The State of African Resilience report highlights findings from the ResilientAfrica Network (RAN), a partnership targeting 20 sub-Saharan African universities supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and led by Makerere University in Uganda, together with Tulane University’s Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy (DRLA), Stanford University, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in the United States. RAN is one of the eight development labs under the Higher Education Solutions Network (HESN) in the US Global Development lab (http://www.usaid.gov/hesn).
“The State of African Resilience: Understanding Dimensions of Vulnerability and Adaptation,” further identifies major dimensions of resilience from the perspective of more than a dozen vulnerable communities across sub-Saharan Africa. The report is based on the research and analysis of the RAN, a partnership that includes fifteen African universities that are engaging with local communities to understand how best to prevent, mitigate, and overcome the recurrent shocks and stresses to which they are most vulnerable. How are communities in Uganda contending with the effects of climate variability and post-conflict recovery? How are communities in South Africa addressing the link between HIV/AIDS and poverty? How are urban populations in Ghana addressing the economic and public health challenges associated with rapid urbanization? RAN brings together faculty, students, and the target community members. These develop interventions designed to increase resilience capacity at the community level and, more broadly, making its data publicly available to allow for development practitioners in the future to more easily identify the vulnerabilities and existing capacities of communities.
“Let us all join to further encourage the young innovators, students and the community to translate knowledge into innovative solutions to address communities’ most pressing challenges” Prof. William Bazeyo, Dean Makerere University School of Public Health/ RAN Chief of Party and Lab Director.