The ResilientAfrica Network (RAN) funded by USAID is a partnership of 20 African universities in 16 countries. It is led by Makerere University with Tulane University’s Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy, Stanford University and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) as partners. RAN is one of eight development labs under the Higher Education Solutions Network (HESN) in the office of Science and Technology (OST), USAID. The RAN program is led by Prof. William Bazeyo (Makerere University, Uganda) the HESN Development Lab Director for RAN.
RAN aims to strengthen the resilience of communities by nurturing and scaling innovations from the different universities. It applies science and technology to strengthen the resilience of African communities against natural and man-made stresses. Its objectives are to:
- Design and operationalize a scientific, data-driven and evidence-based resilience framework for Sub-Saharan Africa that builds on the resources already engaged through the RAN.
- Strengthen resilience at the individual, household and community levels through innovative technologies and approaches to development, which will be identified, incubated, tested and scaled through the RAN, in collaboration with its partners.
- Enhance resilience-related knowledge and share it globally, engaging students, faculty, staff, and development experts from around the world to collaborate on solving resilience related problems.
The architecture of the ResilientAfrica Network (RAN) in Africa consists of four Resilience Innovation Labs (RILabs). The RILabs are focal points of technology innovation and commercialization of university research attracting local and national resources, sustainably funded, with replication potential across sub-Saharan Africa. RAN’s RILabs are the Eastern Africa RILab based in Uganda and hosted by Makerere University, West Africa RILab based in Ghana and hosted by the University for Development Studies, Horn of Africa RILab based in Ethiopia and hosted by Jimma University and Southern Africa RILab based in South Africa at University of Pretoria.
Please visit the ResilientAfrica Network (RAN) website.