Imbono

Academic Partnership

The Uzinzo Platform

There is currently no singular, credible way to measure resilience across infrastructure, especially in emerging markets. The Uzinzo Platform meets that challenge, by establishing a research and decision platform for the industry.

In partnership with the University of Cape Town, this initiative combines Imbono’s deep experience in the sector with independent academic credibility and global recognition. The platform will:

  • Provide leadership in measurable, data-driven resilience

  • Increase links between key stakeholders

  • Input to policy and standards

  • Drive innovation in future-ready infrastructure

This platform will produce thought leadership via a compelling message: Imbono is defining what it means to be future-ready.

Research route

  • Develop a practical and scalable system to measure and improve the future-readiness of projects across energy, water, and infrastructure .

  • Create a unified index and intelligent decision-support platform to enable users to assess performance, explore scenarios, and identify actionable pathways from current practice to improve outcomes.

  • Be highly context-sensitive, reflecting local conditions across Sub-Saharan Africa and other emerging markets, and be accessible to a wide range of stakeholders.

  • Test and validate using real Imbono projects, ensuring practical relevance and immediate applicability, creating a practical, credible standard, not theory

  • Look to extend coverage to include wider projects to support more efficient investments, performance, and long-term value creation across the sector.

Our Partners

A genuine value proposition

Moving beyond fragmented, compliance-driven approaches, the system enables a shift from conventional practices toward resilience-focused infrastructure systems. This means that projects not only minimise negative impacts but create a genuine value proposition across the following dimensions:

  • Economic Value

  • Environmental Value

  • Social Value

  • Governance and Policy Value

  • Technical and Innovation Value

  • Capacity Building and Knowledge Transfer in Sub-Saharan Africa

Structure and output

The project is a three-year partnership beginning in Q3 2026 and consists of five distinct work packages covering:

  1. Define

  2. Develop

  3. Operationalise

  4. Validate

  5. Impact

This work will be primarily conducted via the Sponsorship of two PHD students – people of the continent, researching to improve the continent. Research will be published on a regular basis and will be available across UCT and Imbono channels.