2023 Supply Chain Research Summit Ears High Marks

The summit featured more than 90 presenters, including top scholars and entrepreneurs, and offered 35 sessions in five tracks, including a track on practitioner and policy discourse on African supply chains. The summit included a keynote speech by Gayani de Alwis, then-global chairperson of Women in Logistics and Transport (WiLAT), who emphasized the importance of women's participation in the future world of work. De Alwis noted that the future world of work will be characterized by more part-time employees, gig workers, and crowd-sourcing, as well as automation, robotics, and artificial intelligence. She also highlighted the need for organizations and individuals to understand these new developments and adapt to the changing landscape. De Alwis also discussed the role of women in the future world of work, noting that women are more effective than men in leadership measures, but are underrepresented in male-dominant industries such as logistics and supply chain. She emphasized that advancing women's employment could add $12 trillion to global GDP and boost some countries' economic output by as much as 35%. The summit also featured a Dissertation Awards Competition, which showcased the best logistics and supply chain management doctoral research being carried out in African higher education institutions. The summit had a diverse attendance, with participants from 41 countries, including Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, the United States, and Uganda. The largest contingent of attendees (56%) were from Ghana, followed by Nigeria, Kenya, the United States, and Uganda. The summit also featured an invited session featuring presentations from students developing projects in CARISCA's Innovations Lab, which serves as an entrepreneurial training hub and innovation incubator at KNUST. The Innovations Lab at KNUST has supported student-led projects and provided a physical space for face-to-face meetings with key stakeholders and partners. The lab has also attracted the interest of businesses, government agencies, and civil society organizations, and will provide space and support for four faculty-led innovation projects in the coming year. These projects aim to address specific challenges faced by industry, such as the loss of agricultural products along the supply chain, high unemployment, and inadequate solid waste management. The summit's success has been evident in its growing attendance, with a 53% jump in participants from the previous year. The event has become a premier platform for supply chain research and practice in Africa, and has established itself as a hub for knowledge sharing and collaboration among scholars, students, practitioners, and policymakers. The 2024 Supply Chain Research Summit will be hosted at Strathmore University in Nairobi, Kenya, and promises to be the best conference yet, with a focus on Africa's supply chain resilience for economic transformation.