About
The Southern Africa Network of Think Tanks (SANTT) is a regional platform that brings together research and policy institutions across the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region to promote evidence-based policy formulation, regional integration, and sustainable development.
The Network was established through collaboration between the SADC Secretariat and the Alliance for African Partnership (AAP), following consultative meetings held in Johannesburg (2024) and Lusaka (2025). It serves as a non-profit, independent, and inclusive body that facilitates dialogue, research collaboration, and policy engagement among SADC think tanks, universities, and development partners.
Objectives
SANTT’s primary objectives are to:
- Promote research, knowledge generation and learning through thematic working groups aligned with SADC’s priorities.
- Foster collaboration, joint research, and capacity-building among think tanks and policy institutions.
- Build the institutional capacity of think tanks to contribute effectively to policy debates and implementation at national and regional levels.
- Strengthen the research–policy interface in support of SADC’s regional integration and industrialization, and other results agenda.
Steering Committee
SANTT currently operates under an Interim Steering Committee chaired by Dr. Gloria Somolekae, Executive Director of the Botswana Institute for Development Policy Analysis (BIDPA).
