This project will analyze the modes of development of multinational companies or in the process of internationalization of African or Arab origin in the South. The project questions 1 / their relations of cooperation and competition, 2 / the circulation of knowledge on the conduct of business at the intersection of local cultures and globalization, 3 / professional business leaders (local elites formed in the North and expatriates) and 4 / doing business in highly regulated environments where the rules of law and formal legal institutions are more or less ineffective. Globalization is not a convergent model of management. Local ways of achieving the underlying business to transnational corporate control standards remain largely under-analyzed. This project will analyze the hybridization process in these large African companies where a new generation is changing business practices. The investigation will focus on companies located in four countries of the South (Morocco, Ivory Coast, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates and mobilize financial and statistical data, analysis of economic news, case studies of two companies located in the five different countries, semi-structured interviews with executives, managers and business schools professors and the exploitation of local researchers' surveys.

Nitrogen, N, represents 78% of the air we breathe, under the stable and inert form of N2, and once N2 is converted into reactive forms (Nr), it becomes a key nutrient that strongly influences ecosystem functioning and food production. The quantification of N budgets (N inputs and outputs) between the surface and the atmosphere is a prerequisite to understand the N biogeochemical cycle. In Africa, the increase in demography and the associated increased fertilizer inputs (to supply growing food and energy demands) will lead to increased emissions from amended soils, which will increase atmospheric N deposition and induce feedbacks to the ecosystems and the atmosphere. In Sub Saharan Africa, Low N contents in soils make natural ecosystems very vulnerable to the potential increase of N deposition induced by large scale anthropogenic activity development. Indeed, N in excess may lead to changes in biodiversity. But West African research institutes lack resources and ecosystems have not been as well monitored as in temperate regions. In this context, the overall objective of NitroAfrica is to study –coupling field experiments and different modelling approaches– the relationships and retroactions between atmospheric N deposition, N cycling in the soil-vegetation system, emissions of reactive N forms by the surface to the atmosphere, atmospheric chemistry and regional climate. NitroAfrica will focus on wet N deposition, because in Africa it is expected that N deposition on ecosystems, particularly in wet form, will increase by 50% by 2100. We will test two main hypotheses: (1) an increase in wet N deposition, as already observed in some regions of SSA and predicted in the future for many regions of SSA will significantly affect the ecosystem functioning (including agro-ecosystems), in terms of N processes in the soil (nitrification, denitrification, mineralization), and subsequent N compound emissions; and (2) these changes in emissions of N chemical compounds to the atmosphere will significantly impact regional atmospheric chemistry and regional climate over West Africa, ultimately influencing further N. The project is highly original because there is for now no such study for Africa addressing these feedbacks in a comprehensive way, linking N deposition, ecosystem processes, surface atmosphere N compound exchanges, atmospheric chemistry and climate, allowing to link alterations of local ecosystem processes to modifications of atmospheric chemistry at the regional scale. A French-Senegalese-Ivorian multidisciplinary consortium will bring expertise on atmospheric physical chemistry, microbiology, biogeochemistry and ecology in the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum. The project is based on a close interconnection between experimental and modeling tasks, at the local and regional scales. Experiments will take place in 3 representative West African biogeographic zones (savanna and cropland sites located in Sudanian, Guinean and Sahelian zones). Local scale modelling will be performed to capture relevant soil-vegetation N-C processes leading to emissions, and surface atmosphere nitrogen fluxes will be upscaled to study the impacts at the regional climatic scale. The impacts of NitroAfrica will be measurable in terms of academic research, communication to different publics (large public, stakeholders, policy makers), training and education, and capacity building.

Energy security and supply in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) are threatened by various factors including limited infrastructure, fuel import dependence, and heavy reliance on fossil fuels, hydropower, and traditional biomass resources. Projected climate change impacts in the region will likely further affect the electricity supply and market. In the coming years, rising energy demand due to population growth, rapid urbanization, and economic development will place additional strains on the region’s electricity system. Renewable energy technologies can play an increasingly important role to meet these challenges and the objectives of the Paris Agreement on Climate Protection. That is why, as soon as 2009, ECOWAS established ECREEE (ECOWAS Regional Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency) to meet the lack of access to energy services and to support climate change mitigation. ECREEE’s mission is the regional energy planning and via the National Focal Points, to support and advice the countries to ensure that national minimum renewable energy targets are adopted and achieved in all ECOWAS Member States. As the share of renewable energies in the energy mix grows, forecasting the electricity generation as well as the electricity demand is becoming increasingly important. Moreover, a massive deployment of renewable energy will increase the complexity to manage the electricity system due to their variable and intermittent nature, from sub-daily to multi-decadal timescales. There is thus a demand for predictions ranging from weather forecasts for the next hour to monthly and seasonal predictions and climate predictions and projections. While efforts have been made in Europe to integrate climate information and services in the decision making process in the energy sector, such dedicated services in West Africa are nascent. Providing climate services to regional stakeholders taking into account their knowledge and needs could support a more sustainable development of the electricity sector and thereby, reduce the economic, social and environmental vulnerability. Therefore, the general objective of ERACSES is to deliver climate services to support the use of an optimized mix of Variable Renewable Energy (VRE) sources under various scenarios of transmission grid, backup and demand at regional and national levels. This project will be implemented at two levels. At regional level (West Africa), a Regional Climate Services Information System for Energy Sector (Platform ERACSES) will be installed at ECREEE to support VRE energy planning and policies. This platform will be built upon the C3S ECEM Demonstrator (developed to improve assessment of energy mix options over Europe with a set of tools and an online web interface), which will be powered with tailored co-developed products and services to enable the electricity companies and policy makers to assess how well energy supply will meet demand in West Africa and how energy supply and demand are sensitive to climate in different time horizons. At national level, it will focus on Côte d’Ivoire where a National Platform of Climate Services for the Energy Sector (named Platform ERACSES-CI) will be installed in the National Meteorological Office (SODEXAM) to support the management of electricity and of hydropower in providing climate information and services to a committee of electricity companies in Côte d’Ivoire including the National Focal Point of ECREEE to ensure the links between the two levels. For both the regional and the national scales, the integrated modelling approach Climate, Land-use, Energy and Water strategies (CLEWs) will be applied to investigate interconnections between these different energy resources and to identify counter-intuitive feedbacks in these integrated systems, in particular with regard to demand scenarios.

A new generation of diagnostic systems available at the point of care (POC) could save lives and reduce the spread of infectious diseases worldwide through early detection and treatment. Optical microscopy remains the gold standard for the diagnosis of many parasitological diseases; however, its accuracy is dependent on the availability and expertise of the analyst at the POC. This limitation is increased by the dependence on labour-intensive examination processes, lack of standardization, high interobserver variability, insufficient precision in sample quantification and, as a consequence, a high misdiagnosis rate. This project introduces an AI diagnostic system leveraging existing microscopes and mobile technology providing a comprehensive and holistic sample analysis rather than just detecting individual pathogens. MultiplexAI is a scalable, low-cost, autonomous AI diagnostic system for the POC that upgrades any optical microscope into an AI agent able to accurately identify any parasite in a sample. We will collect data, train, deploy and evaluate the integrated system to detect multiple diseases including malaria and parasitic Neglected Tropical Diseases. The project will pursue the following objectives and methodological steps: 1) To design a trustworthy AI system, ensuring technical and social robustness, and adherence to WHO AI ethical principles of safety, transparency, explainability, accountability, equity, and sustainability; 2) To develop AI foundational models for microscopy analysis capable of automating the detection, differentiation and quantification of multiple parasites causing disease and integrate them into an automatic mobile microscopy system; 3) To validate the system in laboratory settings; 4) To undertake a performance evaluation study in clinical workflows of four countries in SSA; 5) To assess usability, acceptability and feasibility with end-users and evaluate the cost-effectiveness of its implementation; 6) To model and evaluate the health impact of introducing our system to improve diagnosis and surveillance at both local and national level; and 7) To execute a regulatory roadmap for compliance in EU and SSA, and determine a path to market. Overall, this project aims to unleash the AI revolution leveraging mobile technologies and upgrading millions of optical microscopes into a network of intelligent POC devices, capable of performing high-throughput sample analysis to provide reliable and ubiquitous diagnostics and medical knowledge for everyone, everywhere.

WINGS-4-FGS addresses pressing needs for tackling Female Genital Schistosomiasis (FGS) in Africa, with the objective of improving case management and therapeutic access while integrating care into sexual and reproductive health strategies. FGS, a consequence of schistosomiasis caused by the parasite Schistosoma haematobium, affects millions of women and girls in sub-Saharan Africa, leading to significant morbidity and reproductive health issues. Current treatment barriers include limited knowledge, associated stigma, a lack of effective treatment, and inadequate diagnostic tools. WINGS-4-FGS proposes a multifaceted, holistic approach and aims to: i) investigate the efficacy of anti-inflammatory medications as add-ons to praziquantel; ii) implement training programs to increase awareness and medical care competency; iii) implement a community-based, two-step, self-sampling diagnostic strategy; iv) assess barriers and facilitators for integrating FGS into existing health services. WINGS-4-FGS aims to generate evidence-based recommendations, enhance local capacity, and engage stakeholders and policymakers to integrate FGS care into African countries’ healthcare systems effectively. Success will lead to improved treatment guidelines and practices that will enable patients and healthcare workers to recognize, diagnose, and treat the disease before symptoms spread, as well as foster affordable local access to treatment and reduce associated stigma. The transdisciplinary consortium brings together 11 renowned partners with expertise in tropical disease research, coming from 3 European (Germany, Switzerland and United Kingdom) and 6 African countries: Democratic Republic of Congo, Côte d’Ivoire and Malawi, where the clinical trials will be conducted, as well as Ghana, Madagascar and Rwanda. WINGS-4-FGS will forge sustainable solutions for future generations of women and girls so they can feel empowered to manage their own reproductive health and overall well-being.