Science partnerships at the forefront of Africa’s development: SGCI marks a decade of progress

Held from 15 to 19 September in Accra, Ghana, the 2025 SGCI All Partners Forum and the Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy for Africa 2034 (STISA-2034) advocacy meeting brought together a vibrant community of science granting councils, funders, technical agencies and regional partners to reflect on a decade of transformative collaboration in Africa’s science, technology and innovation (STI) landscape. 

Under the theme “SGCI@10: Marking a Decade of Partnership, Growth, and Transformation in Support of Africa’s Development,” the Forum celebrated the achievements of the SGCI since its inception in 2015.  

SGCI is a multi-funder initiative supported by IDRC, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, South Africa’s National Research Foundation and the German Research Foundation. 

Over the past ten years, SGCI has supported 17 councils across sub-Saharan Africa to strengthen research management, foster regional collaboration and promote gender equality and inclusion. 

The forum opened with remarks from Santiago Alba-Corral, IDRC’s vice-president of programs and partnerships, who reaffirmed the Centre’s commitment to SGCI as a driver of science-led development. The inclusion of Angola and Togo as new SGCI members underscored the initiative’s growing reach and relevance. 

Throughout the week, participants engaged in dynamic sessions that showcased lessons from SGCI’s second phase, which ran from 2018 to 2025. These included strategies for building public-private partnerships, digitizing grant-management systems, enhancing financial practices, and embedding gender equality and inclusivity in research systems. A keynote address by Ghana’s deputy minister for lands and natural resources, Yusif Sulemana, highlighted the critical role of science and innovation in achieving Africa’s development goals and underscored Ghana’s commitment through the recent establishment of the Ghana National Research Fund. 

A key outcome of the forum was the Accra Communiqué, a high-level declaration that reaffirmed the commitment of African science granting councils to deepen collaboration, mobilize domestic and regional resources, and align with continental priorities such as the African Union’s STISA-2034 strategy. To this end, SGCI will establish the SGCI Alliance, a new coordination mechanism led by the councils, designed to expand Africa’s STI ecosystem. The communiqué calls for: 

• strengthening intra-African collaboration among councils, academia, regional bodies and think tanks
• operationalizing the African Science, Technology and Innovation Fund with support from the African Development Bank
• investing in robust, digitally enabled STI ecosystems to accelerate evidence-based policymaking and development impact
• mainstreaming gender equity and inclusivity across all levels of research and innovation systems 

The event also featured a poster exhibition showcasing stories of change from SGCI member councils, offering a space for peer learning and networking. Delegates left with renewed resolve to build on SGCI’s legacy and co-create the next phase of the initiative, which will run from 2026 to 2030. 

As Africa faces new and evolving challenges — from climate change to health and food security — the SGCI Forum reaffirmed the power of science partnerships to drive inclusive, sustainable development. The Accra Communiqué stands as a collective pledge to harness STI for the continent’s transformation.