African-rooted and context-aware
We begin with history, culture, place and lived experience.
Research · Dialogue · Learning · Action
Knowledge for more resilient and equitable futures.
Relational Futures Institute is an independent Ghanaian research and learning organisation connecting community knowledge, rigorous inquiry and institutional action.
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Why RFI exists
Important knowledge is often lost, overlooked or disconnected from the decisions that shape people’s lives.
RFI helps communities and institutions understand change, preserve valuable knowledge and develop credible responses to social, environmental and institutional challenges.
Our work holds evidence, lived experience and long-term consequence together—turning inquiry into accessible knowledge, stronger capability and better decisions.
How we work
Grounded in place. Open to evidence. Designed for use.
Evidence-led and open to inquiry
We test assumptions and distinguish evidence from interpretation.
Community-engaged
People are knowledge partners, not simply sources of information.
Practical and accessible
Research should strengthen capability, improve decisions or create useful public knowledge.
Ethically responsible
We attend to consent, ownership, power, exclusion and unintended consequences.
Our work
Four connected programme areas.
RFI works across living knowledge, climate, public policy and institutional capability.
01
View all programme areasFlagship programme · In development
02Ghana Living Systems Initiative
A national research, documentation and public-learning platform for indigenous social systems and community knowledge.
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03Climate and Regenerative Futures
Community-centred research and learning on climate adaptation, land, water, food systems, biodiversity and regenerative practice.
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04Community Research and Public Policy
Participatory research, evidence and dialogue that connect lived realities to public and institutional decisions.
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Institutional Learning and Future Readiness
Foresight, strategy, knowledge management, leadership learning and organisational development for institutions navigating change.
Explore ↗Flagship programme · In development
Ghana Living Systems Initiative
Documenting how communities organise life—and what these systems can teach the present.
A proposed national platform to document indigenous governance, care, livelihoods, ecological knowledge, conflict resolution and knowledge transmission with communities as knowledge partners.
Explore the initiativeResearch agenda
Questions that connect community experience with public decisions.
01
Living systems and indigenous knowledge
02
Climate adaptation and regenerative futures
03
Community research and public policy
04
Institutions, trust and future readiness
05
Society, technology and human connection
06
Knowledge preservation and public learning
Ideas and evidence
Research in public language.
Our Thinking
What do we mean by relational futures?
How relationships among people, institutions, knowledge systems and the living world shape the futures we create.
Read more ↗Development
When solutions become part of the problem
Why well-intended interventions can create consequences beyond their original purpose.
Read more ↗Technology
Artificial intelligence and the future of human connection
Questions of agency, power, work and belonging in an age of intelligent machines.
Read more ↗Work with us
Research, preserve knowledge and build practical responses together.
We welcome communities, universities, civil society, public institutions, foundations and responsible businesses seeking grounded research and credible collaboration.
Explore partnership opportunities →