SARA provides a convening and support space for researchers and practitioners working on pressing resilience and development challenges across southern Africa, that elevates and showcases insights and perspectives from the Southern African region. The Academy seeks to strengthen existing expert networks, expand collaboration, and facilitate the co-production of policy and practice-relevant knowledge. The main mechanism for achieving this aim is through convening a set of working groups that meet annually over 3 years to produce both academic products (such as peer-reviewed articles) and a set of strategic science-policy or science-practice engagement processes.
See the exciting outcomes from previous SARA working groups here.
Transformative Pathways to Resilient and Sustainable Futures
This theme aims for working groups to take a pathways approach to understanding how different systems (eg. food, water, urban, conservation etc. systems) can be transformed to meet societal, climate and biodiversity goals. Pathways are sequences of actions, implemented progressively, which can be used flexibly depending upon how knowledge develops and future conditions unfold. Transformative-orientated pathways recognize that current values and governance systems may be inadequate to meet societal need for change, and aims to identify broad directions of change which can enable these fundamental changes in ways of doing and thinking. Working groups are free to focus on their own topics or areas of interest within this broader theme.
Why apply to form a SARA working group?
- SARA provides a unique opportunity to interact and build future partnerships with a wide range of academics, practitioners and policy specialists from throughout southern Africa, with the aim to foster a strong resilience community in the region.
- SARA provides an opportunity for learning and reflection by gathering people with similar interests to synthesise their insights, knowledge, and experiences. Spaces for learning and reflection are often neglected, but can provide powerful insights that can have a range of tangible and intangible impacts on policy and practice.
- A set of “skills clinics” will be provided for groups over the course of the SARA process, including training on policy engagement strategies, scientific communication skills, monitoring and evaluation etc.
- The SARA network will curate opportunities for learning and mentoring for early and mid-career members.
- SARA also provides opportunities to become embedded in other networks, as well as to engage with other South-to-South Academies currently being set up in other parts of the Global South.
This call targets applications from diverse working groups that combine different skills sets, thematic expertise and institutional representation. The aim of the call is to leverage and synthesise existing insights, findings, frameworks and perspectives from on-going work in the region, and facilitate learning and reflection amongst participants that can impact resilience and development policy and practice.
Working groups (5-8 members each) are expected to be a diverse collaboration of complementary skills between academic researchers, practitioners, and those working across the science-policy-practice interface. Members should be primarily based in the southern African region, and represent at least two southern African countries.
SARA support will include travel and accommodation for three in-person working group meetings between 2025 and the end of 2027 in South Africa, open access publication fees, and funds for the development of key engagement knowledge products and processes.
Please read the full terms of reference for the call prior to submitting your application for a working group.
Proposals are due on the 31st of October 2024. Applications can be submitted via the online form: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SARAwg
Join the 1-hour information session about the call on 2 October. Register here.
Enquiries can be submitted to the director of SARA, Dr Julia van Velden, at juliavanvelden@sun.ac.za
