The DST/NRF SARChI Chair in Development Education at UNISA officially has become the fourth node for the PASCAL International Observatory on human development. At the launch of the African Centre on 29 November 2010 in the Bamboo Auditorium, Kgorong, UNISA’s Principal and Vice-Chancellor, Prof Barney Pityana, reaffirms the university’s commitment to the Chair’s intention to look at new ways of thinking.

This report has two purposes. The first is to inform participants at the PASCAL Conference in Gaborone on 30 November - 2 December about PURE. The second is to provide regions taking part in the PURE project with a summary of common findings, issues and advice.

National government, and increasingly intergovernmental bodies like the European Union and Commission, influence what engagement can take place in local regions. This report is however addressed to two main parties, regional administrations and their communities, and higher education institutions.

A keynote presentation by Opha Pauline Dube:

The Knowledge Cities Summit, held in Melbourne last week, was an important opportunity for academics, government and business to talk with each other about the emerging features of economic and social development, and the ways in which different kinds of knowledge contribute. As the ‘new club of Paris’ would say, it is the challenge of developing with the unlimited resources which knowledge offers.