Formalising and strengthening YPARD in South Africa

Dear colleagues I am calling on all YPARD members from or working in South Africa to get in touch with me so that we network and strengthen YPARD activities in the country.

I was recently appointed the YPARD representative for South Africa. I am a researcher based at the Institute for Economic Research on Innovation (IERI) of Tshwane University of Technology in Pretoria.

I believe in us, the concept of working together, and together we can achieve more (ubuntu).

There are two things that we need to do first to get YPARD moving. Firstly is to strenghten networking among all YPARD members in the country and also encourage others to join the network. Secondly is to create formal structures (at national and provincial level) that will coordinate YPARD activities in the country.

As a first step, I am kindly requesting all YPARD members in South Africa to send me the following details or make sure you have inserted them in your profile on ypard.net (NB: this information will be used solely for YPARD business):

• First name
• Surname
• Organisation (optional but important for networking)
• Designation/ occupation
• Province
• Town (optional)
• Email address

Members can also send suggestions on how we can strengthen the network, and also those with strategic links to important organisations (government departments; private; NGOs; academic; research) please do get in touch so that we strategise on partnerships. Send the information to my email address: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Join the discussion of YPARD South Africa Working Group in YPARD Forum!