A joint undertaking by CIGI in cooperation with Makerere University (MU), the African Initiative is a five-year undertaking that aims to deepen understanding and raise the policy dialogue in five critical areas of concern across the continent, as they relate to climate change: health; migration; energy; food security; and conflict resolution and mediation. By incorporating field research, strategic partnerships, and online collaboration, the African Initiative is undertaking a truly interdisciplinary, international, and multi-institutional approach to Africa’s governance challenges. The effects of climate instability are expected to fall disproportionately on Africa’s poor and risk reversing gains made in poverty reduction over the past decade. Across the continent, extreme weather conditions, reduced rainfall, depletion of forests, disruption of animal migratory patterns, and extinction of species will work to exacerbate inequalities in access to health care, food, water, and shelter—the very essentials of life.

The African Initiative is a unique, crosscutting collaboration with work on the core areas of the initiative focused on developing policy recommendations and best practice guidelines in dealing with the unpredictable effects of climate change for countries across the continent, from Senegal to Somalia and Tunisia to South Africa. Based primarily in Africa and building on existing capacity in North America, the African Initiative and its collaborating partners are combining field-based research, practical experience, informal teaching solutions, and education initiatives to develop innovative, enduring strategies to increase the continent’s resilience in the face of the adverse effects of climate change and to develop sustainable practices for tomorrow’s African reality.

The Africa Portal: A major undertaking of the African Initiative is the development of the Africa Portal as a comprehensive online knowledge exchange on governance-related issues relevant to the continent. Once complete, the portal will offer electronic access to annotated indexes and reference materials on probing and relevant African issues. CIGI’s Africa Portal is designed to provide users with open access to policy related information and research on the continent. The South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) is a key partner on the online library component of the portal.

Student/Faculty Exchange Program: The student and faculty exchange is a collaborative program between CIGI, Makerere University and Canadian institutions, including the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University. This capacity building initiative gives students and faculty an opportunity to discover and impart new learning and teaching modules used in Africa and North America.