The objective of the Africa Charter is to develop transformative research collaborations that will serve to advance a more just and richer pluriversal global scientific effort across the formal, natural and social sciences, as well as the arts and humanities, in which Africa takes its rightful place. It has become a globally defining document on partnerships between the Global South and Global North, having been adopted by 88 universities during and following its launch at the African Association of Universities’ Biennial Conference of Rectors and Vice-Chancellors in Namibia in July 2023.
The ambitious Charter Initiative was co-created by Africa’s major higher education bodies and facilitated by the Perivoli Africa Research Centre at the University of Bristol in partnership with the Chief Albert Luthuli Research Chair at Unisa and the Institute for Humanities in Africa at the University of Cape Town.
It aims to redress entrenched power imbalances in global knowledge production. These historic disparities have fuelled a huge gap between universities and scholars in Europe, North America and Australia, and their African counterparts.
The key goals of the Charter include creating a radically new approach to research collaboration that redresses deep-seated divides in the generation of scientific knowledge, championing this reformed, equitable way of working as standard and best practice, and introducing an Africa-centred framework setting out guiding principles and measures of success and accountability.
Last modified: Thu Jun 20 14:08:30 SAST 2024