Brief history, Background Aim and Objective of WAYSA
The West Africa Young Statisticians Association was founded in 2016 at International conference, Statistical Application for Development in Africa (SADA2016) held at Institute des Sciences Biomedicales Appliques (ISBA) Cotonou.
The objectives of West Africa Young Statisticians Association are to foster statistics and its applications, to promote statistics at the grassroots through mentorship and mentee in the field of Statistics, and to increase the contribution of statistics to Africa development. It also cooperates with other organizations in the advancement of statistics, stimulates research, promotes high professional standards and integrity in the application of statistics.
Our mission and Vision is to Advocate for Statistics and it benefits in West Africa and beyond, to be Africa largest Statistician Network through mentorship, research collaboration, services, and support. Also, to sponsor statistics related project, sponsor students to both local and international statistics conferences and Workshop.
WAYSA members are spread to the following countries in West Africa; BENIN, BURKINA FASO, CABO VERDE, COTE D'IVOIRE, GAMBIA, GHANA,GUINEA,GUINEA BISSAU, LIBERIA, MALI, NIGER, NIGERIA, SENEGAL, SIERRA LEONE, TOGO.
As at today, the number of those who have indicated their willingness to join the Network has grown geometrically
At the international conference, Statistical Application for Development in Africa (SADA) 2016 edition , Held at Institute des Sciences Biomedicales Appliques (ISBA) Cotonou ,28th November to 2nd December 2016 , where researchers all the over the world met and share knowledge in the fields of statistics and applications.
The main focus is mentoring young statistician and keynotes lectures by Prof. C. Demetrio from University of Sa Paulo and Prof. Richard De Veaux from Williams College (USA). Invited Speaker; D.k. Shangodoyin, University of Botswana (Botswana) who talked about theoretical specification of Poison- Autoregressive model for analyzing time series count, later talk about development in the world of Statistics in Africa and rebirth of Africa Statistical Association (AFSA).
Convener of SADA2016, Prof. Simplice DOusouf also talk about important of statistics and its uses towards Africa development and his passion toward young statisticians in Africa . At interactive session by Dr. Mirek Gezmu of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIH) U.S Department of Health and Human Sciences discussing about benefits and how to access funding in health related research in US Department Health and Human Services . During the session an inspiration came by Oyebimpe Adeniji and a body was suggested for West Africa Young Statistician . At the lunch a name was suggested and unveiled at the evening session and a facebook group page was created with the name West Africa Young Statistician Association.
SADA2016 Committees and Convener of SADA2016; Prof Simplice Dousuof agreed with newly birth Association and promise to mentor and support the young statisticians at all capacity. At the last day of the conference (2nd December,2016), West Africa Young Statisticians Association was declared publicly and endorsed by all attendees of SADA2016. Mr. Adeniji Oyebimpe from Nigeria is endorsed as the West Africa Convener/ President, he is charged to coordinate all young statisticians in West Africa with an assignments to draw out constitution, mobilize members from the fifteen countries in West Africa, create a website, promotes use of statistics in Africa, organize a research workshop , and conference on or before next meeting in 2019 . SADA2016 was closed and the next meeting is Year 2019.
A closing remark was giving by Prof. Dousouf Simplice. Attendance at the meeting are: