Rural areas in Africa are characterised by limited infrastructure.  This means that there are often no landlines, cellphone signals are not always present, water may be obtained from rivers, wells or standpipes and electricity may also not be present. Sanitation is likely to be basic, consisting of ventilated pit latrines. Equally roads are very unlikely to be tarred, at best there will be gravel paths, in many cases there are simply uneven tracks.

It is said that the concept of social inclusion was developed in France in the 1980s, though just a little knowledge of history will remind us that people of good will and compassion have worked through the centuries to offset the adverse effects of political, commercial and societal decision-makers.

The attached booklet provides a variety of case studies of university-regional partnerships across Europe. All of them have been provided by members of the S3 Platform established by DG Regional Policy and managed by the Joint Research Centre in Seville. 

The aim of this paper is to give a thourough insight to the evolution of the learning city-region initiative and connect it to the changing roles of higher education institutions within a frame of third missions of universities so as to promote regional development.