Social Science Research Council

The SSRC is committed to promoting social science research on critical issues relevant to the African continent. It has done this in a variety of ways—the creation of linkages of African researchers to international scholarly networks; capacity building for individual researchers and for institutions, including those in Africa; the production of reports on the status and needs of social science in Africa and social science about Africa; and the sponsoring of events and publications that shape scholarly and public understanding of key issues on the continent. At this juncture, the Council continues to undertake many projects concerned with the issues of the region, though these activities are no longer institutionally organized as a discrete Africa program. Click here for a record of the program's work.

Current activities in Africa are focused on 1) strengthening the knowledge base and analytical capacity of the United Nations as it works in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and other conflict areas on the continent, and 2) increasing knowledge about the social transformations accompanying the HIV/AIDS epidemic.