Here are all of the interesting conferences on evidence and politics taking place across the continent in 2020 which I’ve heard about. Let me know if there are any I should add!
Rethinking Politics in Africa, Pretoria, 25 – 26 April 2020
Rethinking African politics as a science, art and practice is timely and pertinent given current debates about decolonising and Africanising knowledge. It is an invitation to shift the geography of reason about the way politics is thought and practiced in Africa for scholars of political sciences. … Under normal circumstances, this discussion would be convened and hosted by the African Association of Political Science. But the Association has been defunct now for about 5 years. Hence, part of the purpose of this planned conference is to launch an association in order to close the lacuna left by the absence of AAPS. Applications are due by 29 November 2019.
Lagos Studies Association, Lagos, 25 – 27 June 2019
The 5th edition of the annual Lagos Studies Association (LSA) conference seeks to place the postcolonial at the center the African city, and ask how the concept shapes our framing of African urban locations in their physical, imaginative, spatial, and theoretical dimensions. The organizers seek to move beyond the simplistic dialectic that the city is either a measure of development or decay in postcolonial Africa; instead, they would like to engage provocative ideas about people, institutions, narratives, and practices that make each urban location unique, without ignoring the shared histories and experiences of African cities. Applications are due 30 November 2019.
Evidence Leaders in Africa, Nairobi, 27 – 28 July 2020
The African Academy of Sciences (AAS) and the African Institute for Development Policy (AFIDEP) will convene an Evidence Leaders Africa Conference on 27th – 28th July 2020, Nairobi Kenya. The conference is part of an ongoing initiative, the Evidence Leaders in Africa (ELA) project funded by the Hewlett Foundation. ELA seeks to expand and fortify evidence-informed decision making (EIDM) leadership in Africa. The ELA conference targets AAS Fellows, Affiliates, and grantees undertaking research in East and West Africa to provide a platform for sharing lessons in evidence-informed decision making practices across Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) sectors in Africa. Applications are due 31 December 2019.
South African Association of Political Studies, Makhanda, 27 – 29 August 2020
The state is at the heart of what we as political scientists study. In South Africa, the notion of state capture has become a staple of political discussion. A key question is whether new South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government will be able to secure a less corrupt way forward and to improve the efficiency of the South African state. Concerns about the state are not particular to South Africa. The change of power in Zimbabwe from Robert Mugabe to Emmerson Mnangangwa has provoked questions about the limits of democratic transformation of the state following entrenched militarisation of institutions of governance. The end of Omar-al Bashir’s thirty year rule in Sudan and the violence that has characterised the transition from his rule, invites questions about the extent to which the state making project and maintenance continues to be characterised by violence in Africa. How should we understand the role of the state in the 21st century? How has it changed and what are its prospects? Applications are due 29 February 2020.
Evidence 2020, Kampala, 14 – 18 September 2020
Evidence 2020 will focus on advancing the African evidence ecosystem and, in doing so, will build on and move forwards the work of the previous Evidence conferences hosted by the Africa Evidence Network. As with previous AEN Evidence conferences, Evidence 2020 will be the most diverse of evidence conferences around the world, attracting participants from all sectors across civil society, government, academia and all in between, spanning all types of evidence to inform the full range of decisions from understanding the issues, to assessing the impact of interventions to address those issues. Application deadlines haven’t been announced yet.