Datum Africa Partners with Three Regional Research Networks

New formal partnerships with research networks in East, West, and Southern Africa expand Datum Africa's reach and research capacity across the continent.

Datum Africa has formalized partnerships with three regional research networks, significantly expanding our research capacity and our ability to engage with policy processes across the continent.

The three partners represent East Africa, West Africa, and Southern Africa respectively — a university research consortium working on data governance and digital sovereignty; a civic data network with deep roots in community data collection and government data advocacy; and a research institute focused on climate data infrastructure and agricultural data systems.

These partnerships are working arrangements built around shared research questions, joint volunteer pipelines, and coordinated presence at regional policy forums — not documents that sit in filing cabinets.

In practice, this means co-authored research drawing on each network's expertise and datasets. It means volunteer programs that recruit across partner networks, giving participants exposure to a broader range of African data contexts. And it means Datum Africa showing up at policy forums with a wider coalition of voices — something that matters significantly when advocating for open data standards at national and regional levels.

Each partnership was built over months of relationship development. We do not believe in partnerships as press releases. We believe in partnerships as sustained collaboration, and we are building these with that standard in mind.

We will share updates on joint work as it progresses throughout 2026.