The french-born author, Fabrice Jaumont, can most certainly be ranked among the world greatest experts of the working and operation of philanthropy with American foundations. His research activities focus on the role of American foundations and emerging new trends in their operations all over the world, the prerequisites determining the success of philanthropic initiatives, the problems and challenges facing foundations in their daily activities etc…..

His book Unequal Partners…. chronicles the jarring imbalance between foundations and the higher education institutions they are set to assist and help on the African continent. Most of the time the agenda of such initiatives are not determined by the receiving African partners but by the donors instead.

Dr Jaumont also insisted on the fact that, more often than not, the lion’s share for those donations goes to Anglophone Africa and Francophone Africa is still an almost untrodden ground for the big names among American foundations.

The talk, which took place at WARC on November 27 2019, was opened by the US Ambassador in Dakar and the Director of the West African Research Center. Professor Omar Gueye of the Department of History, University Cheikh Anta Diop moderated the session. It was attended by over 15 people, and contributions and questions raised by the audience testified to the interest kindled by the book itself and the talk offered by author Fabrice Jaumont.