The dismantling of USAid’s global education programmes has sent shockwaves through the development sector. But for African universities, it should serve as a wake-up call — not just to mourn lost funding, but to seize the moment and lead.
Speaking at a recent Higher Education Media Services roundtable hosted by the University of Johannesburg, Professor Olusola Oyewole, secretary general of the Association of African Universities, issued a bold challenge: “Africa cannot continue to outsource the financing, the agenda and the leadership of its research. If this cycle continues, Africa will remain a research follower rather than a research leader.”
His words resonate deeply in a continent where research infrastructure is often donor-built, donor-driven and donor-dependent. The abrupt withdrawal of USAid’s support — impacting nearly 400 education programmes across 58 countries — has exposed the fragility of global aid systems and the urgent need for African-led solutions.
One of the continent’s foremost education leaders, Oyewole is a former vice-chancellor of Nigeria’s Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta and served as a senior expert at the African Union Commission in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
As head of the Association of African Universities, a technical partner to the Science Granting Councils Initiative, the prof is championing a four-pillar strategy to break the cycle of dependency:
- African financing of African priorities: Establish centres of excellence that reflect continental missions, not external mandates,
- Industry and government co-Investment: Build collaborative funding models aligned with national development goals,
- Talent retention: Create robust pipelines to keep Africa’s brightest minds on the continent; and
- Agenda setting: Empower universities to lead research initiatives, not merely implement externally driven projects.
The seminar, moderated by UJ’s senior director: division for global engagement, Professor Ylva Rodny Gumede, brought together leading voices in African research. Professor Thandi Mgwebi, the group executive: business advancement with the National Research Foundation, called for better data on funding flows and urged governments to meet the elusive 1% of GDP target for research.
In the context of the funding cutbacks, Mgwebi led the call for urgent action to build autonomy in African research funding, stressing the need to develop robust domestic funding streams. The National Research Foundation’s own strategic response includes the creation of a business advancement division to diversify funding sources and a digital transformation unit aimed at strengthening science systems.
A promising development, she noted, is the foundation’s engagement with the African Union—led by the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation — to establish a continent-wide African research fund.
In her remarks, Mgwebi outlined three critical shifts needed to move from dependence to independence: transitioning from extractive partnerships to equitable collaboration at both national and institutional levels; fostering knowledge sovereignty by enabling African scholars to publish within the continent and promoting continental integration through networks of excellence that unite expertise and resources across borders.
These shifts, she argued, are essential for Africa to assert intellectual leadership and shape its own research priorities.
Professor Emilia Nhalevilo, vice-chancellor of Universidade Púnguè in Mozambique, invoked former Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere’s philosophy of “education for self-reliance”, urging African institutions to shed Western models that perpetuate dependency.
Glaudina Loots, director: health innovation in the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation, highlighted the role of the Medical Research Council and Science Granting Councils Initiative in leveraging African expertise, while acknowledging persistent challenges in health research funding.
Vice-dean: research and innovation in the Faculty of Education at UJ, Professor Sarita Ramsaroop, stressed the importance of equitable partnerships with the Global North — where African scholars lead, not follow. However, through partnerships with Global North, the learning is mutual. The partnerships come from equity, whereby when funding is applied for, it is not one party taking a leadership position, it’s about being the principal investigator.
Higher Education Media Services editor Zingisa Mkhuma offered a pragmatic solution — leverage Africa’s mineral wealth to fund education and research. And work smarter to tell stories of innovation.
Oyewole’s message was clear: “Africa has the brains. Africa has the will. What we need is to shift from dependency to leadership. The future will not wait for us.”
In a world where geopolitical shifts threaten to redraw the map of global education, Africa must not be left behind. It’s time to fund our own research, set our own agendas and lead globally through locally rooted solutions.
“What we need is to move from dependency to leadership. Together, we can break the chains of dependence and make African research a beacon of innovation for the world,” Oyewole added.
He was emphatic in his outlook. Africa cannot continue to outsource the financing, the agenda and the leadership of its research. “We must rise from dependence to leadership, from being knowledge consumers to becoming knowledge producers and from being project implementers to being agenda setters.”
However, what remains a clear challenge is the fact that much of Africa’s research funding still comes from international donors, often tied to their priorities rather than the continent’s.
Research infrastructure is fragile, with labs and centres too often donor-built, donor-driven and donor-dependent.
Thus, African universities remain under-empowered to commercialise knowledge, influence policy and retain talent, hence, the Association of African Universities calls for African universities to lead research that is locally rooted, continentally coordinated and globally relevant.
Breaking free from the shackles of donor funding, according to Oyewole, would involve some key practical steps, such as every African country operationalising national research funds and ensuring that universities enforce overhead recovery on all grants (no less than 15%) to sustain core infrastructure.
It would be underpinned by mission-driven research that would align with the African Union’s Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy and national development plans. Tertiary institutions would organise their work around African missions: climate resilience, food systems, health, digital innovation and industrialisation.
The vision throughout the conversation was clear — centres of excellence must expand and strengthen, solving African problems, training PhDs and partnering with industry, while the African Continental Free Trade Area should provide a continental market for African-made innovations.
Challenges notwithstanding, the roundtable did not skirt around the issues. Still, it provided practical solutions for Africans to own the narrative in education and science rather than be perpetually depicted as a continent waiting for handouts when it is in our own hands.
© Higher Education Media Services
The continent can fund its own research, set its own agendas and lead globally through locally rooted solutions, shifting from dependency to leadership
