Joint Government of Kenya and AERC Capacity Building Project for Policy Analysis
The Government of Kenya in partnership with the African Economic Research Consortium initiated a project titled Capacity Building Project for Economic Policy Analysis: A Comprehensive Approach to Strengthening the Policy Analysis and Economic Management Capacities in the Treasury. The project, which was initiated in March 2010 and became effective in January 2011, was informed by the need to strengthen economic policy analysis and financial management capabilities within the National Treasury, which is the leading institution in government responsible for economic analysis and management, as well as implementation of the country’s various economic policies. To achieve the overall objective, the Government of Kenya under the National Treasury established a Capacity Building Endowment Fund over a period of six years to implement the following five modules: (a) Institutionalization of Economic Policy Analysis; (b) Placement of Graduates and Contract Policy Analysts; (c) Building Treasury Macro Model for Research and Policy Analysis; (d) Training Programme for Masters and PhD; and (e) Establishing a Network of Annual Exchange of Policy research through Economic Conferences.
So far, the project has been implemented over a period of ten years, with significant success being realized. A total of 188 (108 masters and 80 PhD) Kenyan students have been supported for their graduate studies in the participating universities under the CMAP, CMAAE and CPP. Sponsored masters and PhD graduates are required to serve a 3- and 5-years training bond period, respectively, at the National Treasury as graduate trainees, research/policy assistants and policy analysts, to enrich practical knowledge in economic research and policy analysis. As of 2021, a total of 74 masters graduates have been appointed graduate trainees, 36 of whom have successfully served their three years internship, with 25 of them being employed as economists by the National Treasury.
Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO/COFEB)
The African Economic Research Consortium and The Central Bank of West African States are formalizing a long-term cooperation in scientific research in economics regarding the formulation and implementation of monetary and economic policies within the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU). The objective is to strengthen the research capacity of young researchers of the WAEMU. The AERC and BCEAO will exchange techniques and experience in the fields of economic, monetary and financial research. These exchanges can take place in the form of workshops on modelling, econometric methods and other recent quantitative techniques; meetings on specific topics defined by mutual agreement. Research and training exchange program will be organized. Joint modelling workshops aimed at proposing a new analytical framework or improving a pre-existing analytical framework are envisaged. These can relate to the modelling and development of macroeconomic and financial analysis tools for the BCEAO.
Other than the postgraduate training programmes, the training department also hosts several research projects with earmarked funding from regional and international partners. The research projects require mostly primary data from the region and are mostly undertaken by postgraduate students and members of the faculty within the network universities. Among some of these projects include:
Dialogues on the Future of Work in the Global South (FoWiGS), 29th June – 1st July 2021
In March 2021, Fundación Centro de Implementación de Políticas Públicas para la Equidad y el Crecimiento (CIPPEC), and the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) entered into an agreement to collaborate in implementing the Future of Work in the Global South (FoWiGS) project for the Sub-Saharan Africa region. The initiative is funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and managed by CIPPEC.
FoWiGS aims at understanding the implications of technological change on jobs taking into account the specific contexts of developing countries and disadvantaged groups within these countries, and to influence policy towards a brighter future for workers in the emerging world. One of the main milestones in the 2021 FoWiGS agenda was to jointly have CIPPEC and AERC host a virtual Sub-Saharan Africa regional event themed “Roundtable Dialogues on the Future of Work in the Global South” with the aim of developing a better understanding of the challenges regarding the future of work considering the specific context of developing Sub-Saharan Africa. Cognisant that the Future of work has its roots in the past, the idea was to bring out evidence-based narratives that take stock of existing academic and research knowledge to assess what we know and what remains to be answered, with the ultimate goal of informing policy.
On 29th June – 1st July 2021, CIPPEC and AERC held five roundtable panel dialogues. The invited researchers, academics and policy makers shared their knowledge and expertise, with a special focus on detecting the global narrative elements that need to be reconsidered when turning the attention to the Global South with focus on Sub-Saharan Africa region.
The five main areas encompassed in the respective 05 roundtable panels included:
- Skills (Early childhood, formal education and digital skills, lifelong learning and reskilling), which, in emerging societies, require innovative approaches that go beyond the contents of the formal curricula and need to address problems such as infrastructure, teachers’ skills and financing.
- Technology (Artificial intelligence, platform economies), which cannot be taken for granted in the developing world and requires specific policy actions to take place in an extended and inclusive manner.
- Labour market institutions, that require the whole institutional frameworks to be updated to capitalize the benefits and mitigate the risks that are specific to developing countries.
- Demography and labour market, exploring the labour market (youth bulge, demographic dividend, aging) preparedness to absorb the incoming labour force.
- Inequality and labour market, the implications of inequality in designing policy to promote technological change and adoption of new skills.
Expected Outputs
The African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) will contribute a chapter on the future of work in the Sub-Saharan Africa region based on the findings of the virtual workshop held on 29th June – 1st July 2021.
AERC will follow closely the discussions and learnings on skills, technology, demography, labour market institutions and inequality discourse arising from the event to inform its future capacity building, policy outreach and research interventions.
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