NRF to Launch a 12-Country Research Programme Looking at Relational Wellbeing of Young People

The National Research Foundation (NRF) will use this year’s Science Forum South Africa event as the launchpad for a new research programme. Called u’GOOD, the programme is a multilateral, multi-partner initiative aimed at further developing a framework for research into young people and relational wellbeing in the Global South. U’GOOD is a partnership of Switzerland’s Fondation Botnar and South Africa’s NRF and Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC). It targets participation of 12 countries, viz. Colombia, Ecuador, Egypt, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Morocco, Romania, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, and Vietnam.

Says Prof Sharlene Swartz of the HSRC and the Academic Leader of u’GOOD, “The youth living in the urban and peri-urban areas of the Global South are faced with unprecedented challenges which impact their relationships with their environment, their beliefs, the people around them, societal structures, and their support landscape. Some of these challenges include unemployment, poverty, climate change, poor education, and a lack of marketable skills. Up to now, most research into youth and well-being has centred around the Global North and has not translated well for other regions in the world. U’GOOD is designed to help address the specific challenges faced in the Global South by accelerating research into relational well-being and young people in the 12 target countries.”

The programme will seek to understand the wellbeing of young people using four thematic areas as lenses: livelihoods, mental health, climate change and digitalisation. These are viewed as key global transformations facing the youth. It will also seek to expand and critique relational wellbeing as a conceptual and analytical approach to conducting research.

In addition to providing an overview of the programme, the launch will be a space for critical reflection on the elements that will make up the programme work, especially linked to the engagement of young people, researchers in the Global South, and socio-cultural relevance of the programme in the different countries. 

The launch of u’GOOD will take place as follows: 

Date:    8 December 2023 

Time:    09:00-10:30

Venue: Chief Albert Luthuli Auditorium, NRF Building,

South Gate CSIR Complex,

Meiring Naudé Road

Brummeria, Pretoria. 

To register to attend in-person or connect virtually, please visit: https://www.nrf.ac.za/ugood/ugood-launch/ 

For enquiries, please contact:

Bongani Nkosi

Media Relations Officer

National Research Foundation

+27 61 477 3064

b.nkosi@nrf.ac.za