The Junior Researchers' Institutes are an essential component of the Global Africa project. They are under the responsibility of the Laboratory for Studies and Research on Social Dynamics and Local Development (LASDEL), an independent laboratory, with a sub-regional vocation, established in Niamey since 2001 and in Parakou in 2004. LASDEL is responsible for the design and implementation of the schools in collaboration with other partners of Global Africa.
The Junior Researchers' Institute was designed to build the capacities of young researchers in scientific writing and scientific publishing.
It aims at the following objectives:
promote the emergence, on the continent, of well-trained researchers capable of producing high-level articles, publishable in Global Africa, but also in other journals of good scientific quality. These publications must be able to address national, regional and global issues.
To be a crucible for the training and promotion of young researchers with a view to their gradual integration into the academic world with the intellectual means required in this area. The Junior Researchers' Institute wishes to contribute to the renewal of knowledge about Africa and to the promotion of profiles of well-trained young researchers. This promotion of young researchers involves the publication of their work as well as the strengthening of their capacities in editing and writing in a stimulating work environment conducive to promising scientific exchanges.
Be a solid capacity building framework for the benefit of young researchers and provide them with sustainable support through a mentoring process.
The Global Africa program fits into a context where, more than anywhere else, the challenge of knowledge production is a major issue. The African continent has 13% of the world's population but contributes less than 3% to scientific publications. Even today, if the elite of African researchers publish in international journals, the vast majority remain dependent on national contexts marked by local journals and often unattractive university presses. The higher education crisis in Africa has indeed left the academic community without any viable, credible and efficient means of publishing capable of producing, promoting and disseminating the results of local researchers at the continental and international level, and to develop a level of knowledge essential to include African voices in global debates.
The Global Africa project is designed to respond simultaneously to these many identified challenges. It is indeed a question of encouraging more independent and rigorous research, capable of supplying quality publishing, in the major languages of the continent (English, Arabic, French, Swahili). Strongly backed and supported by the journal of the same name, the project supports young researchers through mentoring, schools of method, support for publication, a more sustained presence in major intellectual scenes.
A major component of the Global Africa program, the Junior Researchers' Institute (JRI) was established to promote the integration of young researchers into scientific communities and thus enable their active participation in the constitution of knowledge that is being built in the world.
The Junior Researchers' Institute is placed under the responsibility of the Laboratory for Studies and Research on Social Dynamics and Local Development (LASDEL), an independent laboratory, with a sub-regional vocation, based in Niamey, with a branch in Parakou in Benin, which ensures its design and implementation with the other partners of Global Africa.
The Juniors researchers' Institute, for its first session, was held in Niamey from February 4 to 12, 2023. 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. 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.
