Opposition Coalitions and Democratisation in Africa: Challenges at the intersection of parties, ethnicity, funding and personality

My research focuses on opposition parties and elections in sub-Saharan Africa. Opposition parties are key actors in advancing democratic consolidation in emerging democracies, and my research outlines how and why they have been able to mount a challenge to incumbent governments in three African countries. My research is the first long-term, qualitative study of opposition coalitions across multiple countries, and it challenges many of the conclusions of existing research, making an original contribution to knowledge and pushing the boundaries of academic and practitioner understandings of opposition politics in Africa. My thesis provides a nuanced and empirically-grounded understanding of the shifts in mobilisation strategies of African opposition parties, and identifies the multiple, complex reasons for the limited success of pre-electoral coalition-building and thus the inability of the opposition to achieve electoral turnover and democratic consolidation. It helps to dispel popular misconceptions with regards to the weak and 'ethnic' nature of African opposition parties, and is useful and timely given the rising importance of party- and parliamentary strengthening projects that are currently being planned and rolled out across much of Africa by donor agencies (such as USAID and DFID) and international NGO's (such as the Westminster Foundation). My research into opposition coordination thus has broad relevance beyond academia, particularly in a context of global democratic rollback and recession (Diamond, 2015; Freedom House, 2019). As half a century of democratic gains are rolled back globally and the world registers the 13th consecutive year of declining freedom according to Freedom House, my research will contribute to knowledge and policy-making around the circumstances that enable democratic turnover - and thus it will help to advance democracy in Africa. During the ESRC Fellowship, I will engage in a programme of activities focusing on research consolidation, dissemination and impact which will be critical in developing my career as an academic in the UK Higher Education sector. Each element of the proposed programme is an opportunity to engage in learning, which is important for my professional development. The ESRC Fellowship will enable me to consolidate my doctoral research, develop the book manuscript, write two innovative journal articles and publicise my findings to audiences in both academic and policy-making circles - building on my existing experience of policy engagement. The Fellowship will also enable me to fill in gaps in my doctoral training and develop a new and innovative project on the relationship between party-states and the urban informal sector in Africa which will be submitted to the ESRC New Investigator Scheme or the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship. I will close the research feedback loop by publishing at least three opinion or newspaper articles in the Conversation, the Mail & Guardian (South Africa) and The East African (Kenya) in order to ensure that my research reaches the communities affected most by it. This media engagement is a part of my broader commitment to closing the information gap between the countries in which the research is undertaken (often in the global south) and the places - often in the global north - where the research is most accessible. At the end of the ESRC Fellowship, I expect to have completed and submitted my book manuscript to the Cambridge University Press, submitted two potentially 4* journal articles to leading journals, begun to draw together a journal special issue on the African informal sector and submitted a proposal for an innovative new project on this theme. I will also have achieved impact by feeding my research back to the countries where the research was conducted through media engagement, and positively impacted on UK policy processes towards these countries through engagement with key policy actors such as the RAS and the WFD.