Anton Arnold Jozef "Jef" Van Bilsen (13 June 1913, in Diest – 22 July 1996, in Kraainem), usually cited as A.
Van Bilsen is best known for devising a plan for the long-term independence of the Belgian Congo in the 1950s.
The timetable, outlined in December 1955 and in a pamphlet entitled Un Plan de Trente Ans pour l'émancipation politique de l'Afrique Belge (1955–56), called for a gradual change over 30 years, the time he estimated it would take to create an educated elite to administrate the new Congo.
His plan never came to fruition after Congolese nationalists demanded immediate independence, especially after the Léopoldville Riots of 1959, leading to a period of prolonged political chaos, known as the Congo Crisis, and the eventual seizure of power by Joseph-Désiré Mobutu in 1965.
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