(i)
General Council
(ii) Board
(iii) Secretariat
(iv) Project Committees
General
Council
The General Council, which meets every two years, is the supreme
authority and policy-making body representing the totality of
the African members. Its members constitute country and regional
representatives. The General Council's duties include electing
the Board. It approves all policy issues pertaining to APNET.
Board
The Board is the executive arm of the General Council and is
made up of the Chairman, Vice-Chairman, Treasurer, and a representative
each from Anglophone, Francophone and Lusophone Africa. The
Board's duty is to interpret and guide the implementation of
APNET policies. To be able to carry out successfully, the Board
relies on the Secretariat.
Secretariat
The Secretariat, located in Abidjan, Cote d'lvoire, comprises the
Executive Secretary, the Training Co-ordinator, the Trade/Membership
Promotion Officer, Information Officer.
It is the administrative arm of APNET and implementor of policies.
Project
Committees
Last but not least are Project Committees, which are set up
to oversee specific activities: for example, Research, Training,
etc. At present there is an on-going KAWI project. Each Committee is headed by a Board member.
Membership
There are four levels of membership: Full, Founding, Affiliate,
and Associate.
Full
membership embraces national publishers associations.
Founding
members constitute a group of publishers from the 9
countries, which initially founded APNET. This is to ensure
that the original vision for setting up APNET remains always
sharply focused.
Affiliate
membership includes interested persons or organisations,
which share APNET's aims and objectives and belong to the bigger
family of publishing: editors, booksellers, designers, printers,
etc. Affilate Membership Application form: PDF
or MS
Word 95
Associate
membership is reserved for individuals or organisations
with an outstanding record of service to African publishing.
Unlike the other categories, which can be applied for, Associate
Membership can be conferred only by invitation from the General
Council.
WHY PROMOTE
INDIGENOUS PUBLISHING?
Publishing
is of strategic importance as it transcends all facets of a
people: i.e. education, development, culture, etc. Basically
publishing moulds a nation since it determines the calibre of
a people and their leadership. In Africa the scenario has (and
still is in most countries) been that multinationals have dominated
the publishing industry. As a result foreign ideas, cultures,
inter alia, have been fed to Africans, resulting in loss of
identity.
The sphere
of. education in Africa is an area of great concern. African
governments have come to the realisation that it is only locally
generated materials and a home grown curriculum that can effectively
facilitate self-reliance on the continent. Only indigenous books
can respond sensitively and promptly to the changing needs and
environments of a country. The challenge education has is to
improve learning opportunities through the provision of culturally
relevant reading materials.
African
publishers seek to identify themselves as agents of positive
change on the continent. They are aware of the strategic place
they occupy to share knowledge and to use their profession to
bring African thought and knowledge to a wide audience.
Given the
above situation, APNET has therefore recognised the importance
of strengthening indigenous publishing throughout Africa. It
has embarked on capacity building of indigenous publishing by
way of skills training and intra-African trade promotion.
[Home] [Introduction] [Activities] [Members] [Links] [Guestbook]
[The African Publishing Review]
[Search] [Partners] [Contact]
