Event

Dialogue on human rights, citizenship and good governance in Africa

Human rights in Africa. Photo: Jun / Getty Images Plus.

Date: November 29, 2022 - November 29, 2022
Date: November 29, 2022
Time: 12:00 - 13:15
Location: Online via Zoom
Start date: November 29, 2022
End date: November 29, 2022
Institution: The Nordic Africa Institute, SEI and SweDev
Event summary: SEI and SweDev are proud to present keynote speakers Patience Mususa and Cristiano Lanzano from the Nordic Africa Institute.

SEI’s Development and Aid Policy Team and SweDev are proud to present keynote speakers Patience Mususa and Cristiano Lanzano from the Nordic Africa Institute for the dialogue on development research 29 November.

Mususa and Lanzano will present  an overview of the challenges relating to citizenship in Africa, south of the Sahara. Elisabeth Olivius, SweDev Executive Committee member and Associate Professor at Umeå University, will give welcome remarks. Eleanor Fisher, Head of Research at the Nordic Africa Institute, will moderate the dialogue together with Ylva Rylander, Lead Communications Officer for SweDev at SEI. Alice Tunfjord, SweDev secretariat and SEI Associate will host the dialogue.

Rights, citizenship and good governance in African states

Considering rights, citizenship and good governance in African states, Mususa and Lanzano argue for establishing a social contract, which reconciles particularistic identities (such as ethnicity) with citizenship and governance under the rule of law as an investment into enhanced trust in a citizen-state interaction.

A policy promoting and embracing a positive notion of citizenship could be an opportunity for states and governments as well as citizens. This could be seen as an investment in social stability and a shared identification with the common good.

Agenda 29 November

12.00 Welcome remarks

  • Elisabeth Olivius, SweDev Executive Committee member and Associate Professor at Umeå University

12.05 Introduction

  • Eleanor Fisher, Head of Research, Nordic Africa Institute

12.10 Keynote: Rights, citizenship and good governance in African states

  • Cristiano Lanzano, Senior Researcher, Nordic Africa Institute
  • Patience Mususa, Senior Researcher, Nordic Africa Institute

12.45 Audience questions to the keynote speaker, moderated by

  • Eleanor Fisher, Head of Research, Nordic Africa Institute
  • Ylva Rylander, Lead Communications Officer for SweDev at SEI

13.05 Concluding remarks

  • Elisabeth Olivius, SweDev Executive Committee member and Associate Professor at Umeå University

13.15 Closing

About the speakers

Patience Mususa is a Senior Researcher at the Nordic Africa Institute and an environmental anthropologist specialising on mining and human settlement, copper mining towns, planning and urbanization, and community welfare. She is working at the intersections of research, policy and practice.

Mususa is a member of the Editorial Board of the Urban Forum scientific journal, a co-convenor within the Collaborative Research Group African Urban Dynamics, and member of the Institute for Humanities in Africa policy working group at the University of Cape Town in South Africa.

Cristiano Lanzano is a Senior Researcher at the Nordic Africa Institute and a social anthropologist with a background in political science and development studies. He is an expert on the extractive sector and mining, natural resources and conservation, rural-urban continuum, anthropology of development and youth and urban culture. Lanzano is a Subject Editor for the Nordic Journal of African Studies.