The Advisory Committee for the Database of African Theses and Dissertations (DATAD) held its first meeting in Accra, Ghana from 12-13th September 2000. The nine member committee draws membership from Egypt, South Africa, Namibia, Côte d'Ivoire, Nigeria, and Ghana. It comprises of expertise ranging from Research, University Administration, Project Management, Information and Communication Technologies, Knowledge Organization, Software Engineering, Computer Applications, Web Technology, Information Marketing, and extensive experiences in both local and international and trans border information transfer.

Issues pertinent to successful implementation of the project were discussed. Among others, Copyright and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), strategies for management, data quality control and standardization, and CD-ROM Production were the main focus. The Committee commended the project's progress since its commencement in mid February and approved its annual Work Plan.

The DATAD initiative to index, abstract and distribute dissertations and theses completed in Africa was discussed at a planning meeting convened by PIAC in January 1998 during which an outline of a feasibility study for a pilot project was also discussed. Participants of this meeting in which AAU was represented recognized and reiterated the centrality of the Association of African Universities (AAU) in taking a leading role in pursuing such a project.

Drawing from the findings and recommendations of the Feasibility Study Report, the AAU developed a three year project proposal. For the involvement of eleven universities (selected amongst those involved in the feasibility study) the US$800,000 project has been partially funded by the Ford Foundation while the Rockefeller Foundation has indicated firm interest.

Apart from the general aim of serving its primary objective of being an information resource, the Database on African Theses and Dissertations, will serve to contribute towards the creation of an environment conducive for research and publication in African universities and the region as a whole, create capacity in African universities for the collection, management and dissemination of theses and dissertations electronically, provide visibility and improve accessibility to the work of African scholars both within and outside of the continent, facilitate the development of relevant copyright procedures and regulations which will promote the protection of the intellectual property rights of African university researchers, provide support for AAU programs which aim at capacity building in the area of research, promotion of cooperation among member universities and networking of institutions having access to a central source of information.