CODESRIA, the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa is headquartered in Dakar Senegal. It was established in 1973 as an independent Pan-African research organization with a primary focus on the social sciences, broadly defined. It is recognised not only as the pioneer African social research organisation but also as the apex non-governmental centre of social knowledge production on the continent. Its objectives are:

• Promote and facilitate research and knowledge production in Africa using a holistic, multi-disciplinary approach. In this connection, the Council is committed to the goal of combating the fragmentation of knowledge production, and the African community of scholars along various disciplinary and linguistic/geographical lines;

• Promote and defend the principle of independent thought and the academic freedom of researchers in the production and dissemination of knowledge;

• Encourage and support the development of African comparative research with a continental perspective and a sensitivity to the specificity of development process in Africa;

• Promote the publication and dissemination of the results of research undertaken by African scholars;

• Strengthen the institutional basis of knowledge production in Africa by proactively engaging and supporting other research institutions and their networks of scholars within its programs of activities. As part of this goal, the Council also actively encourages cooperation and collaboration among African universities, research organisations and other training institutions;

• Encourage inter-generational and gender-sensitive dialogues in the African academy as a further investment of effort in the promotion of awareness of and capacity in the use of different prospectives for knowledge production;

• Promote contacts and dialogue between African researchers and researcher on Africa elsewhere in the world, as well as interaction between the Council and similar international organisations