Research Projects

Many policies, plans and strategy documents have over the years addressed the urgent need for economic diversification in the Central African region. Without this, the wellbeing of the citizens of the eleven countries that are part of this region is unlikely to improve. There is a broad consensus that achieving economic diversification in Central Africa will mean developing appropriate industrial policies that mobilize the region’s substantial natural endowments in light of changing global economic and environmental conditions. However, despite much research and many years of developing policies and plans, little has actually changed. The oil and gas-based boom of 2004-2014, for example, did not translate into deeper levels of structural transformation.

What is missing is the kind of transformational leadership across different sectors that has the necessary strategic and relational capabilities to grasp the emerging opportunities in Central Africa that are shaped by changing regional and global conditions. A report was published in December 2021 for a UNECA Conference in Kinshasa that drew together CST’s work on relational governance, institutional work, capability building and political settlements to address the challenge of appropriate leadership.