Leading Integrated Research for

Agenda 2030 in Africa

Foster African scientific leadership for the

implementation of the global agenda on
sustainability

Increase the production and use of integrated,

solutions-oriented knowledge on sustainable
development, particularly in African cities
• The Agenda 2030, the Paris Agreement, the New Urban Agenda
all recognize the central role of urbanization in sustainable
development

• Urbanisation rates are the highest, from 35 percent in 1950 to 60

per cent in 2050 (UN-Habitat 2009)

• Cities in Africa have an unprecedented opportunity to shape their

urban futures in a more inclusive, sustainable and resilient
manner.

• Making a meaningful contribution to the sustainable development

vision requires inclusive, holistic policies and actions, based on
relevant knowledge.

• Knowledge that can make urban planning practice more relevant

to African contexts: context-dependent, nuanced analysis of urban
processes, not just useful but useable knowledge
Building TD capacity

• TD training workshops for PIs

• Collaborative research grants
(90 K Euro each over 2 years)
• Annual Research Forums
• TD intensive trainings for Co-
PIs
• Project coaching workshops for
PIs and Co-PIs
• Understanding the ‘energy-health’ and ‘health-
natural disasters’ nexuses in African cities;
• Advancing the implementation of SDG11 in cities
in Africa; and
• Pathways towards Sustainable Urban
Development in Africa
28 research projects
Cities across 2 countries in Africa
22 countries: Cameroon, South Africa, Angola, Kenya,
Ghana, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Namibia, Zambia, Uganda,
Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Mozambique, Democratic Republic of Congo,
Ethiopia, Malawi, Rwanda, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Benin, Togo, and
Niger.
• LIRA projects aim to test how scientists can
work with a variety of actors from policy,
practice and local communities to confront the
broad and interlinked nature of urban
development challenges that are articulated
across the SDGs, including:
• extreme poverty (SDG 1),
• health (SDG 3),
• gender equality (SDG 5),
• water and sanitation (SDG 6),
• energy (SDG 7),
• inequality (SDG 10),
• cities and settlements (SDG 11), and
• climate change (SDG 13).
Making Global SDGs Indicators of Sustainability Relevant to
Local Communities in Kampala and Nairobi
Transforming African cities in a changing climate (SA and
Zimbabwe)
 Bringing clean energy to informal settlements: co-designing
sustainable energy solutions in Kenya, Uganda and South Africa
Co-producing urban knowledge in Angola and Mozambique
through community-led data collection
Citizen science for improved air quality in Kenya and Ethiopia
Initial findings/learnings
• A holistic understanding of local needs,
problems and potential solutions
• Enriching - better equipped to manage the
complexity
• Helps position the research project in relation
to existing initiatives and improve
receptiveness
• Reinforces collective agency of stakeholders to
co-produce change
• Better chance of leveraging resources, know-
how and co-operation amongst stakeholders
Initial findings/learnings
• TD is an emergent process - be open and
flexible
• Requires trust building, empathy and humility
from everyone involved and truly value
different knowledge
• A warm rather than cold extractive research
• Carefully manage power dynamics, tensions -
requires emotional intelligence:
• communication, conflict management, community
facilitation, and critical reflexive value-based and
attitudinal shifts
Initial findings/learnings
• Social learnings, capacity development, and
relationship-building are often just as important
• Requires time, capabilities and incentives that
counter the ‘publish and perish’ culture:
creating incentives and enabling environment
• Knowledge integration is a challenge
 Key questions to consider
At what stages of research process is the TD
approach the most useful?

Measuring social impact: what is realistic to

generate over two-year project?

Synthesing the knowledge produced

Learning from knowledge co-design and co-

production for sustainable urban development in
Africa
Connecting local knowledge
to the global agenda
• Participation in the regional and
global science and policy processes
(UN STI Forum, 7th Africa Water
Week Conference, International
Conference on Urban Health, IPCC
Cities and Climate Change)

• UN HLPF: LIRA experiments of

science – policy interactions
Building institutional and financial
support for the SDGs-related science
Global Forum of Funders, 8-9 July, 2019, Washington
D.C.,
to build strategic partnerships between research funding
agencies, foundations, and development agencies that
will increase and accelerate the impact of science and
science funding on the achievement of the SDGs
• Knowledge co-production is an
ubiquitous feature of modern
society, that cannot not happen
(Miller 2018)

• Sustainability in TD capacity
building

• How do we scale up research

impact
Lira2030Africa@council.science

www.council.science/lira2030