New African Charter on Transformative Research Collaborations
The Africa Charter on Transformative Research Collaborations, which will serve to advance and uphold the continent’s contribution to the global production of knowledge, was launched in July in Windhoek.
DSA Council member Eyob Gebremariam from the Perivoli Africa Research Centre (PARC) was amongst the attendees.
The charter was facilitated by PARC in partnership with the University of South Africa’s Chief Albert Luthuli Research Chair and the University of Cape Town Institute for Humanities in Africa.
At the launch event, 84 Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and universities signed and endorsed the Charter. A tripartite collaboration among UNISA, University of Bristol and UCT initiated and facilitated the Charter initiative. Following the launch, a wider programme of work and engagement will develop targeted implementation frameworks and expand intellectual reflection and exchange to ensure that the Africa Charter principles and ambitions are realised in practice.
According to the PARC website, the charter will draw on African intellectual thought, analyses of extant global scientific and equitable partnerships efforts, and dialogue with key higher education and research actors in Europe, North America and others across the globe. It will:
- articulate key principles on how research collaborations need to be configured to redress the multi-layered power imbalances in the global-Africa production of scientific knowledge;
- set out key ambitions for policy change by individual HEI, networks, funders, research and HE governance bodies as well as governments, to ensure that such a transformative collaboration mode is established as standard and best practice.
Read the Charter on the PARC website.