The Nordic Africa Institute

Is Ethiopia's economic growth enough to hold the federation together?

Ethiopia remains one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies, but rising debt, inequality and ethnic tensions are putting pressure on the country’s political cohesion. Two NAI researchers analyse the risks as the country counts down to the 1 June elections.

🔗 https://nai.uu.se/stories-and-events/news/2026-05-27-ethiopias-growth-paradox-can-economics-still-hold-the-federation-together.html

We were pleased to welcome Anna-Maria Olsson, Ambassador Designate of Sweden to Uganda, for a full day of briefing.

Discussions with our researchers covered natural resource governance, Africa's Gen Z movement, sexual and reproductive health education in Uganda, and economic growth and inequality.

📚 No visit to NAI is complete without a stop at the library. Our Chief Librarian introduced the collections and services, and the library had also put together a selection of non-academic reading for the occasion alongside the academic resources.

🌎 Today is Africa Day. For decades, Africa has hosted more peace operations than any other region in the world. But what happens when the continent takes the lead?

The conflicts shaping peace operations in Africa today bear little resemblance to those that informed traditional UN peacekeeping. African-led missions are increasingly deployed in transnational conflicts involving non-state armed groups, often with mandates and resources that struggle to keep pace with realities on the ground.

Peace Operations in Africa: A Changing Mission is a three-part series examining how Africa-led peace support has evolved, what it costs, and where it is heading.

1️⃣ What is Africa-led peace support?
2️⃣ Promise, prospects, and peril
3️⃣ Who keeps the peace?

Filmed in Addis Ababa, the series features insights from experts working at the heart of the African Union's peace and security architecture.

🎬 Watch the full series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAzxOspfrnc&list=PLAQSLKuAThgYS4BZECcKh6GTQDhq20Q24

On , we’re highlighting the uneven power imbalances between Africa and the Global North, and specifically Europe, when it comes to research collaboration.

As Divine Fuh, co-architect of the Africa Charter for Transformative Research Collaborations, puts it: "People come to collect data, go turn it into theories and then bring it to us to apply in Africa."

The Africa Charter aims to make international research partnerships more equitable, inclusive and more African-led. Launched by major African higher education and research institutions in 2023, it argues that Africa remains structurally disadvantaged in global knowledge production, with research collaborations too often reproducing unequal power relations rooted in colonial legacies.

"The charter attends to deeper issues by looking at the relationship between Africa and the North, introducing African-centered perspectives and taking decoloniality seriously," says Fuh.

NAI signed the charter last year, joining more than 150 institutions across Africa, Europe and beyond committed to more balanced and African-led research.

"By signing up to the charter, we send a signal that we acknowledge the stark imbalances and want to do something about them," says NAI Research Coordinator Julia Falkerby.

Read more about the charter and its implications for African research: https://nai.uu.se/stories-and-events/news/2026-05-25-decolonising-research-partnerships-the-ambitions-of-the-africa-charter.html

Uppsala Africa Days 2026 brought together two days of keynotes, research presentations, roundtables and interactive art sessions, exploring what transformative collaboration between African and Nordic institutions means.

Thank you to everyone who presented and participated.

At Uppsala Africa Days, Eleanor Fisher, Head of Research at the Nordic Africa Institute, chaired a roundtable on research collaboration across continents.

Researchers, policy advisors and practitioners shared examples from their own work, showing how collaboration across institutions and communities can strengthen research.

The conversation also addressed the inequalities that can shape these collaborations — from funding structures and mobility barriers to gaps in language and discourse.

On research financing, NAI Senior Researcher Patience Mususa highlighted the imbalance many collaborations still rely on:“

We are extracting knowledge from the continent. When there is no funding structure that compensates the experts you rely on — for their time, expertise and networks — the relationship becomes deeply unequal and extractive.”

Uppsala Africa Days 2026 is underway. Two days of Africa-focused research and dialogue, co-organised with Uppsala University, and Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU).

In her opening remarks, NAI Director Therése Sjömander said: “Events such as Uppsala Africa Days play an important role in bringing these institutions together. They create space for dialogue across disciplines, highlight the value of sustained scholarly engagement, and strengthen relationships with African partner institutions and researchers.”

Follow along for updates across the two days.

We're at Uppsala Africa Days today — stop by the NAI book table and browse our latest publications.

Our team is here to talk about what we publish, what we research, and the resources and services we offer on contemporary Africa. That includes our library, which is open to students and researchers looking for specialist material on the continent.

📍Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University