The Centre of African Studies, at SOAS, University of London is creating a dedicated environment to support Africans to study both the legal aspects of governance and the links between economic development and governance in order to enable them to improve the quality of governance in their countries. The Governance for Development in Africa Initiative aims to build the skills of bright young Africans with a number of strands: leadership development fellowships, residential schools on governance in Africa, a lecture series, and PhD scholarships.
Each year three fellows, rising stars in their fields, will spend eight to ten weeks in London, hosted by the SOAS Centre of African Studies. SOAS will make extensive academic resources available and set up specialised lectures and meetings so that the fellows can produce a strategy paper for their sector. SOAS will also commission a series of Mo Ibrahim Foundation Lectures on Governance every year which will be made available in Africa.
SOAS will organise annual residential schools on governance themes, in different African countries for twenty people from across the continent. The schools will expose participants, from universities, civil society, government, trade unions and the private sector, to the latest debates on governance.
The Foundation will also support a competition for African students to apply for research grants towards a PhD on governance-related issues, supervised both at SOAS and the student's home university in Africa.
For further information on any of these programmes please contact Angelica Baschiera , +44 (0)20 7898 4370
The Centre of African Studies, at SOAS, University of London, is creating a dedicated environment to support Africans to study both the legal aspects of governance and the links between economic development and governance.
The initiative aims to enable Africans to improve the quality of governance in their countries by supporting them to build their skills and talents within an expert academic environment.
Leadership Development Fellowships
This scheme primarily targets young people from sub-Saharan Africa who can show demonstrable leadership potential within their sector (which may be academic, government, or private). SOAS will provide weekly workshops tailored to this programme, support for fellows in making relevant contacts and meetings, and library/online research resources.
Residential Schools in Africa
Each year, in a different African country, SOAS will organise a residential school on governance themes (ranging from legal systems and human rights to the institutions of democracy and economic growth) for 20-25 people from a range of African countries. These schools will expose participants to the latest evidence and debates. Participants can be from universities, the not-for-profit sector, government, trade unions and businesses.
Dakar March 2008
Governance Lectures
SOAS and the Foundation are making available a series of lectures in audio and visual formats.
The purpose of these lectures is to contribute to debates on governance and development in Africa.
The lectures
PhD Scholarships
Each year the Mo Ibrahim Foundation will support up to three PhD candidates at SOAS with support from their home universities.
To apply for a PhD at SOAS
To view profiles of current PhD candidates
SOAS Residential School in Dakar, March 2009
In March 2009, the first of the residential schools was held in Dakar, Senegal. The school had 20 participants (selected from among more than 250 applicants) from a range of African countries, including Angola, Cameroon, Congo, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, and Senegal. Participants were also drawn from a range of sectors including NGOs, governments and universities. The school was organised in association with CREPOS, a research institute based in Dakar. A number of events were organised as part of the course syllabus, including a formal dinner with representatives of government, the World Bank, and other organisations.
Sessions were varied and included discussion on the measurement of governance, aid and governance, practical challenges for civil servants and the role of China.
The programme
The participants
Professor Mushtaq Khan’s lecture on Governance Reform and Economic Growth
Mushtaq Khan is a professor of economics at SOAS with research interests in institutional economics, the economic role of the state in developing countries, industrial policy, and issues of governance reform, corruption and state failure.
His regional specialization is in South Asian economic development. He is also a member of the Africa Task Force set up by Joseph Stiglitz and the Initiative for Policy Dialogue (IPD) at Columbia University. He has worked on the crisis of state building in Palestine, and is currently researching the institutional and governance foundations of comparative economic growth in a number of countries in South and South-East Asia and Africa.
Professor Khan’s lecture
John Githongo: Governance and the Fight against Corruption
John Githongo, a senior associate member of St. Antony’s College, Oxford, and vice president of policy and advocacy at World Vision UK, came to international fame when he exposed corruption at the heart of the government in his native Kenya in 2006 in what became known as the Anglo Leasing scandal, forcing him to seek temporary refuge in the UK.
Professor Githongo’s lecture
