Johannesburg, South Africa
The ADAFP Think Tank is the research and public policy analysis institution of the African Democratic Alliance for Freedom and Progress — one of five executive institutions of the Alliance, each seated in a different region of the continent.
Africa is not short of research institutions. Any new entrant must be able to answer, in one sentence, what it can do that they cannot.
The ADAFP Think Tank has a precise answer. It is the only research institution on the continent embedded in a continental network of political parties. The Alliance's 50+ member organisations across 26 countries give it two assets no independent institute can replicate.
Access to primary evidence from inside party structures — on internal democracy, candidate selection, party financing, membership systems, and the participation of women and young people. This is among the least documented areas of African politics precisely because parties do not open themselves to outside researchers. They will open themselves to an institution of their own alliance.
A direct channel of policy uptake — findings reach not only ministries and multilateral bodies but the political organisations that write manifestos, negotiate electoral reform and, in several member countries, form governments.
The positioning follows. This is not another African research institute competing on volume of publication. It is the research capacity of the African liberal, progressive and pan-Africanist political family, and its distinctive contribution is evidence produced with and for political actors, to a standard that survives independent scrutiny.
A credible and influential continental institution for research, public policy, open dialogue and civic engagement, offering cutting-edge leadership and good governance solutions for Africa's transformational development.
To promote good governance through independent research, informed dialogue, publication and strategic engagement with state, civil society and private sector actors, for Africa's transformational development.
In the conduct of research, the handling of data and the use of funds.
Findings are reported as they are found, including where they are inconvenient to the Alliance or to its member organisations.
Protected by rule rather than asserted as sentiment.
Transparent method, documented data sources, peer review of flagship outputs, and published limitations.
Outputs are published under open licences and, wherever lawful, with the underlying data.
Five strategic objectives: pan-continental knowledge production, through quarterly policy briefs, annual flagship reports and occasional papers; public policy advisory to member organisations, allied civil society and African Union bodies; online engagement, workshops and capacity building; network building across all African sub-regions, with deliberate attention to Francophone, Lusophone and Arabophone countries; and continental thought leadership.
Research is organised in four interdisciplinary clusters — political governance and democracy; economic and corporate governance; security, social justice and peace; and climate change. These correspond closely to the thematic areas of the African Peer Review Mechanism, so that findings can feed directly into continental review processes rather than sitting alongside them in a separate vocabulary.
In the short to medium term the Think Tank delivers primarily through online conferences, webinars, workshops and digital publication. This is a deliberate choice rather than a limitation: it secures full continental coverage, in four languages, at the lowest operational cost, and avoids the trap of an institute whose budget is consumed by premises and travel before a single paper is written.
All publications are open access. None is placed behind a paywall. Influence depends on being read, and paywalled research in a continent of constrained institutional budgets is research that does not circulate.
Board of Directors — drawn from eminent continental scholars and researchers, chaired by a non-executive Chair. It approves the research agenda and the budget, appoints the Director General, and safeguards the independence provisions. It does not approve individual publications.
Director General — head of the institution and its chief executive, responsible for the quality of all outputs and holding the final decision on publication.
Editorial Board — practising researchers drawn substantially from outside ADAFP, managing peer review, research ethics and methodological standards.
Research Fellows Network — non-resident fellows on fixed-term, output-based contracts from universities and institutes in member countries. This holds fixed costs low and distributes the institution across the continent rather than concentrating it in Johannesburg.
Editorial independence A research institution owned by an alliance of political parties faces one predictable objection: that its findings are political product. We answer it with rules that can be inspected. The seven provisions