ResilientAfrica Network (RAN): Systematic Approach to Resilience Assessment, Measurement and Analysis

The ResilientAfrica Network (RAN) is a partnership among sub-Saharan African and American universities led by Makerere University in Uganda. The RAN is co-directed by Tulane University and includes Stanford University, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), and four regional Resilience Innovation Labs (RILabs) located in Ghana, Ethiopia, Uganda and South Africa.

The RAN is supported and funded by the United States Agency for International Development’s Office of Science, Technology and Innovation (USAID). Its goal is to strengthen the resilience of people and systems in Africa by leveraging the knowledge, scholarship and creativity that exists across the RAN to analyze vulnerabilities, define resilience dimensions and apply innovative solutions. The RAN is based on the belief that faculty, students, researchers and development experts working together can define and analyze specific resilience dimensions using a set of innovative approaches to engage with local communities. Targeted interventions can then be designed and applied to help build resilience. Evaluating the impact of these interventions will help to inform policies, programs, and resource allocations.

Through USAID’s Higher Education Solutions Network, RAN is empowering partner universities across Africa to develop, adopt and test its Resilience Framework. In collaboration with Stanford University, Tulane University, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the RAN has established four Resilience Innovation Labs (“RILabs” in Eastern Africa, Horn of Africa, West Africa and Southern Africa) through which it is equipping 18 communities and local stakeholders to more effectively recover from and respond to complex challenges by finding or catalyzing successful local solutions, sharing them with other vulnerable communities, and building a ground-breaking community of practice and platform for collaborative learning.