The International Research Network in Africa (IRN-Africa) aims to link people doing research (both academic and community based) in areas related to gender and sexuality in Africa. We promote international communication and exchange through scholarship to expand knowledge building, foster comparative and collaborative projects among researchers, advance curricular and course development, and widen the availability of scholarsly resources.

The International Research Network in Africa (IRN-Africa) does not seek to duplicate the activist agenda on the continent. Instead, we  understand the need for grounded academic scholarship on sexuality and gender across disciplines, and the rewards of a partnership between academic research institutions and the activist movement working at the grassroot and international levels.We recognize and explore possibilities of symbiotic relationships between scholars, activists,artists, and welcome contributions and critique from non LGBTIQ researchers and activists.

To understand the social and political relevance of a cutting edge scholarship on gender and sexuality implies that we rise up above the dichotomy of the traditional versus the modern in Africa. IRN-Africa is now committed to encouraging the production and circulation of knowledge that scrutinizes the biases and misunderstandings of human sexualities as a result of a false dichotomy between the past and the present in Africa.

We acknowledge the interconnectedness of our specific interest in human sexualities and other aspects of the African social life such as the economic and political developments through reliable institutions. Consequently, IRN-Africa thinks of LGBTQI presence as important to the understanding of social and political changes in Africa today. We are therefore committed to rediscovering Africa again through research that explores new directions in the state-civil society relations for the sake a holistic approach to 'good governance' and encourage initiatives that interrogate the structural and ideological essentialisms we inherited.

The International Research Network in Africa (IRN-Africa) is funded by the Ford Foundation and works in partnership with CLAGS at the City University of New York (CUNY Graduate Center) in the United States of America.