DSA signs the Africa Charter

Earlier this year the DSA hosted an important discussion on The Africa Charter for Transformative Research Collaboration,  an Africa-centred framework for advancing a transformative mode of research collaborations to advance and uphold the continent’s place in the global production of scientific knowledge.

The Africa Charter contends that the power asymmetries in scientific knowledge production concerning Africa in Development Studies are multilayered and includes: epistemic inequities; the dominance of colonially imposed languages; extraversion and imposition of theories and concepts; the unidirectional development gaze; inequalities in institutional resources and capabilities and inequities in the division of labour and resources.

The DSA webinar featured Prof. Isabella Aboderin, University of Bristol; Dr. Divine Fuh, University of Cape Town; Prof. Puleng Segalo, University of South Africa; Prof. Peter Taylor, Institute of Development Studies as discussants and highlighted the importance of the charter for advancing transformative research collaborations. It’s one of many steps that the DSA is taking to look at decolonization of development studies and what we can achieve as membership institute.

As a continued action on decolonisation, the DSA has become the newest signatory of the Africa Charter, and the 111th organisation globally to sign. “The DSA has long recognised the epistemic inequities in knowledge production that have been and continue to be sustained in academia,” said DSA President, Uma Kambhampati, University of Reading. “We recognise that the development studies community has done a lot of work in this area but feel that there has been limited progress in challenging these inequities with action. Becoming a signatory of this charter is a further step in moving forward to challenge these issues and bring to the fore solutions that help transform research collaborations. We recognise that the Charter is only the start of a much larger initiative and we look forward to being a part of this process to make change happen.”

The Charter initiative is facilitated by PARC at the University of Bristol, in partnership with the University of South Africa Chief Albert Luthuli Research Chair and the Institute for Humanities in Africa at the University of Cape Town. “We’re incredibly pleased and excited that the DSA has signed the Charter – its community is a hugely important constituency in shaping thinking and debate on UK relations and engagement with Africa – and the question of ‘development’, broadly’,” said Professor Isabella Aboderin, PARC Director.  “ The DSA’s endorsement will open significant spaces for advancing a realisation of Charter principles and aspirations.”

PARC’s Research Associate, Dr Eyob Balcha Gebremariam, who convened our webinar on this topic, is also a DSA council member and will continue to work with us on decolonisaton iniaitives. “We believe the Africa Charter will nurture more nuanced views and perspectives on the decolonisation debate’” he said. It will help us look at how the knowledge(s) in development studies are valued, created and disseminated, the institutional arrangements and the power imbalances among individuals (groups of individuals) involved in the knowledge cultivation processes.”

The Development Studies Association is the UK based membership association for all those who research, teach and study global development issues, and 66% of members are from the global South. As an association, the DSA has made steps to understand inequities through study group work, work on race and equity via the DSA’s governing Council, and supporting the activities of its member institutions.

At our  annual conference in June, the DSA launched a database on decolonisation activities to co-ordinate efforts. A group on Council is leading a race audit to understand the make up of those teaching development and the challenges faced. And the DSA has recently been allocated funding from the Academy of Social Sciences to provide support for academics of colour.