Interviews | Using the principles of recognition, respect and reciprocity OSSREA operates through national chapters and project committees in Eastern and Southern Africa.

[Editor’s Note: Interview with Paschal Mihyo, former director of  the Organization for Social Science Research in Eastern and Southern Africa (OSSREA). In this opportunity, we learn lessons and challenges from South-South cooperation in Africa and the world, conditions for success and how an institution working in different African countries organizes. This interview was conducted by Federico Frascheri.]

Federico Frascheri (FF): What are OSSREA’s objectives, vision and mission? What distinguishes OSSREA from other think tanks in the region?

Paschal Mihyo (PM): OSSREA’s main goals are to: build the capacity of and provide opportunities for African scholars to conduct social science research and promote the development of an African research tradition; enhance the visibility of OSSREA through networking and disseminating its research outputs; facilitate dialogue, cooperation and collaboration between researchers, academicians and policy‐makers in Africa and enhance the interface between public policy and social science research.

OSSREA’s Vision is to become and remain a centre of excellence for the creation and dissemination of social science knowledge as well as linking social science research with public policy in Eastern and Southern Africa.

Its Mission is to develop an African research tradition that responds to national and regional development problems through building capacity of and opportunity for social science scholars in Eastern and Southern African.

These objectives, vision and mission  are operationalized by working with existing institutions mainly universities, research NGOs and think tanks  and building on their strengths to widen and deepen the scope and improve the quality of social science research. This is done by supporting trainers in universities and researchers in think tanks and research organizations to:

a) Conduct research on OSSREA’s identified research themes through recruiting key scholars in the region, including the Diaspora.

b) Develop upgrade their research skills and equip themselves to offer hands ob quality research methodology courses to junior staff and PhD students..

c) Join forces and form research schools of social sciences. The current OSSREA Research School for Social Sciences in Eastern and Southern Africa (RESSESA) is a network of ten universities. It offers advanced research methodology courses to PhD students and intermediate staff and refresher courses to trainers of postgraduate students.

d) Conduct research tin partnership with stakeholders from government, NGOs and private sectors. It is mandatory that the research should be demand oriented and based on engagement of policy actors from the time of design to field research and presentation of research findings.

e) Ensure results of research are disseminated to the relevant organs through research results validation workshops, post –research policy dialogue platforms and other creative mechanisms for increasing research uptake by public and private institutions

FF: What Distinguishes OSSREA from other similar organization are the following principles:

PM: a)       Complementarity: OSSREA does not compete with its partners especially universities by offering competitive courses on research methods or new issues. In stead it joins forces with them and builds on their existing strengths and works with them to produce new and advanced products.

b)      Recognition: OSSREA operates by recognizing the contribution and potential strengths of its partners including trainees and  based on this recognition it  works with them to take research and publication to higher heights of quality and excellence.

c)       Respect: OSSREA works with its partners to form joint committees for the management of its projects. The partners are essentially in charge of activities through project management boards and technical advisory committees. This is to respect the mandates and  roles of these institutions.

d)       Reciprocity: OSSREA seeks to apply the principle of reciprocity when working with partners including regional bodies and educational institutions. It hosts their activities by providing secretarial support and it teams up with them to support joint publications etc. This reciprocity is critical in cementing relations.

e)       Adding value: In its activities with researchers or research bodies, OSSREA avoids duplication of what other regional bodies are doing. It chooses niches which give it opportunity to add value to what is being done by partners or other regional think tanks

FF: Given the nature of the institution, OSSREA integrates representatives from many African nationalities and actively participates in most of the Eastern and South Eastern countries of the continent. How do you achieve successful working dynamic and exchange when acting in different countries simultaneously?

PM: Using the principles of recognition, respect and reciprocity OSSREA operates through national chapters and project committees.  At national level it has Field Liaison Offices with committees elected by members in that country. Each committee has five members. It is these committees that organize OSSREA activities at national level with the support of the secretariat. For research project networks based in multiple countries, it works through project committees elected by  partners of those networks.

FF: Why is South-South cooperation important for the development research agenda? What experiences do you know of, that have been particularly successful?

PM: a)      Why South- South Cooperation is important

• We share to a large extent similar geographical conditions which determine the challenges we get in various activities such as agriculture, environment etc.
• We are all targeted by the same industrialized countries for development cooperation but also for resources exploitation.
• We have inherited similar education systems developed by former colonizing powers and we need each other in un-packaging and unbundling some of them to suit our development goals.
• We also have inherited or adopted some of the doctrines and practices of advanced economies in our structures of governance  and economic planning. We need a common effort in assessing their utility and sharing experiences on which work and which do not in our different current conditions.

FF: Can you identify a specific story of success?

PM: There have been many attempts to form networks but the majority have been North – South- South networks and they did not survive after finding from the North dried out. This is a sad story that needs to be further studied. However the one that has lasted is the South South Network which has been active for over thirty years.

FF: What is the role of think tanks in this type of cooperation?

PM: Generating, sharing and disseminating knowledge. They develop projects around common issues and try as we are doing in ELLA to distil lessons that can be used to enrich knowledge and practice within countries studied.

FF: What are the benefits of Think Tanks cooperating in South-South research?

PM: Think tanks are knowledge hunters and they can gravest knowledge through research within their own countries or regions or from other countries and continents. The hunter ultimately brings home what he/she has found and shares with the community. Think tanks should also be like these local hunters. They should seek and obtain knowledge on how other countries in the ‘other South’ work and use the knowledge to enrich practices in their own countries or regions.

FF: What conditions are desirable for the experiences to be successful?

PM: a)       Demand orientation:  The work on which they will be focusing has to be reflective of the needs and demands expressed by national and regional policy actors. Otherwise research that has no such links will lead to self-entertainment and will have limited policy research uptake by critical stakeholders.

b)       Congruency of objectives: There should be similarity of objectives by cooperating think tanks. In effect they should be eager to find a solution or to address what seems a common problem and exchange ideas on its dimensions in their different setting and how it can be addressed given their similarities and differences.

c)       Funding: This is tricky issue. But the cooperation has to be based on programme and not project orientation. The think tanks have to develop a cooperation programme that runs over a period of time and is well funded. This means they have to fund raise jointly and establish common secretariat to manage the programme. A project approach will not lead to sustainable long term activities. For example after the current ELLA phase, all partners could work with PAC to develop a programme of five years that can continue the good work done so far

FF: What contributions can Africa offer for South-South cooperation?

PM: African think tanks have lots of experience with networking within Africa especially in the formation and management of research networks and higher degree training networks. The Association of African universities, CODESRIA and OSSREA have lots of experiences to share on this

FF: How do African and Latin American think tanks can contribute and exchange experiences?

PM: It can be done mainly through documentation of experiences. This could be part of the thinking on how to move forward after the current phase of ELLA.