Policy Engagement
At ASG, we are committed to preparing Africa’s brightest leaders to shape policy debates, influence public policy, and enhance governance across the continent. Our diverse range of public policy engagement activities supports our students and faculty in transforming research and insights into actionable policies that drive Africa’s development forward.
Active engagement with both African and global policy landscapes is central to our mission. ASG faculty are encouraged and supported to collaborate with partners across Africa, including policymakers and public-sector implementers, to tackle critical governance challenges using the best available evidence.
ASG students will actively participate in policy engagement initiatives, gaining the skills and experience needed to make a meaningful impact on policy development across Africa. Through these opportunities, they will learn to lead and drive policy agendas that align with Africa’s unique needs and priorities.
Our Public Policy Approach
Knowledge Dissemination
ASG aims to make research, evidence, and knowledge easily accessible to inform public debate and influence policy.
Policy Brief Series: Publishing a series of policy briefs with insights on Africa’s development challenges.
Public Lecture Series: Hosting public events where faculty members share policy-relevant research findings with a wider audience beyond academia.
Convening and Capacity Building
ASG will bring together cross-sector stakeholders to foster collaborative problem-solving and policy dialogue, enhancing their ability to address key policy challenges in Africa.
Closed Roundtables: Organising private events that gather cross-sector stakeholders to discuss critical policy challenges.
High-Level Policy Conferences: Hosting high-level conferences for Africa’s policymakers and leading public and private sector stakeholders, focusing on Africa’s most pressing policy themes. These events facilitate collaboration, networking, and relationship-building to solve the continent’s challenges.
Direct Policy Engagement
ASG’s faculty, researchers, and students will actively participate in solving Africa’s most pressing policy problems. The will school offer consulting services across sectors, while faculty will also be encouraged to engage in independent consulting work.
Faculty Advisory Work: Faculty members at ASG will be involved in direct problem-solving through advisory roles with public, social, and private sector organisations across Africa to promote evidence-based governance and policy-making.
Innovation and Incubation
ASG will establishing innovation hubs to design, test, and implement solutions within and outside of government, applying design thinking and entrepreneurial approaches to Africa’s public challenges.
Social Innovation Incubator: An intensive incubation programme supporting African social entrepreneurs tackling the continent’s most pressing challenges. This hub will offer a one-year, in-residence capacity development programme, with coaching, mentoring, networking opportunities, and integration within a start-up funding ecosystem.
Government Innovation Hub: A policy lab collaborating with governments to co-design, test, iterate, and implement innovative solutions that improve public sector delivery capabilities across Africa.
The lab will focus on enhancing delivery and implementation capabilities by applying digital technology to government services. It will partner with government agencies to define key social problems and uses human-centred, data-driven design to develop, prototype, test, and refine practical solutions that effectively meet real user needs. The emphasis will be on locally-developed solutions for locally-defined problems.