Global Africa Group

The Global Africa Group currently focuses on new approaches for Africa research collaborations – within and beyond academia – that enable equitable knowledge production and innovation. We will pursue our aim by:

1. Bringing together group members and thought leaders on the subject, for example in workshops;
2. Exploring and refining new approaches; and
3. Devising and promoting guidelines – principles and practice approaches – for future collaborative research and cooperation.

Foundational for our endeavour is to challenge, explicitly, the historically rooted inequities and existing orthodoxies in the global field of knowledge production and specifically, in research cooperation with Africa; and to develop alternative epistemologies and methodologies for productive collaborations. Entrenched power imbalances between and among African institutions and actors and those outside of the continent arise on several levels: in the financial control and management of projects; the determination of agendas, priorities and locations for inquiry; the epistemological and methodological approaches embraced; the interpretation and use of findings; and in research dissemination.

We believe that our work will nurture the capacities necessary to bring about grounded solutions from and for the African continent, thus enriching the global scientific endeavour and, ultimately, drive sustainable social and economic transformation needed regionally and globally.

Read the full WUN GAG Strategy 2020–2023 document.

About

The WUN Global Africa Group (GAG) is one of WUN’s special interest groups and has been identified as one of WUN’s cross-cutting themes. These themes intersect with all four Global Challenges and are deemed vital to understanding and addressing them. Cross-cutting themes are selected based on identified research strengths across WUN.

The Global Africa Group was formed by WUN in 2015 to enhance opportunities – enabled by WUN’s network of partners – of research collaborations, innovations and impact in support of Africa’s sustainable development challenges.

Our research areas are i) environmental change and food security; ii) public health; iii) governance, inequality and social inclusion; iv) higher education and knowledge exchange; v) natural resources.

Our group members are WUN researchers and colleagues from African and non-African research institutions.

Contact us:

Please get in touch with us if you would like to know more about the network and how to be involved. We look forward to hearing from you.

Email Wilna Venter · WUN Coordinator for the Global Africa Group

See WUN Global Africa Group on YouTube

Steering Group:

• A/Prof Divine Fuh, University of Cape Town · Co-Chair |  Email
• Prof Isabella Aboderin, University of Bristol · Co-Chair |  Email

Resources