32 young African researchers build their data analysis skills at the 2025 Afrobarometer Summer School and Thematic Workshop

 

Thirty-two young African researchers from 14 countries are sharpening their research and analysis skills at the 2025 Afrobarometer (www.Afrobarometer.org) English-language Summer School and Thematic Workshop, hosted at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. More than half of the programme’s participants are women, underscoring Afrobarometer’s dedication to empowering women.

Afrobarometer’s Summer School is an introductory-level analysis course that equips young African scholars with essential skills in research design, survey methodology, and data analysis, focusing on public attitudes towards democracy, governance, and other critical areas. The 2025 Summer School, taking place from 13 to 31 January, will give participants the opportunity to explore a range of topics, including perspectives on climate change, support for military rule or democracy, and attitudes towards refugees, free trade and open borders, access to healthcare, and women’s participation.

The two-week intermediate Thematic Workshop, running from 20 January to 2 February, focuses on developing more advanced data collection and analysis skills among African researchers, fostering impactful research and strengthening research networks across African institutions.

According to Jason Owen, Afrobarometer capacity building manager (advanced track), the Summer School and Thematic Workshop serve as vital platforms for capacity building, collaboration, and the advancement of research that addresses Africa’s pressing governance challenges.

“By building a new generation of scholars and facilitating the production of analytical outputs that make use of Afrobarometer’s extensive open access datasets, we continue to amplify African voices and contribute to data-driven policymaking across the continent,” he said.

Participants are optimistic about the workshop’s transformative impact.

“As a humanitarian and development communication specialist, I work with communities and policy-makers to address political engagement issues among refugees and internally displaced people,” said Ruth Nakayima, research assistant and communication officer at Hatchile Consult Ltd and Plan International Uganda. “This workshop will build my capacities to understand geopolitics and to use data for social development.”

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Afrobarometer.

For more information, please contact:
Asafika Mpako
Communications coordinator for Southern Africa
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About Afrobarometer:
Afrobarometer (AB) is a trusted source of high-quality data and analysis on what Africans are thinking. With an unmatched track record of 380,000+ interviews in 42 countries, representing the views of 80% of the African population, AB is leading the charge to bridge the continent’s data gap. AB data inform many global indices, such as the Ibrahim Index of African Governance, Transparency International’s Global Corruption Barometer, and the World Bank’s Worldwide Governance Indicators. The data are also used for country risk analyses and by credit rating and forecasting agencies such as the Economist Intelligence Unit. All AB data sets are publicly available on the website (www.Afrobarometer.org/) and may be analysed free of charge using AB’s online data analysis tool (https://apo-opa.co/3WvFqdZ).