EUCLID (university)

EUCLID (Euclid University, Pôle Universitaire Euclide)
Logo
Headquarters	Gambia (current since 2013) and Central African Republic (historic) and Belgium (temporary until 2011)
Working languages	English French
Membership	12 Participating States
Leaders
• Secretary-General	Syed Zahid Ali
• High Steward	Ambassador Juan Avila
• High Steward	President Faustin-Archange Touadéra
Establishment
• Entry into force of Open Memorandum of Understanding I-49006	2008
Website www.euclid.int

EUCLID, also called Pôle Universitaire Euclide or Euclid University, is an international intergovernmental organization with a university charter established in 2008 and headquartered in The Gambia, West Africa. Its primary mandate is to train officials for its Participating States but its programs are also offered to the general public.

EUCLID’s origins are connected with the creation of a group of universities called "Euclid Consortium" by the University of Bangui and the University of N’Djamena in 2006. The project was administered by the International Organization for Sustainable Development, an international non-governmental organization headed by Syed Zahid Ali. First conceived as an international extension for the University of Bangui, "Euclid" was redefined and constituted and a distinct institution in 2008 by an intergovernmental convention. The same year, the rector of the University of Bangui, Faustin-Archange Touadera was appointed as Prime Minister, and signed the convention formalizing his country’s participation in EUCLID in 2010. In January 2008, Syed Zahid Ali, acting as Secretary-General of IOSD, presented to various government representative attending a conference of the Islamic Chamber of Commerce and Industry a new legal framework called EUCLID Phase 2. Soon after, several governments interested in using the Euclid programs to train their own staff approved the statutes of the new international university which entered into force in April 2008.

According to the United Nations Treaty Series records, the EUCLID Open Memorandum of Understanding is classified as a "multilateral treaty" and entered into force in April 2008,. The "Updated Framework Agreement" entered into force in September 2009. The agreements signed by the Gambia have been registered by the Permanent Mission of the Gambia to the United Nations in 2013 but are not yet published.

The initial 2008 agreement indicated that "The operational offices of EUCLID are allowed to remain in Brussels, Belgium and may be relocated or extended elsewhere upon recommendation of the Governing Board or by resolution of the Oversight Council" (Statutes II.3). In 2011, EUCLID signed a first headquarters agreement with the Central African Republic and obtained office space in the Prime Minister’s building and on the campus of the University of Bangui. In 2013, owing to instability affecting Bangui and the Central African Republic, EUCLID signed a new headquarters agreement with the Republic of The Gambia, and leases offices in the Brusubi area of Banjul.