ASRI showcases the work of its members and the research of those whom it has supported through its sponsorship of interdisciplinary conferences in Africa and the United States.
2016 Conference. Breaking the Barriers to Africa’s Development: The Role of the Social Sciences
July 13-16 — University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, Ghana
There has been considerable optimism in recent years about Africa’s growth performance and prospects for the future. However, the optimism has been diminished by continuing challenges to human capital development and by political instability. A number of African countries were unable to achieve the health and education targets in the Millennium Development Goals. The political landscape has also been mixed. Some countries have been stable for some time now and others have had smooth transitions from one administration to the other. Yet other countries have been destabilised partly due to attempts to subvert their constitutions.
African countries have been integrated into the global economy and society at a level which did not exist fifty years ago but many social barriers to development remain. Gender inequality, youth unemployment, disease burden and alienation, have declined in some countries but continue to pose great challenges in rural and urban areas. As Africa prepares for the Sustainable Development Goals, imaginative thinking, innovative analytical frameworks and new tools are required to interrogate the emerging issues and to design measures and strategies to promote the development of the continent.
The goals of the conference are to:
- Bring together social scientists to present their findings
- Deliberate on emerging issues and possible pathways for Africa
- Strengthen alliances between researchers within and outside the continent working on African development
- Provide an opportunity for interaction with policy makers
The conference aims to bridge multiple thematic areas, including democratic governance, the delivery of public goods, income dynamics, poverty, gender, health and development. We especially welcome papers that cover more than one of these themes.
2013 Conference. Transnational Vulnerabilities in Governance, Employment, Health and Education: Finding Inclusive Solutions in the US and Africa
October 11-12 — Rackham Assembly Hall, University of Michigan, United States
At the very moment that governments in developed as well as developing countries are least able to provide support, the global crisis has increased demands on them to meet basic human needs for healthcare, housing, education, and security. In the absence of vigorous responses by governments from South Africa to the US, other actors—from businesses to community based organizations—have stepped into the breach to offer skills training, supply anti-retroviral drugs, provide affordable housing, or deliver security. As government budgets become more stretched in the US, Ghana, and South Africa, how has access to education, healthcare, and housing been affected across different socioeconomic groups in different countries? Moreover, as the delivery of services has become more decentralized and disjointed, which social groups have benefited and which have been overlooked?
This conference uses the tools of social research to identify and measure the major gaps and the greatest strains in health, housing, education, employment, and welfare at the national and sub-national levels on the African continent. Contributors also examine the vulnerabilities generated or exacerbated by the global economic downturn, growing inequality, and continuing deficiencies in the provision of public goods. Taking advantage of the University of Michigan’s location in southeastern Michigan, conference participants will be exposed not only to the economic and social vulnerabilities that some of Detroit’s most disadvantaged communities have experienced, but also to the creative solutions these communities have adopted to confront challenges in health care, housing, education, and employment.
Recognizing that many vulnerabilities are transnational makes possible the discussion and application of solutions that transcend national boundaries. One of the goals of the conference then is to bring scholars and policymakers into dialogue with each other about the most advanced techniques for conducting social research and how research findings can be translated into policies that are both inclusive and equitable. We aim to share tools and techniques of data analysis that have been developed at the University of Michigan, and to highlight the work of emerging scholars from the continent of Africa and the United States.
2011 Conference. Access, Accountability and Equality
July 22-23 — Alisa Hotel, Accra, Ghana
Over the last few decades, African countries have undergone monumental changes across political, economic, and social dimensions. Many countries have democratized and adopted market principles. Many have made enormous strides in reducing infant mortality, combating malaria, recognizing the rights of women, and improving educational opportunities. Yet many challenges remain. Few African countries are on target to meet the 2015 Millennium Development Goals established by the United Nations. Significant populations lack access to health services, quality education, or gainful employment, and socio-economic inequalities have risen in many countries. Opportunities for African citizens to hold governments accountable for their actions, or to participate meaningfully in politics, remain elusive.
This conference critically evaluated development targets and investigated the abiding inter-sectoral challenges of democratic accountability, equality, and access to health and other social services in Ghana, South Africa, and neighboring countries in the region. The conference panels highlighted data-driven papers, providing original research based on the analyses of recent surveys, as well as reflection on the quality and comprehensiveness of data sources in the region. Keynote speakers included Professor Ernest Aryeetey, a noted economist and the Vice- Chancellor of the University of Ghana and Professor Murray Leibbrandt, Director of the Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit.
Conference Host Institute: ISSER, the Institute for Social Science and Economics Research, a leading demographic and economic think-tank at the University of Ghana-Legon.
2009 Inaugural Conference. African Social Research Initiative (ASRI)
July 2-3 — Breakwater Lodge, Cape Town, South Africa
The conference explored the uses of different measurement tools and what they yield across multiple fields of research. Participants explained the applications of survey data, including experimental approaches. They also examined public opinion research and explained the challenges of panel and longitudinal data to measure and explain income dynamics, gender change, and/or democratic governance. As stated above, the conference provided the foundation for the creation of several research partnerships that have already borne fruit.
