3-week “High-level Capacity Strengthening Programme”

One the elements of the Southern African Systems Analysis Centre (SASAC) initiative involves a three week capacity strengthening program to be held in South Africa at the Universities of the Witwatersrand (Johannesburg) and Limpopo (Polokwane) from 22 August to 9 September 2016. 

The program  aims at developing a thinking approach within a wide range of disciplines which can be applied to a system e.g. a health system, a socio-economic system, a governance system, a mathematical and social system, an ecosystem services system and an engineering system. The key is to be transdisciplinary and to think across sectors.  

The program will include high-level lectures and research development seminars alongside workshops covering themes in both social and natural sciences, including policy dimensions. The main goal is to broaden the participants’ perspectives on systems analysis. 

As part of the program IIASA Advanced Systems Analysis researcher Sebastian Poledna, will give  a lecture on the "Financial networks and agent-based modelling of systemic risk."

Ulf Dieckmann, Director of the IIASA Evolution and Ecology Program, will hold a lecture on "Complex Adaptive Systems" and a "Mini-course on systems dynamics"

Junko Mochizuki, Risk and Resilience Program IIASA will talk about "Managing risk within the context of socio-economics and climate change".

"Programs like this are vital. Systems analysis is one of the only tools that can span the complexity of the interconnected global problems that face us today. Building capacity in this area, boosting the knowledge and understanding of today’s talented, up-and-coming researchers, offers our best chance of overcoming the substantial barriers to sustainability." says Director General and CEO Professor Dr. Pavel Kabat.

Last edited: 11 August 2016