©IDOS
IDOS hosted a conference on „Perils and promises: Social cohesion amidst the global polycrisis“ from 6 to 8 November. The conference, organised by the team of the project „Social Cohesion in Africa“, brought together fifty-three researchers and practitioners in international cooperation on the topic of social cohesion. The conference kicked off with a panel discussion on the evening of 6 November on the premises of Deutsche Welle with representatives from the World Bank, UNDP and the director of the Afrobarometer, Joseph Asunka, among others. In the one and a half days of the conference that followed, the conference participants exchanged views on the role that social cohesion plays for the resilience of societies facing multiple, cascading crises.
The four thematic focal points of the „Social Cohesion in Africa“ project served as overarching approaches to the conference theme. Panels highlighted the factors of inclusive economic development, autocratisation and polarisation, inequality and poverty as well as conflict and state fragility for social cohesion. In further sessions, the participants examined and discussed non-Western contextualisations of social cohesion as well as lessons learned from research and practice.
