Dr. Nicasius Achu Check is a Chief Research Specialist at the Africa Institute of South Africa, a Research Institute within the Human Sciences Research Council. He holds a PhD in Political Studies from the University of Johannesburg. Dr Check specializes in de-colonial politics, France-Africa relations, African post-colonial state-building initiatives, genocide studies, African philosophy, humanities on the African continent, and African development initiatives.

During the past decade, he has conducted his research around governance, peace, and security with a specific focus on African peace and security architecture, governance reforms within the African Union and related institutions, and post-colonial nation-building initiatives.

Dr Check has published extensively in national and International Journals and has attended and presented papers at several international conferences. He currently sits on the editorial committee of Africa Insight, a peer-reviewed Journal accredited by the Department of Higher Education and Training in South Africa. He is a steering committee member of the African Peer Review Mechanism’s School of Governance, a member of the Board of the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Botswana, a board member of Riara University’s International Relations Department at Nairobi, Kenya and a board member of the School of International Relations and Public Policy, United States International University, Nairobi, Kenya. Dr Check is also an Extra-Ordinary Professor in the Faculty of Humanities, North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus.

Professor Adebayo O. Olukoshi is a Distinguished Professor at the Wits School of Governance. He completed his first degree in International Studies at the Ahmadu Bello University and his doctorate in Politics at the University of Leeds. He comes to the School of Governance with over three decades of experience in research, training and capacity enhancement, programme development, and institution-building. Most of his research has centered on the interplay of politics and economics in the development experience. He has published extensively in this field of research. Among his most impactful work are the studies he published on the politics of economic reform programmes promoted by the international financial institutions in Africa during the 1980s into the new millennium.

Professor Olukoshi has previously served as a Director of Research at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Research Programme Coordinator at the Nordic Africa Institute, and Senior Programme Staff at the inter- governmental South Centre. He has also previously served as the Executive Secretary of the Council for Social Science Research in Africa, Director of the United Nations African Institute for Economic Development and Planning, Director artificial intelligence of the Africa Governance Institute, and Director for Africa and West Asia at International IDEA. He has been a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Johannesburg and Covenant University. Currently, he holds an Honorary Professorship at the University of Edinburgh, an Honorary Research Associateship at the Nordic Africa Institute, and an Honorary Senior Fellowship at the Centre for Democracy and Development.

At the School of Governance there is developing a stream of work on rethinking democracy, development, and governance on their own and in their inter-connections. This stream of work aims to contribute fresh thinking to the overall state of governance in Africa at a time when the process of democratisation has come under severe stress and the development experience has been stymied by growing poverty and rising inequality. Perspectives emanating from work will be fed into global comparative conversations about the imperative of renewing democracy and development.