Who we are
The African Heterodox Economics Network (AHEN) is a newly formed pan-African and diaspora-inclusive academic institution headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa, formally registered in December 2025. AHEN was established to fill a gap that no other institution addresses: the absence of a dedicated pan-African home for heterodox and pluralist economic research, teaching, and policy advisory work.
Heterodox economics — encompassing post-Keynesian, structuralist, institutionalist, ecological, decolonial, and Monetary Circuit frameworks — offers some of the most analytically rigorous tools for understanding African economic realities. Yet these traditions remain marginal in African universities and policy institutions, crowded out by an orthodox, neoclassical epistemic monopoly that has demonstrably failed to produce the sovereign policy space, industrial transformation, or poverty reduction it promises.
The problem we address
The macro-financial trap
African economies import more than they export, draining forex reserves, forcing expensive external borrowing, and imposing pro-cyclical fiscal contraction that degrades public investment and industrial capacity. Over 60% of low-income African countries are in debt distress or at high risk (IMF, 2024). Sub-Saharan Africa's external debt doubled from 30% to 60% of GDP between 2010 and 2024.
The epistemic monopoly
Orthodox, neoclassical economics dominates African higher-education institutions and policy advisory networks, producing a technocratic class that reifies status quo frameworks and forecloses heterodox alternatives. Countries implementing IMF/World Bank conditional programmes grew 1–2% more slowly per year than non-programme peers (1990–2020) — compounding into trillions in foregone output.
The institutional gap we fill
No existing institution occupies all three of AHEN's functions simultaneously:
No pan-African heterodox research network
CODESRIA covers social science broadly; AERC covers orthodox economics. No institution is dedicated to heterodox and pluralist economic research in Africa.
No curriculum transformation infrastructure
No network systematically builds heterodox economics into African university curricula or trains the next generation of non-orthodox economists.
No rapid-response policy advisory capacity
No institution translates heterodox macroeconomic research into operational instruments — Financial Blueprints, Forward Forex Facilities, Domestic Resource Creation frameworks — for African finance ministries.
No diaspora reconnection home
No institutional home allows diaspora economists to reconnect their analytical capacities with African policy space in a structured, sustained way.
Mission and vision
Mission
To generate African-centred heterodox economic knowledge, build a durable community of heterodox scholars and practitioners, transform how economics is taught in African universities, and bring pluralist, evidence-based analysis to bear on African policy and public debate.
Vision
An Africa in which economic policy is shaped by analytical frameworks that reflect the continent's actual structural realities — pluralist, historically grounded, politically conscious, and oriented toward economic sovereignty and sustainable development.
Interim steering committee
Governance
AHEN is governed by a pan-African Steering Committee with diaspora representation. Financial reporting adheres to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Programmatic advisory designs for sovereign states conform to the IMF's Government Finance Statistics Manual (GFSM) and IPSAS 41. Intellectual independence is formally protected in AHEN's governance structure — funded research and analysis remain free from donor or political interference.