CLOC

Clusters of Cooperation in the Global South (CLOC)

CLOCs are expected to serve as ‘regional hubs’, connecting a variety of ‘nodes’, such as existing research and education partnerships, regionally active COFER, local knowledge platforms and institutions.

CLOCs shall also serve as contact points for Swiss higher education institutions of all types involved in the SUDAC program and provide access to local higher education institutions and knowledge partners for education & research purposes.
Initially, CLOCs involve at least one designated person developing a ‘regional branch’ of the SUDAC program in a region of choice. In 2019-2020 CLOCs shall implement at least 2 activities. These activities are related to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and involve education & research aspects.

CLOC features:

  • CLOCs are located in a region covered by at least 2 COFERs, where they develop an activity agenda in cooperation with the concerned COFERs covering different SDGs.
  • CLOCs are ideally located in regions that are also of interest to the Swiss Development and Cooperation Agency SDC (according to SDC regions of priority) or other funders and show cooperation opportunities with regions targeted by the federal Bilateral Programs of State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation SERI. The repartition will be decided on according to the overall interest of the SUDAC program and in view of sustainable funding.
  • CLOCs serve as facilitators to Swiss higher education institutions.
  • CLOCs are intended to provide services (networking, scientific exchanges e.g. summer schools, learning events, facilitation of tender or project submission, expertise and re-view for selection processes e.g. Swiss Government Excellence Scholarships, etc.).

Particular attention will be given to the use of advanced technologies such as ICT in furthering both cooperation and implementation. Distant learning instruments will be one possible type of output to be expected of CLOCs.

CLOC West Africa consists the three COFER’s:

In addition to CLOC West Africa, four other CLOCs exist:

Read more here