Inaugural Conference MAPS Project

 🗓️ 28 July 2025 (9.00-18.30) | 📍 Serena Hotel, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania | Hybrid modality

On July 28, in Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), the inaugural conference of the European MAPS project took place, under the title “Migration and Displacement in Sub-Saharan Africa: Towards a Knowledge-Based Agenda.”
The event marked a key moment in fostering connections between universities, public institutions, international organizations, African and European civil society, and diaspora actors from the project’s ten target African countries: Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Guinea, South Sudan, and South Africa. The conference provided a valuable platform to encourage dialogue between academia and policymakers, exchange best practices, and identify new priorities for action. The approach was interdisciplinary, with a strong focus on protecting the most vulnerable populations.

* The MAPS Project—coordinated by the UNESCO Chair in Migrations, Population, and Development at Sapienza University of Rome— promotes evidence-based policy solutions on migration and displacement and involves a multidisciplinary consortium from Europe and Africa. Partner institutions include six Italian universities hosting UNESCO Chairs (Sapienza, Udine, University Iuav of Venice, Brescia, Ferrara, and Reggio Calabria), the University of Barcelona (Spain), the University of Dodoma (Tanzania), the University of Kabale (Uganda), and AMREF International University (Kenya). Advisory institutions contributing to the MAPS initiative include the IOM Regional Data Hub for West and Central Africa, the Catholic University of Rwanda, and the University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa).