The United Nations Office of the Special Adviser on Africa (OSAA) has launched a network of African academics and experts who will contribute their vast knowledge and expertise of the continent’s unique context to Africa’s development.
Addressing the experts at the launch of the network on 29 June, the head of OSAA, Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser on Africa, emphasized the importance of creating a platform to harness Africa’s intellectual resources for the continent’s benefit.
“African academics can be key players in researching and proposing tailored, indigenous, practical, and country specific and evidence-based recommendations and inputs to policy makers,” she stressed, adding that although African scholars and those based at African institutions were doing a lot of research on the continent, not much of it found its way into the peer-reviewed literature or key regional and global debates that influence policy and development decisions.
These sentiments were echoed by Sophia Tesfamariam, Permanent Representative of Eritrea to the United Nations and Chair of the African Group for the month of June, who said it was critical to harness Africa’s abundant intellectual wealth for the continent's benefit.
“Africa may be poor economically, but we are not poor intellectually,” she said, adding that there was a fount of intellectual capacity that could be tapped into and harnessed for the continent’s growth and development.
The network aims to enhance the state of knowledge about Africa by providing a platform for African scholars, practitioners and experts to present their views and proposals to national and international policymakers. It also aims to build and contribute to Afro-centric communities of experts on critical issues that impact the continent’s development.
Anchored in the strategic agenda that guides the work of OSAA, the Knowledge Network will focus on six clusters, namely: Financing for development; Sustainable development to deliver sustainable peace; Democracy, resilience and human capital; Science, technology and innovation; Industrialization, demographic dividend and the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA); and Sustainable energy and climate change.
The network was launched at a virtual meeting with participants who specialize in the six clusters drawn from across the continent. As a starting point, the experts agreed on the long and medium-term goals, added value and expectations of the network. They discussed their terms of reference, plans of activities and potential future engagement with the broader research community. It is anticipated that the network will continue to expand as more academics and experts join it.
The Knowledge Network is the result of recommendations made at an Expert Group Meeting (EGM) that OSAA convened in December 2019 on “The Role of Advocacy and Research in Breaking the Silos: strengthening the nexus approach in Africa.” The meeting recommended that OSAA develop a network of African researchers to work with the Office on implementing an African-focused research agenda. It proposed that the network be used as a platform to develop case studies and knowledge products on key issues related to the interrelations between the different aspects of development, with a view to generating and promoting ideas and perspectives on key issues for UN and African policy makers.
Academics and experts who attended the launch commended the Knowledge Network as a noble initiative through which they could channel their expertise and influence policy for Africa’s development.
“Knowledge is power and talent is the future. In recent years, African scholars and think tanks have actively promoted local knowledge development, facilitated foreign exchanges, nurtured a large number of talents, and provided advice and suggestions for the development of various fields and industries in Africa. China hopes that the Knowledge Network project will build a new platform to provide more intellectual support for Africa's development and construction in key areas,” said Di Bing, Deputy Permanent Representative of the People’s Republic of China to the United Nations. The project is funded by the China-UN Peace and Development Fund.