In today’s fast-changing policy environment, reliable, relevant, and up-to-date research is essential for evidence-based decision-making. Sabinet is proud to connect South African and broader African researchers, policymakers, and organisations to a world of trusted policy knowledge through Policy Commons: Global Think Tanks.
Globally and locally, there is increasing pressure to respond to urgent challenges—climate change, energy security, inequality, and rapid technological change. The upcoming G20 Summit in Johannesburg (22–23 November 2025) focuses on Solidarity, Equality, and Sustainability—a theme that underscores the importance of credible, evidence-based policy.
Offered in partnership with Coherent Digital, Policy Commons aggregates policy research, grey literature, and think-tank outputs from across the globe—preserving content that might otherwise be difficult to access. Available via Sabinet, this hard to access content is searchable and discoverable via the Coherent platform.
Coherent’s mission is summed up in its new tagline: Real-World Knowledge. Real-World Impact. It reflects a shared commitment to finding, organising, and preserving valuable information that’s often missing from traditional sources.
“We’re enriching and digitising knowledge from the real world to make it useful. We’re focused not on books or journals, but on real-world knowledge and real-world impact, because that’s where we think we can make a difference. We’re doing this because we believe it can have a real impact on society—whether by helping people understand social issues, documenting research in action, or preserving materials for future generations,” explains Coherent President Stephen Rhind-Tutt.
The Policy Commons 2025 Open Collection
This freely accessible, high-impact policy research collection is a prime example of Coherent’s pursuit. It was created as part of a major initiative to rescue, preserve, and provide open access to government and publicly funded materials that are at risk of disappearing from the internet.
It currently includes:
- 88 organisations — among them the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), US Department of Energy, US Department of Education, and US Department of Transportation.
- 599 121 publications, with more than 83% produced in the past 25 years.
- 3 396 topics, most focused on environmental protection, public health, risk assessment, air pollution, water quality, and energy policy.
“The collection supports informed policymaking, locally grounded research, and globally aware strategies,” adds Sabinet Head of Product Sanet Vos, “Making it an indispensable starting point for anyone working on social, environmental, or governance issues in South Africa and across the continent.”
Recent publications that highlight the value of the Open Collection
Below are examples of recent publications especially relevant for policymaking and research in South Africa / Africa—illustrating the breadth and depth of what’s available:
| Title and date | What it’s about | Why it’s valuable |
| Industrial Policy in Africa: Achieving SDGs through Strategic Solutions (March 2025) | Examines how industrial development across Africa can align with the Sustainable Development Goals, focusing on energy transitions, digitalisation, innovation, and job creation. | Offers actionable insights for policymakers on economic growth, trade, and industrial strategy. |
| Priority Medical Products and Roadmap for Regional Pharmaceutical Manufacturing in Africa (AUDA-NEPAD, February 2025) | Outlines 24 priority medical products for local manufacturing, highlighting regulatory strengthening, partnerships, and reduced import dependency. | Supports health and industrial policy, helping build regional resilience and local production capacity. |
| Creating a Green Marine Fuel Market in South Africa (September 2024) | Explores how South Africa’s ports — especially Saldanha — can become hubs for low- and zero-carbon marine fuel supply, combining infrastructure, finance, and regulation. | Informs energy transition and green hydrogen strategy, linking climate policy with local economic development. |
| Urbanization without Structural Transformation in Lagos, Nigeria (UNU-WIDER Working Paper 2024/69) | Investigates rapid urban growth in Lagos without corresponding productivity gains, focusing on infrastructure, governance, and informal sectors. | Provides comparative insights relevant to South African cities facing similar urbanisation and inequality challenges. |
| Komati Power Station Solar PV Facility and BESS Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (Eskom EJETP, December 2024) | Evaluates environmental and social impacts of a 100 MW solar PV and 150 MW battery system at Komati Power Station, Mpumalanga. | Directly relevant to South Africa’s just energy transition, renewable infrastructure, and community impact planning. |
Unlock additional content and layers of value
Free users can access the Open Collection, while membership of the complete Policy Commons: Global Think Tanks offering unlocks access to research by an additional 28,300 policy producing organisations worldwide.
As more institutions in India and elsewhere have subscribed to Sabinet’s research offerings, we are seeing positive data on how the complete Policy Commons offering yields high usage, engagement, and impact—pointing to high potential in Africa as well.
Using powerful search and filter by theme, region, organisation, researchers can pull all recent reports on pressing issues for example energy transition, green fuels, city planning / urbanisation, or economic policy.
An essential tool for African policy researchers
- Bridging information gaps: Many important studies and reports—especially from NGO, think tank or government sources—never make it into scholarly journals but offer early insight into emerging issues.
- Speed and relevance: Grey literature often delivers faster-turnaround data, policy responses, and working papers that respond in near-real time to pressing issues
- Local and regional voice: The collection includes documents from African think tanks, governments, local research institutions, ensuring context matters.
- Tools to track impact: Features like metadata improvement, impact/mention tracking, and searchability make it possible to follow themes, organisations, or policy outcomes over time.
What you can do next
- Dive in now: Explore the Open Collection via Sabinet — start with one of the sample reports above or pick a theme you’re working on.
- Register your free trial and don’t forget to share with colleagues: Let research units, policy divisions, NGOs know about the Open Collection — it can augment existing libraries or subscription services.
- Contact us for a demo: If you want a walkthrough of the Full Service (all features, premium content, tools), we’d be happy to show how it works.
