The chronic shortage of skilled information personnel has been the main stumbling block in the development of modern information systems and services in Africa. The inadequacy or in some respects absence, of skilled manpower for the efficient management of information has been widely expressed by African information workers as well as others in various international seminars and workshops. It has also been stressed in various published and unpublished reports.
One of the main reasons for the chronic shortage of information specialists in Africa is the lack of fully developed educational and training program in Information Science. It is in this regard that the School of Information Studies for Africa (SISA) has been established.
SISA was established, in 1990, with the assistance of the International Development Research Centre of Canada (IDRC) and UNESCO to respond to the urgent and growing need in Eastern and Southern Africa for high-level manpower, who can research, design, implement, operate and manage information systems and services at the local, national and regional levels. It aimed at preparing, through its graduate as well as short-term training program and refresher courses, students for careers in the information field, and providing the much needed opportunity for professionals presently employed in African information organizations to enhance their professional skills and to gain additional knowledge in the information area.
With the merger, in October, 2002, of the Computer Science Unit of the Department of Mathematics (Faculty of Science) and SISA to form the Faculty of Informatics, consisting of the Departments of Information Science and Computer Science, the programs of SISA were transferred to the Department of Information Science.