The African Mathematical Union (AMU) was founded during the first Pan African Congress of Mathematicians, which took place in Rabat, Morocco in July 1976. Its creation had been prepared during several meetings of African mathematicians that took place in France, Senegal, Canada, Ghana, Morocco and Côte d’Ivoire during the early 1970s.
The AMU defined as its mission to coordinate and to promote the quality of teaching, research and outreach activities in all areas of mathematical sciences throughout Africa. Advancing mathematical research and education includes efforts and contributions towards the economic, social and cultural development of the continent. Moreover, the AMU aims at stimulating active cooperation among African mathematicians and, more broadly, with African scientists and engineers. The AMU is eager to collaborate with other scientific organizations inside and outside Africa pursuing similar goals. In 1986, four Commissions were established, among them the “AMU Commission on Women and Mathematics in Africa (AMU-CAWM) ”

Aware of the importance of Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) for the socio-economic development of African nation, and supporting the initiative adopted by the African Union in 2014, which set up a 10-year Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy for Africa (STISA-2024), the new strategy of AMU consists of the development of mathematics that can impact critical sectors of the economy, such as agriculture, energy, environment, health, infrastructure development, mining, security and water.
So, a first initiative was to conduct an awareness and motivation campaign around the essential role of mathematics in STI, particularly for girls and women in mathematics whom remain under-represented in many sectors of industry and business.

Also, the AMU is aiming to initiate and develop a fruitful collaboration with the Industry and business world, where mathematicians with relevant expertise could be truly helpful and efficient. For such approach, AMU will adhere to the already existing organizations cooperating with that important world like Math-In, AMIES, ICIAM etc….For example, it would be relevant to create AfricaMath-In.

In that new context the AMU-CAWM is organizing the 1st AMU-CAWM International Workshop on Mathematics and STI, under the item “The role of African Women in Mathematics in addressing challenges in STI in Africa”, 22-23 November 2018, at the Botswana University of Science and Technology (BIUST), Botswana. The workshop is organized in the framework of the Southern Africa Mathematical Sciences Association annual conference: (SAMSA 2018: https://sites.google.com/a/biust.ac.bw/samsa2018/).

Sessions devoted to the interaction between mathematics and Industry are an important part of the program of the workshop and our wish is to benefit of industrials’ contributions and succeed to set up a collaborative agenda between AMU and the various sectors of the Industry and business as well as with all the organizations represented at the STIMATH 2018 Workshop.