KNOWLEDGE LEADERSHIP
This work matters because:
- As feminists and pan Africanists, the creation and production of knowledge is a deeply political issue. Who writes, whose analysis counts, whose memory matters and which narrative holds is key. Our knowledge leadership recognises the politics of knowledge and ensures that every opportunity to document, archive, research and publish is created and taken for the benefit of movements and the change process
- The contexts of the movements require deep understanding and analysis. Much of the knowledge base on emergencies, crises and disaster is sophisticated and advanced and has been turned, unfortunately, into a massive multi-national industry dominated by INGOs. There is also much to be learned from these fields of knowledge and applied to the situation of feminist-activists and AWHRDs. Despite the deep understanding and experience of AWHRDS and feminist-activists of how to navigate urgent situations, the actual codified knowledge base on urgent situations and urgent actions in Africa in the contexts of the movements is uneven and weak and needs attention and consistent development. This is our work and mandate in partnership with these movements.
- The political mandate and location of UAF-Africa means that we have a particular vantage point and perspective on the lived realities of womn, womn’s rights activists, WHRDs and feminist-activists in Africa. These observations, the information, knowledge and analysis of those who share this with us and the further knowledge we create from it belong to the movements. We are uniquely placed to crystallise, further analyse, repackage, publish and share this knowledge both as partnerships with those who share this with us and directly on our own.
Objective
To work with others to build a culture of learning and knowledge production within and external to UAF-Africa for deeper consciousness, consistently theorise and articulate a feminist, pan African perspective and translate this to solidarity and action
Areas of Work
Documentation: Refers to the culture and practice of ensuring records of contexts, analysis, implementation, reflections and related experiences within society and movements is systematic and able to serve our political agendas
Information Management: Refers to planning and implementation of systems for organising, ordering, collating, saving and securing information and data related to internal and external aspects of UAF-Africa
Research and Publications: Refers to setting a research agenda specific to our political mandate and systematically conducting or enabling research to be conducted in keeping with that agenda; It includes packaging and repackaging information from this research or other sources in a range of publications to meet the needs of specific actors amongst decision makers, the philanthropic ecosystem and movements
Learning: Refers to a sustained culture and practice of reflection, review, analysis and deepening consciousness internally and externally as part of our commitment to excellence in our four areas of expertise and specialisation
Special Project: Refers to focussed, boundaried projects to explore a new idea that holds potential for strengthening our impact as UAF-Africa or the impacts of movements
