SouthernAfrica

The V-Dem Regional Center for Southern Africa was founded in January 2018. It aims to develop research on the causes and consequences of democratisation and multi-party politics in Southern Africa, which includes the following countries: Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Botswana, Namibia, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique and South Africa. The Centre will be funded locally with some support by V-Dem Institute based at the Department of Political Science at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden.

The Centre aims to organise several activities, namely yearly academic conferences, workshops on research methodology and the use of statistical applications to determine policy/programme/project impact, and policy oriented workshops. We invite scholars, policy-makers, policy implementers, journalists, the general public and other actors in governance to contact us.

Research

The V-Dem Regional Centre for Southern Africa will conduct research on the causes and consequences of democracy, democratisation and governance in the region, using the Varieties of Democracy dataset, and combining it with historical research and other datasets on democracy and governance. For the next five years, the centre will pursue the following research projects:

  • A comparative study of patterns of governance, local development, democratic and government quality in Southern African countries;
  • Explore the nature and causes of Southern African democratisation, party politics and factionalism, and regime changes within a cross-regional analysis;
  • Conduct opinion polls, PVTs and participate in election monitoring locally and in the region;
  • Explore the long-run consequences of democratic institutions for human welfare, economic development, and social and political trust in Southern Africa;
  • Conduct research and training on environmental politics and climate justice in Southern Africa;
  • Conduct research and training on social accountability of the use of public resources, and;
  • Conduct research and training on measuring the impact public and social policies, programmes and projects.

Team