Africa-Asia

Historically, the Institute for Studies on Federalism and Regionalism has started its activities from the examination of South Tyrol's autonomy. After extending its research to comparative analyses regarding federal systems throughout Europe and on other continents (see project "Comparative Federalism and Autonomy Studies"), the institute has been increasingly entrusted by international organisations, governments and foundations with activities of capacity-building. Typically, these activities have revolved around seminars and workshops with policy-makers and civil servants that familiarize them with the theory and practice of federalism and autonomy, in particular, in the context of ethno-culturally diverse societies. This capacity-building has increasingly focused on federal or federalizing countries in Africa and Asia and is, as a rule, third-party funded by the above-mentioned stakeholders. The fundraising strategy for this project rests on three pillars: foundations, international organisations and national funding programme through people from our academic network who are already active in a country of interest.

In the past, the institute, for example, trained ministers and senior officials of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), the so-called Tibetan Government-in-Exile, within a project funded by the Autonomous Province of Bolzano/Bozen (2012-2014). Moreover, we have since 2013 a cooperation agreement with the University of Addis Abeba (Center for Federal Studies) that includes, among other activities, the hosting and supervision of PhD students from this university. Another focus is on capacity-building actions in Asian countries in cooperation with foundations (e.g. Hanns-Seidel-Stiftung and Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung). From today's perspective, activities within this project in 2017-18 will concentrate primarily on Ethiopia, Myanmar and Nepal.