ITHACA, N.Y. -- A two-day international conference at Cornell March 28 and 29 examines what many see as a major stumbling block to the success of future African development -- gender equality and women's access to higher education.

CEPARRED (the Pan African Studies and Research Center in International Relations and Education for Development), based in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, is sponsoring the conference in collaboration with Cornell's Poverty, Inequality and Development Initiative (PIDI). "Women and Higher Education in Africa: Engendering Human Capital and Upgrading Human Right to Schooling," is free and open to the public.

"Given the centrality of African women in the entire society as leading productive forces in the economy, their access to all levels of education, including higher education, will significantly determine the speed at which Africa will embark on a sustained development process based on its major assets, in spite of, or maybe because of, the constraints of the global system," said N'Dri Assié-Lumumba, associate professor in Africana Studies and in education at Cornell and a co-founder and deputy director of CEPARRED, in charge of its gender issues unit.

During the conference, major papers on gender inequalities, especially involving women in higher education, will be presented and discussed, say conference organizers, as will the theoretical aspects of inequality and practical policy dimensions.

Conference participants will include a mix of noted scholars, policymakers and social activists, including: university administrators; representatives from several major Pan African educational and scientific institutions and officials from similar institutions in other countries; officers from United Nations' programs committed to social justice and the development of education; and faculty members from Cornell, Wells College, Ithaca College and Syracuse University.

The conference will convene Thursday, March 28, at Cornell's Africana Studies and Research Center with a general introduction and reception, during which Aklilu Habte, professor and former president of the University of Addis Ababa, will address the topic "Gender, Capacity Development and Higher Education in Africa: Reflections on the Past and Future."

On Friday, March 29, the conference will move to 401 Warren Hall, where an opening session at 8:45 a.m. will introduce Tukumbi Lumumba-Kasongo, director and co-founder of CEPARRED, visiting scholar in Cornell's Department of City and Regional Planning and professor of political science at Wells College; Ravi Kanbur, the Lee Teng-hui Professor of World Affairs and professor of economics at Cornell and director of PIDI; Paul N'Da, professor at the Université de Cocody Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, representing that country's minister of higher education and scientific research; Assié-Lumumba; and Henry Richardson, Cornell professor of architecture.

That will be followed, during the balance of the day, by the conference's five major sessions, with 16 papers presented on the major themes: "Old and New Development Paradigms, Higher Education, and the Basis of Gender Inequality: General Issues and Approaches," "Theoretical and Policy Issues on Human and Women Rights in Higher Education," "Gender and Women Issues in Labor and Higher Education in Specific Case Studies," "Women and Epistemological and Phenomenological Questions of Change: What Science and Which Knowledge?" and "Major Issues and Looking Forward." Some of the papers may be published in a future issue of JEDIRAF (Journal of Comparative Education and International Relations in Africa ), the refereed journal of CEPARRED.

CEPARRED is a non-sectarian and non-profit institution that is affiliated with the Ivorian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, with headquarters in Abidjan. In 1996, CEPARRED organized its first biennial seminar in Abidjan on the topic of "Economic Reform and Investment in Education in Africa: Assessment of the Current State and Strategies for an Effective Response to the Challenges of the 21st Century." A second seminar was held in 1999 in Abidjan on "Innovations in African Higher Education." The conference at Cornell is the first of a two-part CEPARRED seminar, with the second scheduled for July 2002 in Abidjan.

A range of Cornell units and offices are co-sponsoring the event. For a list and the complete schedule see: http://www.arts.cornell.edu/poverty/ . For further information, contact N'Dri Assié-Lumumba at nal2@cornell.edu or at (607)255-7839.

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