October 2020 – PedaL

Contact person: Lauren Wesonga- lwesonga@pasgr.org

Accountability for Water is a new programme of action & research to improve water governance & water service delivery. Too often good policies, wise laws and promising programmes have failed because of weak accountability.

To harness the potential of stronger accountability we need to know ‘what works and why?’ in different water management contexts.

We invite you to join us and support our three goals for water security:

Knowledge generation: Sector leaders supported to do high-value research
Outreach and uptake: Sharing findings through meetings, publications and online
Ensuring legacy: Developing strategies, support networks and implementation plans

Become a Host Organisation

Any organisation with an interest in accountability can be a host organisation-government agencies, utilities, civil society or researchers. With a PRF research grant you can support a member of your team to complete research on your priority accountability issue.

Become a Professional Research Fellow

Fellows will be professionals who sit within a host organisation who are capable of carrying out original research, with training & mentoring support from a wide range of organisations and experts including leading researchers. Learning Partners are welcome to join. Contact us to receive regular updates and share your learning with us.

Our 9-week remote-learning masterclass on Accountability for Water begins on 16th November 2020. Participants will receive a certificate of attendance and coaching to develop a Research Fellowship Proposal for an 18 month research grant. To register interest and find out more, and to register for our launch event on 5th November 2020 (online -2pm EAT):timbrewer@waterwitness.org

The University of Pretoria’s School of Public Management and Administration (SPMA) will offer a new PhD programme in Public Policy, and prospective students will be able to apply for it in 2021.
This development comes as a result of engagements between the SPMA and the Partnership for African Social and Governance Research (PASGR) in 2019, when UP staff met with Dr Beatrice Muganda, Dr Pauline Ngimwa and Executive Director Professor Tade Aina from PASGR.
“The University has recently signed a Memorandum of Agreement with PASGR and we believe this will just strengthen the very good relationship the SPMA has formed with PASGR over the last year,” says Prof Natasja Holtzhausen, SPMA PhD coordinator.
One of the discussion points was a PhD programme with a strong policy focus. With the support of the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences and University management, Prof Holtzhausen and SPMA colleagues wrote a proposal that was submitted to all the relevant university committees to obtain permission for a degree that specialises in public policy. Top prospective students from across the continent were targeted. The Carnegie Foundation made 15 full scholarships available to fund exceptional PhD students. These 15 scholarships were shared among the three universities that were piloting the PhD, these being the University of Ibadan in Nigeria, the University of Nairobi in Kenya, and the University of Pretoria.
The first students, mainly from Uganda and Nigeria, enrolled at UP in January 2020, but under the PhD Public Administration and Management programme. The PhD degree in Public Policy has since been approved by Senate and as of 2021, prospective students will be able to apply for this specific degree.

This has been reposted from https://www.up.ac.za/school-of-public-management-and-administration/news/post_2929457-spma-to-offer-new-phd-in-public-policy

University of Pretoria (UP) Vice-Chancellor and Principal Professor Tawana Kupe and Partnership for African Social and Governance Research (PASGR) Executive Director Professor Tade Aina formalised the strategic partnership between the two institutions during a virtual signing ceremony of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Monday, 21 September.

PASGR is a pan-African non-profit organisation established in 2011 and located in Nairobi, Kenya, with engagements in over 25 African countries focused on enhancing research excellence in governance and public policy for society’s overall well-being. The strategic partnership between UP and PASGR will be anchored by the collaborative Master’s Programme in Research and Public Policy and the Doctoral Programme in Public Policy offered together with the University of Ibadan and University of Nairobi. Collaboration will also focus on research and policy training for early and mid-career researchers, and collaborative research grants on important policy issues in Africa.

The partnership with PASGR is very much aligned to UP’s strategic goal to become the leading African-global university. This strategic goal seeks to develop a globally competitive and recognised research institution responsive to societal challenges, particularly in Africa. UP’s four transdisciplinary platforms, (i) the Future Africa Campus and Institute, (ii) Javett Art Centre, (iii) Engineering 4.0, and Innovation Africa@UP will play a leading role in this regard. For the UP-PASGR collaboration, Future Africa will be an instrumental science-policy platform for hosting transdisciplinary teams of researchers and practitioners, including policymakers from the continent and the rest of the world in the co-creation of knowledge to address complex governance and public policy challenges facing Africa.

During the virtual ceremony, Prof Kupe noted that “this MoU provides a visible manifestation of agreed strategic collaboration and a shared commitment to the leveraging of our collective intellectual capital, expertise, resources, and capacities in the advancement of our well-aligned visions and strategic priorities”.

PASGR Executive Director Prof Aina added that the MoU “is also a reinforcement for building the next generation of public policy researchers and leaders in Africa”.

This has been reposted from https://www.up.ac.za/news/post_2924288-up-formalises-strategic-alliance-with-the-partnership-for-african-social-and-governance-research-pasgr