Above: Workshop participants on vist to Cape Coast Castle. Home page: U of Ghana campus.

This week the Institute is hosting the seventh edition of its Global South Workshop in partnership with the University of Ghana in Accra. At the workshop, 20 PhD students selected out of 80 candidates from developing and emerging countries present their research and receive guidance from professors from the Institute and from the University of Ghana in order to benefit from their expertise. Participants come from as far as Brazil, India, Malaysia, and the Philippines in addition to Nigeria, Ghana and Zimbabwe and are working on research topics related to global affairs or development studies.

Sponsored by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, the workshop consists of five panels moderated by professors, two public lectures and visits to historic locations near Accra. The two lectures are given by Professor Gopalan Balachandran on “Regions and the Making of a World Economy: For a Historical Political Economy from the South”, and Professor Riccardo Bocco on "Dealing with the Past in post-Conflict Contexts". Other faculty members participating are Professors Gareth Austin and Jean-Luc Maurer, who co-organised the event.

This year marks the second time the Global South Workshop has been held outside Geneva. Last year it was held at Gadjah Mada University in Indonesia.

The Institute recently concluded a partnership with the University of Ghana to host the workshop and to develop student exchange and collaborative research projects. This partnership contributes to the Institute's “Emerging Countries Network” which includes partners from China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Mexico.

In addition to the Global South Workshop, the Institute also hosts Global South Scholars who are young professors from universities from developing and emerging countries pursuing advanced research. Applications for the 2013 Global South Scholar programme will be accepted until 1 October.