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The African Institute in Indigenous Knowledge Systems (AIIKS) is an African Indigenous Knowledge Hub for the Advancement of African Scholarship and Restoration of African Dignity. Its mission is to promote and support the contribution of African Indigenous Knowledge Systems to the global pool of knowledge.
AIIKS is a consortium of more than 20 Higher Education Institutions-based and Autonomous Research Institutions within and outside Africa. The participating member institutions are responsible for systematization of African Indigenous Science, Technology and Innovation in the global knowledge economy for the localization of UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) the attainment of aspirations of African Union (AU) Agenda 2063 (The Africa We Want). The current members of the consortium are from the following countries: South Africa (Hub), Cote d’Ivoire, Germany, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The holistic, cultural, multilingual, ecological and multi-transdisciplinary nature of AIKS is in line with all the UNESCO’s Approved Programme and Budget (C/5), including global strategies and sectoral programme priorities, especially in the context of localization of UN SDGs in Africa. This is articulated in the Institute’s Concept Note (see Annexure C) in terms of Vision and Mission, multi-transdisciplinary Signature Projects, Focus and Cross-cutting areas.
AIIKS objectives are:
- To establish a continental Institute on Indigenous Knowledge Systems in Africa, building on the already existing national, regional and continental IKS instruments and imperatives;
- To work towards the Institute being recognized as a UNESCO Category II Centre;
- To use the holistic, multi-and trans disciplinary, community and cultural, ecological specific -based nature of African Indigenous Knowledge Systems (AIKS) including indigenous languages and home grown philosophies, to decolonize and transform research, innovation and knowledge production/scholarship in Africa;
- To build a critical mass of continental IKS multi-and trans-disciplinary human capital, conversant with Indigenous Knowledge (IK) worldviews, ways of knowing, value systems and research methodologies, for promoting research, innovation and knowledge creation in identified strategic areas for Africa's sustainable development;
- To build a critical mass of continental IKS multi-and trans-disciplinary human capital, conversant with Indigenous Knowledge (IK) worldviews, ways of knowing, value systems and research methodologies, for promoting research, innovation and knowledge creation in identified strategic areas for Africa's sustainable development;
- To promote the use of African indigenous languages for communicating African home grown philosophies in the domestication and localization of UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Africa;
- To contribute to the implementation of the African Union (AU) Agenda 2063 (The Africa We Want), through the systematization of African Indigenous Knowledge Systems (AIKS) as a knowledge domain in its own merit;
- To generate AIKS-based knowledge products, services and impacts for uptake by national governments, international organizations and development agencies;
- To communicate, market, preserve, protect and promote AIKS, as a knowledge and science system, in its own merit, contributing to national, continental and international transformation imperatives such as the UN SDGs;
- To domesticate and localize the UN SDGs, through mobilizing and harnessing the power of AIKS including African indigenous languages, home-grown philosophies and other community-based resources through partnerships, for building the Africa We Want (AU Agenda 2063);
- To build a self-reliant and financially sustainable Institute by strengthening and diversifying its sources of Third and Fourth Income Streams.
The Sendai Framework Voluntary Commitments (SFVC) online platform allows stakeholders to inform the public about their work on DRR. The SFVC online platform is a useful toolto know who is doing what and where for the implementation of the Sendai Framework, which could foster potential collaboration among stakeholders. All stakeholders (private sector, civil society organizations, academia, media, local governments, etc.) working on DRR can submit their commitments and report on their progress and deliverables.