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Filmed conversation: Will Africa's Gen Z bring lasting political change?
Often describing themselves as #fearless, #partyless and #tribeless, Africa’s Gen Zs are mobilising protests, reclaiming the meaning of democracy, and questioning political power across the continent. Are these mobilisations momentary, or do they signal the beginning of deeper, systemic change? And how do today’s digitally driven movements differ from earlier waves of social and political mobilisation?
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How violence in local politics keeps women out of power
In a new video, researchers from the project Making Politics Safer examine how violence against women in politics increasingly unfolds online and at the local level, with serious consequences for democratic participation.
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Overtaxing the formal sector undermines long-term fiscal gains
A new survey of firms in Ghana shows that the tax burden and levels of compliance are disproportionately higher among formal businesses than informal ones. Formal businesses also consider the tax system to be unfair to a greater extent than informal ones. These inequities reflect broader challenges across African economies, where informality dominates. To encourage investment and job creation,
the government must build more transparent and fair
tax systems that foster trust.
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Global initiatives need local voices: addressing digital violence against women in politics
This year the 16 Days of Activism to End Gender-based Violence global campaign rallied under the theme “UNiTE to End Digital Violence against All Women and Girls External link.”. The theme placed a spotlight on the grave threat that unregulated online platforms pose to women and girls. This online violence is particularly acute for women active in politics who are increasingly subjected to violent hate campaigns aimed at tarnishing their careers, reducing their agency and pushing them out of politics.I am currently conducting research that aims to produce an evidence-based toolkit to address online violence against women in local politics in Zimbabwe. The project brings to the fore the experiences and voices of women who are often neglected in global conversations, and emphasises the need for inclusive and locally informed responses to global challenges.
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In the aftermath of a national tragedy
Personal and collective experiences of loss intersect within the broader framework of national mourning, as explored in this study based on Cyclone Freddy in Malawi.
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Making politics safer
A new book maps how electoral violence affects women in local politics in Ghana, Kenya and Zimbabwe, showing how they are systematically targeted in ways that limit their participation and help maintain male-dominated political systems.
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Training parents for better sexuality education
Despite decades of progress in adolescent health in sub-Saharan Africa, policies concerning sexual and reproductive health remain fragmented and weakly connected to families. Parents and caregivers are often left without the tools to communicate effectively about these matters. By strengthening parental engagement from early childhood through adolescence, national policies can build more resilient systems that promote adolescent health, gender equity and intergenerational trust.
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Voices from the NAI Early Career Diplomat Briefing Programme
What happens when early career diplomats from across Africa and the Nordics come together to learn, reflect, and exchange perspectives? In this video, participants share their experiences from a three-day programme at the Nordic Africa Institute.
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Gen Z and the Future of Democracy in Africa: Rethinking Young People’s Civic Power in a Digital Age
Over the past two years, my research on young people’s futures in Africa and fieldwork across Kenya, Madagascar, Ghana, Morocco and Tanzania have drawn me into the heart of a generational political awakening - one driven not by institutions or elites, but by Africa’s Gen Z (Generation Zoomer). In the African context, this generation refers to the demographic born between 1997 and 2012 or generally citizens of African nations presently under the age of 28. This generation, often dismissed as the “snowflake” generation, militant, apathetic or unserious is instead demonstrating a profound reimagining of civic engagement, accountability and democratic reinvention on the continent of Africa.
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Lost skills and untapped potential
Highly educated African migrants face barriers to labour market integration in Europe, where their skills are often undervalued and discrimination is widespread. Drawing on research on Burundian migrants in Belgium and Sweden, this policy note highlights the costs of exclusion and calls for stronger anti-discrimination enforcement, and closer Europe-Africa cooperation to promote transnational labour mobility.
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Prof Akosua Adomako Ampofo: “Academics are not just there to have a good time”
In a new interview, Professor Akosua Adomako Ampofo, this year’s holder of the Claude Ake Visiting Chair, reflects on the role of academics in shaping more just and sustainable societies. Speaking from decades of experience as a scholar and public intellectual in Ghana, she emphasises that research cannot remain confined to the academy.“The more vulnerable a society is, or the more vulnerable people you have in a society, the greater your responsibility to make sure that your research counts for something,” says Adomako Ampofo, a professor of African and Gender Studies at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana.
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Politicians will not promote gender equality if it is not demanded from below
Over the 25 years since the UN Security Council adopted its landmark resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security (WPS), three main shifts have been achieved; greater awareness, stronger accountability and the recognition of gender as an analytical lens in peacebuilding. But to keep advancing this agenda, its reach must extend beyond “the usual suspects”, says Angela Muvumba Sellström, Senior Researcher at the Nordic Africa Institute, in this science-to-policy conversation.
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Historian finds untapped narratives in NAI’s pamphlet collection
Pamphlets from the 1960s and 1970s, once dismissed as political ephemera, are reshaping how American historian Jeff Schauer thinks about decolonisation and the making of modern Africa. On his third visit to the Nordic Africa Institute (NAI) Library in Uppsala, Schauer is finding material he believes could play an important part in a new book project.
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Researcher: Côte d'Ivoire's Ouattara likely to secure controversial fourth term
In a new interview, NAI Senior Researcher Jesper Bjarnesen discusses the upcoming presidential election in Côte d’Ivoire and the complex political landscape that has emerged in recent years. The build-up to the 25 October election has already been controversial, Bjarnesen says.
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Insights from the ground key to tackle economic risks
Policy debates on de-risking Africa’s food supply chains often emphasize measures for large corporations, while overlooking the ‘missing middle’ of small and medium-sized enterprises. Supporting these businesses through tailored risk-mitigation policies can bolster resilience, economic stability and food security. At the same time, systematically monitoring their ground-level insights – their ‘ear-to-the-ground’ knowledge – gives invaluable input to early-warning systems.
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NAI researcher explores invisible Dakar-Istanbul trade bridge
By using preferential airfares and social media platforms such as Tiktok, Senegalese traders import large volumes of cosmetics, clothing and technological goods from Turkey. While the cheap Turkish products sell easily on the Senegalese market, they make life difficult for the country’s artisans.
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Researcher: Competing claims to government deepen Sudan’s crisis
On 30 August, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as ‘Hemedti’ and head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), was sworn in as head of a parallel Sudanese government, which calls itself the Foundation Alliance. NAI Senior Researcher Redie Bereketeab says the move has fundamentally changed the nature of the conflict. “The RSF’s alliance with political and armed actors is making the crisis far more complicated,” he says.
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Mobilising new voices for gender equality in war and peace
Over the last quarter-century, the UN Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda raised global awareness of the role of women in conflict. But much of its potential remains unrealised. The agenda is slow-moving and driven by top-down implementation. To succeed, the UN and other involved stakeholders must popularise WPS and expand it beyond diplomacy into a broader societal movement – especially in Africa, where the number of conflicts is rising and where the WPS agenda was first shaped.
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Growing demand for high quality research in era of disinformation
As researchers we have to take the rise of fake news and disinformation seriously, says Professor Eleanor Fisher, head of research at the Nordic Africa Institute in a new interview.She describes how NAI invests significant attention to ensuring the high quality of its research, grounded in empirical research conducted on the continent, often in collaboration with researchers from local universities and research institutions.Of NAI’s research within the social sciences, she says it can challenge stereotypes, show complexity, while offering insight into political and economic dynamics in African countries.“It is my experience here at the Nordic Africa Institute that with the rise of disinformation, because we are producing high quality research, actually demand for what we do is rising.”
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Carmakers invest directly in mines to secure mineral supply
Huge volumes of minerals are needed for the world’s transition towards green energy. This makes states and companies worry that resources will run out.As a consequence, individual carmakers are acquiring or entering into partnership with mining companies, according to NAI’s researcher Grasian Mkodzongi.The trend of partner agreements across industrial sectors, aimed at securing the supply of critical minerals, is likely going to intensify, he says.
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