The African Centre on Citizenship and Democracy (ACCEDE) was established as a research  Centre within  the School of Government to play a critical role in mobilising scholars and resources towards a constructive but critical examination of the factors and policy  environments which support or   inhibit the development of a more inclusive citizenship in the  region and continent. ACCEDE  replaced the Centre for Southern African Studies which focused rather more specifically on issues of regional security and integration than on issues of  citizenship, democracy   and development which have increasingly come to form a major research focus within the School over the past few years.

Up until 2009, the Centre functioned as a virtual space, with only the Director as a permanent post. While the Directorship remains the only formal university post within the Centre, the Centre has grown exponentially as a result of both postdoctoral and doctoral fellows being drawn to the research taking place within the Centre, as well as a steadily growing number of associate staff involved in funded research programmes. As of 2009, the Centre had three full time funded doctoral fellows (through the Vlaamse Interuniversitaire Raad Programme known as VLIR), and a postdoctoral fellow sponsored through the Mellon Foundation. At the end of 2009, Accede was successful in obtaining a core grant from the Ford Foundation that makes further funding available for doctoral and postdoctoral fellows. Accede still functions an organising space for the generation of research themes and questions, as well as the inclusion of staff within the School onto specific fieldwork driven projects. The Director is actively involved in fundraising and networking.Members of the ACCEDE research team include Professor Chris Tapscott, the EMS Dean, Professors John Williams and Michelle Esau from the SOG, Ms Ina Conradie from the ISD, Laurence Piper from the Department of Political Studies and Professor Steven Robins from the Sociology Department at Stellenbosch University, Dr Chris Colvin, as well as our postdoctoral fellow Leo Podlashuc and doctoral fellows Ndodana Nleya, Jephias Mapuva and Edgar Mwesigye. During 2009 and 2010 ACCEDE continued to consolidate and diversify its research programmes and policy advocacy dimensions of current research on citizenship, democracy and development. Longstanding research collaborations continue, such as the International Development Research Centre on Citizenship (CDRC) based at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, and new phases of research also began in a number of programmes.Dr Ranjita Mohanty, a researcher who has been part of the Citizenship DRC for a number of years, has joined the ACCEDE team on a two year VLIR Postdoctoral fellowship from January 2010. In 2010, with doctoral and postdoctoral support from the Ford Foundation, a two year doctoral award was granted to Tyanai Masiya. Elaine Sinden has also joined the Centre as a doctoral candidate researching gender equality in local government.