The African resource centre for Social Protection.
Knowledge in Action, towards
Social Policy Excellence
Ghala is the Kiswahili word for granary. In the traditional African homestead, the granary was more than a storage structure. It occupied a central place in the community, preserving the harvest and ensuring it remained available when it was needed. Ghala applies this idea to knowledge.
Across Africa, a wealth of social policy and social protection knowledge already exists. Research studies, policy frameworks, evaluation reports, programme designs, financing documents, implementation tools and lessons from practice are produced across countries and institutions. However, these resources are often scattered across different platforms, organizations and personal archives. Some are difficult to find, while others risk being forgotten or lost.
Ghala brings this knowledge together. As the Institute's knowledge repository, Ghala provides a central platform for collecting, curating, preserving and making accessible critical social policy and social protection resources from across Africa. It ensures that policymakers, practitioners, researchers, educators, students and other actors can find and use relevant knowledge at the point of need.
Like a granary, Ghala is carefully managed but collectively valuable. The Institute takes responsibility for identifying, organizing and maintaining the resources, while the wider social policy and social protection community can draw from them to support research, learning, policy development, programme design and implementation.
Ghala is therefore more than a digital archive. It is a living knowledge resource that preserves Africa's social policy experience and makes it available to inform present decisions and future practice.
Training
Your journey begins with a course designed around the realities of social protection practice.
Our programmes use real African and global case studies, simulations, practical tools, applied assignments, peer learning, and guidance from experienced practitioners. Every course is designed to help you strengthen your decision-making and apply what you learn directly in your work.
But completing a course is not the end of your engagement with the Institute. It is your entry point into a wider professional community.
Knowledge Hub
You gain access to the Knowledge Hub, a growing repository and publishing platform for social protection knowledge.
The Hub brings together research, practical tools, policy insights, case studies, publications, and lessons from implementation. It allows you to continue learning during and after your course, while staying connected to new ideas and developments in the sector.
You can also contribute your own experience, insights, and work, helping to turn knowledge from the field into resources that benefit the wider social protection community.
Jamii House
Jamii is a Kiswahili word meaning community. Jamii House is where participants, alumni, practitioners, researchers, policymakers, and sector leaders come together to exchange ideas and build lasting professional relationships.
Through podcasts, webinars, conferences, expert dialogues, debates, live lectures, alumni engagements, and the annual Jamii House Lecture, you remain connected long after your course ends. You can join conversations, share your experience, speak as a guest, learn from others, and contribute to the issues shaping social protection.
Jamii House gives the Institute its human connection. It transforms a learning experience into a lasting professional community.
Social Research Centre
The Social Research Centre creates opportunities to investigate the questions that matter to social protection policy and practice.
Participants and alumni who want to take their learning further may contribute to research, collaborate with experts, publish their work, or receive support to explore promising research ideas. The Centre will generate evidence on what works, what does not, and why, then feed those insights back into our courses, publications, and professional conversations.
In this way, you are not only accessing knowledge. You can help create it.