WORKSHOP ON RESEARCH METHODS, PROPOSAL WRITING AND PRESENTATION SKILLS – EXCLUSIVELY FOR WOMEN IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

Background and Context 

Established in 1988, African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) has grown to be a premier capacity building institution for the advancement of research and graduate training to inform economic policies in Africa. The consortium’s mandate and strategic mission is 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, policy makers, researchers, educators, and international resource persons. 

The Thematic Research Programme is AERC’s longest-standing activity adopted when AERC commenced its effort to build capacity in sub-Saharan Africa. It can be described as a “learning by doing research” modality and is geared primarily towards the building of capacity of African economists and policy analysts to undertake high quality and policy-oriented economic research. Research proposals received through open calls undergo preliminary review. They are then vetted by peers during biannual research workshops while being monitored by resource persons who are drawn from Africa and beyond to provide mentorship and quality control.

The Call for Women Researchers 

As part of thematic research, AERC is organizing a technical workshop, exclusively for women researchers in sub-Saharan Africa – to enhance their skills in Research Methods, Proposal Writing and Presentation Skills. The workshop shall take place from 28 August – 08 September 2023 in Nairobi, Kenya. The goal is to build the capacity of women researchers and analysis to conduct rigorous and policy relevant research to support informed policy making in these countries. It is expected that the technical workshop, by building and strengthening the capacity of participants/researchers from fragile and post-conflict countries, will contribute in a major way towards the attainment of the goal. 

The course will cover several topics on research methods including the following: identifying research topic, critical literature review, data collection and analysis, proposal writing and presentation skills. Several practical exercises on materials covered and practical issues related to the course will be conducted. Participants will also be introduced to some of the econometric software for their use. The participants in the technical workshop will be required to develop a research proposal thereafter with the support of the instructor as a mentor. Best proposals will be selected on a competitive basis to be presented at a back-to-back workshop at the December 2023 biannual research workshop. Proposals presented will be further improved and developed with the support of a small research grant. Well-developed proposals can be submitted to AERC for consideration under AERC thematic research.

Prospective trainees are hereby invited to respond to the call for expression of interest. The expression of interest should be accompanied by.  

Eligibility and Submission of Expression of Interest

To be eligible, one must satisfy the following criteria: 

1. At least a Bachelor’s degree in Economics.
2. Be female nationals of an Africa country.
3. Provide a personal statement (of 500-1000 words) describing why they would like to take part in the research methods training; indicate whether they have ever written a research report, research paper and been involved in research data collection (i.e. in addition to the degree thesis/dissertation they wrote at university); Indicate whether they have any experience of analyzing data using software (e.g. EXCEL, SPSS, STATA or any other statistical package); and skills they expect to get at the end of the training.

  The Expressions of Interest including the applicant’s curriculum vitae (CV) shall be addressed to the AERC Director of Research and submitted on or before August 08, 2023, by email to research@aercafrica.org.

Project Timelines

The breakdown of the timeline is as follows:

• 08 August 2023: Close of submissions.
• 14 August 2023: Applicants will be informed of the outcome of their Expressions of Interest. 
• 28 August – 08 September 2023: Research Methods Workshop.
• 18 September 2023 Best proposals will be selected on a competitive basis to be presented at December 2023 Biannual Research Workshop.