Convening Africa’s science granting councils to strengthen their role in policy and decision-making processes

 

The Science Granting Councils Initiative in Sub-Saharan Africa (SGCI) is a multi-donor initiative funded by IDRC, the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), South Africa’s National Research Foundation (NRF), the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) and the German Research Foundation (DFG). Its aim is to strengthen the capacities of science granting councils (SGCs) in sub-Saharan Africa to support research and innovation that contribute to development. Capacity strengthening and technical support to the Councils focuses on five strategic areas as follows: research management; use of data and evidence in policy and decision making; funding of research and innovation projects; strategic communications and knowledge translation; and gender equality and inclusivity.

This project is funded by a new supplement from FCDO to the existing partnership. It will support multi-stakeholder dialogues and other engagements related to science, technology and innovation policies, research to impact and private-sector engagements among other topics that the councils will prioritize. It is expected to contribute towards the outcome of enhanced decision-making by the councils, based on evidence as well as increased knowledge translation, partnerships and learning among the councils and other science system actors.