Africa-based Migration Research: Experiences from a Collaborative Programme

The African Perspectives on Human Mobility (APHM) programme was a collaboration between the International Migration Institute (IMI) and four African universities in Ghana, Nigeria, Morocco and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), funded by the MacArthur Foundation. IMI coordinated and supported the development of the research projects which were conducted entirely by the four teams in Africa. IMI also drew up a coherent and overarching analytical framework based on their findings. This resulted in four original research projects, where each of the partners took advantage of the opportunity to pursue new research questions which were not seen as priorities for many of their usual donors. The programme has extended the boundaries of research for each of the partners. This brief is for anyone interested in North-South research collaborations – including researchers based at universities or in other organisations conducting research, such as NGOs, businesses or international agencies, as well as donors. It contains some lessons from the APHM programme which are useful to bear in mind when initiating and conducting such collaborations.