Global Challenges Research Fund Success

A bid led by Professor Giles Mohan has been awarded almost £150,000 following a successful application to the Global Challenges Research Fund’s Strategic Networks programme, led by ESRC. The project, Migration for Inclusive African Growth Network, concerns the nature of new migrant flows to and within Africa, and the potential impacts on inclusive growth on the continent.

The aim of the Strategic Networks programme is to cultivate networks that will develop larger funding proposals for innovative research on pressing issues in global development. The new project focuses on four countries – Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya and Mozambique – and draws together expert partners from each in addition to the team based at the OU.

Studying the new migrant flows is important for a number of reasons:

1. The economic downturn revealed the fragility of the growth experienced by many African economies over the past decade, too much of which was based on commodity exports. Recent academic and policy analysis suggests that services may hold the key to future growth.
2. Most work so far has focused on migration from the Global South to the wealthy countries of the Global North, underplaying the importance of North-South flows and migration within the Global South.
3. The flows contain entrepreneurs and professionals who not only invest in the service sector – particularly in areas of critical importance for development such as health, education, and ICTs – but also bring new finance, knowledge and social networks that have the potential to enhance local capabilities and in so doing support inclusive growth.

The bid process was highly competitive, with only 22 projects from across the UK receiving funding. Key to Migration for Inclusive African Growth Network's success was its encouragement of early career researchers, and the fact that co-investigators from the target countries will play key roles.

Members of the network will interact through a mix of virtual and face-to-face means organised by the African partners in Africa and supported by the OU’s long experience of such learning events. As a result, a new international network will be established able to develop policy-relevant research and offer advice to GCRF on migration’s role in inclusive growth.

You can find out more on the Research Councils UK website Gateway to Research.