• AU selects three African think tank consortia under its ATTP funding scheme

• Each consortium could receive about $10 million over two and a half years

• Funding aims to strengthen policy influence aligned with Agenda 2063

The African Union (AU) will support three think tank consortia under its funding mechanism built around the African Think Tank Platform (ATTP). The selection follows a call for applications launched in July 2025 to support continental-level strategic policy research actors.

The selected consortia are RAISED Africa, led by the Economic Research Forum, which brings together researchers working on Middle East and North Africa economies in particular; BRIDGE-Africa, coordinated by the African Centre for Economic Transformation (ACET), a pan-African think tank specializing in economic transformation policy analysis; and a third consortium led by the African Population and Health Research Centre (APHRC).

Together, the three groups cover West, East, North, Central, and Southern Africa, with complementary thematic portfolios spanning areas such as food security and digitalization.

According to initial projections, the expected funding represents about $10 million per consortium over a period of two and a half years. The AU said disbursements remain subject to institutional capacity assessments and the signing of performance-based partnership agreements.

For the continental body, the next challenge is to ensure effective coverage of all 55 African countries, while avoiding duplication and maximizing the uptake of policy recommendations by public decision-makers.

The call, led by the AU Commission, aims to strengthen the ability of African research centers to influence public policy in line with Agenda 2063. The funding initiative comes in a context marked by limited financial resources and strong dependence on international donors for African think tanks, most of which operate with modest annual budgets, often below $500,000.

For these organizations, whose role is to support public and private decision-makers in policy formulation and strategic orientation, priority needs include mobilizing sustainable domestic funding from public and private sources, strengthening methodological capacity and access to data, and improving internal governance.

While the objective is to produce analysis that can be directly used by policymakers and the private sector, comparisons with other regions such as the Middle East and Europe remain striking. These regions benefit from older and more structured ecosystems, with stronger national funding and regional networks. Even so, they are not immune to vulnerabilities, including funding concentration and political pressure that can affect think tank independence.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi