The Case for the Alliance for African Partnership

Since its establishment in May 2016, the Alliance for African Partnership (AAP) has been dedicated to building an Africa-centered initiative focused on effecting positive change through innovative, equitable partnership. The AAP focuses on three key pillars - building bridges across sectors, disciplines and continents/regions; transforming institutions so they are better able to engage in equitable and sustainable partnerships; and transforming lives on the ground through addressing global challenges. The vision of the AAP is to transform lives through co-created, research-driven initiatives that address shared challenges. To this end, in October 2018, the AAP evolved to become a consortium with nine initial members (MSU and eight African universities). In the future the consortium will expand to bring on board new members from multiple sectors including pan-African organizations, civil society, and the public and private sectors. These consortium members will work together in partnership to make a sustainable impact on the ground in priority challenge areas of agrifood systems, culture, education, health and nutrition, youth empowerment, and water, energy and the environment.

What sets AAP apart?

• AAP is focused on making a direct impact on global challenges that have been identified as priorities by African partners. We are undertaking this work as a partnership of institutions who bring complementary strengths to the table, ensuring that we will have a broader and more sustainable impact.
• AAP has a network of world-class researchers that it can connect to research and development opportunities.
• The AAP fosters active collaboration among members of the consortium as well as catalyzes engagement among consortium affiliates, governments, and the private sector to effectively scale-out best practices and outreach-related work in order to achieve society’s meaningful transformation.
• The AAP connects members to pan-African organizations such as the African Union Development Agency (NEPAD), the African Development Bank, and Regional Economic Communities who are key to unlocking untapped support for the work of universities and related institutions in Africa.
• The AAP provides an opportunity to leverage both North-South and South-South cooperation among universities and organizations in Africa, developed counties and emerging economies such as China, India, Brazil, and Malaysia.
• The AAP has identified and is modeling equitable, sustainable, and mutually beneficial partnership principles that will positively impact how our work towards transforming lives is accomplished.

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