Clayton Hazvinei Vhumbunu is currently a senior lecturer of University of Free State. Previously, he was a programme coordinator of National Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences (NIHSS) based in Johannesburg in South Africa. Clayton was a technical officer at the Public Service Accountability Monitor (Faculty of Humanities) at Rhodes University, a research fellow in international relations in the School of Social Sciences at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) in Durban, South Africa and also a Research Fellow at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) in the Regional Integration and Trade Division (RITD) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He also served as a senior administrative policy officer in the Ministry of Regional Integration and International Cooperation of Zimbabwe for more than four years. Clayton has also been serving as an associate researcher in regional integration and China-Africa relations with the Southern African Research and Documentation Centre (SARDC), a regional think tank based in Harare, Zimbabwe.

Clayton holds a PhD in international relations from UKZN and a master’s degree in international relations from the University of Zimbabwe. His research focuses on international relations, regional integration, China-Africa relations, conflict transformation and public governance/public policy.

Clayton aspires to influence policy, governance and leadership through evidence-based research. His research as an AsiaGlobal Fellow looked into the development experience of Singapore, focusing on the leadership culture and public policy making, and what lessons can be learnt for Global South countries, including Africa.