Professional Affiliation

Researcher, Institute for Global Dialogue, South Africa 

Expert Bio

Fritz Nganje is a researcher at the Institute for Global Dialogue (IGD), focusing on conflict, peace and security in Africa, South-South cooperation, and the diplomacy of sub-national governments. Before joining the IGD, he served as research analyst and manager of the Elections and Democracy Unit at Consultancy Africa Intelligence (CAI). Fritz holds a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of Buea in Cameroon, and a Master’s degree in Peace Studies and International Relations from the North-West University in South Africa. He recently submitted his doctoral thesis for examination to the University of Johannesburg. The thesis analysed the foreign relations of South Africa’s Gauteng, North-West and Western Cape provinces. His primary areas of research include the foreign relations of subnational governments, decentralized cooperation, local peacebuilding, as well as South Africa’s foreign policy and diplomacy in Africa. He is a former Southern Voices Network for Peacebuilding scholar.

Wilson Center Project

"Decentralized South-South and Triangular Cooperation: Exploring New Opportunities for Institutional Capacity Building in Post-Conflict African States"

Project Summary

The proposed research is part of an on-going effort to explore new policy options for peacebuilding in ‘fragile’ African states, in the context of the current wave of South-South cooperation propelled by the growing international activism of emerging economies in the South. It departs from the premise that South-South cooperation, particularly its decentralized component, comes with new opportunities for deepening statebuilding in ‘fragile’ African states. In a nutshell, the research seeks to understand the conditions under which decentralized South-South and triangular cooperation could contribute to successful statebuilding and peacebuilding interventions in Africa.

Major Publications

• With Mzukisi Qobo, ‘Emerging Economies and the new Dynamics of South-South Cooperation: What Options for South Africa?’ Africa Institute of South Africa, Occasional Paper No. 65, June 2013
• ‘Decentralised South-South Cooperation and South Africa’s Post-conflict Support in Africa: What Role for SADPA?’ Africa Institute for South Africa, Briefing No. 87, May 2013.
• ‘Unlocking the democratic impasse in the DRC: The role of external actors’, Global Insight, Issue 98, June 2012.