ACAS-GEDCI (IIAS) maintains closely-knit ties with Harvard University and has been effective in strengthening the bonds between Harvard, its Alumni and University of Ghana where the center (institute) is located. In June – July 2014, the institute coordinated a Harvard University Summer School program in association with University of Ghana that comprised lectures, and educational tours to historical and important sites in various regions of Ghana. A Harvard-Ghana Alumni reception was equally hosted by IIAS in February 2017.

Currently, the institute is the regional coordinator for Harvard University’s Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability Research Cluster “Climate Adaptation in the Gulf of Guinea” considering climate adaptation strategies to coastal erosion in Abidjan, Accra, and Lagos. This is a three-year project from July 2023 to June 2026.

The institute’s working relationship with University of Ghana goes beyond using its spaces to sometimes contracting its established academics to undertake cutting edge research. ACAS (IIAS) continues to offer opportunities and support to junior researchers and graduate students to build their research capabilities by getting them involved in practical research.  The institute arranged for two post-doctoral fellows (Dr. Rebecca Berkoh-Oforiwaa and Dr. Benedict Mbeah-Baiden) from University of Ghana to go to Harvard under the climate research cluster.

Fishers on the Gulf of Guinea: Climate, and the Income Diversification Imperative

When the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) announced the African Humanities Program (AHP) in 2008, IIAS was named as one of two residential institutions in West Africa. This was made possible with a generous support of the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Production of new knowledge and new approaches to research, strengthening of the capacity of early-career researchers at African universities, and to advance the humanities informed the design of the program. From 2008 till the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, the Institute hosted close to sixty visiting AHP fellows who came from various universities in Africa. IIAS maintained the status as one of the most preferred residential centers by the program’s competitive selected fellows given the conducive environment for the development of research and support services offered by IIAS.