The Minister of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology, Professor Pierre Gomez, together with the Deputy Permanent Secretary (Admin/Finance) and Senior Management Team of the Ministry, recently received the Secretary-General of the Organisation of Southern Cooperation (OSC), Manssour Bin Mussallam.
The Secretary General was accompanied by the Under-Secretary-General for Research, Evaluation and Foresight, Professor Hirut Woldemariam Teketel; Under-Secretary General for Administration, Papa Malick Gaye; Programme Officer, Policy Affairs, Ms Lakshmipriya Pallipatt Boss, and Personal Assistant to the Secretary General, Ms Bethelhem Solomon. The OSC delegation was accompanied by the Director of Curriculum of MoBSE, Momodou Jeng. And the meeting took place at the Ministry’s Complex in Kanifing.
The visit of the OSC Secretary General was to strengthen the already existing partnership between the Ministry and the OSC to support the Ministry’s transformation agenda in research, science, and technology, as well as scholarship opportunities for The Gambia.
Discussions at the meeting centred on the ongoing planning to establish the first-ever Interdisciplinary Research Centre in The Gambia, as part of the rollout of the two research centres to be established in the Global South by the OSC. The Gambia has been identified to house the Centre for the Africa Region, while the second Centre will be in Latin America.
Higher Education Minister Professor Pierre Gomez thanked the team for a timely visit to the Ministry. He informed the meeting that a site has already been identified at the University of The Gambia for the establishment of the Interdisciplinary Research Centre. He explained the ongoing activities and processes his Ministry is undertaking to ensure the smooth establishment of the Centre in The Gambia.
Minister Gomez also noted the strategic cooperation between the Ministry and OSC especially as research, science, and technology are critical components of the Ministry’s development drive.
Minister Gomez expressed delight in the establishment of the Centre, which will be the first of its kind in The Gambia. He envisioned that the Centre, when established, will host diverse researchers who can collaborate and share knowledge with home-based researchers, and their research outputs will play a pivotal role in addressing the country’s challenges.
For his part, the OSC Secretary-General Manssour Bin Mussallam thanked Minister Gomez and his team for expressing willingness and commitment to partnering with his organization in the aforementioned areas.
He commended the Minister for his visionary leadership and for working proactively on his Ministry’s vision, especially in the establishment of the Interdisciplinary Research Centre. Thus, he reiterated OSC’s continued commitment to strengthening partnership in the existing cooperation and expressed hope to explore other areas of cooperation.
SG Bin Mussallam highlighted that in November 2024, during the General Assembly of the OSC in Addis Ababa, the Minister of Information, Media and Broadcasting Services, Dr Ismaila Ceesay, represented The Gambia in the ratification for the establishment of the said Centre in Banjul, as well as the mandate to establish additional centres in other regions of the Greater South.
Mr Bin Mussallam added that the OSC General Assembly adopted various projects that fall within the Ministry’s mandate of building knowledge power societies such as the Southern Research, Innovation Application Fund (SORIA), and the FREIRE framework, which aims to address research funding gaps in member countries.
Mr Bin Mussallam further noted that these initiatives re-enforce study exchanges between youths and regions through education.
As part of the framework to increase the mobility scheme through the annual postgraduate scholarship, Mr Bin Mussallam explained that in 2024, OSC granted over 300 scholarships to citizens of the OSC Member States to study in Brazil.
This number will be increased to 400 students in the current year, he stated, adding that more opportunities will be extended to India in 2026.
He revealed plans to pilot the FREIRE framework as a mobility scheme in three universities in the Africa Region and three universities in the Latin America and Southeast Asia Regions.
He also confirmed that one university from The Gambia will be included in this pilot programme, which will facilitate student mobility across the three above-mentioned regions, and further integrate The Gambia into the global academic landscape.
