The Future Earth Africa Hub Leadership Centre (FEAHLC)
What is it and where is it located physically?
The FEAHLC is a Future Earth’s Science Leadership Centre in Africa. The leadership and administration staff of the centre are located at two universities, namely, Rhodes University and the University of Pretoria.
The director and the main administrator of the Centre are housed in the Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER) at Rhodes University (RU). The deputy director and capacity building coordinator are housed in the Future Africa (FA) campus of the University of Pretoria (UP).
Why is it there and what is its purpose?
The science leadership centre has been established to do the following:
a. Support the coordination and implementation of the objectives and terms of reference of the Future Earth Africa Hub. This will include the establishment of the four regional nodes in Africa, namely, the Southern, Western, Eastern and Northern Africa regional nodes (SARN, WARN, EARN, NARN). The establishment of these nodes will be funded by the NRF, the lead organization in the Future Earth Africa Hub (FEAH).
b. In its support work of the Hub, the centre interacts and co-operates (but not report) to the regional nodes. Instead, the regional nodes (once established) will have working committees that will feed into the work of the Africa Hub Leadership Centre (AHLC).
c. With the nodes, the centre will support the Global Research Networks (GRNs)of Future Earth (FE).
d. The centre supports the science and science leadership development work in conjunction with the national and regional nodes. These include capacity development, publishing, setting platforms for facilitating deeper engagements (e.g. African sustainability science association, a sustainability Science journal, etc.
e. The centre supports and contributes towards sustainability science advocacy within SGCI networks
f. The centre is tasked to establish six research clusters on sustainability sciences. These will be coordinated within the regional nodes.
How does the Centre operate?
1. Funding:
The centre is funded mainly by the NRF (75%) and by co-implementing partners through in-kind contributions at 25% of the centre’s total running budget.
2. Management structure
a. The centre has a management or steering committee comprised of implementing partners including the following:
i. University of Pretoria (FA),
ii. Rhodes University (ELRC, IWR and ISER),
iii. Regional Hub nodess representatives (when nodes are operational),
iv. National Research Foundation (NRF),
v. Future Earth (FE),
vi. Rotational representative of consortium led science clusters,
vii. Seconded expertise if necessary (with other key stakeholders brought in as needed
b. The functions of the management or steering committee are to make decisions supporting the Director and Deputy Director on operational matters. The committee is also responsible for overseeing the operational and strategic work of the centre as outlined in its workplan and the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning projects in support of Future Earth global work.
c. The management or steering committee reports to an Advisory Board on an annual basis. The Board facilitates access to existing networks for the centre and the Hub as a whole, advises on opportunities and challenges, supports fund raising efforts.
Where in the Future Earth Africa Hub is the centre situated diagrammatically? (to finalise in the meeting with NRF)
The centre forms part of the Africa Hub, which is led by the NRF as illustrated in the organogram below
