For its first edition, 15 young researchers from diverse backgrounds have been selected to be trained in scientific writing by eminent personalities from the African and international academic world who will be their mentors during and after the training workshop.
The selected candidates were chosen based on their applications submitted in response to the call for applications issued by the program a few months earlier, on the theme "Decolonizing the Future of Public Administration in Africa." The diversity of their profiles — spanning political science, law, sociology, and public policy — reflects the multidisciplinary ambition at the core of the program.
The Junior Researchers' Institute, for its first session, was held in Niamey from February 4 to 12, 2023. The workshop brought together participants and mentors in a residential setting, fostering intensive exchanges between generations of scholars. It is connected to issue 6 of Global Africa Journal which focuses on African Public Administrations (APA), under the title "Decolonizing the Future of Public Administration in Africa."
Such an object unquestionably arouses the interest of researchers concerned with understanding the dynamics of the state, as they take shape and develop in Africa. It is a subject open to multidisciplinarity which is today at the heart of reflections in the social sciences. Questions of colonial inheritance, bureaucratic reform, and citizen-state relations converge here in ways that demand both historical depth and prospective thinking.
Consequently, the selected candidates intend to contribute validly to the renewal of knowledge on a subject recognized for its high strategic content in reflections on the State in Africa.
The Junior Researchers' Institute is an immersive experience for young scholars exploring Africa's future. This first edition's theme, "Decolonizing the Future of Public Administration in Africa," inspired profound discussions on reimagining the African state through a decolonial and multidisciplinary lens.
