News

The African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) received with deep shock the news of the passing on of Dr. Geoffrey Ngungi Mwau on Sunday, 7 August 2022. Even the very best of words, cannot pay tribute or truly capture the sense of loss for the AERC fraternity.

For more than two decades, Dr. Mwau has been an eminent figure within the AERC Network. He joined the University of Nairobi teaching position in 1984 and was admitted to the McGill University in Canada for a Ph.D in Economics where he graduated in 1994. As an early career economist, Dr. Mwau quickly fitted in the AERC Graduate Training Programme teaching policy analysis to master’s students at a summer school commonly known as the Joint Facility for Electives (JFE) for a selected number of students from 26 universities in sub-Saharan Africa. It was while teaching within the AERC training programme that Dr. Mwau met his wife, Joy who was at that time working at the AERC as the administrator for the summer school. 

Dr. Mwau later moved to work as a Senior Advisor to the Executive Director representing Kenya and 21 other African countries at the Executive Board of the World Bank. Prior to joining the World Bank, he was a Senior Regional Advisor on Economic Policy Analysis with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA). Previously, he also worked for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as an economist for Rwanda, Malawi, Botswana, and Uganda. During these engagements, Dr. Mwau maintained his links with the AERC.

While working at the National Treasury at the Economic Secretary, the AERC called upon Dr. Mwau, a seasoned economist, many times to engage in policy discussions at seminars addressing various developmental issues facing the African continent. In December 2012, Dr. Mwau was appointed a member of the AERC Programme Committee, which has the role of approving the research and training agenda for the AERC as well as grants to students, researchers and public African universities supported by the AERC under a collaborative training programme. In his role as a seasoned policy maker, Dr. Mwau made notable impact in the Programme Committee and was elected Chair of the Committee in June 2014 and served to end of his term in June 2018. As the Chair of the Programme Committee, Dr. Mwau was an ex-officio member of the AERC Board of Directors, where he made valuable contribution in the approval of the AERC’s 5-year strategic planning, annual work and budgets, annual reports and annual financial statements. On occasion, and at the request of the Cabinet Secretary, Dr. Mwau represented the Government of Kenya at the meetings of the AERC Board of Directors, where the Government of Kenya is a member as a funding partner.  

It is difficult for us, as the AERC Family to quantify the impact that Dr. Mwau made within the AERC Network and beyond. We hold fond memories of the times we shared and are grateful for his commitment and dedicated service, the friendships he made and cherished, and the difference he made in policy discussions, leading to policy outputs that have had numerous impacts in many African countries. 

We, the AERC Family, send our deepest condolences to Joy, the children and the entire family and friends of Dr. Mwau during this difficult period. We all know that his uncompromising belief in all that is good and unwavering commitment to family and friends was amazing. May God comfort them and grant them peace. May his soul rest in eternal peace. Amen.