The Centre for Social Research (CSR) is this week participating in the planning meeting of Afrobarometer’s Round 10 Survey which was officially opened by former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in Accra, Ghana, on Monday 15 May 2023. Delegates to the launch have come from over forty countries around the continent that form the Afrobarometer network as a nonpartisan research network that amplifies citizens’ voices in national matters. CSR is being represented by its Deputy Director Mr. Joseph Chunga, who is also the Afrobarometer’s national investigator for Malawi.

 

In her keynote address titled “Timely Data in the context of African Development and Policy Decision Making,” Johnson Sirleaf underscored the importance of building greater capacities in building the technical and human capacities to collect, manage and analyze data which Africa requires for evidence-based policy and decision making.

“This can be achieved through development of data-driven decision-making frameworks, as well as through the establishment of partnerships between governments, academia and civil society,” she said.

 

Top of the agenda of the weeklong meeting is planning and designing Afrobarometer’s upcoming round 10 surveys scheduled to take place in the next few months in all participating countries. Among other activities the planning meeting will involve a number of plenary sessions to discuss and design survey instruments and methodologies, data quality assurance measures, and results dissemination strategies. However, delegates will also have a chance to review performance of the Round 9 surveys, which in Malawi was conducted in February, 2022.

Malawi was showcased during the opening ceremony as an example of an impact story following the survey’s findings which showed that 83 percent of Malawians demanded action to uproot corruption, among many other findings of the Round 9 Survey.

 

Apart from the former Liberian President Johnson Sirleaf who is also a member of Afrobarometer’s International Advisory Council, other eminent delegates at the launch include founding members of Afrobarometer Professor Robert Mattes, Professor Michael Bratton and Professor Gyimah-Boadi

 

Afrobarometer is a pan-African, non-partisan survey research network that conducts public attitude surveys on democracy, governance, the economy, and society. Currently 43 African countries are members of the Afrobarometer network. The Centre for Social Research has been Afrobarometer’s national partner since 1999 and was last month appointed to continue playing the role of national partner for the next three rounds.