On African Think Tanks: Interview with Dr. Adedeji Adeniran

Our On African Think Tanks series aims to examine the development of research and intellectual thought leadership ecosystems on the continent. In the midst of its oft-discussed "youth bulge" and "critical minerals" boom that has prompted the emergence of a new kind of scramble for Africa, it seems an appropriate time to ask why the most sought after perspectives and analyses of the African policy and governance landscape are sourced from outside of the continent. Among other things, the risk here is that the data, insights, and conslusions we come to about the continent are informed by external actors, leading to impressions of Africa that are divorced from the lived-experiences of those they aim to represent.

Through one-on-one interviews with experienced professionals currently working at think tanks on the continent, we will look to understand what topics are most pressing, how they would characterize their position in influencing global conversations, and how the diaspora might be more thoughtfully engaged.

For our first interview, we had the privilege of speaking with Dr. Adedeji Adeniran, Director of Research at the Center for the Study of the Economies of Africa (CSEA) in Abuja, Nigeria.

Do you believe think tanks on the continent are adequately represented in how policy issues in Africa are understood globally?

AA: Encouragingly, there is growing inclusion of African perspectives and voices in global debates. One effective model in this regard has been the coordination of think tanks into networks that amplify their voices and collective action. Platforms such as the Southern Voice Network have been instrumental in promoting greater participation and visibility for the Global South.

However, it remains crucial to address the remaining barriers through deeper reforms of the global governance system. While progress has been made, the extent to which African participation translates into action and decision is modest. The Global North continues to dominate key decision-making structures.

What is CSEA's biggest priority in Africa currently? What work are you most excited about?

AA: Number one, it's on education. Two core issues for us in education is one, the out of school children problem especially in northern Nigeria. Nigeria has about 13 or 15 million people that are out of school. So we have been really working with locals and with government stakeholders to understand some of the potential forms of innovations. Innovations like accelerated education models, digital inclusion models or really targeted approaches to girls… Another aspect of our work on education is the education labor market transition trying to really understand what are the barriers in that transition. Of course we know it's beyond just the idea barriers because we believe that it has a bigger macroeconomic perspective, like if the economy is not growing the absorptive capacity of the economy is also going to be weak.

We might not be able to get a lot of people inside the labor market but I think if you look at the regional discussion recently, most of the African priority has moved to jobs because we have a lot of youth and we need to create jobs for them. So the question then becomes, how do we really train our youth? That's the goal of education: how do we make sure that they transition to the labor market. That's actually a key task of the society and so we are looking at transition understanding that connection between education and the labor market.

We also have work on health. On health we have research on the economics of tobacco. In fact this work is actually something we're doing in seven African countries: Nigeria, Ethiopia, Senegal, South Africa, DRC, Kenya, and in Zambia. In those seven countries, what we are trying to create is how do we really simplify knowledge in a way that we can ensure policy makers have better access to this knowledge and evidence and that can be used for policies.

Another part of our work this year is on digitalization. There we work on data governance and also we have some work on AI looking at, for example, AI and gender inclusion. We're looking at aid and AI and education, we're looking at how do you really regulate data governance. I mean imagine a data ecosystem. How do you really do better in that area so we are also looking at all of that in our work stream on digitalization. We have a work stream that's focused on very macroeconomic questions and we do a very regional and also global level. So for example, we have a work stream where we look at the African continent free trade area. Really looking at trade dynamics in Africa and looking at challenges and barriers to trade and also looking at how in different African countries what are the momentum around African copy trade areas, what are the challenges, and what are the progress that we are seeing across the country.

Another area of our work is on conflict and poverty understanding that nexus very well. We are actually even co-hosting an event this week that had to do with understanding social assistance in conflicts. Again that's also based in Nigeria looking at northern Nigeria especially Bono state. We've collected data, we've analyzed the data and I think that the analysis is really about understanding much appropriately the dynamics around poverty and poverty trajectory and the contribution of social assistance in vulnerable areas especially areas that have experienced conflict in the past.

So those are some of some of our work and now to really specifically look at your questions around what's priority… I went into this very detailed stuff is these are kind of priorities so I won't tell you that this is the the number one priority for us, but I will say this I think our priorities divide at the scope of the work we do and I would really divide it at scope number one at the local level. We are based in Nigeria and we do a lot of work on Nigeria and so our priority tends to be really centered around most recent macroeconomic dynamics especially the economic reforms and the impact of those reforms, both looking at what the progress and benefit has been and what are the people that the reforms are leaving behind that's a very very important question for us working in Nigeria in the local space. But also we are an institution that is centered on regional outlook. I mean we work on African economies and for that our focus at the regional has been on trade really we know and we've seen that in African trade has one one of the low lowest among the regional blocks globally. How do we change that dynamic; that's where the trade area comes into be. But that is doesn't guarantee success until key stakeholders understand the challenges, understand the barrier, and also bringing the incentive that would make the country to have that interaction that trade relationship… I would say really understanding the new and emerging global, not just financing governance landscape. I think it's something we are quite interested in really understanding.

What work are you doing that the diaspora can get involved in? How can institutions and policymakers leverage the power of the diaspora in making change?

AA: I think um uh directly on the state of research we were doing. I mean maybe one or two areas you can really really think about the role of diaspora would be one, in terms of the corporations. That interaction between people of the global south in the north and also the link with the south people in the global south.

I think that interaction is something that's really sustained uh in terms of whether diaspora inflows. It's been a major source of economic development…We could see in the past years there has been a major movement of both the technical and a lot of capacity out of Africa, maybe medical doctors, nurses and all of these resources have moved out of the continent and that's actually very major. And these are the people that constitute this population of the diasporas in Europe, in all these um developed countries. But we are seeing that we are entering into a new chapter either in the EU or in the US or in the UK whereby that diaspora movement is being checked. I mean policies are not very welcome to them like it used to be in the past.

So again what I see as the way we could do it is how do we ensure that this diaspora they could contribute to the local economy either in terms of knowledge transfer, in terms of even some of the resources.I think those are kind of things we need to ask the question, how do we really build that solidarity? And more importantly, how do we make sure that we use that knowledge for long-term economic research in the long term, not just really the society where they are giving back to their own society back in Nigeria in many respects. I think maybe that would be the people really coming back and to really contribute and creating that enables peace and environment for them to come back for them to develop rather than really coming back as a kind of regret. I think it's a key priority at the policy level that we should be thinking about here.

What do you think will be the most consequential policy issues for Africa in the next year?

AA: I think the most consequential one would be our understanding of economic growth and much much better around the issue of how that translates into jobs for the continent. Like I said, the most topical issues are both Agenda 2063 for the African region and also part of every country's agenda: job creation is the utmost and if that's the priority how do we get it done? And I think all the stuff I've listed to you in terms of the priority are all linked to jobs. Because for example we talk about economic reforms, it's about economic growth, economic sustainability and how that really maybe rebalances the economy for it to provide the needed kind of trajectory in terms of jobs.

When you look at trade too it's also linked to economic growth and jobs because with more regional trade we are going to really improve our manufacturing sector. We're going to experience more growth and that more growth will also lead to better jobs, but also developing the financing sector. Africans rely so much on that a lot and in fact it is the driver of growth in some countries so it's important to really also take stock of how that will affect our growth trajectory. Again once we understand the growth trajectory, the essence or the purpose is not the growth itself it is how that growth is inclusive in terms of creating jobs. And so what I would see as the most consequential is the ability to really really understand the growth trajectory in Africa and how that growth trajectory is inclusive in order to ensure that we are creating jobs for the teen youth on the continent. That I think is the priority of policy makers and as a researcher my own role is to really see the best how we can answer and respond to that question.