The Public Affairs Research Institute

VISION

A democratic, capable and responsive state that ensures a just society.

MISSION

PARI conducts high-quality, evidence-based, interdisciplinary research to generate robust new knowledge, enabling us to understand institutional barriers to substantive democracy and state capability. We advocate for better state performance and state-society relations, shape public discourse and build the capacity of the current and next generation of scholars and practitioners.

VALUES

• Committed to social justice
• Rigorous ethical, empirical and evidence-based research
• Global South lens
• Collaborative and contextual knowledge production
• Innovative and responsive

We collaborate with civil society organisations, think tanks, state institutions and academic institutions, to:

• Produce new and original research into public institutions, state formation, state-society relations and public policy;
• Realise advocacy campaigns to achieve state reform, focusing on the various programme areas, strategic collaborations and cooperation with the state;
• Maintain an academic profile through university affiliations and teaching programmes, to:
  • foster a conducive intellectual environment within the organisation, and
  • contribute to the study fields of state governance and state-society relations
• Shape public opinion in relevant interest groups through targeted communications;
• Maintain a repository of research accessible to the public.

Our work is currently focused in the following programmes:

• Academic Engagement
• Land Governance
• State Reform
• Local Government
• Just Transition

PARI is a Johannesburg-based organisation founded in May, 2010.