The online project is a joint undertaking by the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), Makerere University in Uganda, and the South African Institute of International Affairs.
The portal offers open access to a range of features that provides research and information on Africa’s current policy issues. CIGI says that within 105 days the Africa Portal received more than 20 000 visits and more than 50 000 page views globally. Of the 194 countries in world, users from 156 countries accessed the website.
The Africa Portal in numbers (provided by CIGI):
- 13,800 unique visitors;
- 20,700 visits, indicating that many users visited more than once;
- 52,300 page views, indicating that visitors generally looked at multiple pages – a sign of engagement.
- Users are accessing the African Portal across North America and in 47 African and 36 European countries.
As one of the founding partners, SAIIA is currently working on bringing ‘content partners’ on board. These organisations have a strong track-record in publishing research material on issues affecting the African continent.
As a content partner joins the Africa Portal venture, SAIIA librarians begin the task of cataloguing the partner’s publications into the portal library, to make them available to the growing user-base.
To date, a number of noteworthy content partners have agreed to contribute their material to the initiative. SAIIA is also continuing to liaise with key organisations across the continent in this regard.
The Africa Portal seeks to build and deepen Africa’s knowledge and capacity in six critical policy areas: conflict resolution, energy, food security, health, migration, and climate change. It features over 3,000 books, journals, and digital documents on policy issues. It also offers breaking news, the latest opinions and analysis, and upcoming events impacting African policy.
