Welcome to this year’s WABER conference in Accra, Ghana. Thank you for coming and we hope you enjoy the conference. The WABER conference has developed rapidly in the past three years, but our aims remain the same. We strive to: help young built environment researchers in West Africa (WA) to develop their research work and skills through constructive face-to-face interaction with their peers and experienced international academics; supply a platform for interaction among more senior academics and an outlet for disseminating their research work; and to serve as a vehicle for developing the built environment field in Africa.
Three conferences have so far been organized, 2009-2011, bringing together nearly 300 academics, researchers and practitioners from 54 different institutions in WA. Through WABER, many young researchers have been helped to develop their research work and skills through constructive face-to-face interaction with experienced academics. We find this encouraging and we will continue to work together with colleagues in WA to develop initiatives that provide young researchers in WA with opportunities to develop their research potential and aspirations.
This year’s conference proceedings consist of 95 papers. This represents around 50 percent of abstracts and full papers that were initially submitted. We congratulate the authors of papers that made it into the proceedings for a job well done. The published papers cover a wide array of topics including: Building services, Construction design and technology, Construction economics and finance, Construction education, Construction materials and production, Contracts, Cost and financial management, Energy systems, Engineering sciences, Facilities management, Health and safety, Housing, Human resources and skills, Information technology, Materials science, Procurement, Project administration and management, Quantity surveying, Real estate and planning, Risk management, Supply chain management, Sustainable technologies, Urban planning and development, Waste management. As such they reflect various areas of socio-economic development aspirations of countries in West Africa. One thing that is strikingly clear is that the construction sector has an important part to play in helping to realize these aspirations.
We hope that the publication and discussion of these papers at this conference will contribute towards the development of knowledge and technologies for development in West Africa and beyond. Given that the delegates at this year’s conference come from 10 different countries and 45 different academic institutions, there is plenty of scope for cross boundary interaction and learning. The conference also provides for a rich intellectual, international and multicultural blend and platform for networking and developing new knowledge, connections and longer-term collaborations. We hope that the delegates make good use of this opportunity.
We wish to express strong appreciation to two companies in Ghana who have supported us financially. The first is A-Kon Consults Limited who are Chartered Quantity Surveyors with head office based in Accra. The second is K+H Limited who are Constructional Engineers and Contractors with head office based in Takoradi. We are grateful for your support and input and we look forward to a mutually beneficial long-term relationship.
We are blessed to have four distinguished Keynote Speakers: Professor George Ofori (National University of Singapore); Dr Roine Leiringer (Chalmers University, Sweden); Dr Chris Harty (University of Reading, UK); and Professor Will Hughes (University of Reading, UK). Thank you very much for coming. As always, many thanks are due to Dr Sena Agyepong for her excellent and capable management of our local organizing arrangements. Above all, thank you to all of you for coming to this conference. Our conference next year (2012) will take place in Nigeria and we look forward to seeing all of you again. Enjoy Accra and have a safe journey back home.
Dr Samuel Laryea
School of Construction Management and Engineering
University of Reading, July 2011
About Me
- Samuel Laryea
- Johannesburg, Guateng, South Africa
- I am a Senior Lecturer in the School of Construction Economics and Management at University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. In the past, I have been a Lecturer in the School of Construction Management and Engineering at the University of Reading, UK (2010-12); and also a Post-Doctoral Academic Fellow (2009) and Graduate Teaching Assistant (2008). I completed my PhD at University of Reading in Dec 2008 on the relationship between risk and price in tendering. Prior to transferring to Reading in Jan 2008, I was an MPhil/PhD student at KNUST, Ghana (2004-07). I gained my undergraduate degree in Building Technology from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Ghana in 1998-2002. During school days, my peers elected me to serve in several leadership positions including SRC President at KNUST. From 1994-96, I attended Suhum Sec. Tech. School after basic education at schools in Ghana and Nigeria. I did my National Service with the Fanteakwa District Assembly in 2002-03. After that, I worked at the Development Office of KNUST until I started my PhD in 2004. I am a co-organiser for the WABER Conference and an author of 30+ research publications.
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