News

The African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) and the African Centre for Economic Transformation (ACET) will be co-hosting a Think Tank knowledge sharing session on 24 July 2023 at the Africa Human Capital Heads of States Summit in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania at the Julius Nyerere International Convention Centre (JNICC). This summit, hosted by the Government of Tanzania, will focus on accelerating Africa’s economic growth through addressing learning poverty and skill gaps.

The think tank knowledge sharing session, whose objectives are to (1) provide an opportunity to learn from other countries in the region and share country level initiatives with results (2) provide policy actors with a platform to discuss learning and skills development in Africa (3) identify policy gaps and windows of opportunities as well as discuss strategies to accelerate Africa’s economic growth through addressing learning poverty and skill gaps and (4) network with Policy researchers from Think Tanks and World Bank technical experts; will  handle the challenges of building human capital for accelerated inclusive development as well as address key constraints on human capital accumulation. In addition, the session will seek to provide policy reforms that would enable Africa’s young people to grow up equipped with the right skills to compete in the digitizing global economy.

The session, chaired by Dr. Dianah Ngui (AERC), will feature a presentation based on the Human Capital Development in Africa project by Prof. Njuguna Ndung’u, the Cabinet Secretary, National Treasury and Planning, Kenya and Prof. Germano Mwabu, a framework paper author and a project steering committee member of the project. This will be followed by a Policy Round Table distinguished panel moderated by Mona Iddrisu, the head of youth employment and skills at the African Center for Economic Transformation. The speakers in the round table will be; Prof. Germano Mwabu, Emeritus Professor of Economics at the Department of Economics and Development Studies, University of Nairobi; Prof. Olu Ajakaiye, Chairman, African Centre for Shared Development Capacity Building (ACSDCB), Ibadan; Dr. Marilys Razakamanana, Lecturer and Head of the Research Centre for Development (CRD) at the Catholic University of Madagascar and Amabelle Nwakanma, Director of Programmes at LEAP Africa.

The discussion will be grounded on the findings from AERC’s collaborative research project on Human Capital Development in Africa project funded by the  Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), and ACET’s Youth Employment and Skills program.  The AERC Collaborative research project involved nine (9) framework papers which investigated broad, and crosscutting issues around human capital development so as to improve the capability of the continent (and its policy makers) to confront human capital development challenges. While the country case studies undertaken in seven (7) Sub-Saharan African countries that is, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Burkina Faso, Senegal, and Madagascar, involved twenty-six (26) papers carrying out in-depth analysis for specific human capital issues in individual countries, thereby enabling identification and explanation of nuances and peculiarities of these countries, allowing for more pointed policy recommendations.[1]

[1] All papers are under review for publication and will be availed in due course at the AERC website.