Pending the signature/ratification of the Proposed Statutes of the African Academy of Languages as a specialised Panafrican institution, the Malian Presidency, put in place on September 2001 has undertaken a vast information campaign to bring all the actors to share the missions and the objectives of the new structure.

I. National level.
1. October 29-November 1: Participation of the Secretary General in the First Forum on non formal Education in Mali. This participation was an excellent opportunity to discuss the views of the African Academy of Languages concerning language policies.

2. December 14, 2001: Meeting with the officers in charge of former DNAFLA units. This meeting called by the Academy had the following objectives:
- discuss the strategies for the creation and organisation of language commissions;
- establish a calendar of meetings to facilitate the structuring of language commissions. The Unit Officers were asked to make an inventory of the available competences within their domains.

3. December 24, 2001: The President and the Director of the Documentation Centre met with a delegation from Ivory Coast led by Technical Adviser in charge of Basic Education. The discussions were about:
- the introduction of national languages in the educational system;
- literacy and agro-pastoral training;
The Republic of Ivory Coast suggested a conference related to these topics under the auspices of the African Academy of Languages.

4. January 2002. Elaboration and publication of the Special Bulletin of the Academy in French and English.

5. 29-30 January 2002: Participation of the Director in the workshop on the technical validation of the French-Bamanankan Dictionary, organised by the Karanta Foundation. This dictionary is to be used is convergent pedagogy classes.

6. 18-22 February 2002: Training of the personnel and major partners of the African Academy of Languages in Management. This training was offered by the Centre for the Analysis and Formulation of Development Policies.

7. May 8, 2002: The President and the Secretary General met the Ambassadors of Algeria, Egypt, Libya and Tunisia. The purpose of the meeting was to inform the African Ambassadors in Mali about the missions and objectives assigned to the African Academy of Languages by the Government Experts' Meeting held in Addis Ababa in February 2002. The meeting with the Ambassadors from Arab speaking countries was a first step.

8. 1-3 July 2002: The Director of the Documentation Centre took part in the validation workshop on the pre-grammar material elaborated by the FLASH. This workshop gave the opportunity to raise the problem of school material validation. Which structure should be in charge of the technical validation of national language materials.

9. 02-10 December 2002: The Director of the Documentation Centre took part in the 2nd technical validation workshop on the Bamanankan-French dictionary organised by Karanta Foundation in Bamako.

II. International level:

1. 13-31 October 2001: The President of the African Academy of Languages participated in the 31st UNESCO General Conference which adopted a Resolution in favour of the African Academy of Languages.

2. 8-9 November 2001: The President of the African Academy of Languages presented a paper at the International Seminar organised by UNESCO in Paris on "Prospective Approaches and New Strategies". This paper titled "Cultural Pluralism and Development in Africa: the stakes" permitted to point out the role that languages can play in the reinforcement of cultural pluralism.

3. 5-7 February 2002: Government Experts' Meeting organised by the OAU in Addis Ababa. This meeting approved the draft Statutes of the African Academy of Languages and made recommendations.

4. 4-7 March 2002: Regional Seminar in Sikasso on the concept of border lands gathering the administrative authorities of fifteen African countries. It permitted to convince the delegates that no integration of neighbouring countries is possible without taking into consideration language issues. The African Academy of Languages was represented by the Director of the Documentation Centre.

5. March 11, 2002: Round Table organised by the Francophony International Organisation (OIF) in Addis Ababa. The President of the Academy presented a paper on: "Language issues in Africa: State of the art and prospects".

6. 11-15 March 2002: The ECOWAS Education Experts met in Abuja, Nigeria. The meeting decided to include the introduction of national languages in educational systems.

7. 5-14 April 2002: The President of the Academy had a work session in Pretoria, South Africa to prepare the meeting of the Ministers in charge of language promotion.

8. 16-20 April 2002: The President and the Director of the Documentation Centre participated in Barcelona, Spain, in the World Convention on language policies. Their presentations, during the Convention helped to clarify the missions and the objectives of the African Academy of Languages on one hand, and to reinforce the relationships with Linguapax and other structures in charge of languages on the other.

9. 28-30 May 2002: Regional Preparatory Conference for the World Summit on the Information Society in Bamako. The Presidency of the Academy not only presented the structure, but also a paper on what Africa must preserve within the Information Society. The President also participated in a workshop on African languages and the Internet

10. May 29-June 3, 2002: The Secretary General took participated, in Brussels, in the 76th Session of the International Academic Union. His presentation of the Academy permitted to envisage a future partnership between the International Academic Union and the African Academy of Languages.

11.. 26-29 August 2002: The Secretary General participated in a workshop organised by the Franco-German Office for Youth (OFAJ), in Mary-Le-Roy in France.

12. 10-15 September 2002: The President participated in the UNESCO Experts' Meeting on: "Education in Multilingual Contexts"

13. 20-25 September 2002: The President participated in the ECOWAS Ministers of Education's Meeting in Dakar. The Meeting made a recommendation in favour of the African Academy of Languages and the World Summit on the Information Society.

14. 20-22 November 2002: The President and the Secretary General participated in the 50th Session of the CONFEMEN in Burkina Faso. The resolutions made at this Session emphasized, among others, the taking into account of national languages to improve the quality of education

15. 20-22 November 2002: The President took part in MINEDAF VIII in Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania, in the meeting of Ministers of Education organised by UNESCO. The President's paper was on the importance of national languages as mediums of instruction in educational systems.

16. 16-18 December 2002: The Secretary General participated in Kenya in consultative preparatory Meeting of the Panafrican Cultural Convention, scheduled in 2003;

All these meetings permitted to share the objectives and the missions of the Academy. Moreover, the position of President of the Academy as President of the Preparatory Committee of the World Summit on the Information Society facilitated the sensitizing in favour of the Academy.

The Presidency of the Academy is presently striving for the opportunity to organise, in collaboration with the Secretariat of the African Union, the meeting of competent Ministers to validate the statutes of the Academy prior to its submission to the Heads of State and Government. This last step will permit to give the Academy its Panafrican dimension and to establish an Agreement making it a specialised institution of the African Union

Koulouba, December 30, 2002
The Presidency of the Academy