VISION

The International Conference on Public Administration and Development Alternatives(IPADA) is an International academic organisation aimed at promoting quality scholarship and academic networking across the continents. The Conference’s major purpose is to create academic networks among the public, private and academic institutions through organised collaborative research activities.

MISSION

The IPADA Conference intends to achieve quality scholarship through;

  • High level academic interaction emanating from well-conceived critical public administration and development themes
  • Collaborative organised Conference events with national, regional and continental public and private universities
  • Publishing conference proceedings through a strict quality peer review process of published papers recommended by specialist peer reviews in the field
  • Publishing online all papers published in the Conference Proceedings in specific years for accessibility of delegates research work across the globe
  • Engagement of credible publication houses for further publication and dissemination of published work either in books or scientific journals on selected conference papers to be turned into articles
  • Work with partner publishers to produce consistently from crafted conference and seminar themes book publication and journal output

GOVERNANCE OF THE IPADA CONFERENCE

The IPADA Conference is governed through a Board composed of academics from various African universities and a representative from the Business and the public sector. The Board is responsible for making decisions about all conference activities and functions. Significantly, the Board makes decision on the selection of the hosts and the crafting of annual Conference themes. The Administrative arm of the Board is the Chairperson, the Conference Administrator and the Administrative Officer. Board meetings are held once per quarter to keep the board updated on the affairs of the Conference.

HOSTING AND CO-HOSTING OF THE IPADA CONFERENCE

The International Conference on Public Administration and Development Alternatives (IPADA) is hosted at the University of Limpopo in the School of Economics and Management. The role of the University of Limpopo as a co-host for the conference emerged as early as in 2016 with the inception of the conference in the same year. On annual basis the Conference Board decides which institution will co-host the conference in the following year and with discussions with the potential host. Since 2016, the conference was co-hosted in the following manner:

  • In 2016, the University of Limpopo was the only co-host and the conference attracted 147 abstracts in which only 50 papers were found acceptable in the Conference Proceedings publication (ISBN 978-0-620-69682-1), while the other 16 quality papers from the Conference were published in the conference edition by African Journal of Public Affairs, Vol (9)1 of 2017.
  • In 2017, the University of Limpopo and University of Botswana both co-hosted the International Conference on Public Administration and Development Alternatives at Tlotlo Hotel, Botswana, Gaborone on 26-28 July, 2017. The Conference attracted 147 abstracts from various African Universities. However, only 47 papers were found publishable in the IPADA conference proceedings (ISBN 978-0-620-73783-8). Further 10 quality papers from the conference were published in the African Journal of Public Affairs, Vol. (10)2
  • In 2018, the University of Limpopo and Stellenbosch University (Faculty of Military Science), co-hosted IPADA conference at Saldahna Bay on 4-6 July, 2018. The Conference attracted 205 abstracts from Universities across the African continent. From the 205 papers presented at the IPADA Conference, 80 papers were found publishable in the IPADA Conference Proceedings, while a further 10 quality papers were accepted in the conference edition of the African Journal of Public Affairs for issue Vol (11)1 2019.
  • In 2019, the University of Limpopo was the only Co-host of IPADA held at Southern Sun OR Tambo International Airport on 3-5 July, 2019. The Conference attracted 245 abstracts from the African region. From the Conference concerned 80 papers reviewed from a total of 130 were found publishable in the peer reviewed Conference Proceedings, 10 papers accepted in the Journal of Global Reviews and Economics (A Scopus and DHET accredited journal) and further a book publication was achieved through the IPADA Africa Book Seminar held in Gaborone, Botswana in September 2019.

HOSTING A CONFERENCE WITH IPADA

The IPADA Conference is hosted annually with the preferred partner institution as agreed with the IPADA Conference Board. An agreement is usually entered into which details the responsibilities of each partner for hosting the annual conference event. When the agreement is reached between the Board and the host institution the following terms apply to the host institution as a partner host:

  • The host institution shall through the agreed Call for Papers distribute and market the conference to members of its institution and their external academic networks
  • The Host Team shall work with the IPADA team to ensure the success of the Conference on their home ground
  • The host shall have at least not less than 10 members who will write and submit full papers to the Conference event (This only applies if the host partner is an academic institutions)
  • Conference fees may be waived for the host partner (Department) if the host partner/institution provides free logistical venues for the Conference event

The responsibility of the IPADA Conference in co-hosting with partner institutions are as follows:

  • Use its budgets and registration fees to pay for Conference Venues, Lunch and Tea breaks and Gala dinner
  • Pay for Conference packages, Design, editing and publication of Conference Proceedings
  • Market the Conference regionally and continentally through its international networks
  • Ensure the arrangements, management and production of the published peer reviewed Conference proceedings to members on time and good quality
  • Ensure that the Conference arrangements are of a good scientific standards and integrity
  • Arrange for Conference Special Edition with accredited journals in the market

BENEFITS OF CO-HOSTING WITH IPADA

IPADA is the fastest growing academic conference in Africa and has been increasing numbers of attraction to African scholarship since its inception in 2016. The benefits of hosting IPADA by the host partner are as follows:

  • There is a greater potential for larger scholarship visibility of the partner institution
  • An opportunity for collaborative research and interaction with different international scholars with your institution on the front
  • An opportunity for members to publish in peer reviewed conference proceedings and accredited Journal/s arranged to publish the Conference Edition
  • An opportunity to suggest and craft paper themes that are in line with your institutions research focus for knowledge production required by your institution