IIASA recently welcomed a high-level delegation from its Sub-Saharan Africa Regional Member Organization (SSARMO), its first Regional Member Organization, to explore and shape the next phase of collaboration across Sub-Saharan Africa.
How can systems analysis help address some of the most pressing challenges facing Sub-Saharan Africa, from climate resilience and water security to food systems, governance, and sustainable development?
This question brought a high-level delegation from SSARMO and South Africa's National Research Foundation (NRF) to IIASA in June 2026 for a week of discussion, exchange, and strategic planning focused on how systems analysis, research collaboration, institutional partnerships, and regional networks can contribute to addressing complex challenges across the region.
The visit brought together leading researchers, institutional leaders, science-policy experts, and early-career scientists from the University of the Witwatersrand, Tshwane University of Technology, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, the University of Fort Hare, the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Nelson Mandela University, and representatives from the NRF. Together with IIASA researchers and leadership, participants explored how existing strengths across Africa and the IIASA network can be better connected and mobilized to strengthen regional research collaboration, develop systems-analysis capability, support evidence-informed decision-making, and create pathways towards greater scientific and societal impact.
"What emerged was more than a conversation about collaboration. It was a shared ambition to build a stronger regional ecosystem for systems analysis that spans countries, institutions, generations, and disciplines," noted Puleng Tshitlho, Senior Specialist: Knowledge and Institutional Networks, NRF South Africa, and IIASA focal point leading SSARMO-related engagements at the NRF.
From shared challenges to shared solutions
Discussions highlighted opportunities for collaboration across a wide range of areas, including climate adaptation, water security, food systems, population dynamics, health, governance, energy transitions, and environmental sustainability. What connects these issues is that they operate as systems, shaped by interactions, feedbacks, trade-offs, and long-term change.
This included exploring opportunities for joint research, thematic collaboration, researcher mobility, postgraduate development, science-policy engagement, and stronger connections between African institutions and the wider IIASA network.
"This visit builds on a growing portfolio of partnerships that IIASA researchers have been developing with institutions across Sub-Saharan Africa. For me, the opportunity is not only to create new collaborations, but also to better understand and bring visibility to the many Africa-focused collaborations already happening across IIASA. Through science-policy workshops, stakeholder dialogues, capacity-development activities, and partnership building in countries including Ghana, Botswana, and Mozambique, we are working with regional partners to link systems analysis with African research priorities, policy needs, and long-term institutional capacity,” explains Felicity Addo, researcher in the Integrated Biosphere Futures Research Group of the IIASA Biodiversity and Natural Resources Program.
Systems analysis in action
The visit provided an opportunity for delegates to engage directly with researchers from across IIASA and experience how systems analysis is being applied to real-world challenges.
Participants learned about initiatives supporting water governance across the Lake Victoria Basin, demographic modelling to inform long-term development planning, innovative approaches using citizen science and Earth observation data, and integrated assessments exploring the links between climate, energy, agriculture, water, and economic development.
The discussions also highlighted how systems approaches are helping policymakers navigate uncertainty, evaluate trade-offs, and develop more resilient strategies in an increasingly complex world.
These examples demonstrated the potential for systems analysis to serve not only as a research methodology, but as a practical capability for addressing interconnected development challenges. They also highlighted opportunities to strengthen connections between existing research and expertise in Africa and the knowledge, networks, and methodologies available through IIASA.
Investing in future systems leaders
One of the most inspiring aspects of the visit was the opportunity to hear directly from early-career researchers whose journeys have been shaped by international collaboration, mobility, and interdisciplinary research.
Early career researchers shared experiences spanning groundwater security, energy transitions, biodiversity, climate impacts, environmental modeling, education, and human capital development. Their stories illustrate the transformative role that mentorship, global research networks, and programs such as the Young Scientists Summer Program (YSSP) can play in shaping scientific careers.
For many participants, these conversations reinforced the importance of creating stronger pathways that enable emerging researchers across Sub-Saharan Africa to engage with systems analysis, international collaboration, and science-policy interfaces.
"Sometimes the barrier is not a lack of talent or interest, but simply not recognizing that your research belongs in systems analysis. We need pathways that help researchers see themselves as part of these global conversations," said 2022 YSSPer and current IIASA researcher Gemma Gerber.
The discussions also highlighted opportunities to make these pathways more accessible and connected for researchers across Sub-Saharan Africa. Participants explored how existing opportunities, including YSSP, postdoctoral placements, training, mobility, mentorship and collaborative research could be better linked to longer-term research networks and communities of practice.
The aim is not simply to increase access to individual programs, but to create more sustained pathways through which emerging researchers can connect with IIASA, regional peers and international collaborators, develop systems-analysis expertise, and contribute to research and policy priorities in the region.
From momentum to action
Perhaps the strongest message emerging from the visit was that the future of systems analysis in Africa will not be built through individual projects alone.
Participants expressed strong support for strengthening the Sub-Saharan African Systems Analysis Center (SASAC) as an important platform within a broader regional collaboration ecosystem, supporting capacity development, researcher mobility, mentorship, networking, and science-policy engagement. Rather than creating new structures, the focus is on building stronger connections among the expertise, partnerships, institutions, and networks that already exist across the region.
“The foundations are already in place. The next step is transforming existing expertise, partnerships, and networks into a more connected platform for scientific impact, capacity development, and evidence-informed decision making,” concluded IIASA Deputy Director General Karen Lips.
This visit was also featured in Nature Africa article entitled Building a systems science network for Africa.
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