A fresh strategic direction
As a well-established and respected organisation with an extensive portfolio of international and domestic research, public and private sector partnerships and policy networks, we are seen as a key resource for actors in the social sector, including policy makers, civil society partners, and private sector partners wishing to contribute to addressing social challenges.
That is why it is critical that we keep abreast of trends and development in the welfare and social development sector. To ensure that our work remains relevant at the beginning of 2020 we took time to review our mission and vision statements and refine our model and strategic approach to reflect how our research is shaping and testing innovative solutions to the complex development challenges of contemporary society.
Vision statement
We aim to engage in cutting-edge, rigorous and interdisciplinary research that contributes to understanding and innovatively solving complex, contemporary social development challenges facing people and communities in Africa and the global south. In doing so we aim to challenge and shape social development theory internationally.
Mission statement
We engage in high quality, rigorous, applied, interdisciplinary social development research in order to:
- Understand complex social development challenges in Africa and the global south
- Innovatively design and test evidence-based solutions to these challenges
- Shape important social development and welfare theory, policy and practice debates
- Train the next generation of social development scholars, policy-makers and practitioners.
Our values
- We do our research with heart, cognisant of the need to improve people's lives not only in the outcomes of our work but in how we do our work.
- We do our work with ethical and financial integrity, mindful of the need to manage resources well.
- We conduct our work in a way that places people (including our staff and students) at the centre, aware of the need for our work to enable people's ongoing growth and development.
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Our strategic approach
- We use, test and extend the social development lens as a theory and practice framework in all of our work.
- We conduct deep, nuanced and locally relevant work and connect it with macro themes, data, and analysis in order to shape important macro social and welfare theory, policy and practice debates and develop social development solutions that are relevant for low and middle-income countries.
- We engage on an ongoing basis with relevant stakeholders across the spectrum in the course of our research (from high-level policy-makers, to local-level practitioners, and community-based stakeholders; as well as the media).
- We engage students and emerging researchers in practical ways in our research (in the field and in the classroom) in order to build social development capacity.
A fresh strategic direction
Complex and persistent social development challenges, such as poverty,
unemployment,
and inequality, require innovative and evidence-based solutions as
well as well-trained
development practitioners, policy-makers and scholars who can use
evidence to inform
new solutions.
The CSDA is committed to understanding the complexities of persistent
and new social
development challenges, assessing and seeking solutions to them, and
training the next
generation of development experts who will be able to assess evidence
and innovate to
solve crucial
development challenges.
As a well-established and respected organisation with an extensive
portfolio
of international and domestic research, public and private sector
partnerships and
policy networks, we are seen as a key resource for actors in the
social sector, including
policy makers, civil society partners, and private sector partners
wishing to contribute to
addressing social
challenges.
That is why it is
critical that we keep abreast of trends and development in the welfare and
social development sector. To ensure that our work remains relevant at the beginning of 2020 we took time to review our mission and vision
statements and refine our model and strategic approach to reflect how our
research is shaping and testing innovative solutions to the complex development
challenges of contemporary society.
We took care to
build on the core values and strengths that have become part of the CSDA’s DNA
over the last 15 years. With the above in mind our strategic vision, guiding
our work over the next five years, is presented here.
Vision statement
We aim to engage in cutting-edge, rigorous
and interdisciplinary research that contributes to understanding and
innovatively solving complex, contemporary social development challenges facing people and communities in Africa and the global
south. In doing so we aim to challenge and shape social development theory
internationally.
Mission
statement
We engage in high quality,
rigorous, applied, interdisciplinary social development research in order to:
Understand
complex social development challenges in Africa and the global south
Innovatively
design and test evidence-based solutions to these challenges
Shape
important social development and welfare theory, policy and practice debates
Train
the next generation of social development scholars, policy-makers and
practitioners.
Our values:
We
do our research with heart, cognisant of the need to improve people’s lives not
only in the outcomes of our work but in how we do our work.
We
do our work with ethical and financial integrity, mindful of the need to manage
resources well.
We conduct our work
in a way that places people (including our staff and students) at the centre,
aware of the need for our work to enable people’s ongoing growth and
development.
Our model

Over the next five years we intend to
deepen and extend our work by engaging in research, teaching and engagement
across four research themes:

Our strategic approach :
We
use, test and extend the social development lens as a theory and practice
framework in all of our work.
We
conduct deep, nuanced and locally relevant work and connect it
with macro themes, data, and analysis in order to shape important
macro social and welfare theory, policy and practice debates and develop social
development solutions that are relevant for low and middle-income countries.
We
engage on an ongoing basis with relevant stakeholders across the spectrum in
the course of our research (from high-level policy-makers, to local-level
practitioners, and community-based stakeholders; as well as the media).
We
engage students and emerging researchers in practical ways in our research (in
the field and in the classroom) in order to build social development capacity.