African Programme on Rethinking Development Economics Virtual Conference: Industrial Development in Africa
Tuesday 17 March 2026
Virtual Conference on Zoom

APORDE will be holding its third virtual conference on Tuesday 17 March 2026. The theme of the virtual conference is Industrial Development in Africa. The conference is for the alumni from the APORDE and IPPM programmes to talk about their work or areas of research. The focus is not only academic papers, and we are inviting alumni to present on the work they are doing, be it in government, civil society or academia, to support industrial development.The 2026 Alumni conference will coincide with the 20th Anniversary of APORDE. We look forward to two decades of alumni contributing to this conference.

In alignment with the approach of APORDE, the aim of the conference is to share insights or research by APORDE and IPPM alumni in implementing industrial policy or industrial development programmes.

The conference will take place in virtual format to accommodate the alumni network from across Africa and the world. A total of nine papers can be presented with an opening and closing panel discussion. Each presenter will have 15 minutes for their presentation.

Alumni are invited to submit a short overview of what they would like to present on or the abstract of their paper by Friday 31 January 2026, it should be no more than 500 words. Alumni will be notified of the decision to present by Friday 14 February 2026. The overviews / abstract submissions should include full contact details of the authors / presenters.

If you wish to contribute, please submit to Rozale at TIPS via email: aporde@tips.org.za

All alumni are invited to attend the conference. An invitation and agenda will be sent out in February 2026