2021 Annual Report

At a special meeting convened to respond to the pandemic COVID 19 crisis, the USAf Board of Directors agreed that universities have a role to play in deepening
democracy and social cohesion, and in addressing key transformation challenges facing our society. We also concluded that at the heart of the July 2021 unrest was a society that defaults to violence as a standard for expressing discontent.While we could collectively address short-term solutions to the challenge, we conceded that resolving structural long-term issues of poverty, social inequality, and unemployment was not the competency of the university sector. We also concurred that matters of community policing and state security were beyond our sphere of influence.

However, we unanimously agreed on a need to use our knowledge and research to advance and support national efforts aimed at addressing the underlying causes of social discontent, most of which results from many forms of exclusion and unequal access to basic needs.
As we wind up the year, I reiterate our commitment, as the Board of USAf, to make good on our collective undertaking in this regard. The July 2021 civil unrest once again underlined the importance of universities becoming embedded in, and gearing themselves to respond to, their local contexts and communities.