tuni-
sia. Currently there is the Decision Aid Society (TDAS, www.tdaso ciety .org), the
Management Science Society (TMSS, www.tmss.chez.com) and TORS. All three
co-exist, each having its own membership although the membership of the socie-
ties does overlap. TMSS was established in 1997, it has around 40 members while
TORS have 39 members. Years ago, TMSS was a member of IFORS. The two soci-
eties, TORS and TDAS, are co-operating closely, and there have been discussions
about the possibility of the two societies merging.
A very innovative mechanism described in detail by Hadj-Alouane (2017), has
been developed in Tunisia for doctoral students and post-doctoral fellows to conduct
research in an industrial or service company. This approach is certainly something
that other countries can follow.
6.2 Egypt
The Operations Research Society of Egypt (ORSE) joined IFORS in 1976 but its
membership lapsed in 2005 and the indication is that this society does not exist any-
more. ORSE was also a member of EURO. IFORS as well as EURO has lost any
contact with ORSE and members within this society. One can only conclude that the
political instability in the country over the years played a big role in this situation.
Things were quite different in Egypt in the past. For example, in 1989 an Egyp-
tian group was one of the finalists in the Operations Research Society of America
(ORSA) Franz Edelman award competition for work done for the Egyptian Cabi-
net (El Sherif 1990). El Sherif was at The Management Department of the Amer-
ican University in Cairo (www.auceg ypt.edu) where a centre was established that
served the Cabinet of Egypt, specifically, called the Information and Decision Sup-
port Centre. The work from this group also received honourable mention in 1987 at
the IFORS conference in Argentina where the IFORS Third World prize competi-
tion was held the first time. In 2005 an Egypt entry was a runner-up for the IFORS
Prize for OR for Development with a paper by Mouhamed Osman from the El-Asher
University, Hegazy Zaher from the Cairo University and Dania El-Iraqi from the
Higher Technology Institute. It is unfortunate that there is currently no formal con-
tact with OR groups in Egypt. The fact remains there are, and must, still be ongoing
OR activities in this politically unstable country.
Author's personal copy
1807
1 3
The current state ofORinAfrica
The latter is confirmed by the following two events: (1) The Institute of Statis-
tical Studies and Research of the University of Cairo held the 49th Annual Inter-
national Conference on Statistics, Computer Science and Operations Research over
the period 22–25 December 2014, at the institute. www.cu.edu.eg/Cairo -Unive rsity
-News-10037 .html; and (2) an entry from Egypt was one of the finalists for the
IFORS OR for Development prize at the most recent IFORS triennial conference
held in Quebec City, Canada in 2017 (Rönnqvist 2017).
6.3 Algeria
OR is widely taught at universities in Algeria. The Laboratory of Systems Model-
ling and Optimisation (LaMOS) is one of the oldest active research structures in
Algeria and well known for the work performed there. It was founded as the Sto-
chastic Modelling Laboratory at the University of Constantine in February 1985 and
is currently located at the Abderahmane Mira University of Bejaia. At LaMOS peo-
ple from different disciplines in typical OR multi-disciplinary fashion work together
to address, model, simulate and optimise complex industrial and socio-economic
systems as well as problems. The areas of research at this institution includes many
of an OR nature. Since its inception LaMOS has played an important role in raising
awareness, resulting in the official approval of research laboratories in Algeria www.
lamos .org.
The 6th Operational Research Practice in Africa (ORPA) Conference was held
at the University of Science and Technology Houari Boumedienne (USTHB, www.
usthb .dz) in Algiers, Algeria, on April 20–22, 2015 (Silal 2015). Participants from
Algeria, France, Tunisia, Mali, Senegal, Oman and Jordan attended this conference
where more than 50 presentations covering a wide range of topics were presented.
A Doctoral School programme was held in parallel with the conference and this
covered topics on graph theory, combinatorial optimization, transport and logistics.
Noticeable were the enthusiastic and highly skilled students who showed a keen
interest in OR and confidence in presenting their work. The USTHB itself has a
large Department of Operational Research within the Faculty of Mathematics.
OR is doing well in Algeria. There were efforts to establish a local society, but
government approval was not forthcoming.
6.4 Morocco
Morocco does not have a formal OR society but there are several very active opera-
tions researchers in the country. Many OR conferences have been held in the coun-
try. The 4th International Conference of Operational Research (CIRO) was held in
Marrakech, 23–26 May 2005 (www.euro-onlin e.org/afric anOR/Engli shFra me.htm).
Papers from the next CIRO conference, the 5th CIRO conference, were published in
the journal, RAIRO-Operations Research (www.cambr idge.org/core/journ als/rairo
-opera tions -resea rch/issue /). In 2010 the 10th CIRO conference took place in Mar-
rakech in May of that year. In 2013 the 1st International Symposium on Operational
Research and Applications (ISORAP) was held in Marrakesh, from 8 to 10 May
Author's personal copy
1808
H.W.Ittmann
1 3
(Menou etal. 2013). The conference had parallel sessions with almost 50 percent
foreign country delegates. Many papers were presented by M-degree or PhD stu-
dents however in several cases the OR content of the work was not clearly visible.
The organizing committee were all members from various universities in Morocco.
In 2015 another ISORAP conference took place over the period 21–23 May. There
can be no reason why the OR community in Morocco cannot establish a local soci-
ety. (There is reference in the literature to the Moroccan Operations Research Soci-
ety (SOMARO) but its existence is not apparent.)
6.5 Libya, Mauritania andMali
In Mauritania there is some OR presented at universities. Participants of Mali have
attended various African OR events such as ACOR and ROCARO (see Sect. 8
below). For Libya there is no information.
7 West African countries
Of all the countries in Africa, the countries in the West of the continent (Fig.5) are
the most difficult ones in terms of determining what the OR activities are in these
countries. Not only are there many of them, some very small, but to ensure one dis-
tinguishes properly between them is a challenge while the fact that most of the infor-
mation is in French makes it doubly challenging. For the last 20years, though, there
have been many initiatives to get OR activities going but it seems as if most have not
been sustained and that is a concern.
7.1 Senegal
All the five main public universities in Senegal offer OR. These universities include
the Université Cheikh Anta Diop (UCAD), the Zinguinchor University (www.univ-
zig.sn) and the Bambey University (www.uadb.edu.sn). Senegal is one of the Fran-
cophone countries with strong French ties. There are students from Senegal that
continue their post graduate studies in OR at a French university, however, more and
more are studying in Senegal itself.
Little is known about OR historically in Senegal. In 2013 the ORPA 2013/
ORTRANS workshop was held from 19 to 20 November in Dakar, Senegal. The
theme was “Freight Transport Planning and Modelling—its application within a rail
environment”. The local organiser was from the UCAD (www.ucad.sn) in Dakar
and the workshop was held in the Auditorium of the l’Agence universitaire de la
Francophonie (AUF) located on the UCAD campus. The workshop was attended
by some 30 attendees mainly from UCAD and Senegal with a total of 14 presen-
tations on a variety of topics, mainly by PhD students from Senegal universities.
The high standard of the work, and the presentations, were very noticeable (Ittmann
2013). This workshop demonstrated that OR is actively pursued at graduate and post
Author's personal copy
1809
1 3
The current state ofORinAfrica
graduate level at universities in Senegal and these students do find their way into the
public and private sector.
Many conferences on similar topics were held before and after the ORPA 2013
conference. There are a noticeable number of OR applications in the private sec-
tors such as urban transport at a company called DDD; LSS airport work; Land use
applications, etc.
Finally, OR people in Senegal are considering establishing an OR society (Ndi-
aye personal communication 2018).
7.2 The Gambia
The University of The Gambia (www.utg.edu.gm) collaborates with the Gaston-
Berger University. in Senegal to offer a MSc in Mathematical Modelling.
The Gambia became a EUCLID participating state in 2012 and obtained the host
country agreement which came into effect in July 2013. EUCLID (Euclid Univer-
sity/Pôle Universitaire Euclide) is an intergovernmental organisation (IGO) estab-
lished by intergovernmental agreement in 2008, registered and published in the
United Nations Treaty Series. As an educational partner a country like The Gambia
Fig. 5 West African countries
Author's personal copy
1810
H.W.Ittmann
1 3
is a full participating partner in the EUCLID University. Through this partnership
The Gambia campus has access to someone from USA with expertise in Big Data.
7.3 Guinea
Within Guinea there are a few universities. The top university, the Kofi Annan Uni-
versity of Guinea in the capital, Conakry, does not seem to offer OR.
7.4 Ivory Coast
In the Ivory Coast universities started teaching OR in the 1990s. Today OR is
taught in most universities and public schools in the country including the follow-
ing universities: the University of Cocody (www.univ-cocod y.ci); the University of
Abobo-Adjame; the University of Daloa; the ESATIC (African School of Informa-
tion and Communication Technologies); and the National Polytechnic Institute Félix
HOUPHOUËT BOIGNY. In most cases there are OR courses at undergraduate level
which progresses up to PhD level. Within the Mathematical Society of Côte d’Ivoire
(SMCI) there is an interest group focussing on OR.
In addition, the following OR conferences were organized in the Ivory Coast over
the years. In CARI 2010 was held and in 2017 the ROAD (Operations Research and
Decision Support) conference while there are plans to have ORPA 2019 in the Ivory
Coast.
7.5 Ghana
It seems as if OR is not widely taught in universities in Ghana. However, at the
University of Ghana (www.ug.edu.gh) a wide spectrum of OR modules are taught
within the University’s Business School. The Department of Operations and Man-
agement Information Systems (OMIS) at the University of Ghana Business School
(UGBS) offers a MPhil degree in Operations Management which includes some OR
courses, such as Management Science and Decision and Risk Analysis. In the same
department a PhD in Advanced Quantitative Research Methods is also offered.
At the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (www.knust .edu.
gh) some OR is also offered but the content is scattered throughout the university
departments. In the Civil Engineering Department of KNUST, the Systems Engi-
neering course contains the following OR courses: Introduction to Optimization
Modelling; Spreadsheet Modelling, Linear Programming; Network Optimization;
Integer Programming and Non-Linear Programming. In Mechanical Engineering
there is also some OR theory covered while the Business School offers a course on
Decision Science/Logistics within the curriculum.
7.6 Benin
In September 2007 the 1st International Conference on Calculation of Variations
and Operational Research was held in Benin. This followed on the Benin-Brazilian
Author's personal copy
1811
1 3
The current state ofORinAfrica
School on Mathematics that preceded this event. A follow-up School of Operational
Research was held from 14 to 19 November 2011 in Porto-Novo in Benin (Ouorou
and Tossa 2012). The aim was to develop OR in Africa and this event was sup-
ported by IFORS, EURO, the French OR society (ROADEF) and the France Tel-
ecom Orange Group. Some forty students and researchers from Benin, Burundi,
Cameroon, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger and Nigeria attended this very success-
ful school.
The University of Abomey-Calavi (UAC, www.uac.bj) is organizing the OR
Techniques and Applications School (ORTASA) that will be held in Dangbo, Benin
from 26 to 30 November 2018 (Degila 2018). The UAC will be the host and spe-
cifically its Institute of Mathematics and Physical Science (IMSP) (www.imsp-benin
.com) which has been a regional centre of excellence in mathematics for the past
three decades. The IMSP is also hosting a Data Science School in the first week of
December straight after the ORTASA.
The Operational Research stream of the IMSP of the UAC offers a 2-year mas-
ter’s degree program, which aims to give students a solid interdisciplinary scientific
training and to open them to the world of scientific and/or industrial research. It will
provide an activity for private or public professionals, especially professionals in any
sector using mathematical and computer tools. This course also offers students hold-
ing a Masters’ degree in OR, the opportunity to continue with a PhD in OR.
7.7 Niger
The Université Abdou Moumouni de Niamey (www.uam.edu.ne), located in the
capital of Niger, teaches OR from within the Department of Mathematics and Com-
puter Science. There is no further information about other universities in this coun-
try as far as the teaching of OR is concerned.
The 1st International Conference on Operational Research, organised by the West
and Central African Network of OR (ROCARO), was held in Niamey, Niger, during
26–28 January 2004. It seems as if the ROCARO network is no longer operational.
7.8 Burkina Faso
In Burkina Faso OR is taught at several universities which include universities
such as Université de Ouagadougou; the Université Polytechnique de Bobo-Diou-
lasso; the Université Ouaga II; the Université Saint Thomas d’Aquin; and Univer-
sité Ouaga. The well-known Laboratoire d’Analyse Numérique, d’Informatique et
de BIOmathématique (LANIBIO) is located within the University of Ouaga (www.
univ-ouaga .bf). This laboratory was established in 1990 and it collaborates with the
OR department of the University of Mons in Belgium. This collaboration allows
LANIBIO graduates to do Masters’ degrees and Doctorates in the OR domain.
The 1st African Conference on Operations Research (ACOR1) took place during
5–7 January 2003 in Ouagadougou. It was during this conference that ROCARO
was formed with one of the aims to organize the ROCARO conference in Niamey,
Niger, the next year (Rand etal. 2003).
Author's personal copy
1812
H.W.Ittmann
1 3
7.9 Nigeria
Twenty years after Operations Research was introduced in Nigeria, most executives
in public and private industries are still unaware of the profession and many do not
use it (Salawu 2014).
The University of Benin, Nigeria (www.unibe n.edu) established the first post-
graduate programme in Industrial Mathematics which directly included OR as a
field of study in 1980 (Salawu 2014). The University of Benin offers OR including a
MSc in OR. Omosigho (2003) gives a enlightening view on OR as a growing disci-
pline in Nigeria.
In 1986 a PhD programme in OR was started at the University of Ilorin (www.
unilo rin.edu.ng). OR was also introduced as an undergraduate programme at the
Modibbo Adama University of Technology, Yola (Mautech, www.maute ch.edu.ng).
Today Mautech is the only University in Nigeria that offers pure OR at undergradu-
ate and postgraduate levels. On 1 September 1998 the department of Statistics and
Operations Research was established in the School of Pure and Applied Sciences
at this university and the department now offers courses also at post graduate level
leading to obtaining a M.Tech and PhD in Operations Research. The Statistics and
Operations Research department at Mautech, that currently resides in the School of
Physical Sciences, is also home to a National Society of Operations Research Stu-
dents (NSORS).
There is a long history around the more formal professional discipline activities
(IORMS 2017). All the detail will not be discussed here. Suffice to indicate that
the Institute of Operations Research of Nigeria (INFORN) was established in 2006
and it was formally recognised under the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
as from 4th July 2006. The Institute provides a venue for professionals in Opera-
tions Research in Nigeria to interact, develop the profession, and advance its prac-
tice, method and application for improved systems performance in Nigeria. It also
offers courses leading to the awarding of Certificates and Diplomas in Operations
Research. In 2015 INFORN joined IFORS (Merchant 2016). Given the long history
of OR involvement and activities in Nigeria it is a great development that Nigeria
has now joined the IFORS fraternity https ://infor n.org.ng/index .php/index .php/index
.php/about -us.
In 2014 there was a group that broke away from INFORN and this group estab-
lished a separate society namely the Institute of Operational Research and Manage-
ment Science (IORMS). It is also a formally recognised OR society in Nigeria, but
it is not affiliated to IFORS. IORMS has its own website (www.iorms .com), it has
several journals including an OR journal, it has held two conferences since it was
formed and if offers OR courses.
7.10 Cameroon
OR is offered by several universities in Cameroon (Mouchili and Moukouop 2004).
These include the University of Yaounde (www.uy1.unine t.cm) where the course
Author's personal copy
1813
1 3
The current state ofORinAfrica
Optimization is offered in the fourth year within the Department of Mathematics
as well as within Industrial Engineering. Other universities that offer OR are the
United Nations University and the University of Dschang.
The 3rd Buea International Conference on Mathematical Sciences was held in
Buea, Cameroon from 30 April to 3 May 2013 featured a new colloquium on Opera-
tions Research with sponsorship from IFORS. The conference was held at the Uni-
versity of Buea (www.ubuea .cm). The objective was to generate enthusiasm for the
use and for studying OR through a series of workshops and conference-wide plenar-
ies (Khumbah and Cochran 2013).
One of the finalists for the IFORS Prize for OR in Development for IFORS 2017
held in Quebec City, Canada was from Cameroon (Rönnqvist 2017). It is also inter-
esting to note that there was a student from Cameroon pursuing his post graduate
studies in OR at Stellenbosch University in South Africa in 2017.
7.11 DRC
Within the Democratic Republic of the Congo OR is taught at various universities.
Most of these are offered in Departments of Mathematics, Computer Science and
Business. At undergraduate level the introduction to OR is given through courses
like Linear Programming, Dynamic Programming, Scheduling and Queuing. At
postgraduate there are course such as Nonlinear Programming, Stochastic Modelling
and Simulation (Luhandjula 2003). The University of South Africa (UNISA) has
benefitted from those qualified in OR in the DRC in the sense that three lecturers in
OR at UNISA originate from the DRC where they obtained their initial education.
7.12 Chad
In 2003 the meeting of the African Network of Applied Mathematics for Develop-
ment, RAMAD, was held in July of that year in Ndjamena, Chad. Further informa-
tion on OR in Chad is not available.
7.13 Cape Verde
Two universities in the Cape Verde, the University Jean Piaget of Cape Verde (www.
unipi aget.cv) and the Instituto de Ciências Económicas e Empresariais (www.iscee
.edu.cv), both offer OR courses.
7.14 Congo Republic, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon,
Guinea‑Bissau, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Togo, Sao Tome andPrincipe
There is no current information on what is happening in with OR in these nine coun-
tries. What is known is that participants from a number of these countries attended
many of the OR conferences held in Western African countries over the years.
Author's personal copy
1814
H.W.Ittmann
1 3
8 OR groupings andnetworks inAfrica
Over the last 20years there were various efforts and initiatives launched to get
activities off the ground in Africa. There were networks formed as well as group-
ings and even societies. These are briefly highlighted in this section. In many
cases it is not clear what happened to these as it seemed that they were not main-
tained. One can only conclude that most of these initiatives died a slow death,
one of the main reasons being when key people moved on.
8.1 ACOR
The 1st African Conference of Operational Research (ACOR) took place in Oua-
gadougou, Burkina Faso from 5 to 7 January 2003. The conference was organized
by the African Network of Applied Mathematics for Development (RAMAD)
with chairperson Blaise Somé. There were some 50 participants (researchers and
postgraduate students) from 20 countries mainly West, Central and North Africa.
There were intense discussions on matters to promote the development of OR in
Africa (Rand and Smith 2003). Three things were decided and to be promoted:
The creation of the West African Operational Research Society;
Funding will be provided under the EURO African Project for an African
wide teaching scheme; and
The establishment of an African OR Network to co-ordinate OR activities in
Africa. The Networks website was to be hosted on the EURO website.
Fifteen years later and not much has materialized, of these issues, that remain
sustainable.
8.2 AORN
The African Operations Research Network (AORN) was established in 2003, at
the ACOR-1 conference, as part of the “Africa Project” initiative of the EURO
(European Association of Operational Research Societies), a project which aimed
at promoting Operational Research (OR) in Africa (see https ://www.euro-onlin
e.org/afric anOR/Engli shFra me.htm). AORN had some 62 members at the time it
was established in 2003. The memberships ranged from countries such as Nige-
ria (18), Zambia (3), Kenya (10), Mozambique (3), Zimbabwe (6), Ghana (2),
Algeria (5), Tanzania (2), Tunisia (4), Namibia (2), Morocco (3) and 1 each from
Lesotho, Uganda, Botswana, Congo. By the end of January 2003, the website
hosting the AORN website was up and running containing a whole range of use-
ful OR related information (https ://www.euro-onlin e.org/afric anOR/) (Soubeiga
2003). There was an African OR electronic mailing list created as part of the
Author's personal copy
1815
1 3
The current state ofORinAfrica
initiative. As those involved in setting this up and maintaining it initially moved
on, this initiative also became dormant.
8.3 ROCARO
As an outcome of the ACOR-1 conference the West and Central African Operational
Research Society (ROCARO) was founded, also called WACANOR. During 26–28
January 2004 the 1st ROCARO Conference was held in Niamey, Niger (Soubeiga
2004). The conference was a joint effort between ROCARO and the African Net-
work of Applied Mathematics for Development (ANAMD). The main theme of the
conference was OR a tool for decision aiding. There were over 100 delegates that
attended this conference and they were from Africa, Europe and the USA. An Exec-
utive Committee was elected for WACANOR and the eight-person Executive con-
sisted of people from Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Niger, Republic of Congo, Senegal,
Benin, the UK and Belgium (Mampassi 2004). Most of these were senior people,
basically all located at universities, and they were able to take this society into the
future. Soubeiga (2004) gives details of ROCARO aiming to join IFORS but alas
that did not materialize, and it is not clear what the current position is regarding
ROCARO.
8.4 ORDA
The 1st International Conference in the Eastern Africa Region on Operations
Research and Development for Africa (ORDA-1) was held in Nairobi, Kenya over
the period 17–19 September 2003. It was the first OR conference in this region and
since the Eastern African Operations Research Society (ORSEA) was establish dur-
ing this time this conference was later referred to as the 1st ORSEA conference.
There were 70–80 delegates that attended this very successful conference. This con-
ference was followed the next year with the 2nd ORDA conference held in Dar es
Salaam, Tanzania on 17–19 November 2004. Again, this became known as the 2nd
ORSEA conference. ORSEA has now held 13th conferences and the 14th one is
scheduled to take place later this year in November 2018 in Tanzania.
8.5 ORPA
Operational Research Practice in Africa (ORPA) emerged as an initiative aimed at
promoting the use of OR approaches in decision-making processes in Africa. This
included actions in the continent to promote the use of OR as well as doing research
and in addition share experiences, take good practices wherever they are located,
with the idea of concrete applications in the continent. The 1st ORPA conference
in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso in 2005 was supported by IFORS and EURO. Sub-
sequent ORPA conferences have been held in London, Cape Town, Washington,
Dakar and Algiers. This is an initiative that has been used very successful in pro-
moting OR across Africa. It is interesting to note that ORPA is a registered “charity”
company in the UK!
Author's personal copy
1816
H.W.Ittmann
1 3
8.6 ICORD
The International Conference on OR for Development (ICORD), an IFORS initia-
tive, is broader than just Africa and reaches across all countries that are Developing
Countries. The 4th ICORD conference was held in the Kruger National Park, South
Africa in 2001 and ICORD 2012 was held in Djerba, Tunisia in 2012. This was in
fact the 7th ICORD conference although the name ICORD 2012 is used and pre-
ferred. This IFORS initiative has to date been held in eleven Developing Countries
across the globe.
8.7 EURO working group onORfordevelopment
This is a EURO instrument open to all those interested in OR for Development.
There are African members and participants in this Working Group, and it is very
active. This is a way to promote OR, also in Africa, and a way of African OR people
to network with others especially from Europe. It is however, a working group that
considers OR for Development broader that just Africa (www.euro-onlin e.org/web/
ewg/29/ewg-ord-euro-worki ng-group -on-opera tions -resea rch-for-devel opmen t).
8.8 IFORS developing countries ORresources website
IFORS has a dedicated website for Developing Countries. It provides access to soft-
ware and the ability to download software in addition to various related resources.
The website can be found at: https ://ifors .org/devel oping _count ries/index .php?title
=Main_Page.
9 IFORS prize onORfordevelopment
Operations Researchers from Africa have participated in the IFORS Prize on OR for
Development since the inception of the prize in 1987. There has been some success
as can be seen in Table2. Only winners and runners up, originating from Africa, are
shown but there were other finalists from Africa as well. It shows that the quality of
OR practiced by African operations researchers equates to that done elsewhere in
the world.
10 OR societies inAfrica by2023!
Based on what has been presented in this paper it is possible, given a bit of presump-
tuous dreaming, to forecast what Africa could look like in 5years’ time in terms of
the number of societies that are members of IFORS. The “dream” is presented in
Fig.6.
Author's personal copy
1817
1 3
The current state ofORinAfrica
Table 2 IFORS prize on OR for development—African winners and runners up over the years: 1987–2017
Year Winner/runners up Country Paper
1987
1990
1993
1996
1999 Runners up South Africa JH Van Vuuren, W Grundling—an active decision support system for optimality in open air reservoir
release strategies
2002 Runners up South Africa G. Groves, J Le Roux and JH Van Vuuren—network service scheduling and routing
2005 Runners up Egypt M Osman, H Zaher and D El-Iraqi—cultural heritage management—a goal programming application
2008 Winner Tunisia M Haouari, N Aissaoui, K Berrima, HD Sherali and FZ Mansour—integrated aircraft fleeting and rout-
ing at TunisAir
Runners up South Africa D Raad, A Sinske and JH van Vuuren—robust multi-objective optimization for water distribution system
design using a meta-meta-heuristic
2011 Runners up Algeria AL Udias, DR Insua, J Cano and H Fellag—cost efficient equitable water distribution in Algeria: a bi-
criteria fair division problem with network constraints
2014
2017
Author's personal copy
1818
H.W.Ittmann
1 3
The vision can be realized in the following manner:
ORSEA joins IFORS in the next year or two. That adds five countries to IFORS.
ORSEA should have joined IFORS long ago;
Zimbabwe becomes a separate OR society and joins IFORS. There is more than
enough enthusiasm, activity and potential for this to be sustainable. It can be
done!
Egypt re-establishes the Operations Research Society of Egypt (ORSE). There
was enough interest in the past and yes, the political situation in the country has
been problematic but the OR people need to put that aside and organize them-
selves again. The international community want ORSE back in IFORS;
OR is thriving in Algeria, with many students that are passionate about OR and
keen to establish a society. The government needs to be convinced of the value
and benefit of a society that will also be an IFORS member society;
OR people in Morocco need to get themselves organized and to establish a
national society. There is enough interest for this in the academic environment
and elsewhere in the country to enable the formation of a Moroccan OR society
that will also join IFORS;
A West and Central African Society is more than feasible. It could comprise of
different countries from that region. The proposal will be Senegal, Burkina Faso,
Fig. 6 “Vision into the future”—African OR societies and IFORS member societies by 2023
Author's personal copy
1819
1 3
The current state ofORinAfrica
Benin, the Ivory Coast, Ghana and Cameroon but there could be other countries
that join them or one or two of the countries mentioned could decide to estab-
lish their own societies – there is a whole number of potential permutations. Say
there are six countries involved and this society also joins IFORS; and
Lastly Namibia and Botswana join ORSSA, the OR society of South Africa, as
chapters.
This “vision into the future” is achievable and possible. What is needed is a strat-
egy and a plan to achieve this. It will only be possible through passionate, dedicated
and goal driven people!
11 Proposed strategy andaction plan forAfrica
At the formation of AFROS, the AFROS President indicated that among the key
initiatives that AFROS intend to pursue will be (Oloo 2016):
the hosting of Winter/Summer Schools;
developing a curriculum for teaching OR at certificate and diploma levels; and
reaching out to all stakeholders in Africa.
These are some initial and general statements, but they can form the basis of a
strategy going forward. For OR to get a strong footprint in Africa it is essential to
get a proper strategy in place plus a plan to execute this strategy. Finally, to measure
progress some key performance indicators need to be defined.
One needs to take cognizance of observations from a recent book with the title
Africa’s Business Revolution (Leke etal. 2018) where it is stated that: “Africa offers
exciting opportunities to build large, profitable businesses. Its population is young,
fast-growing, and increasingly urbanized—while rapid technology adoption makes
the continent a fertile arena for innovation. But Africa’s business environment
remains poorly understood and known to many executives in the West only by its
reputation for complexity, conflict, and corruption”. Although the focus in the book
is on business, it portrays a continent that is ready to become the world’s next big
growth market. The time is thus ripe for things to happen in Africa and OR can
become a major force in this envisioned revolution within Africa.
A proposed strategy for AFROS for the next 5years, from 2019 to 2023, is out-
lined below.
11.1 Strategy
The overall strategy will be to promote the visibility, education, use and implemen-
tation of OR across the continent and strengthen this through the establishment of
formal OR societies in African countries. The overall strategy is to establish a strong
OR footprint in Africa through promoting it and supporting this by a continuum of
high-level activities as shown in Fig.7.
Author's personal copy
1820
H.W.Ittmann
1 3
The strategy can be further unpacked:
Establish contact with OR people in as many of the African countries as pos-
sible;
Promote OR in the various countries through meetings, events, lectures, work-
shops and other promotional means;
Encourage and, if possible, sponsor OR workshops, conferences, meetings,
etc.
Provide the means for the exchange of information on OR in a country, between
countries and through invited lectures;
Encourage the teaching of OR especially in countries where it is not taught;
Assist, or provide guidance, in developing curricula for teaching OR for degree
and diploma purpose;
Encourage the establishment of national OR societies;
Promote the development of OR approaches that are appropriate and relevant to
Africa;
Establish mechanisms to maintain standards of competence in OR;
Long-term sustainability of this initiative should be one of the main objectives
and the strategy should be resilient to cater for events where people, who were
initially involved, move on;
Source sponsorship or funding for the activities of AFROS or develop a mecha-
nism that will provide AFROS with enough funds to run its activities; and
PROMOTE OR IN
AFRICA
Reach out to all
stakeholders
Host
Winter/Summer
schools,
workshops, etc.
Build resilience for
the long-term to
ensure
sustainability
Encourage
establishment of
OR sociees
Fig. 7 A proposed high level, 5-year strategy for AFROS
Author's personal copy
1821
1 3
The current state ofORinAfrica
If possible, establish a permanent office, and presence, with a full time or part
time AFROS employee.
More can be added, or some of these activities can even be removed, but it is
important to have something that is actionable, feasible and that can be achieved
while at the same time a strategy that is going to be stretching.
11.2 Plan
A formal plan flowing from the strategy should be developed that can be executed,
on a day to day basis, to achieve what is contained in the strategy and to achieve the
goals set out in the strategy. Examples of tasks, or activities, that will constitute a
plan are outlined here (most of these can happen in parallel):
Appoint an individual from Africa that would take responsibility as associate
editor for the IFORS News to ensure regular developing country contributions,
from Africa, to the IFORS newsletter;
Divide Africa into regions, the four regions for examples used in this article,
and allocate one AFROS executive member to one of the regions or get a person
from the region willing, eager and passionate to do this;
The AFROS representative responsible for a region should contact relevant OR
individuals in the countries in that region, determine what the interest is with the
idea of establishing an interest group;
Having identified such an individual in each country, this person should be the
country contact and also the one to drive and co-ordinate the local initiative and
activities;
The local country representative should activate some discussion group or inter-
est group, etc.;
Encourage, and support, local representatives to holding regular workshops,
meetings, etc. while in parallel promoting and encouraging more interest;
Encourage existing OR societies in Africa to join AFROS, if they are not mem-
bers of AFROS yet;
The drive, ultimately, should be towards establishing a local society in each
country, or a regional grouping of countries where it makes sense;
Finding funding through sponsorship and other means should be a continuous
activity;
The establishment of a permanent AFROS office must be a high priority and
should be delegated to a responsible person to drive and to ensure it becomes
a reality. This will ensure resilience as well as longer-term sustainability of the
initiative; and
Etc.
The focus should be on those countries where there is already a spectrum of
known OR activities. The reason being that these are potentially the low hang-
ing fruit where success can be obtained in the short-term. Success in this instance
Author's personal copy
1822
H.W.Ittmann
1 3
implies getting an OR society established in that country. For example, from what
was outlined above countries such as Morocco, Egypt, Zimbabwe, Senegal and
a regional grouping on the West Coast of Africa falls within this category. Other
countries should, however, not be ignored but the efforts there should, in general, be
considered as longer term.
Much more detail should go into such a plan such as how to contact people in
the four regions and countries, if there are no OR departments at the universities
in a country what should one do, etc. etc. Within the broader IFORS executive, for
example, there are people that have significant networks and contacts with opera-
tions researchers in Africa and these can be used. However, those involved in a
region should be innovative and creative in taking this initiative forward, they will
have to think out of the box, etc. to make it happen. Overall co-ordination of all
activities will be essential.
11.3 Key performance indicators
The key performance indicators (KPI’s) should be determined. These endeavour to
quantify how well the goals set by AFROS are achieved. Examples of KPI’s could
be the following:
Those AFROS representatives for the four regions should be in place within the
first 6months;
Contact should have been made with OR stakeholders in ten countries, in each of
the regions in the first year, and by the end of year two contact should have been
made with stakeholders in all the countries in Africa;
The AFROS associate editor for the IFORS News must be in place by end of
year one;
All current OR societies in Africa should be members of AFROS by end of year
one;
The aim should be to have one new society established by the end of year two;
two additional ones by end of year three and another two by end of year four;
There should be two new “interest” groups established in different countries at
the end of each of the 5years;
Three of these should be in the process of establishing formal societies;
An AFROS office identified and established by the end of the second year and a
full time or part time person appointed;
Three summer schools should have been held by end of year five; and
Funding must be sourced from various sponsors and funding agencies to provide
a sustainable source of income by the end of year five. The funding can be used
for various initiatives and certainly for the more permanent AFROS office.
The importance of setting timelines and ways to measure progress is critical.
What is presented and listed here are only proposed and possible KPI’s. AFROS
need to set its own timelines, targets and KPI’s and should not shy away from put-
ting these in place.
Author's personal copy
1823
1 3
The current state ofORinAfrica
11.4 Possible stumbling blocks
What could be the hurdles or obstacles that would prevent this? A few are
mentioned:
Political instability in parts of the African continent;
Governments that refuse, or obstruct, the formation of professional societies;
Funding will always be a problem and an obstacle for endeavours such as out-
lined in this Sect. 11. The suggestions proposed above will require funds and
every effort should be made to generate funds;
Travelling in Africa is problematic. The continent is huge, distances are substan-
tial, and the cost of air travel is very high. In addition, the lack of direct flights
between countries makes this a challenging endeavour;
Not enough interest within regions, or countries, for this endeavour;
The problem of pursuing initiatives that are short-term and not long-term, and
the lack of sustainability without a continuous stream of new “blood” joining the
initiatives; and
Lack of proper OR training and education. Linked to that lack of OR textbooks,
OR journals and other OR material. It should, however, be stated that in most
African countries people have access to the Internet. This could overcome the
last hurdle, or problem, stated here since there are many top international uni-
versities offering under-graduate and graduate OR courses of high quality and
standard via the Internet.
Africa is a large continent and out of experience many of those who have been
involved in Africa know things don’t happen overnight, it takes time and patience
will be required.
12 Conclusions
OR activities in Africa are diverse across the continent. It has taken years to get
to a point where a few societies from African countries and individuals are now
taking the step of establishing an entity that will represent the OR interest across
Africa—the AFROS initiative. This is a great initiative that holds promise for the
future of OR in Africa. There are many countries where there are known and enough
interests, activities, etc. around OR that would justify the formation of OR socie-
ties. These countries should be encouraged to take the necessary steps towards more
formal structures. It is about time OR in Africa has a mechanism to not just pro-
mote the discipline across Africa but also to focus on ways and means of assisting in
addressing African specific problems.
This paper is aimed at giving an up-to-date view of the state of OR in Africa.
As has been indicated it is not comprehensive and can be improved substantially.
Nevertheless, it is a start to get a firmer grip on what is happening in Africa around
OR but specifically with the aim of trying to identify countries or regions where OR
societies can potentially be established. It is envisaged that what is presented here
Author's personal copy
1824
H.W.Ittmann
1 3
can be used as the basis for taking decisions about how best to promote the interest
in OR and how best to deploy limited resources available for this purpose.
Acknowledgements The responses from many individuals that provided inputs to e-mails from someone
they have never met and that they don’t know, are highly appreciated. There are close to 50 people that
assisted in this process, people mainly from African countries but also from Europe and the USA. I would
like to acknowledge their assistance and thank them all for their willingness to provide me with infor-
mation from their respective countries as well as other sources. The comments from the two unknown
reviewers are also gratefully acknowledged as it contributed to an improved paper.
References
Caulkins JP, Eelman E, Ratnatunga M, Schaarsmith D (2005) O.R. Africa recent programs, future poten-
tial. OR/MS Today, October 2005. https ://www.orms-today .org/orms-10-05/afric a.html
Cherlesly M, Rancourt M-E, Smilowitz K (2018) Using OR to design a community healthcare network in
underserved areas of liberia. IFORS News 12(2):7
Clayson JE (1980) How relevant is operational research to development? The case of Kenyan industry. J
Oper Res Soc 31:293–299
Datta S (2000) Applications of operational research to the transportation problems in developing coun-
tries: a review. Glob Bus Rev 1(1):113–132
Degila J (2018) OR techniques and applications School for Africa (ORTASA). IFORS News 12(2):22
El Sherif H (1990) Managing institutionalization of strategic decision support for the Egyptian cabinet.
Interfaces 20(1):97–114
Evans D (2011) ORSSA journeys on to the 2011 conference. IFORS News 5(1):6
Evans D, Lesaoana M, Nyamugure P, Sigauke C (2011) Operations research comes to Zimbabwe in a big
way—the ORSSA 2011 conference at Victoria Falls. OR/MS Today, 1 June 2011
Geldenhuys G, Rudolph G (1997) A brief history of the beginnings of operations research in South
Africa. www.orssa .org.za. Accessed 15 Sept 2018
Habte AG, Yohannes AM, Kassa DF, Negash EO, Manna ZG (2003) Eritrean students: their views and
impressions of OR and ORSSA. Direct Connection to Developing Countries 11(2):8
Hadj-Alouane AB (2017) MobiDoc initiative in Tunisia. OR/MS Today, August 2017, 50–53
Haouari M, M’hallah R (2005) Operations research in Tunisia. Direct Connection to Developing Coun-
tries 13(2):4
IORMS (2017) Workshop on OR/MS: an insight into IORMS as a professional body. College Health
Technology, Calabar. https ://iorms .com/Works hop%20on%20OR-MS%20-%20AN%20INS
IGHT%20INT O%20IOR MS%20AS%20A%20PRO FESSI ONAL%20BOD Y2.pps. Accessed 15
Aug 2018
Ittmann HW (2013) IFORS supports urban transport planning conference in Senegal. IFORS News 7(4):7
Ittmann HW (2018) A South African perspective on OR/MS education. In: Ittmann HW, Pato MV, Ber-
lien J, Laumanns M, Teixeira AP, de Miranda JL (eds) Advances in operations research education.
Springer, Berlin
Ittmann HW, Yadavalli VSS (2010) The operations research society of South Africa. In: Cochran JJ (ed)
Wiley encyclopaedia of operations research and management science. Wiley, New York, pp 1–4
Kebedow KG, Oppen J (2018) A mixed integer programming model for cargo composition problem
including containers with dangerous goods. In: 1st AFROS conference proceedings, 2–4 July 2018,
Tunis, Tunisia
Kemball-Cook D, Wright DJ (1981) The search for appropriate O.R.: a review of operational research in
developing countries. J Opr Res Soc 32:1021–1037
Kerrigan K, Kennedy CE, Cheng AS, Sandison SJ, Fonner VA, Holtgrave DR, Brahmbhatt H (2015)
Advancing the strategic use of HIV operations research to strengthen local policies and pro-
grammes: the research to prevention project. J Int AIDS Soc 18(1):20029
Khumbah N, Cochran J (2013) IFORS brings operations research to Cameroon. IFORS News 7(2):3
Leke A, Chironga M, Desvaux G (2018) Africa’s business revolution. Harvard Business Review Press,
Boston
Lindner B, Misri H (2017) AFROS forges ahead. IFORS News 11(4):7
Author's personal copy
1825
1 3
The current state ofORinAfrica
Luhandjula MK (2003) OR in the African Great Lake region. Direct Connection to Developing Countries
11(3):10
Mampassi B (2004) The organization of the first OR conference by the West and Central African network
for operational research. Direct Connection to Developing Countries 12(1):15
Masmoudi Y (2015) Tunisian operational research society: a look into our newest member. IFORS News
9(1):16
Menou A, Wakrim M, Moudden A (2013) International symposium on operational research and applica-
tions. In: Conference proceedings, 8–10 May, Marrakech, Morocco
Merchant S (2016) Report of the IFORS VP at large and chair. Developing Countries Committee, IFORS
News 10(2):7
Merchant S (2018) AFROS 2018 conference Tunis July 2nd–4th: driving forward OR in Africa. IFORS
News 12(3):16–17
Mouchili I, Moukouop I (2004) Operational research in Cameroon: meeting the challenges. Direct Con-
nection to Developing Countries 12(2):8–9
Okeibunor J, Ota M, Gasasira A (2015) Role of operational research in accelerating progress towards
attainment of poliomyelitis targets in the African region. African Health Monitor, March 2015, pp
58–60
Oloo CM (2016) AFROS: Kenya hosts meet to form African regional OR federation. IFORS News
10(4):5
Omosigho SE (2003) OR growing in Nigeria. Direct Connection to Developing Countries 11(2):3
ORSEA (2018) Call for papers—the 14th international operations research of Eastern Africa conference,
8–9 November 2018, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. https ://www.udbs.udsm.ac.tz/image s/Docs/confe
rence s/orsea /orsea _confe rence _2018_call.pdf
Ouorou A, Tossa J (2012) IFORS sponsors OR School in Africa. IFORS News 6(1):10
Rakotonirainy G, Van Vuuren JH (2018) Metaheuristic for rectangular strip packing problem. In: 47th
annual ORSSA conference proceedings, 16–19 September 2018, Pretoria, South Africa
Rand GK, Smith DK (2003) Report on The first OR conference held in West Africa. Direct Connection to
Developing Countries 11(1):7–8
Rand GK, Tsoukias A (2002) Developing OR in Africa: initiatives of IFORS and EURO. Presentation at
the IFORS 2002 conference, Edinburgh, Scotland
Rand GK, Smith DK, Soubeiga E (2003) OR take-off in West Africa? OR Newsletter. https ://www.euro-
onlin e.org/afric anOR/ORNew slett er200 3a
Rodriques T (2012) Participants learn problem structuring in IFORS workshop. IFORS News 6(4):8
Rönnqvist M (2017) Five finalists vie for IFORS prize at IFORS 2017. IFORS News 11(2):9
Salawu I (2014) Operations research practice in Nigeria. IFORS News 8(1):5
Silal S (2015) IFORS supports ORPA conference in Algeria. IFORS News 9(2):11
Smith DK (1987) Operational research in a developing country: the example of Jordan. J Oper Res Soc
38(7):577–584
Smith DK (2008) A bibliography of applications of operational research in West Africa. Int Trans Oper
Res 15:121–150
Soubeiga E (2003) The African OR network website, www.euro-onlin e.orgaf rican OR. An interface for
practitioners and researchers in Africa. Direct Connection to Developing Countries 11(2):2
Soubeiga E (2004) Report of the conference CARO in which the West and Centre African OR Network
is born, article on Operational Research Practice in Africa website. http://www.orpa-group .org/artic
les.php
Speranza MG (2008) State of OR in Africa. IFORS News 2(4):2
Teghem J, Abdelaziz FB (2015) A historic first OR annual conference in Tunisia. IFORS News 9(4):6
Trick M (2016) Creating societies in Africa. IFORS News 10(4):1
Wainaina G (2017) Briefing on the operations research society of Eastern Africa. IFORS News 11(4):6
White L, Smith H, Currie C (2011) OR in developing countries: a review. Eur J Oper Res 208(1):1–11
Publisher’s Note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published
maps and institutional affiliations.
Author's personal copy
... Multi-criteria decision making was one of the rapidly growing areas of operational research over the last two decades [34]. It refers to a set of techniques that enables modeling and blending the performances of different alternatives over different pre-defined attributes into a composite index that can be utilized for sorting out alternatives and appending the best alternative [35,36]. ...
Article
Full-text available
The construction sector continues to experience significant challenges brought by new techniques and technologies. Hence, there is a dire need for construction companies to address critical issues concerning changing environmental conditions, construction innovations, market globalization and many other aspects, thereby enhancing their competitive edge. Thus, the primary goal for this research is to develop a multi-criteria decision making model that would consider and evaluate all essential factors in determining the competitiveness index of construction companies. In the developed model, three new pillars (3P) for competitiveness are introduced: (1) non-financial internal pillar; (2) non-financial external pillar; and (3) financial pillar. The 3P includes 6 categories and 26 factors that are defined and incorporated in the developed assessment model for the purpose of measuring the companies’ competitiveness. The weights for the identified factors are computed using fuzzy analytical network process (FANP) to diminish the uncertainty inherited within the judgment of the respondents. The weight of factors and their affiliated performance scores are used as an input for the preference ranking organization method for enrichment evaluation (PROMETHEE II) technique. In this regard, PROMETHEE II is undertaken as a ranking technique to prioritize any given construction company by determining its respective competitiveness index. The developed model is validated through five cases studies that reveal its potential of illustrating detailed analysis with respect to the competitive ability of construction companies. A sensitivity analysis is carried out to determine the most influential factors that affect the competitiveness of construction companies. It is anticipated that the developed evaluation model can be used in the decision-making process by all parties involved in construction projects. For instance, contractors can leverage the evaluation model in taking better decisions pertinent to the markup values. In addition, it can benefit employers in the evaluation process of contractors.
... IFORS aspire to expand and develop its reach across Africa and the world (Trick 2016). However, in Africa there are about half the number of countries, worldwide, that are not members of IFORS (Ittmann 2019). Another important event was the foundation of regional associations such as the African Federation of Operations Research Societies (AFROS) (Oloo 2016;Lindner and Misri 2017). ...
Article
Full-text available
Operations Research and Management Science research has demonstrated considerable impact in developing countries, among them African Countries, since the Second World War. The aim of this paper is to study the contribution of African countries to this field of “research” through Scientometric analysis of 3186 Operations Research and Management Science papers published by African authors between 1990 and 2018 and indexed in the Web of Science. We derive general empirical results and the overall structure of the intellectual landscape with emerging trends and thematic concentrations of co-cited authors. The analysis demonstrates increased adoption of Operations Research and Management Science models and techniques by African Researchers in addressing diverse academic challenges.
Chapter
This paper presents an analysis of research articles published in the field of Operations Research and Management Science (OR/MS) by Latin American researchers. The objective is to examine the historical evolution of research in the field and to examine the current state of OR/MS studies in Latin America. The analysis is based on data available on the Web of Science databases. This study provides a general picture of studies in the field, by analyzing the findings through the most productive countries, the most influential authors, and the network of collaborations, among other indicators. The study reveals that OR/MS publications having at least one author from a country in Latin America have steadily increased over time. Expert Systems with Applications and the European Journal of Operational Research are their preferred journals for publication. This study also concludes that Brazilian researchers and institutions dominate the production of OR/MS knowledge with more than half of the documents published in the region, and four other counties (Mexico, Chile, Colombia, and Argentina) account for the remaining document to surpass the 90% threshold.
Chapter
Full-text available
The history and current activities of the Operations Research Society of South Africa (ORSSA) is presented in this paper.
Article
Full-text available
In the field of HIV prevention, there is renewed interest in operations research (OR) within an implementation science framework. The ultimate goal of such studies is to generate new knowledge that can inform local programmes and policies, thus improving access, quality, efficiency and effectiveness. Using four case studies from the USAID-funded Research to Prevention (R2P) project, we highlight the strategic use of OR and the impact it can have on shaping the focus and content of HIV prevention programming across geographic and epidemic settings and populations. These case studies, which include experiences from several sub-Saharan African countries and the Caribbean, emphasize four unique ways that R2P projects utilized OR to stimulate change in a given context, including: (1) translating findings from clinical trials to real-world settings; (2) adapting promising structural interventions to a new context; (3) tailoring effective interventions to underserved populations; and (4) prioritizing key populations within a national response to HIV. Carefully crafted OR can bridge the common gap that exists between research-generated knowledge and field-based practice, lead to substantial, real-world changes in national policies and programmes, and strengthen local organizations and the use of data to be more responsive to a given topic or population, ultimately supporting a locally tailored HIV response.
Article
Full-text available
The objective of this study is to evaluate the current literature on the use of Operational Research (OR) in solving the transportation problems in the developing countries. The review is a result of several months of searching through a wide range of journals and publications. The studies are classified into three broad groups: (a) Planning and Evaluation; (b) Distribution and Location; and (c) Scheduling and Routing. Finally, a research agenda for the future in this important area is outlined.
Article
Much interest has been expressed in recent years in the problem of applying operational research in less developed countries. This paper examines the problems and possibilities of developing an interest in operational research in one such country, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
Chapter
The education system in South Africa is currently under severe pressure for a whole number of reasons. Education is seen as a right but the majority of students are not properly equipped to attend university. This is especially true of mathematics and science education, impacting OR/MS education as well. In this chapter a general context of education in South Africa is presented and how this effects university education. The rest of the chapter will then focus on OR/MS education at the South African tertiary, or higher education, institutions. The focus will be on the five main topics covered in the recent European study of OR/MS Education (Teixeira et al. 2016). A qualitative and descriptive view will be presented on what is currently happening at South African institutions of higher education as it relates to OR/MS education. Initially a general overview is presented of OR/MS education in the country. The current state of OR/MS education in South Africa is then sketched. The information was obtained through interactions with educators at the respective institutions as well as from the university websites. The emphasis in what is presented are on the following aspects namely: the enrolment of OR/MS students; addressing 1st year students’ failure rates and promoting continuity; the value of OR/MS courses; the teaching practices; and assistance provided by universities to students entering the labor market while highlighting any innovative practices in OR/MS education. These are also the main topics covered in the recent European OR/MS education survey. Other issues of relevance are addressed as well.
Article
This paper proposes that the debate over O.R.'s role in development can be advanced by looking at a specific industrial environment. The Kenyan example suggests that for O.R. to make a contribution to this developing society it must: first, be defined as broadly as possible so as to include the most basic problem-solving techniques, and second, contribute to the diffusing of these techniques throughout the economy. O.R. should be viewed less as the province of an elite group of specialists -and more as a common resource available to managers at any level of industry. O.R. educators in developing nations can "democratise" quantitative techniques by incorporating them into such traditional business disciplines as accounting, marketing, and production. These courses should stress problem-solving and rely on cases drawn from local experiences. The paper ends by describing a pilot project, the Case Research and Documentation Centre, which is designed to promote more pragmatic management education and research in Kenya.
Article
A review is presented of the literature relating to the application of O. R. in developing countries. The study attempts to identify the special factors which affect decision problems in developing countries. Some desirable characteristics for O. R. in this context are outlined. The study then summarises the results of a review of published studies, and some criticisms are made of current O. R. work.
Article
Much interest has been expressed in recent years in the problem of applying operational research in less developed countries. This paper examines the problems and possibilities of developing an interest in operational research in one such country, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
Article
Our approach to managing institutionalization has evolved from the implementation of 28 large projects in Egypt. The projects were part of a program initiated by the Cabinet of Egypt late in 1985. The aim of the program is to improve strategic decision making at the cabinet level. Projects were driven by macro strategic issues or needs for management and technological development in establishing decision support systems (DSS) in different ministries, sectors, and governorates. The systems supported debt management, public sector performance evaluation, customs reform, energy pricing, and general performance administrative decision making. Our experience with the introduction, development, and use of these systems suggests that managing institutionalization is as important as model building. It should be an explicit, complementary, and integrated process that accompanies system development and model building.
Article
There is considerable interest in the potential for using operational research (O.R.) in developing countries. One sign of this is the formation of new societies for O.R. scientists in countries and regions where no such society had existed. Since 2003, such societies have been formed in several parts of Africa. This paper focuses on West Africa, and presents a bibliography of papers relating to applications of O.R. in the nations of this part of the continent. The paper describes the way in which the bibliography was collated and discusses the overall picture that the list of papers presents of the state of O.R. in the 18 countries that are considered.