Research agenda
AHEN's research programme operates across three specialist empirical streams, each targeting a different structural dimension of Africa's macro-financial challenge. All research is Africa-led and diaspora-inclusive: principal investigators are drawn from African universities and the global African economics diaspora.
Research streams
Ecological macroeconomics and just transitions
Modelling climate risks and green industrialisation pathways tailored to non-reserve currency states. Africa faces ecological vulnerability compounded by orthodox-imposed fiscal constraints. Heterodox ecological macroeconomics provides tools for just transition policies that do not sacrifice development to austerity.
Sovereign debt architecture and advanced liability management
Developing options for distressed debt environments: derivative structures for Eurobond buybacks at deep discounts, evaluation of Domestic Resource Creation (DRC) mechanisms as alternatives to Domestic Resource Mobilisation, and fiscal constraint management under balance-of-payments pressure. Builds directly on AHEN Executive Director Redge Nkosi's published academic work on DRC.
Structural asymmetry and trade operations
Analysing the global payment and settlement system architecture to design clearing mechanisms that minimise foreign exchange leakage while encouraging intra-regional trade and investment — addressing the structural source of Africa's balance-of-payments trap.
Competitive research grants
AHEN's core funding instrument: annual grant cycles open to African-based researchers and diaspora economists working within heterodox and pluralist traditions. Grants are awarded on a competitive basis through a double-blind peer-review process.
Grant size
Up to USD 40,000 per project for the founding phase; scaling to USD 50,000 in Phase II.
Eligibility
African-based researchers at any career stage; diaspora economists with demonstrated Africa-relevant research programmes. Individual and team applications welcome.
Review process
Double-blind peer review by an international panel of heterodox economists. Criteria: theoretical rigour, Africa-relevance, policy implications, and methodological pluralism.
Working Paper Series
The AHEN Working Paper Series publishes original heterodox economic research on African economies, open-access and free to download. Authors receive an honorarium. Target: 8–10 papers per year in the founding phase, scaling to 40 per year at full scale. Submissions are peer-reviewed and edited to publication standard before release.
Methods clinics and fellowships
Research methods clinics
Intensive residential clinics — targeting early-career researchers and postgraduate students — in heterodox research methods: post-Keynesian modelling, stock-flow consistent models, institutional analysis, historical methods, and decolonial research design. Two clinics per year in the founding phase; four per year at full scale.
Early-career research fellowships
Twelve one-year fellowships per year (six in the founding phase) for early-career African and diaspora economists to pursue independent heterodox research, with mentorship from AHEN's steering committee and visiting scholars. Stipend-based, university-hosted.