The Alliance for African Partnership (AAP)
The intent of the AAP is not only to deepen existing partnerships, but also to develop new partnerships, bring in new teams, encourage new researchers, and seek new funding sources. This Alliance will need to integrate across disciplines as well as regions.
Thomas Jayne
University Foundation Professor of Agriculture, Food, and Resource Economics
Founding Co-Director, Alliance for African Partnership
The AAP is a collaboration of African institutions, Michigan State University, and other international collaborators, that seeks to address today's global challenges through the mobilization and support of sustainable, effective, and equitable long-term partnerships whose activities positively transform institutions and livelihoods in Africa and MSU.
In 2016, MSU consulted with 14 African leaders across a range of backgrounds and expertise to create a new type of partnership based on sustainable and mutually beneficial forms of collaboration. This convening laid the groundwork for the Alliance for African Partnership and identified mutually defined challenges in six thematic areas: agri-food systems; culture; health and nutrition; water, energy, and the environment; youth empowerment; and education.
The AAP encourages the development of innovative research partnerships around these themes through its Partnership Grant Program. Through a competitive process, awardees receive between $50,000 and $200,000 for projects that exemplify the AAP's mission. Project activities may include cooperative research, capacity building, outreach, network development, and bringing research to practice.
Through this initiative, MSU will continually strive to be a leader in co-developing best practices for partnerships in Africa.
Dr. Jamie Monson, director, African Studies Center, and Dr. Thomas Jayne, University Foundation Professor of Agriculture, Food, and Resources Economics, have served as the founding co-directors of the Alliance for African Partnership since its inception in 2016. The AAP's incoming campus-based co-directors are Dr. Amy Jamison (Center for Gender in Global Context) and Dr. José Malete-Jackson (African Studies Center, International Studies and Programs). The director of the African Secretariat of AAP is Professor Richard Mkandawire.
aap.isp.msu.edu
