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Academic Group

IORAG was established recognizing the importance, role and identity of academia in regional organizations. During the inception of IOR-ARC the role set out for the Academic Groups were both advisory and catalytic with the following objectives:

to service the needs of Government and Business;

• to promote intellectual dialogue between the participating Member States;
• to serve as a vehicle for the development and dissemination of the Indian Ocean Rim Concept;
• to serve the region by providing co-ordinated research.

 

The IORAG may meet during the COM and the CSO, or as often as mutually decided. It interacts with the CSO and the Secretariat in the consideration, formulation, and implementation of the Policy and Work Programmes of the Association. The IORAG may draw upon other non-governmental regional academic networks, as necessary.

In recent years, there has been a call to reinvigorate the Academic Group with a need for a more dynamic link between policy and projects in the future work programme of WGTI, IORAG and IORBF. It was suggested that to give IORAG greater focus, it needed to pay greater attention to the following:

Develop a stronger Indian Ocean Research environment;
Foster a culture of "Indian Oceanness";
Focus on matters of common concern
Research aimed at enabling better regional policy outcomes;
Develop a stronger regional policy foundation; and
Enhance collective regional awareness

The IORAG is seen as part of a unique structure and was created to provide an opportunity to build bridges and increase networking between the three tiers of Government, Private Sector and Academia, within the region.