News

It is with great sadness that we inform you of the passing of Dr. Janvier Nkurunziza, an esteemed, unassuming, and very valuable resource person in the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) network for more than ten years.  Until his demise he was the Head of the Commodities Branch at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development  (UNCTAD), Geneva, Switzerland. He was directing research on the interaction between primary commodities production, trade, and use, on the one hand, and economic development on the other. 

Prior to his current position, Janvier formerly worked as the Chief of Research and Analysis Section  and was the Officer-in-Charge of the Africa Section, UNCTAD respectively; Macroeconomic Policy Advisor at UNDP, New York; and an economist at UNCTAD and the United Nation Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA). Janvier also lectured at the University of Yaoundé and the University of Burundi. He was a post-doc at Harvard University, and a visiting scholar at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. He was a consultant on a World Bank/University of Yale project. Janvier obtained a Bachelor’s degree in economics at the University of Burundi, a Masters’ degree in economics at Addis Ababa University (Ethiopia), and a Ph.D. in economics at University of Oxford. 

Dr. Nkurunziza coordinated the production of flagship reports at UNECA, UNDP, and UNCTAD, including the Commodities and Development Report (CDR). Just last week on the 8th of November 2023, he launched the 2023 CDR in Arusha, Tanzania at the Eastern and Southern African Management Institute (ESAMI), where he served as Adjunct Faculty until his premature death. He  published dozens peer reviewed journal articles and chapters in edited books. Janvier was a Fellow of numerous academic and research institutions, including the Centre for the Study of African Economies  (CSAE) at the Oxford University; Africa House at New York University, and the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. His research interests included the study of commodity dependence and its implications for development, capital flight, the economics of conflict, and development macroeconomics issues such as investment, inflation, and economic growth. He has been a thought leader in the debates on economic development in Africa and in his home country Burundi.

Dr. Nkurunziza was an accomplished scholar and a great patriot. Thus, our deepest sorrow to have lost such a brilliant academic, policy analyst and an outstanding human being. He will stay in our memory and hearts forever! We send our most heartfelt sympathy to his family, friends, coworkers plus the entire AERC fraternity.