Highlighted Session: Funding education research in Africa: How equitable and inclusive are the approaches?

Group Submission Type: Highlighted Paper Session

Proposal

Improving education for a more equitable world requires looking beyond the traditional education indicators such as school participation, learning outcomes, and the plight of disadvantaged children and youth among others, to reflecting on evidence on equity and inclusion and how this evidence is generated and utilized. Research evidence is critical for formulation and implementation of equity and inclusion policies. Evidence based policies have a better potential to close gaps in equity and inclusion and hence transform children’s lives. Though production of research outputs is still low, potential in Africa abounds. Between 2003 and 2012, African researchers more than doubled their production of research outputs [1]. This was made possible through effective utilization of local resources however limited, creation of enabling and inclusive environments and adoption of collaborative research approaches with institutions and researchers from the global north. Available evidence shows that collaborations with institutions from the north and visiting scholars account for over 75% of all research in East Africa, and 70% in Southern Africa, outside South Africa [1]. This suggests that collaborative and inclusive models, if well structured, financed and geared towards strengthening research capacity, could potentially increase context-relevant research led by African researchers.

Funding research in Africa, including education research, has had major challenges. For example, African philanthropy is still in infancy and governments often prioritize other equally deserving and pressing development agendas. Although global funding for research is slowly increasing, it is still very low with only 1.3% of global Research and Development (R&D) spent in Africa [3], implying even much less proportion for education research. Most African countries spend between 0.25% and 0.5% of GDP on R&D compared to their target of 2% that was expected to be met by 2015 [3]. This may partly explain why only 0.1% of the world’s patents are held by Africa-based researchers (ibid), and perhaps much less in education.

Africa has many higher education institutions (HEI) as well as research institutions that provide opportunities for policy and context relevant education research that could strengthen education systems and thereby transform lives of the more than 300 million school/college children and youth. However, these institutions are not immune to the challenges experienced in R&D elsewhere. While there is no single panacea for getting African countries out of this quagmire, in this round table panel discussion, we argue that ‘an African led research ecosystem in partnership with relevant northern partners could increase research relevance, quality and outputs in Africa, and especially within the education field”. This ecosystem could also increase data generation, utilization, and management, foster long-term collaborative research partnerships, and create independent education research leaders in Africa. The big question is ‘how can we do this’. Building on existing funding mechanisms, collaborative networks in the south and from the north, and at the same time accommodating principles of equity and inclusion could strengthen African led education research generation and its utilization.

Africa has huge potential for conducting education research, but African researchers in the higher education institutions (HEI) and African research institutions (ARI) are less prepared to take up and/or lead such opportunities. Initiatives such as the Education Research in Africa Award by ADEA, the Regional Education Learning Initiative (RELI), and the yet to hit the ground Education Research Fund for Africa (ERFA), have an opportunity to make huge impacts on education research development agenda in Africa and beyond, due to their emphasis and/or a focus on equity and inclusion in funding and conducting research in Africa, African research leadership, and use of culturally and context relevant education research data. Their logic model of leveraging the intellectual prowess, knowledge, and in-country experience of HEIs and ARIs to co-create research solutions to pressing development challenges is one such viable approach that could be utilized to build research capacity in Africa. This is why HEI and policy based ARIs run programs to promote rigorous research including impact evaluation on education interventions in Africa and elsewhere, thus representing a very potent capacity building initiative that is in line with the CIES theme of ‘Improving Education for an Equitable World’.

To explore in detail these issues, we propose a round table of four panelists with strong background in either funding and/or conducting high quality education research in Africa. In the next section, we provide abstracts of each of the topics that will be discussed by the panelists and the audience. The round table will be organized as follows: Each panelist will have about 8 minutes to illuminate his/her evidence, practice or theory based perspectives on an aspect of education research funding in Africa. The first panelist will focus on education research productivity in Africa and the role of African researchers in the production of research. The panelist will also provide perspectives on research productivity and funding from an African researcher. The second panelist will focus on what it takes to improve education research productivity for an Africa researcher based in Africa, while the third panelist will share practical experiences on working with education researchers from both the north and south and illuminate the funding related power dynamics in education research production. From the fourth panelist, the audience will be presented with perspectives of the role of Africa diaspora in education research productivity and funding. Thereafter a discussant will tie or the evidence and perspectives into a coherent whole and pose emerging issues for the plenary discussion.

Sub Unit

• Africa SIG

Chair

• Benjamin Piper, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Individual Presentations

• Education Research Productivity in Africa: What do we know? - Nompumelelo L Mohohlwane, Department of Basic Education; Samuel Asare, Education Sub-Saharan Africa

• The role of Africa diaspora in education research productivity and funding - N'Dri Thérèse Assié-Lumumba, Cornell University

• The power dynamics in education research funding and leadership - Joyce Malombe, Wellspring Philanthropic Fund

• Education research funding in Africa: Strengthening education research production systems - Dana Schmidt, Echidna Giving

Discussant

• Moses Ngware, African Population And Health Research Center