Nangodi Institute was officially incorporated and attained non-profit status in 2017. The idea for the Nangodi Institute, however, goes all the way back to 2004 when a researcher from the US and his Nangodi-based research collaborator hatched a plan. The bulk of published research on Africa comes from scholars based in the West. That which emanates from African universities and research institutes nearly all comes from scholars based in large urban areas. While quality insights can be gleaned from these excellent works, more than half of Africans live outside of urban areas. Why not have a scholarly research institute based in rural Africa?

Governed by a collaborative board of local and international stakeholders, the Institute is organized exclusively for charitable, scientific, and educational purposes. Its mission is to support responsible and ethical research in Ghana and Burkina Faso, to train and employ residents of the region to become researchers and public advocates in their chosen field, and to bring community-based development to surrounding communities.

We have researchers on-site in Ghana and Burkina Faso specializing in social sciences, natural sciences, and the humanities. Nangodi Institute researchers are trained in ethnographic fieldwork, randomization protocols, translation into local languages, and survey and experimental data collection techniques. With each new research project conducted through the Nangodi Institute, our researchers' methodological and data collection toolkits expand. We are interested in working with scholars who respect their obligation to make the areas they study better off from having visited and assist in this endeavor by facilitating knowledge transfer, rigorously implementing protocols to protect study participants, and offering suggestions for research whose findings will most directly impact residents' lives positively.