The Role Of Philanthropy & Public Leadership In Advancing Africa-focused Research & Impact

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KEYNOTE ADDRESS DELIVERED BY PROF. YEMI OSINBAJO, SAN, GCON, IMMEDIATE PAST VICE PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA AT THE GALA CELEBRATING THE 10TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE HARVARD UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR AFRICAN STUDIES, ON THE TOPIC “THE ROLE OF PHILANTHROPY AND PUBLIC LEADERSHIP IN ADVANCING AFRICA-FOCUSED RESEARCH AND IMPACT” HOSTED BY APOSTLE FOLORUNSO ALAJIKA IN LAGOS ON THE 16^TH OF AUGUST, 2025

PROTOCOLS

First, let me begin by thanking Prof. Zoe Marks of the Harvard University Centre for African Studies and Apostle Folorunso Alakija for the kind invitation to make these remarks. We must also congratulate the Harvard Centre for African Studies on its 10th Anniversary and the excellent work it has done so far in deepening knowledge and understanding of Africa and African perspectives through global connections and communities of learning. And because the Centre is an interdisciplinary, university-wide centre, it can bring African perspectives to bear on the scholarship of the Harvard community and beyond.

This is important because Harvard’s significant global influence can be brought on board to advance African causes, concerns and perspectives. We must also commend Apostle Folorunso Alakija’s significant commitment to transformative philanthropy through her empowerment of widows, orphans and women using the platforms established by her organisations, Flourish Africa and the Rose of Sharon foundation. And of course, her far-sighted endowment of the Alakija Distinguished Lecture at the Centre to provide a platform for the Harvard University Centre for African Studies “to connect faith leaders with the Harvard community and beyond in a conversation about the constantly shifting and contested boundary between the secular and the sacred, the public and the private.” Well done indeed.

The collaboration with the Africa Centre is an important one, especially in the area of Africa-focused research at such a decisive time in African development. The point is that funding for such research must now come from African philanthropy, governments and the private sector. That is the only way to signal the importance of many of these uniquely African issues and prioritise them. Which really is what I have been asked to speak to this evening: The Role of Philanthropy and Public Leadership in Advancing Africa-Focused Research and Impact.

Perhaps I should begin with a provocative statement that Toyosi quoted with a slight modification: that Africa will impact the world, for good or ill, over the next two decades. This continent will shape the world for good or ill in many important ways in the next two decades. The stakes are high. If we stumble on a few critical fronts, the consequences will be catastrophic, well beyond our borders; if we succeed, the upside for Africa and the world will be extraordinary.

Four levers will determine the outcome: 1. our population and human capital; 2. our climate trajectory; 3. our productive capacity in agriculture, manufacturing, and technology; and 4. our ability to maintain security and stability.

Consider population and human capital. By 2050, Africa’s population will be well above two billion, with Nigeria among the top four most populous nations in the world. More than half of Africans will be under 25. Today, 60 per cent of the unemployed in Africa are young people. If we do not change the trajectory of socio-economic development, we will have millions of jobless young people in the prime of their lives. The workforce will be ill-equipped to man any industrial revolution or take advantage of the scale of technology. The anger, disillusionment, and hopelessness of these young people will drive social unrest, compel more desperate migration Northwards and present a fertile recruiting ground for extremist groups.

If social conditions remain tenuous, even the well-educated will be tempted into migration and contribute further to the brain drain. The burden of diseases that affect mostly Africans and black people is a significant part of the story. 1 in 4 Nigerians live with the sickle cell trait, and there are between 4 to 6 million people living with the disease itself.  Across the region, families shoulder catastrophic costs in care, lost earnings, and shortened lives. There has been no decisive breakthrough in the cure of the disease.

Fibroids are another condition that disproportionately affects African and black women. They tend to develop fibroids earlier (sometimes in their 20s or early 30s), they have larger and more numerous fibroids, they experience more severe symptoms and require treatment (such as surgery).  More often, over 80% of black women will have fibroids by the age of 50. Although there has been an increase in research attention on the condition in Africa, notably in the last five years, significant research funding gaps exist; the research that guides prevention, diagnostics, and treatment is still underfunded on the continent, and most of the available clinical evidence comes from non-African populations. Menopause presents another example; existing research on peri-menopause and menopause predominantly focuses on white and African-American women, with minimal representation of African women.

This lack of tailored data limits our understanding of the unique biological, cultural, and environmental factors influencing menopause experiences within African populations. African communities have long used specific herbs and traditional practices that may hold therapeutic potential and global market value. However, in the absence of rigorous scientific investigation, this knowledge remains under-documented, its health benefits unverified, and its economic potential largely unrealised. Add Lassa fever to the list; the disease was first identified in Nigeria and is now endemic in several West African countries. While there is progress in vaccine and therapeutic research, we still face significant gaps: the genetic diversity of circulating strains, supply-chain delivery challenges, and the need for integrated prevention and treatment in real health systems.  With a rapidly growing population, the scale of these health problems rises exponentially unless we generate and apply better evidence through research.

Climate risk compounds everything. Africa is warming faster than any other continent and is the least prepared for the devastation caused by extreme weather events. We already see flash floods, droughts, desertification, and shifting rainfall patterns undermining livelihoods. Lake Chad – once a 25,000-square-kilometre lifeline for irrigation, fishing, and livestock – has shrunk to less than 1500 square kilometres. So, the water it provided for irrigation, fishing, and livestock for millions is now practically non-existent, food security is threatened, and deadly local conflict over water and pasture has increased. Without an aggressive environmental plan, demand for food, water, and energy will outpace supply – the perfect storm where climate stress collides with scarcity, displacement, and insecurity will occur.

How about production? Africa’s share of global GDP hovers around three per cent. Agricultural productivity remains far below potential even though the continent holds roughly 65 per cent of the world’s uncultivated arable land; in some estimates, up to half of suitable land is not under cultivation. If we continue at the current pace, the continent will struggle to feed itself, lack the foreign exchange to import, and under-utilise the very land on which the world increasingly relies.

And the fourth lever: stability and security. This is a significant problem in many parts of Africa, especially the growing inability to contain or control internal conflicts and insurgencies. An example is the conflicts in the Sahel and the deadly spread into coastal West African states. Northern Benin, Togo and lately Mali’s Boulkessi Military base have witnessed deliberate attacks by the Al-Qaeda affiliate JNIM (Jama’at   Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin). The JNIM is expanding from rural insurgency into the violent takeover of urban centres. The Sahel’s instability has grave economic and humanitarian spillover effects, including refugee flows, disruption of trade and other economic activities, and general insecurity.

Clearly, the concerned governments need to approach the problem with more information and knowledge. But there are several critical knowledge gaps in current efforts to mitigate the spread of these conflicts into West African coastal states. These gaps can be filled by targeted research, and this could significantly improve prevention strategies, early warning systems, and long-term resilience.

So, on these four levers, if we continue business as usual, the doomsday path is clear for Africa and the world: rising population, lagging food output, nutritional stress, a catastrophic climate crisis, transhumance conflicts over shrinking pasture and water, pervasive joblessness of the largest number of young people on earth, and widening insecurity. As we say in Nigeria – God forbid! But refusing this future requires more than prayer; it requires work, research, and investment. And here is an objective fact: no society has achieved and sustained broad prosperity without serious, sustained investment in Research and Development. You either do it or you buy it. Although to be fair, R&D does not automatically deliver inclusive outcomes – governance and policy must steer benefits to the many – but there is no high-income success story without it.

Today, Africa consistently spends under one per cent of GDP on R&D on average, well below the global mean. Much of our research is funded externally; agendas of course follow the money rather than the need, and those donor flows are declining. Many African countries depend on external funding for a third to a half of their research budgets. Meanwhile, the United States and parts of Europe have drastically reduced development support; the UK’s aid to Africa has fallen sharply; and several EU countries have cut back. The gap between the scale of our challenges and the resources we devote to learning how to solve them is widening. This is where African philanthropy and public leadership must act together.

Philanthropy is our agile capital; it can move faster, take bigger risks, back talent and ideas before they are bankable, and build institutions that outlast electoral cycles. Public leadership or government institutionalises progress, it sets national priorities, funds at scale, embeds evidence in policy, and protects knowledge sovereignty so African data is stored, analysed, and governed under African standards.

Together, African philanthropy and governments can seed discovery, de-risk innovation, and translate successful pilots into national programs. The research agenda is obvious enough. In health, we need African cohorts, diagnostics, and biobanks for sickle cell, fibroids, menopause, and priority infectious diseases such as Lassa fever. We should rigorously evaluate indigenous remedies – applying pharmaceutical-grade methods to identify what is safe and effective – so that valuable therapies can be standardised, regulated and scaled, creating both health impact and new markets.

In agriculture, we must develop climate-resilient crops and livestock; strengthen seed systems and soil health; cut post-harvest losses with better storage, processing, and cold chains; deploy digital advisory and precision tools for smallholders; expand smart irrigation with solar pumps and AI-assisted scheduling; and build domestic value chains through local processing, logistics innovation, and cooperative finance.

How about our response to the climate crisis? It is that Africa is either the solution to the crisis or the nemesis of the world. Africa stands at a pivotal crossroads in the global climate crisis — it can either be the world’s greatest climate solution or its greatest challenge. How? Simple. If Africa were to follow the same carbon-intensive development path taken by the Global North, to reach middle to high-income status, this could result in annual emissions of up to 9.4 gigatonnes of CO₂e annually up to 2050. This would make the continent responsible for 75% of global emissions, and in that scenario, global net-zero goals will be impossible to achieve. However, Africa’s current low industrial base and small carbon footprint present a unique opportunity to leapfrog the polluting stages of industrialisation and build a green economy from the ground up.

By intentionally pursuing a Climate Positive Growth development paradigm, Africa can industrialise using its vast renewable energy potential (60% of the world’s total), the youngest and fastest-growing workforce, abundant arable land, critical minerals, and untapped clean manufacturing capacity — positioning itself to create the world’s first truly green industrial civilisation. Africa can go green, create millions of jobs and opportunities. Africa can green global manufacturing and supply chains, scale renewable-powered industries, and remove carbon from the atmosphere through nature-based and technological solutions. The challenge now is determining which research and development initiatives can turn this vision into reality.

African philanthropy can catalyse R&D priorities which could include: scalable renewable energy generation and storage; green industrial processes; sustainable agriculture and land use that both feed populations and sequester carbon; circular economy models for resource efficiency; and advanced carbon removal technologies. With targeted innovation, Africa can achieve economic growth while restoring the planet — leading not only in climate resilience but in shaping a regenerative global economy.

With respect to the maintenance of stability and security, we must focus on research in the key knowledge gaps that research can help fill. These include research on what local leadership models best prevent militant infiltration in our border regions, the role of informal trade and social networks in sustaining or resisting armed groups, and the study patterns of extremist recruitment tactics. Existing counter-extremism strategies are based on Sahelian contexts, so we lack an understanding of how recruitment evolves in southern and coastal communities.

Also, we must deepen our understanding of effective Early Warning Systems. Current systems are too top-down. More research is needed on integrating grassroots intelligence into real-time alerts. Despite these huge and obvious research needs, today’s African research ecosystem is not fit for purpose. Funding is insufficient and often externally driven; knowledge production is fragmented and lacks long-term institutional support, and brain drain continues as researchers leave for better-resourced environments.

I think the next question would be What is the Strategic Role of Philanthropy? I think both domestic and international philanthropy can play a catalytic role in transforming the research landscape by offering flexible, risk-tolerant, and long-term capital. We have some excellent models of building enduring institutions, such as the African Population and Health Research Centre (APHRC), supported by the Hewlett Foundation. The centre demonstrates how sustained philanthropic investment can create world-class institutions. Initiatives supporting the training of Next-Gen African Scholars, like the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program.

The project trains a pipeline of researchers with a commitment to African development. Philanthropy can also fund research-to-policy translation platforms, such as the Southern Voice Network or the African Evidence Network. We have research centres such as our hosts, the Centre for African Studies, specifically established to lead research, policy development and advocacy, and who already have a track record. African Philanthropy and high-net-worth individuals and corporations must now fund relevant research at the centre. What then is the responsibility of African Public Leadership?

I think political will is essential to institutionalise research as a development imperative. We simply have to be intentional about this. First is ensuring a tax regime that favours philanthropic funding of Africa-focused research, wherever in the world such research is taking place.  The current tax laws in Nigeria will require some tweaking. The law allows an incorporated entity to deduct costs incurred in research and development, once it can be shown to be wholly, exclusively, necessarily and reasonably incurred for its business objectives. However, where the expense is a donation, not necessarily incurred for the particular business purpose, it is only deductible if made by the company to any fund, body or institution in Nigeria.  So, a necessary exception has to be created for donations to institutions doing Africa-focused research.

Also, governments must establish National Research Funds and policies. South Africa and Kenya have established National Research Funds, though under-resourced. Public leaders must also raise R&D investment to at least 1% of GDP and embed research in national development strategies.

But enabling research environments is a much more involved series of activities. This will include facilitating appropriate visa regimes for visiting scholars, negotiating better terms in global research partnerships and pushing for African data to be stored and analysed locally.

Finally, I think we should be thinking of a new social compact for Philanthropy-Public Partnerships; a compact to fully leverage research for Africa’s transformation. The collaboration between philanthropy and public leadership is key. This will involve co-funding and matching grants. Governments can set up challenge funds where philanthropic funds are matched by public investment. We can also have Joint Agenda Setting.

Philanthropy and governments can co-develop research agendas, possibly aligned with Agenda 2063 and the SDGs. We should support all Africa-focused Research Platforms. Pan-African consortia, such as the African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA), should be supported as regional public goods.

Africa stands at a crossroads; one path leads to climate stress, food insecurity, and social fracture. The other leads to human capital unleashed, green industry built at scale, healthier lives, and shared prosperity. The difference between the two is knowledge and the will to fund it. Let African public leadership and African philanthropy meet at the crossroads of research. Let them build the labs, the datasets, the institutions, and the people who will shape our future. If we choose that partnership with seriousness and scale, Africa will not merely avoid catastrophe, it will lead the world into a more innovative, more sustainable, and more just century. That is the work before us. Let us begin.

Thank you for listening.