Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) and the Thabo Mbeki Foundation (TMF) Strategic Partnership and Collaboration on Africa Renaissance

Deepening instabilities, the rise in authoritarian African States, and the new world order continue to highlight the importance of strategic partnerships and platforms for debating plausible sustainable solutions. On all fronts of development trajectories, a critical need exists for partnerships built on leveraging mutual skills and institutional linkages to shape the intricacies of renaissance. In the context of global partnerships reacting to obstinate challenges, the HSRC, in collaboration with the Thabo Mbeki’s Foundation (TMF), has provided a thought leadership-oriented partnership. This partnership has heralded high-level engagements to facilitate access to diverse expertise, resources, and bold representation of voices of African policy makers, civil society, and high-ranking government officials. To mention a few, Africa Day, Peace and Security Dialogue, and diplomatic conversations, have ushered in stimulating innovative platforms that effectively respond to complex developmental challenges, finally leading to impactful research.

Global partnerships aim to:

• increase resource mobilisation and use;
• access a wide range of expertise and perspectives (to foster multidisciplinary approaches);
• revisit existing knowledge and development of analysis for public sharing;
• debate complex developmental challenges to maintain consciousness and forge possible solutions to consider; and
• foster diplomacy dialogues through research-informed knowledge and prompting future considerations.

Accordingly, partnerships play a crucial role in working to achieve the HSRC’s vision of being a national, regional, and global leader in the production and dissemination of transformative research and knowledge. This vision is driven by a strategic mandate of a dedicated Partnerships Unit at the HSRC.  The unit initiates, supports, undertakes and foster strategic partnerships and research that feeds into the core business mandate and performance objectives of the council.

The TMF is dedicated to achieving the African Renaissance agenda and supports efforts to promote the political, economic, social, and cultural renewal of Africa and its people. Peace and security is one of the foundations key areas of focus, which is essential for the development and prosperity of the continent. As a knowledge producing organisation, the HSRC is entrusted with the mandate of conducting transformative research. Through a series of dialogues with key stakeholders in policy making, conflict resolution, politics, and peace and security challenges, the partnership between the HSRC and the TMF has implemented the following:

Hosted by the Thabo Mbeki Foundation and the Human Sciences Research Council, the roundtable brought together representatives from the African Union, regional communities, policymakers and implementers, civil society, academia, etc.

As a precursor to the Africa Peace and Security Dialogue, the roundtable was held to identify and prioritise the most pressing peace and security challenges faced by Africa in 2024, with a special focus on West Africa and the Horn of Africa. It also highlighted why Sudan needed to be prioritised, given its sustained instability and escalation to sanctions, etc.

The 14th Thabo Mbeki Africa Day Lecture, held on the founding date of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), served as a pivotal moment to assess Africa’s progress and renew its commitment to renaissance.

The lecture was delivered by Senegalese Prof., Abdoulaye Bathily, under the theme: “The New International Scramble for Africa and the Challenges of Unity.” Prof. Bathily currently serves as an Advisor to the President of the Republic of Senegal, H.E. Faye, and previously served as a Special Representative for Libya and Head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) between 2022 and April of 2024.

In his lecture Prof. Bathily underscored the pressing issues confronting Africa, including the new international scramble for African resources, geopolitical rivalries, and the remnants of colonial dependency.

Prof. Bathily called for the need to break free from these colonial ties and emphasised Africa’s moral and political obligation to revive the liberation project in its entirety. He called for consolidated democratic governance, the eradication of populist and ethnic politics, and the nurturing of humble, thoughtful leadership. His vision for a revived Pan-Africanism, reclaiming political, economic, and cultural dignity, left no possibility to be disregarded and overlooked.

Following the Africa Day Lecture, the HSRC participated in an Africa Day Youth Townhall Discussion, with an SPU’s master’s research trainee, Bonginkosi Ngwenya, as a panellist (Figure 3).

The discussion went under the title “Young People Reflecting on the Lecture and Offering Youth-Driven Perspectives for Africa’s Renaissance”, providing a platform for young people to reflect on Prof. Bathily’s Africa Day lecture.

0n 27 February 2025, the HSRC, in partnership with the TMF, hosted a diplomatic engagement on “Diplomacy at a Glance in Africa Regional and International Relations”.

This timely engagement aimed to provide a platform for critical dialogue on the implications of South Africa’s diplomatic efforts in countries such as the Republic of Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and the Republic of Rwanda.

The engagement brought together senior government officials, policymakers, regional and international experts to engage on pressing issues such as:

Unpacking who (country and bodies) stand to win in the long run;

the evolving security situation in the DRC and  Rwanda, in relation to regional and international diplomatic  implications;

the current stance of regional bodies, including the African Union (AU) and SADC, amid leadership changes and negotiation efforts;

strengthening South Africa’s foreign policy approach to conflict resolution in Africa while there is international pressure; and

unpacking who (country and bodies) stand to win in the long run.

Privileges of the HSRC-TMF partnership include:

• consolidating both the positioning and visibility of the organisations’ mandates and impact;
• creating and strengthening a results-oriented culture among the partners, knowledge generation, information sharing, innovation, and communication; and
• increasing the impact and sustainability of the research programs/thematic areas by reinforcing the participation of key stakeholders.

Outcomes of the partnership

Through the aforementioned activities, the following were achieved:

• Special policy briefs published by the HSRC emanating from the Peace and Security Roundtable

• The generation of ideas and practical solutions for addressing peace and security challenges in Africa
• Policy recommendations and Action Plans for the African Union, regional bodies, and all relevant stakeholders
• Promotion collaboration and networking among African leaders, policymakers, and scholars on peace and security issues
• Raised awareness about the impact of ongoing negative peace and security on Africa’s economic, political and cultural environment.
• Review and assessment of implemented initiatives and interventions on peace and security in Africa, and the identification of gaps and opportunities for improvement (i.e., through the policy briefs, etc)  
• Policy informing and monitoring of African affairs in evolving global political shifts