“I was born in Uganda, I am Rwandan, but I grew up in South Africa.” This is my standard response to the question “Where are you from?” – because I genuinely feel like I am from all three countries....

As Africa’s economic outlook continues to improve it is now more crucial than ever to ensure that the next generation of African scholars and policy experts can meet the challenges of the 21st Century. Our CoLA initiative seeks to establish a network of young African researchers with the aim of giving them exposure to specialist resources and knowledge, while also helping them with their doctoral dissertations. UNU Editor Howard Hudson spoke with course coordinators Dr. Mindel van de Laar (ML) a...

“The 2030 Agenda forms the new global development framework anchored around 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with a total of 169 targets covering economic, social development, and environmental protection… In particular, Africa can take advantage of this universality of the 2030 Agenda to create partnerships across the goals and ensure effective implementation.” Maged Abdelfatah Abdelaziz, UN Special Adviser on Africa Our second international conference on ‘Sustainable D...

Migration has been at the top of the political agenda all year. Yet the focus has too often been on curbing the flow of migrants, either with more aid or border controls. In this context, and drawing lessons from both East Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean, Dr. Katie Kuschminder was asked to present to the Dutch Government on migration issues and trends, particularly in Africa. See her summary, recommendations and video below. On 1 October 2015 I was invited by the Africa Group to give a talk...

This article is part of UNU’s “17 Days, 17 Goals” series, featuring research and commentary in support of the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit, 25-27 September 2015 in New York City. Goal #5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls Women and girls represent roughly half the global population, yet are disproportionately excluded in many decision-making processes. At the household level, many women and girls in less advanced countries face different cultural and religi...

This article is part of UNU’s “17 Days, 17 Goals” series, featuring research and commentary in support of the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit, 25-27 September 2015 in New York City. Goal #1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere On 25th September, 15 years after the Millennium Summit, world leaders will reconvene to decide a new set of global development targets: the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Their primary objective, or Goal 1, will be to ‘end poverty in all its forms...

The path to doctoral funding is littered with Google searches, open calls, and endless talks with friends, colleagues, and contacts. So what’s the key to finding and securing funding? PhD fellow Ayla Bonfiglio shares her own backstory, along with her (proven) tips for success. The doctoral candidate is at a stage in his or her academic career when early career scholarships are not yet applicable and larger-scale projects with core funding are inappropriate and likely to be unrealistic. Wha...

African countries are now recognising the value of social protection programmes in reducing extreme poverty. This two-week course aims to give an in-depth understanding of how to develop social transfer programmes. ‘Designing and Implementing Social Transfer Programmes’ A course for policymakers, government officials and practitioners 27 July – 7 August 2015 / Cape Town, South Africa The Economic Policy Research Institute (EPRI), the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), and UNU-ME...

Providing jobs may increase stability and avoid future violence, especially in low and middle-income countries. But do employment programmes really have this impact? We will study this question for a set of post-conflict countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East. A new project co-run by UNU-MERIT will improve our understanding of the links between aid, development and stability in Afghanistan, Yemen and a range of African nations. The project will be led by the Hague Institute for Glob...

After three decades of trial and error, innovation policy is taking off in Africa. Our new policy brief tracks the roll out of science, technology and innovation (ST&I) policies in 11 African nations, in the context of various development issues. Experts from around the world recently met in Nairobi, Kenya to analyse innovation policies in Botswana, Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe. Among other outputs, the workshop mapped ST&I p...