Here are some of the main activities and institutions
with which Professor Bujra was actively involved as well as some of
his major publications:-
Pan-African and National Activities: OAU/AU and Governments
Professor Bujra was recently (July 2007) appointed,
by the AU President Kouffour of Ghana, as a member of the High Level
Panel to Audit the AU. The Audit Report has since been discussed by
the Executive Council and the Assembly of the AU.
In 2005 Prof. Bujra was a Member of the NEPAD Steering
Committee formed to prepare and establish “The Africa Forum
of Former Heads of States” – presently Chaired by former
President of Mozambique President Chisano.
Between 1998-2000, Professor Bujra was assigned to
the OAU in Addis Ababa to serve as CEO to the International Panel
of Eminent Personalities (IPEP) which was mandated to investigate
the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. IPEP was set up by the Assembly of Heads
of State and Governments of the OAU.
In 1991 Professor Bujra was appointed as a UNDP Expert
in Human Resources to establish and develop the UN Long Term Perspective
Studies (LTPS) Programme for Africa. The programme was based in Abidjan,
Cote d’Ivoire.
In 1990 Professor Bujra was appointed by President
Moi, to be a member of the Presidential Committee on Employment in
Kenya. The Committee Report was published in 1991.
International, African and National Research and Academic Activities
Prof. Bujra is one of the founders of the Dakar based CODESRIA (Council
for the Development of Economic and Social Research in Africa) . He
became the first fulltime Executive Secretary of CODESRIA from 1975
to 1988. During his period in office and as part of mobilizing the
African Social Science Community he conceptualized, initiated, and
contributed substantively to 50 conferences/seminars/workshops in
different countries and on many different development themes - such
as industrialization, rural development, economic integration, technology,
population, democracy etc. As part of the process of mobilization
and research, he established Pan -African as well as national research
groups. He also set up CODICE – the CODESRIA documentation center.
He started the now famous CODESRIA journal, Africa Development and
other CODESRIA publications – especially books.
During the 1970s and 1980s Professor Bujra was a member
of various professional bodies such as the Joint Committee of the
Four Regional Social Science Organization – CODESRIA (for Africa),
CLACSO (Latin America), AIDAP (Asia & pacific) and EADI (Europe),
the Africa Committee of the American Social Science Research Council,
the Paris based International Social Science Council (ISSC) of UNESCO
and the Social Science Committee of the Tanzanian National Scientific
Research Council. He was elected and served for two terms in all the
three Committees.
In 1986 he was a visiting scholar at the Christien
Michelson Institute and the Institute of Development Studies at the
University of Bergen in Norway.
In 1990 Prof. Bujra served as the first Executive
Secretary of the newly established “Management of Science and
Technology for Development in Africa” (MANSCI) Chaired by General
Olusigun Obasanjo, but based in Nairobi.
In 1991 he was a Visiting Professor at the Global
Institute of Cultural Studies, at Binghamton, NY State (State University
of Binghamton)
In 1992, along with President Mbeki’s father
and Samir Amin, Professor Bujra was honored with the CODESRIA award
of a Distinguished African Social Scientist in Institution Building.
Prof. Bujra has served as a team leader in research
initiatives in Africa during the last 30 years, during which period
he has actively participated and led international workshops, seminars
and conferences in Africa, Europe, North America, Latin America, Middle
East, India and South East Asia.
In 1995 he became the founding Director of the Development
Policy Management Forum (DPMF) a pan-African NGO hosted at the UNCEA
in Addis Ababa but moved to Nairobi in 2006. He continues to be the
Executive Director of DPMF.
Prof. Bujra is currently Chairperson of the Board
of Directors of the Nairobi based ACEG’s (African Center for
Economic Growth);
Main Publications
Between 2002-2004 Professor Bujra Chaired a Committee
of distinguished Kenyan scholars which supervised a Ford Foundation
funded research on Governance in Kenya. The project was facilitated
by the Nairobi based ACEG. The result of the research has been published
(2005) in a book, “Democratic Transition in Kenya: the struggle
from Liberal to Social Democracy”. Professor Bujra is the edited
and also a contributor.
He has published extensively on issues related to
governance and development in Africa. Prof. Bujra is the author of
a book on “The Politics of Stratification in a South Arabian
Town” (Oxford University Press, 1971); he has co-authored and
edited several books among them, “Africa and the Future,”
a special number of (ADB) - African Development Bank’s journal
(1995), “Leadership, Civil Society and Democratization in Eastern
and Southern Africa 2002” (2 Volumes ), “Perspectives
on the OAU/AU and Conflict Management in Africa” (2004). His
latest edited book is on Kenya “ Kenya’s Democratic Transition:
The Struggle from Liberal to Social Democracy” (2005). Further
he has contributed to numerous publications in the form of articles
(in journals), reports, occasional working papers and chapters in
books.