Six domains: AI, health, governance, African finance, climate, and geopolitics. Every output is grounded in primary data collection and written to be used — not filed away.
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Six active research tracks. Each is grounded in primary data collection, not secondary synthesis.
The regulatory environment, risk frameworks, and institutional readiness for synthetic data adoption in financial services, healthcare, and public administration across Africa and MENA.
Comparative analysis of tokenisation frameworks, crypto policy, and CBDC development across Africa, the UAE, and Southeast Asia — with IFRS-aligned valuation modelling.
Quantitative scenario modelling of climate transition risks on African sovereign debt, banking systems, and infrastructure portfolios. Methodology aligned with TCFD and NGFS frameworks.
Primary research on blockchain-enabled traceability, import/export financing structures, and the economic impact of logistics digitalisation across FMCG and agricultural corridors in the MENA region.
Mapping structural gaps in primary healthcare delivery, funding flows, and crisis response capacity across 12 African nations. With a focus on the intersection of governance failure and health system fragility.
Investigating how developed state infrastructure becomes a vehicle for elite capture rather than public good — with South Africa as the primary case study and cross-country comparative analysis.
SAFE Labs is conducting active research into the structural barriers preventing African sovereign carbon credits — particularly UNFCCC REDD+ Results Units — from reaching institutional buyers in Gulf markets. Our work spans credit structuring, MRV verification frameworks, Article 6 compliance pathways, and the financial architecture needed to connect African forest sovereign wealth to Gulf ESG mandates. Current focus: Central Africa (Congo Basin), with a live engagement in Gabon.
A curated selection of external work informing our current research agenda. Updated periodically.
Peer-reviewed. Introduces NF-GARCH — a modular framework replacing parametric GARCH innovations with normalising flows, achieving statistically significant forecast improvements on 13 daily FX and equity series. DOI: 10.3390/risks14050100
The foundational text on inclusive versus extractive institutions — directly applicable to state capture analysis in South Africa and across the continent.
The primary evidentiary basis for R-06. Six volumes of documented findings on the mechanisms of executive and SOE capture in South Africa, 2010–2018.
Sets the frontier for our AI governance research agenda — examining catastrophic risk frameworks, regulatory gaps, and the case for international coordination at the frontier model level.
Key macroeconomic baseline for our African Finance and Climate research — financing gaps, sovereign debt trajectories, and green transition readiness across 54 African economies.
Benchmark framework for our R-05 health systems research — measuring progress, financing shortfalls, and structural gaps in health access across low- and middle-income African states.
The definitive scientific baseline for our climate research domain — adaptation finance gaps, regional risk concentrations, and the emissions trajectories relevant to Sub-Saharan Africa.