The Making the Most from Commodities Programme (MMCP) in Africa kicked off with its first workshop at the Centre for African Studies on 2 March. The research venture is run by the Policy Research in International Services and Manufacturing (PRISM) research unit at UCT's School of Economics. Led by Professors Mike Morris and David Kaplan of PRISM, in collaboration with Professor Raphael Kaplinsky of the Open University in the UK, the MMCP will examine a selection of countries that are dependent on commodities, especially minerals, and investigate ways this could be used as a springboard for an industrialisation path for Africa.