AB@25: The first quarter-century of giving voice to African citizens

Since its inception in 1999, Afrobarometer has emerged as the most trusted authority on African public opinion on critical issues of democracy, governance, and socioeconomic development. What began as a modest initiative in a dozen countries has grown into a continent-wide network spanning 45 countries. Across 10 rounds of surveys with more than 400,000 face-to-face interviews, Afrobarometer’s commitment to amplifying the voices of Africans has remained steadfast through a quarter-century of transformative growth, methodological advancement, impactful change, and unwavering resilience in the face of challenges.

Harnessing a rigorous survey methodology to a vision of a world in which Africa’s development is anchored in the realities and aspirations of its people, Afrobarometer has informed countless policy analyses, debates, and reforms, from accountability measures and discussions on economic inequality to emerging issues such as China’s influence in Africa, climate change, and sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Having completed – and celebrated – the network’s first quarter-century, this is an opportune moment to reflect on Afrobarometer’s journey – its origins, its growth and successes, the challenges it has faced, and its ongoing mission to provide reliable, independent, and relevant data. Looking to the future, we will consider how Afrobarometer can continue to serve as a vital tool for African citizens and a beacon of transparency and accountability.

Afrobarometer’s founding and foundation

Afrobarometer (AB) was founded in 1999 by Professor Robert Mattes of the University of Cape Town (now based at Strathclyde University, United Kingdom), Professor Michael Bratton (now emeritus) of Michigan State University, and Professor E. Gyimah-Boadi (now emeritus) of the University of Ghana and the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana). Their goal was to create a platform for African voices at a time when the views of African citizens were largely unknown. Where data on Africa existed, much of it was not gathered from Africans themselves, leaving their perspectives underrepresented. African leaders frequently asserted that they understood their citizens and could speak on their behalf. As Chabal and Daloz (1999) noted, “African political elites frequently claim to represent the will of their people, yet evidence suggests a gap between these assertions and the actual preferences of citizens.” Without reliable data to question these claims, they went largely unchallenged. The three founders saw this critical gap and decided to address it.

In its inaugural round in 1999-2001, AB surveyed 12 countries – Botswana, Ghana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe – on questions of democracy, governance, and quality of life. Since then, its surveys have expanded to cover more than 40 African countries and a wide variety of topics around its core themes of democracy, citizen engagement, economic conditions and lived poverty, media, corruption, trust in institutions, elections, leadership, and government performance.

The foundation of its success is a rigorous methodology that former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Linda Thomas-Greenfield describes as “the gold standard for independent opinion polls in Africa.” AB interviews nationally representative samples of 1,200-2,400 respondents stratified by region/province and urban-rural location and balanced by gender. This approach yields country-level results with a margin of error of +/-2 to +/-3 percentage points at a 95% confidence level. Survey respondents are randomly selected, and data collection is conducted through face-to-face interviews using the respondent’s language of choice. Surveys are repeated across different waves or rounds, allowing over-time and cross-country comparisons.

Celebrating milestones: A reflection on Afrobarometer’s triumphs

AB’s journey is a success story told in milestones, each ensuring that citizens’ voices are heard more clearly than before.

Growth in reach and depth

Since its first round of surveys, AB has more than tripled its country coverage (Figure 1). As of 2025, AB has conducted 270+ surveys in 100+ languages in 45 countries, representing more than 75% of the continent’s population.

Figure 1: Survey rounds and country coverage | 1999-2025

A wide range of stakeholders, including governments, development partners, civil society organisations, academia, and media, use AB data. The organisation’s operations are conducted by National Partners responsible for implementing country surveys and disseminating country-level findings; Core Partners who provide regional support and oversight; Support Units for data management, analysis, capacity building, and surveys; and a secretariat based in Accra, Ghana. In 2024, the University of Malawi joined Michigan State University as a Support Unit, responsible for managing surveys across the network and building capacity among Africans on data collection.

The network disseminates its survey findings via a growing number of publications every year, ranging from quick-and-easy news releases and descriptive dispatches to in-depth policy and working papers, as well as infographics, scorecards, videos, blog posts, and other outputs. As of December 2025, AB had produced 1,099 dispatches, 99 policy papers, 219 working papers, two books, and two flagship reports. And AB makes waves on social media, too – check out its work on X, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Afrobarometer’s growth on social media | 2019-2024

New frontiers: Expanding themes and evolving methods

Over time, AB has broadened the scope of its surveys to tackle emerging issues such as climate change, migration, gender equality, tolerance and social cohesion, and sexual and reproductive health and rights, all while continuing to track trends on core AB issues such as democracy, governance, and the economy. This adaptability to new themes has ensured its relevance in an ever-changing political and social landscape.

AB is supported by a seasoned team of survey and research experts dedicated to designing relevant questions that capture public opinion across diverse African contexts. The Questionnaire Committee meets regularly before each survey round to discuss emerging issues and design relevant themes and questions. This meticulous process allows for the seamless introduction of new topics while less timely themes are either dropped or reserved for future rounds. For instance, migration first appeared in Round 7 (2016/2018) and made a comeback in Round 10 (2024/2025). Climate change, one of Africa’s most pressing challenges, debuted in Round 7 and has been consistently tracked through Round 10. AB also addressed the far-reaching effects of COVID-19 during Round 8 (2019/2021) and Round 9 (2021/2023), ensuring timely insights into the pandemic’s impact.

Methodological innovation: From PAPI to CAPI, CATI, and capturing the voices of underage citizens

AB has been at the forefront of methodological innovation to ensure relevance, efficiency, and timeliness in data collection. Up until its Round 6 survey (2014/2015), the network relied on paper-and-pencil interviewing (PAPI), which, while effective, presented logistical challenges in the field: carrying hard copies of the questionnaire, quality control, and additional costs for data entry.

In Round 7 (2016/2018), AB made a bold leap to computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI), training fieldworkers to record data electronically on tablets. This enhanced data quality and speed, allowed for real-time monitoring of fieldwork activities, and won praise from National Partners.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, AB added computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) to its methodological arsenal. Initially piloted in Namibia (2020) and Benin (2021) as an adaptation to pandemic-related restrictions, and later piloted in Botswana, Zambia, and Burkina Faso (2022), CATI has since become a versatile tool to complement AB’s face-to-face surveys on special themes such as youth in Ethiopia and digital transformation in Angola, Benin, Côte d’lvoire, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, and Tanzania.

AB took a step further by using CATI to test new data-collection techniques, including panel surveys in South Africa for pre- and post-election surveys (May and August 2024), and exploring its use in conflict zones (Ethiopia, November 2024). While CATI is not meant to replace AB’s core face-to-face surveys, it has become essential for responding to urgent data needs on specific themes. The addition of CATI underscores AB’s adaptability and commitment to providing timely, data-driven insights and remaining relevant even in challenging times.

In addition, AB explored interviewing under-18 respondents with samples of 300 in Kenya, Ghana, and Senegal as part of its Round 10 survey (2024/2025).

Transitioning to a fully fledged institution

As its research on public opinion in Africa became more widely used and influential, AB confronted the need to transition from a pioneering network to a structured, sustainable institution. A two-year organisational-development process helped AB transform itself into a not-for-profit company headquartered in Accra and governed by a board of directors. Enhancing efficiency, strengthening credibility, and facilitating resource mobilisation, the transition has helped ensure that the organisation can sustain its work over the long term.

Impact and visibility

From vibrant lecture rooms and dynamic workshop spaces to bustling parliaments and the media, AB’s analyses reach into every corner of society. Election processes frequently benefit from AB’s reliable insights on the readiness of electoral management bodies and citizens’ perceptions of election quality, attitudes toward political parties, and policy priorities.

African governments and leaders frequently use AB data. One of countless examples is Namibia’s late President Hage Geingob, who followed AB’s reporting on gender-based violence in 2022 with a call for government action, leading to the passage of the Combating of Domestic Violence Amendment Act later that year.

In Ghana, Speaker of Parliament Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin cited AB data as a “judgment of the people of Ghana” and urged members of Parliament to change their attitudes and conduct to regain the trust of the Ghanaian people.

Cabo Verde Prime Minister José Ulisses Correia e Silva cited AB data in his address to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to buttress his point that demand for democracy endures in Africa.

Figure 3: AB visibility

Often, leaders must take note of findings they don’t like, as in the case of presidents who believe they can cling to power indefinitely, only to discover AB’s documentation of the people’s demand for term limits. This strong public sentiment has gained massive traction and become impossible to ignore.

Data collected by AB are also used to track 12 of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Country scorecards dive into SDG themes such as poverty, food security, health, education, energy access, water and sanitation, infrastructure, inequality, economic growth, climate change, gender equality, and peace, justice, and strong institutions. With such rich data, AB offers a powerful lens for understanding Africa’s progress toward a brighter, more sustainable future.

Figure 4: Afrobarometer SDG scorecard | Ghana | 2021

Further, AB data inform global indices and shape international assessments of governance and corruption. For example, they contribute to the Ibrahim Index of African Governance, Transparency International’s Global Corruption Barometer, and the World Bank’s Worldwide Governance Indicators. The Japan International Cooperation Agency relied on AB data for its Human Security Report (2022). In 2023, the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) drew on AB data for its African Governance Report.

The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index, Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) indicators, and the Legatum Prosperity Index are among a long list of platforms where AB data make an impact on the discourse surrounding African governance and development. High-visibility outlets such as OECD Development Matters, Brookings, Foresight Africa, and the Journal of Democracy, among others, frequently incorporate African voices to policy discussions through AB data.

Empowering civil society organisations (CSOs) in advocacy

AB has been a powerful catalyst in the corridors of change, empowering CSOs to drive advocacy and hold governments accountable. Our data on critical issues such as poverty, security, and governance have become invaluable for grassroots advocacy efforts. The AB-led Data for Governance Alliance (D4GA) has been central to this mission. D4GA trains and partners with CSOs, equipping them with the skills needed to leverage data for effective advocacy. By linking CSOs with the African Union (AU), the project strengthens the AU’s democratic work through data-driven advocacy.

Working with 15 CSOs across East, West, and Southern Africa, D4GA has provided training on how to access, utilise, and build advocacy strategies using AB data. As a result, these CSOs have built robust networks and synergies with AU institutions, achieving unprecedented levels of access and collaboration, something that once seemed out of reach.

Afrobarometer driving special projects

Beyond the core survey rounds, AB has undertaken special projects addressing emerging issues and delivering timely data for informed decision making. These initiatives have tackled pressing topics such as China’s influence in Africa (surveying all AB countries in 2014/2015), citizen engagement and volunteerism (phone survey in Benin, 2021), and police professionalism (all countries in 2019-2023). The organisation has also explored human security during the COVID-19 pandemic (2021/2023 in Angola, Namibia, Gabon, Kenya, Nigeria, and Tunisia), youth perspectives (Ethiopia and Nigeria via phone surveys; Uganda through face-to-face Round 10.5 survey, 2025), and digital transformation (phone surveys in Angola, Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, and Tanzania, 2024/2025). Further, specific countries received targeted funding for specialised projects, including annual surveys in Uganda (2020-2025) and a Round 9 survey in Ethiopia (2023).

Pre-election surveys have been an important part of AB’s work, with studies conducted in Zimbabwe (2013, 2018, and 2023) and South Africa (pre- and post-election surveys in May and August 2024). The pre-election surveys aim to equip electoral management bodies, political parties, the media, and voters with vital insights into their preparedness for upcoming elections. These surveys identify areas requiring attention and inspire proactive measures, promoting a more transparent and responsive electoral process. By highlighting readiness and potential gaps, AB strengthens democratic integrity and empowers stakeholders to better serve the electorate.

Special projects reinforce AB’s commitment to addressing critical issues across Africa. These targeted efforts have enriched AB’s data repository while showcasing its agility and responsiveness in addressing Africa’s most pressing needs.

Building capacity

In data access and usage

AB subscribes to an open-source policy for its data sets and publications, which are available at www.afrobarometer.org. To make its data even more accessible, AB’s online data analysis (ODA) tool allows users to explore and analyse data free of charge, without requiring specialised software or advanced statistical knowledge. On average, AB registered 16,000 unique monthly website visitors and recorded 160,000 downloads of its publications and data in 2023.

AB’s objectives go beyond providing high-quality data; the organisation is committed to training a new generation of researchers across the continent to analyse and report public-opinion data. AB’s Capacity-Building Unit focuses on designing training and mentorship programmes. These programmes include summer schools (in both English and French), writing workshops, journalist and CSO training, and university-outreach initiatives. AB has collaborated with, among others, the University of Cape Town, the University of Pretoria, the United States International University, the University of Nairobi, the University of Malawi, the University of the Witwatersrand, the University of Nouakchott, and the University of Ghana, allowing knowledge transfer among university students and academic staff. Between 2022 and 2024, AB trained more than 150 CSOs and 80 journalists. A total of 79 participants attended its English- and French-speaking summer school, 14 attended its writing workshop, 12 participants attended its emerging-scholars workshop, and 429 participants received online training on basic survey data analysis. In addition, its National Partners are trained in survey implementation, data analysis, and reporting.

Global recognition and reputation

AB’s success is reflected in its growing recognition globally. The organisation is widely recognised as a model for survey research in Africa, having won awards such as the 2004 Best Data Set Award from the American Political Science Association and the 2024 Excellence in Data Governance Award from Good Governance Africa​. It was also named one of the top 10 “Best Institutional Collaborations Involving Think Tanks” from 2018 to 2020​.

Quoted as the go-to source on public opinion in Africa, AB is frequently referenced in scholarly works and policy documents, enhancing its standing as a reliable source for African public opinion data. Reflecting on AB’s reputation with the media, Lesotho national investigator Libuseng Malephane said, “The media in Lesotho is always ready to publicise AB findings. One radio station with a Monday morning programme featuring supporters of all four main political parties in the country is always ready to cover AB findings. They often say, ‘If it is AB reporting survey results, then you should know that its findings are correct, because only AB provides reliable data.’”

Commenting on AB’s first flagship report, “African insights 2024: Democracy at risk – the people’s perspective on democracy,” Justice Mensah, senior economist in the Office of the Chief Economist, Africa Region at the World Bank, had this to say: “The report is a vital resource for policy makers, researchers, and the public because it helps us to know what the trends are in citizens’ views on democratisation. … The World Bank uses the AB data in its work, and l encourage all stakeholders to make use of this valuable data.”

Navigating challenges in AB’s journey

AB’s journey has not been without challenges. The organisation has had to navigate political pressures, funding constraints, and logistical hurdles to ensure that citizens’ voices find a space in the policy sphere. But through resilience and adaptability, AB has continued to amplify African voices and ensure that data from the continent is not only accessible but also widely shared.

Logistical, cultural, and linguistic barriers

Explaining the difficulties in conducting household interview surveys, Couper & Nicholls (1998) note that face-to-face surveys in remote or conflict-affected areas require careful planning to address the logistical difficulties of reaching respondents, as well as strategies to ensure the safety and security of interviewers, which can be critical to maintaining data integrity and interviewer trust.

AB has not been spared these difficulties. Given its wide coverage, navigating a wide range of environments, from underdeveloped areas with poor infrastructure to difficult terrain and regions marked by cultural and linguistic diversity, poses huge challenges. Due to its commitment to representativeness, the survey process often leads interviewers into difficult locations, including rural areas that are tough to access, as in rural Burkina Faso, Madagascar, Angola, Lesotho, Sudan, Mozambique, and Liberia. They must trek through mountainous areas, walk long distances where vehicles cannot reach, battle scorching heat and heavy rains, and endure long boat rides to reach remote locations. Accessing rural areas in the mountainous terrain of Lesotho is no small feat – it is like navigating an obstacle course on a steep incline. In 2015, AB’s team in rural Zambia had to build a temporary bridge after the original one was washed away. Roads and bridges damaged by flooding in Mozambique, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, and Zimbabwe take time to repair, but despite these obstacles, AB interviewers persevere to ensure that citizens’ voices are heard.

In addition, dealing with traditional and local leadership in Africa’s monarchies, such as Eswatini, can sometimes cause delays in fieldwork. In more developed areas, restricted access presents a major barrier, as in gated communities in South Africa’s well-developed neighbourhoods.

Cultural differences add to the challenges AB faces in fieldwork. Van der Westhuizen & De Jager (2008) argue that in traditional, patriarchal societies, male interviewers often struggle to interview women, who may refuse to speak without consent from their male relatives. AB interviewers occasionally encounter such situations. In one incident in Tunisia’s capital, a male interviewer and a female respondent were assaulted by the respondent’s brother.

Countries with multiple languages pose significant translation challenges for AB. While the survey protocol calls for translation into languages spoken by at least 5% of the population, some areas fall outside this benchmark, requiring additional translations for smaller samples, such as Venda in South Africa’s Limpopo province. Countries such as Zambia and Uganda, with more than 50 local languages, also face translation difficulties, especially since interviewers may not be able to read some of these languages. In Zambia, where local languages are not taught in schools, finding interviewers fluent in these languages is difficult. AB strictly avoids on-the-spot translation, as it can influence how questions are asked across different countries and communities.

In border regions and tourist areas, fieldwork teams often face frequent police checks. Border and security agents typically spend a significant amount of time verifying identities, which significantly slows down the data-collection process.

Describing the arduous journey that interviewers undertake to reach the remote, mountainous areas of Lesotho, national investigator Libuseng Malephane captured the essence of the struggle:

Respondents’ scepticism

While opinion polls are gaining popularity across Africa, some communities may be sceptical about participating in surveys, especially in conflict zones or regions experiencing insecurity.  In certain rural areas, interviewers are often mistaken for government agents or nongovernmental organisations providing social support.

AB takes great care to select the right timing for surveys, avoiding periods of conflict or the three months leading up to or following elections. To ensure transparency and build trust, the questionnaire includes detailed instructions for interviewers, explaining the purpose of the survey and its importance and emphasising confidentiality and anonymity. Adhering to research ethics, AB renews its ethical approval before each survey round. Interviews are only conducted with the respondent’s consent, and participants have the right to refuse participation or skip any questions they feel uncomfortable answering.

Conflict, security concerns, and limited research freedom

Expansion into new countries often comes with challenges, particularly when landing AB in countries that are less open or emerging from conflict. Collecting data in conflict zones presents unique difficulties, including physical danger to interviewers and respondents, difficulties in reaching isolated populations, and the reluctance of participants to speak candidly out of fear of retribution from local authorities or militant groups (Rosenberg, 2024).

For the security of its field staff, AB and its National Partners sometimes make the difficult decision to exclude hotspot communities from the sample. We may also feel that respondents in certain areas might not be able to express themselves freely. For instance, the conflict in northern Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado region has forced AB to exclude certain areas, replacing them with more neutral and peaceful communities. Despite these adjustments, during rounds 8 (2021) and 9 (2022), interviewers were unable to access some sampled parts of Cabo Delgado, resulting in reduced sample sizes (1,110 in Round 8, and 1,120 in Round 9, instead of the targeted 1,200). In Ethiopia, the Round 9 survey (2023) avoided conflict zones in Oromia, Tigray, and Amhara regions. For Eswatini, conducting surveys has proven challenging over the past three rounds due to difficulties related to accessing population projections needed for representative samples. These obstacles reflect the varying levels of openness to survey research in Africa and the complexities of conducting surveys in politically sensitive environments.

In some countries, governments or research bureaus may take months to grant permission and often demand to review the questionnaire. Sensitive topics such as term limits and ethnicity are, in some instances, flagged for removal, as in Burundi. For the Round 10 surveys (2024/2025), permission to survey Niger was denied outright.

Ensuring the safety of field teams is a top priority for AB’s National Partners, especially in regions affected by terrorism and insecurity. Threats such as Boko Haram, kidnappings, banditry, and farmer-herder conflicts are frequently encountered in Nigeria and Uganda. The latest Global Terrorism Index (2024) reported a 22% increase in terrorism-related deaths in 2023, reaching 8,352 – the highest level since 2017. Of the 10 most impacted countries, Africa accounts for five: Burkina Faso, Mali, Somalia, Nigeria, and Niger. Notably, AB has operated in all of these countries except Somalia.

Adding to these challenges is the resurgence of military coups, particularly in West Africa. For instance, Guinea’s Round 9 survey was moved from 2021 to 2022 because of the coup in September 2021, reflecting the impact of political instability on survey planning in the region.

To tackle these formidable problems, AB has crafted a strategy that adapts to each unique situation. In conflict-affected countries, AB conducts thorough assessments through its local partners to determine the feasibility of implementing surveys and refrains from doing so if the countries are deemed too sensitive or closed to surveys. Consequently, some countries participate in certain survey rounds but not others. For example, Ethiopia has participated in Round 5 (2013), Round 8 (2020), and Round 9 surveys (2023), but not in Round 6, Round 7, or Round 10. Burundi has been limited to a Round 5 survey in 2012 and a Round 6 survey in 2014. Sudan did not take part in the Round 10 surveys (2024/2025) despite having participated in several previous rounds. In some cases, assessments allow coverage of other regions while avoiding hotspots, such as Cabo Delgado in Mozambique or Oromia, Tigray, and Amhara regions in Ethiopia. These precautionary measures prioritise the safety of interviewers while enabling AB to gather data from conflict areas where access is possible.

Political and government interference

AB usually does not face any serious barriers in disseminating its survey findings. In most countries, National Partners have a solid partnership with local radio and television stations, through which they disseminate AB findings, and also make use of social media platforms. However, AB sometimes encounters backlash from government officials, especially when the findings are politically unfavourable. In such instances, some governments question the survey methodology or accuse AB of being biased. In Zimbabwe, the government has criticised AB surveys as partisan and pro-opposition when findings reflect the flaws of public institutions, leadership, and the ruling party. In Uganda, findings that point to governance issues or public dissatisfaction with the government have occasionally resulted in backlash, including attempts to discredit the data to maintain a favourable government image. In some countries, the media misinterpret and misreport AB data, which can distort public understanding and create unnecessary controversy. However, such hostile reactions have not affected AB’s integrity or its recognition in more open societies as providing valuable data to inform policy.

Pandemics and natural disasters

With the unpredictability of pandemics and natural disasters, AB has faced significant disruptions, from the Ebola outbreak in West Africa to the global impact of COVID-19. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, surveys experienced delays and low participation as social distancing measures and lockdowns made it difficult to conduct in-person interviews. Similarly, during the Ebola outbreak, survey efforts in affected regions were impeded by travel restrictions and fear among the population (Kim, 2021).

For AB, the 2014-2015 Ebola outbreak severely affected the implementation of the Round 6 survey in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. Similarly, the COVID-19 pandemic (2019-2021) halted fieldwork in March 2020 for seven months, at a time when AB was halfway through its R8 surveys. AB developed guidelines for resuming surveys; only countries that passed a readiness test were cleared to move forward with preparation and fieldwork. In all, COVID-19 significantly extended survey implementation timelines: Round 8 took a full 2.5 years to

complete fieldwork in 34 countries (down from the planned 36 countries). In the face of this disruption, AB pioneered phone surveys, piloting a CATI survey in Namibia in 2020.

The devastating effects of climate change have also blocked access to some EAs as flooding has wreaked havoc and crippled infrastructure across Mozambique, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, and Kenya.

Delays in accessing population data

Challenges in accessing population data from national census offices or bureaus of statistics, which are needed for drawing representative samples, sometimes cause significant delays in survey implementation. Moreover, bureaucratic processes in some national statistics bureaus in drawing samples and printing maps for sampled EAs can cause severe delays in country surveys, as in Eswatini in Round 9 (2022).

Funding

While AB has been successful in securing funding for its nationally representative surveys across Africa, maintaining such a large-scale project has never been an easy task. In early 2017, AB faced difficulties in raising enough funds for its Round 7 survey (2016/2018). These funding gaps created obstacles in meeting survey timelines, but later in the year, AB’s other donors stepped in to resolve the financial bottlenecks.

Growth prospects and opportunities

Figure 5: AB opportunities

AB’s extensive reach, rigorous methodology, and focus on everyday issues have cemented its standing as a leader in the policy world. Committed to capturing voices from every corner of Africa, its interviewers tackle extreme weather and navigate poor road networks to ensure that every individual has a chance to shape the policies that affect them.

In some communities, respondents feel privileged to share their views, stretching some interviews up to two hours if interviewers allow unrestricted dialogue. Citizens often feel that

AB gives them a platform to address issues that others overlook, reinforcing its reputation as a champion for public voices. The organisation is well positioned to explore new and pressing issues such as climate change, digital transformation, migration, and health crises such as pandemics.

Increasing demand for public opinion data in Africa, especially as many African countries grapple with governance and development challenges, presents a unique opportunity for AB to fill critical data gaps. CSOs, policy makers, and development agencies increasingly rely on AB’s data to shape governance strategies and inform policy decisions, further solidifying its role as a trusted source for actionable insights.

AB’s work has enhanced its visibility while also elevating the profile of its Core Partners and National Partners. Lesotho’s Libuseng Malephane confirmed this in her testimonial: “Our work with AB has been a game-changer. Whenever Advision bids for other survey projects, we consistently score the highest. For example, we secured a contract to conduct the Lesotho FinScope MSME Survey, a national project with a sample of 2,400. The experience and expertise we have gained from AB have truly paid off.”

Valuable lessons

Adaptability in a changing environment is crucial. AB takes pride in timely innovations, such as the transition from PAPI to CAPI and then to CATI. Figure 6 below summarises some of the key lessons AB has applied over the years.

Figure 6: Afrobarometer’s experience of 25 years: Key lessons

When asked to elaborate on the next steps for AB, the founders confidently stated, “Afrobarometer is in safe hands, and we have confidence in the current and future leadership.”

In summary, AB will continue to conduct surveys across Africa, with plans to expand to more countries. Currently representing 75% of the continent’s population, AB will become an institution capable of surveying all of Africa as security conditions permit. Building on its success, AB sees a future in which African policy makers genuinely consider citizens’ views in decision making. The organisation aims to increase its visibility, promote policy uptake, and strengthen the capacity of institutions and individuals in data collection, analysis, and reporting.

Conclusion

Afrobarometer’s 25-year journey stands as a testament to its commitment to providing reliable and inclusive public opinion data across Africa. Through its adaptability, innovative methods, and dedication to promoting democratic governance, AB has made significant contributions to shaping policy discussions and decisions across the continent. Its evolution from traditional to advanced data-collection techniques reflects its responsiveness to changing environments and technological advancements.

Looking ahead, the next 25 years promise to be even more dynamic and impactful. As AB continues to expand its reach across the continent, it will play an even more central role in shaping Africa’s future. With an increasing focus on harnessing new technologies and methodologies, AB will likely set new standards for public opinion research in Africa. The organisation’s commitment to informing policy making, building institutional capacity, and empowering citizens will continue to foster greater transparency, accountability, and civic engagement. As Africa evolves, Afrobarometer’s role in capturing and amplifying the voices of its people will remain vital.

Authored by Afrobarometer’s surveys team: Boniface Dulani, Anyway Chingwete, Daniel Armah-Attoh, Richard Houessou, Preston Govindasamy, Samuel Balongo, Anne Okello, Stephen Ndoma, Lionel Essima, and Kakra Adu