Those to thank in DFID are numerous but we should like to note particularly the following. Colin Lewis, who was an important contributor to the meeting where the idea of this research project began to emerge, and to subsequent meetings; Terry Allsop, who provided invaluable advice in project design and development; and Steve Packer, Digby Swift and Rod Tyrer, who commented on our attempts to develop a final account of our work. Thanks also go to other DFID Education Department staff in the project countries, who provided information, contacts and other assistance: Howard Tyers and Malcolm Watson in Ghana; Marshall Elliott, Charlie Kirkcaldy, Shona Wynd and Alan Penny in Kenya; and Kevin Lillis and Barbara Payne in South Africa.
The Small Enterprise Development Group of DFID also gave intellectual support to the project, as well as jointly supporting the 1998 Edinburgh conference and financing an additional research study. Our thanks go to Richard Boulter and David Wright for their participation in project workshops and meetings and for their comments on our ideas. We also wish to acknowledge Hugh Scott and Catherine Masinde in Nairobi and Tony Polatajko in Pretoria who provided invaluable assistance to our team's research activities.
A major debt is also owed to John Grierson. John was appointed by DFID to be the project's external moderator. His support to the "Learning to Compete" report far exceeded the time he was officially allocated and his advice, as well as his own research work on skills and enterprise, have helped our thinking at many points. A number of other researchers joined us for one or more of our project meetings and we would wish to mention particularly Michel Carton for his participation in both our initial workshop and in our final meeting in Nairobi.
We would wish to acknowledge those who participated in the "Enterprise in Africa" conference and the subsequent book, which also were invaluable resources for us in writing this volume. Our particular thanks go to the Binks Trust, the British Academy, the British Council, the Foreign Office and the University of Edinburgh for financial support to that conference (in addition to DFID); to George Foulkes, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary at DFID for opening the conference; to Christopher Fyfe as conference chair; and to Pravina King and Susan Barton for their role in conference organisation.
The numbers of academics, policymakers, practitioners, artisans and students that our work draws upon in the three case study countries defy the naming of individuals. However, we would wish to note the importance for our work of the following agencies: in Ghana, the Ghana Education Service, the National Coordinating Committee for Vocational Education and Training and the National Board for Small Scale Industry; in Kenya, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry for Research, Technical Training and Technology and the Ministry for National Planning and Development; in South Africa, the Department of Education, the Department of Labour, the Department of Trade and Industry, the Gauteng Department of Education, the Western Cape Education Department, the South African Qualifications Authority, the National Skills Authority, the Ntsika Enterprise Promotion Agency, the Human Sciences Research Council and the Committee of Technical College Principals. We would also like to acknowledge the ways in which the British Council-supported link between the University of Edinburgh and the University of the Western Cape facilitated our work and allowed extensive discussions with South African colleagues.
Our thanks also go to the graduate students of the Centre of African Studies and Faculty of Education at the University of Edinburgh, many of whom commented on a number of the ideas contained in this report.
