CAFMET events are exceptional opportunities to meet and collaborate with participants from many countries, working in a wide variety of sectors, and specializing in increasingly cross-disciplinary and interconnected disciplines.

CAFEMT events are unique in Africa, as they highlight important areas that bind us all together, including quality and measurement. These two areas, which are at the heart of the conferences organized by CAFEMT, require particular attention, given the vital needs affecting all continents of our beautiful planet, which concern us all closely, whether we are aware of it or not.

The conferences and workshops offered as part of CAFMET events demonstrate once again that we still have so much to learn, not only to train future generations, but also to innovate, while preserving our safety, health and well-being. But we still have a long way to go...

CAFMET, a non-profit association, is an international network that plays an important role in Africa. CAFMET has done a great deal to date, and will continue to do so. Many African countries have benefited to date from the activities developed by CAFMET, and so much the better.

A look back at the genesis of CAFMET ...

I set up CAFMET in March 2005, following a number of assessment assignments for a third-party organization on the African continent. I visited several African countries, in different industries and laboratories, where I realized that the metrological culture was not yet sufficiently understood, or at least not sufficiently developed.

Very quickly, I set up a Board of Directors, which has been expanded over time. I asked Georges BONNIER (former Deputy Director of the Institut National de Métrologie at CNAM Paris) to join the CAFMET Board, which he accepted with great enthusiasm. Georges BONNIER became CAFMET's scientific and technical advisor. Georges BONNIER, since the creation of CAFMET, has personally invested a great deal of time and effort, and is the advisor on whom I have relied enormously.

Since 2005, Georges BONNIER and I have gradually developed CAFMET, and succeeded in weaving an international network of which we are proud. We have organized some thirty international events in ten countries on the African continent.

We have organized numerous technical workshops in metrology and quality, and have trained a number of technicians, engineers and teacher-researchers (in total, more than 4,500 agents have been trained).

We are proud to have seen the number of analysis, testing and calibration laboratories multiply.

We saw the creation of AFRIMETS (the European equivalent of EURAMET) in Africa in 2006, thanks in particular to the development of CAFMET's activities.

We have encouraged the creation of other national quality and metrology associations in several African countries.

We have also enabled several universities and laboratories to collaborate and obtain funding for capacity building in higher education and research. Several training courses integrating metrology and quality have been developed in recent years.

My only wish is that CAFMET will continue to live and work for Africa, for a safer and more prosperous world.

Since 2024, Walid TOUAYAR, professor at INSAT Tunisia, has replaced me as CAFMET president. Walid TOUAYAR is really the right person to keep CAFMET alive, as it has become a great and beautiful international network, indispensable for Africa.

Long live CAFMET!

Abdérafi CHARKI

Professor, POLYTECH Angers, France

 

Dr. Abdérafi Charki is professor at POLYTECH, the engineering school of the University of Angers, where he trains engineers in industrial engineering. His research focuses on assessing the performance of complex systems. Before becoming a teacher-researcher, he worked in industry and for a third-party evaluation organization. He has contributed to several research and capacity-building projects in higher education.