We are a South African organization committed to collaborative knowledge production, public engagement, and knowledge translation in and from the global South.
The Pivot Collective is a collaborative organisation focused on improving knowledge translation between research, engagement, policy, and practice. From our base in Cape Town, South Africa, we work as a global collective of health and social science researchers, implementers, facilitators, and activists to bring diverse multi-disciplinary and multi-sectoral experiences together towards the common goal of building youth- and community-led research and engagement.
As a collective we are motivated by the imperative to shift existing hierarchies of knowledge and power in global health and development through genuinely community-led, collaborative, and creative processes
We work in partnership with foundations, academic institutions, NGO’s, researchers, and diverse communities to support people experiencing marginalisation or living in contexts of adversity to tell their own stories, define what matters to them, and communicate these learnings to wider audiences of researchers, practitioners, and policy makers. Aligned with this broader mission, most of our current work centres around the themes of infectious disease, sexual and reproductive health, and mental health, and their intersections with broader issues of social justice in contemporary sub-Saharan Africa.
Through our research and writing, public and community engagement, facilitation and training, and other creative projects, we work with our partners and collaborators to disrupt dominant narratives about health and wellbeing, and challenge existing forms of knowledge production and translation. Ultimately, we work to ensure that approaches to research and development are grounded in local realities and shaped by the people most affected.
