Call for Proposals: African Fellowships for Research in Indigenous and Alternative Knowledges

This programme is offered with the support of the Mastercard Foundation as part of the Foundation’s commitment to advance education and skills for young people in Africa.

This programme seeks to implement an innovative approach to training a new generation of young people to design research projects and produce knowledge as a partnership between academic mentors on the one hand and bearers of Indigenous knowledge on the other. This approach will privilege local, Indigenous, and endogenous knowledge as forms of knowledge or knowledge systems that are deeply embedded in communities and closely tied to their lived experiences.

At its core, AFRIAK is premised on the conviction that training a new cadre of young people with the skills to produce and apply knowledge derived from Indigenous and local realities will generate unique but useable data. This data, they believe, contains important knowledge that will support policy interventions aimed at creating fulfilling livelihoods for young people and Indigenous/local communities. The AFRIAK research and fellowship project will involve three related activities. These are:

• A research, training and mentorship fellowship programme for young people.
• Policy convenings.
• An alumni and community of practice in Indigenous and alternative knowledge network.

Focus Areas

• Proposals submitted under this call should revolve around the following areas:
  • Indigenous knowledge and methods of knowing.
  • Indigenous medical science and practices.
  • Indigenous knowledge, the creative sector and systems of entrepreneurship.
  • Agriculture and agri-foods systems.
  • Mobilizing digital systems for Indigenous knowledge in Africa.
  • Indigenous pedagogies and curriculum development.
  • Indigenous knowledge in social capital development.
  • Indigenous technologies and sustainable development.
  • Indigenous knowledge and climate change.
  • IK heritage in nutrition and climate health.
  • Indigenous languages and science.
  • Indigenous knowledge, Religion and spirituality science.
  • Indigenous science and ecological sustainability.

Program Specifications

• The fellowship includes induction, mid-term institute, fieldwork, dissemination activities, and post-fellowship activities, where alumni will contribute to a community of practice in Indigenous and other knowledge systems.
• Fellows will be grouped into teams of seven, accompanied by two bearers of Indigenous/local knowledge and an academic mentor.
• Conceptualization of the research, its execution, and dissemination approaches will be co-developed between the young fellows, academic mentors and bearers of indigenous knowledge.
• Throughout the fellowship, research teams will receive mentorship and support from intellectual hubs, which will be identified and constituted by CODESRIA to enhance scholarly and community engagement.

Duration 

• The duration of the fellowship, including fieldwork and dissemination, will be seven months.

Expected Outcomes

• The three interrelated programme activities are designed to facilitate the attainment of the following outcomes:
  • Create opportunities and spaces for young researchers to engage in multi-disciplinary knowledge production and apply it jointly with academics, activists, policy practitioners and IK-bearers and keepers.
  • Facilitate collaborative research that will minimize the isolation of Indigenous knowledge-bearers/keepers/scholars from other knowledge-bearers or keepers and help eliminate asymmetries and silos within knowledge production systems.
  • Expand opportunities to enhance the capacity of participants, especially the historically/culturally marginalized ones, to acquire and inquire into knowledges embedded in communities.
  • Transform knowledge into action while enhancing its capacity to create dignified and fulfilling work opportunities for young people in several sectors including the creative sector; agriculture and agri-foods systems; digital systems, and other industries; in curriculum development, pedagogy, and learning; nutrition and climate health; in human, plant, and animal health, among other sectors with pressing needs and opportunities in Africa.
  • Facilitate the emergence of a critical mass of young women researchers who will engage with and train future generations of IK research and practices, including embracing new technologies such as AI to mobilize and apply IK.

Eligibility Criteria

• This call targets young people aged 24 and 35 years, engaged in research and knowledge production activities that draw, or aspire to draw, on Indigenous/local knowledge perspectives.
• The targeted youth should be based in formal research and knowledge institutions or Indigenous knowledge research centres in Africa.
• Practitioners with formal education qualifications, who are engaged in activities that draw on the application of Indigenous/local knowledge perspectives, are also encouraged to apply.
• Up to 70 per cent of the young people to be selected for the fellowship will be young women.

Application Requirements

• Individual applicants are required to submit the following:
  • A one-page CV that indicates, among other details, date of birth and current occupation/engagement and institutional affiliation.
  • A two-page concept note that identifies a topic, explains how that theme is aligned with a priority area that CODESRIA has itemised; provides a justification for the choice of theme and how compelling it is; and summarises the key steps the individual aims to go through to achieve the outcomes from the research and fellowship process.
  • A one-page reference letter from two referees familiar with the work of the applicant.
• Group applicants (maximum of 7 persons) are required to submit the following:
  • A one-page CV for each of the group members to be submitted as one consolidated document. Each CV should indicate, among other details, date of birth and current occupation/engagement and institutional affiliation. The Principal Investigator or Group Leader must be clearly identified at the top of the set of CVs.
  • A two-page concept note that identifies a topic, explains how that theme is aligned with a priority area that CODESRIA has itemised; provides a justification for the choice of theme and how compelling it is; and summarises the key steps the group aims to go through to achieve the outcomes from the research and fellowship process.
  • Two letters of reference that specifically endorse the group, rather than individual members.

For more information, visit CODESRIA.