Background 

Established in 1988, the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) has grown to be a premier capacity-building institution for advancing research and graduate training to inform African economic policies. The consortium’s mandate and strategic mission are built on the basis that sustained development in Sub-Saharan Africa requires well-trained, locally based professional economists. A highly integrated knowledge organization spanning research, training, and policy outreach, AERC is now a vast network of universities, policymakers, researchers, educators, and international resource persons.

The call for expression of interest

AERC is organizing a virtual technical workshop on research methods, proposal writing, and presentation skills. This workshop, scheduled for September 16 -27, 2024 in Nairobi, Kenya, will span 10 working days and providing participants with a comprehensive understanding of the course content, including practical application using econometric software. We invite qualified instructors to express their interest in leading this vital course.

Terms of reference

The terms of reference for the instructor include the following tasks:

• Prepare the workshop agenda and technical prospectus for the workshop.
• Prepare relevant materials, documentation, and software for the workshop.
• Lead the discussions and, where possible, provide the participants with extensive exposure to a selected number of useful issues in research methodologies, proposal writing, and presentation skills.
• Prepare a report on the proceedings of the workshop.
• Select (jointly with AERC) the most promising proposals.
• Provide mentorship for the selected proposals after the workshop to assist them in finalizing their proposals for submission to thematic research.  
• Perform any other activities as mutually agreed upon between the instructor and AERC.

Selection Criteria

The instructor(s) will be selected based on the following criteria.

• A PhD degree in Economics
• Published in internationally peer-reviewed journals in the last 5 years (for a guide, please see the top 100 journals in the SCIMAGO list or the 2/3/4-star ABS 2021 journal list)
• Experience at the graduate degree level
• Experience in supervision of PhD thesis to completion and also refereeing for international journals
• Experience in offering similar courses to advanced or post-doctoral researchers
• Practical knowledge in collecting and using time series, panel, and survey data
• Proficiency in using econometric software (e.g., STATA, LIMDEP, EVIEWS, etc.) 
• A brief outline of what will be covered in the course (for the econometrics methodology focusing on RCTs and quasi-experimental techniques e.g. DID, DIDID, academic writing, and presentation skills), 
• Good command of both English and French languages will be an added advantage

Additional information

More information on the training is as follows: 

1. Number of participants – 30 in-person and 20 online.
2. The participants bring their computers, and AERC provides STATA software to all participants.
3. The full set of course materials will be in a one-drive folder that participants can take with them.
4. Daily sessions start at 8:00 a.m. and end at about 5:00 p.m., with a lunch break of about one hour and two health breaks of about 20 minutes each. This information should help devise an appropriate breakdown and the course components for each day. 
5. The instructor will provide all the practice datasets for uniformity.
6. PowerPoint projectors and whiteboard/flipcharts will be provided.

We invite you to express your interest in offering this course to AERC’s current and potential network researchers. To express your interest in providing the course, kindly send your CV by email to procurement@aercafrica.org and copy to  research@aercafrica.org, outlining your experience in teaching the course (with RCT experience in Africa being an advantage) and proficiency in the use of econometric software (specifying the type of software). The AERC Procurement Unit will evaluate your expression of interest, and we will let you know the outcome in two weeks after the deadline.

The deadline for the submission of Expressions of Interest is August 16, 2024.