News

The African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) hosted an eminent delegation visiting from the World Bank on Tuesday, 6 February 2024. Led by Mamta Murthi, Vice President for Human Development of the World Bank Group, visiting from Washington D.C. The VP shared truly valuable insights around Human Capital Development.

Prof. Dominique Njinkeu, Interim Executive Director, AERC in his welcoming remarks praised the visit, noting that the presence of these senior officials from the Bank meant a lot to the organization. While thanking the team for being part of this successful meeting, Prof. Njinkeu, emphasized in his presentation that the main objective of the AERC network is to train and retain African professional Economists on the continent to make a difference in Africa. He also stressed the interest of the AERC to participate in the World Bank project “Strengthening Economic Policymaking Capacity in Africa (SEPCA)”.

At the core of the issues was, thus, how AERC could facilitate a more effective relationship between its research outputs, whose coverage is wide, and the policy process, given the current mandate of the organization which focuses on policy influence. The AERC has several vehicles through which it facilitates this relationship; and one is by way of organizing dissemination activities including the senior policy seminars, regional policy seminars as well as national policy workshops.

Human capital—the education, skills, and health of people, which was the focus of discussions in this meeting plays a pivotal role in the transformation of African economies. According to the World Bank’s Human Capital Index, sub-Saharan Africa scores the lowest of all the world’s regions (about 0.40). Some of the challenges debated in the meeting that contribute to this low index include weak public financial management (PFM), service delivery systems (SDM) and malnutrition in the continent among others.