The past year and a half has marked several important milestones for the Competence Center for African Research (CCAR) and the Institute for Business Ethics (IWE), furthering their work on the African continent.
In November 2023, Catherine McDonald, a PhD candidate and research assistant at the IWE, was awarded a research and mobility grant from Leading House Africa with funding from the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation. The grant facilitated her PhD research in Ethiopia on the corporate diplomacy activities of multinational firms, in relation to United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 16 (on peace justice and strong institutions) and enhanced the IWE’s engagement with Addis Ababa University’s College of Law and Governance Studies (CLGS).
Thanks to the support of Professor Dr. Marta Belete Hailu, Assistant Professor of Law at the School of Law and Associate Dean for Research & Technology Transfer at the CLGS, and Professor Jetu Edosa, Assistant Professor of Law, Catherine and Dr. Kebene Wodajo, a senior research fellow at the IWE and lecturer at ETH Zürich, gave a public lecture on Responsible AI in the Context of SDG 16: An Analysis of Power, Responsibility and Peace at AAU’s CLGS on November 16th 2023. The public lecture, while primarily targeted towards CLGS students, researchers, and faculty, was also open to other AAU departments and members of the public.
The grant also enabled Catherine to take part in the Young Entrepreneurship Exchange Project (YEEP) during her first fieldwork visit. Organized by the University of Hawassa, the Bern University of Applied Sciences, and Deventure, a Swiss based association, the project further enhanced the ties between the CCAR and IWE in Ethiopia and Switzerland.
During her second fieldwork trip in May 2024, Catherine returned to Addis Ababa to continue her PhD research and to give a guest lecture on Business & Human Rights at the CLGS in Professor Dr. Sisay Alemahu Yeshanew’s class for Master of Law Students. A signed copy of Professor Dr. Florian Wettstein’s book, Business & Human Rights: Ethical, Legal and Managerial Perspectives was also given to the CLGS’ library. The IWE and CCAR would like to thank Professor Dr. Marta Belete Hailu, Professor Jetu Edosa, Professor Dr. Sisay Alemahu Yeshanew and the faculty at AAU’s CLGS for their support.
The Ethics Lab 5th Anniversary Conference on Ethics Centers and Epistemic Justice in June 2024 also marked another important milestone for the CCAR and the IWE. Organized by Dr. Thierry Ngosso, Executive Director of the CCAR, the conference was hosted at the Catholic University of Central Africa (UCAC) in Yaoundé, Cameroon. Dr. Thierry Ngosso, Professor Dr. Florian Wettstein and Catherine McDonald co-organized a panel together with Professor Dr. Nien-hê Hsieh at Harvard Business School on Business and Human Rights: Global & Local Perspectives in the African Context. Thanks to the Leading House Africa grant, Catherine was able to attend the Ethics Lab 5th Anniversary Conference in person to moderate the panel.
Looking ahead to 2025, the IWE and CCAR look forward to continuing to contribute to research in and on the African continent and to furthering collaboration with AAU’s CLGS, UCAC, the University of Hawassa and beyond with institutions across Africa.
Research Assistant