AERC Senior Policy Seminars

African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) holds a Senior Policy Seminar annually. This conference is hosted by AERC and sometimes jointly with a partner. AERC convenes this forum to provide high level African policy makers the opportunity to come together to dialogue on the results of research conducted by AERC and its affiliates, exchange policy experiences and interact with the researchers in an atmosphere of peers. The themes of these seminars are selected on the basis of topicality and contemporary interest to African policy making.

AERC Senior policy seminars provide an opportunity for policy makers and researchers to engage in uninterrupted deliberations on a set of important issues considered significant to policy making in Africa. The seminar format insulates the policy makers from pressures related to their responsibilities, and thus, creates an environment for lively professional discourse on the selected issue. Aside from the specific aims of bringing researchers and policy makers together, the seminars are directly useful to AERC because they help identify research imperatives crucial to transforming Africa.  They also improve prospects for policy involvement of the researchers and enhance AERC’s visibility in the policy community. Thus, serving to highlight the growing capacity in the region for policy research and, on the whole, provide important feedback to AERC for its research and training programs.

Exchange of country-specific experiences is particularly important in these seminars. The policy makers are normally identified for their interest in policy research issues and the level of seniority of the policy makers is generally right, leading to detailed discussions. Researchers are reasonably well balanced between Anglophone and Francophone, and attendance by Francophone policy makers is always encouraged.

 

Policy makers report that they have found their experiences in the seminars very useful. The information exchanged helps them update their knowledge on current research and sieve out issues that are relevant to their duties. Some have even been embarrassed to find that during negotiations with international financial institutions, they have agreed to certain policies without understanding the full implications of the policy package. Seminars of this kind, while not intended or able to make the policy maker an economist, nevertheless afford the opportunity of considering the wider ramifications of their policy decisions.

 

General Senior Policy Seminar Objectives and Outputs

The seminars have four aims:

–  To identify key priorities for future policy-oriented research in sub-Saharan Africa.

–  To provide an opportunity for policy makers and researchers to exchange experiences and views.

–  To highlight the growing capacity in the region for policy research on these issues.

–  To improve prospects for cooperative policy research between policy makers and researchers.

 

These are achieved in four ways:

–  By synthesizing and disseminating the results of the latest international (particularly AERC-funded) research in a format suitable for senior policy makers.

–  By generating interaction between policy makers and AERC funded researchers on results.

–  By encouraging sharing of experiences among policy makers on the lessons and details of macroeconomic policies oriented towards poverty reduction.

–  By receiving feedback from policy makers on key current research issues.

 

The concrete outputs of the seminars are expected to be:

– Major input into AERC’s policy research agenda, through suggestions for key issues.

– Ideas for structures and methods to promote collaboration among policy makers and researchers, both within individual countries and across the continent.

–  Wider dissemination of AERC outputs to policy makers, and ideas for improving future dissemination to them.

–  Proposals for follow-up through similar, research projects or other activities.

AERC researchers present syntheses of research results on the seminar theme and nominated policy makers participating in the seminars act as discussants, one for each paper that is presented. The presentations are followed by a floor discussion in which the policy makers share experiences and express their views on key issues for future policy research. Each session is usually chaired by a senior policy maker, usually with experience in the thematic area. A public/private sector policy roundtable then winds up the activities for the day.

Themes of Previous AERC Senior Policy Seminars

	Theme	Dates	Venue	Participants
1.	Economic Research and Policy Making in Sub-Saharan Africa	March 1995	Nairobi, Kenya	40
2.	Financial Sector Reforms, Domestic Resource Mobilization, and Investment in Africa	November 1996	Abidjan, Cote d’ Ivoire	48
3.	Fiscal Policy in Africa	October 1997	Accra, Ghana	52
4.	Revenue Mobilization in Sub-Saharan Africa	February 2000	Gaborone, Botswana	56
5.	Macroeconomic Policy and Poverty Reduction in Africa	February 2002	Dar es Salaam, Tanzania	60
6.	Financing Pro-Poor Growth in Africa	March 2004	Kampala, Uganda	63
7.	Poverty, Growth, and Institutions	March 2005	Cape Town, South Africa	66
8.	Governance and Pro-poor Growth in sub-Saharan Africa	March 2006	Dakar, Senegal	72
9.	Managing Commodity Booms in Sub-Saharan Africa	February 2007	Yaoundé, Cameroon	78
10.	Climate Change and Economic Development in Sub-Saharan Africa	April 2008	Addis Ababa, Ethiopia	80
11.	The Global Financial Crisis and Its Implications for the African Economies	April 2009	Lusaka, Zambia	92
12.	Bank Regulatory Reforms in Africa: Enhancing Bank Competition and Intermediation Efficiency	March 2010	Mombasa, Kenya	72
13.	Natural Resource Management in sub-Saharan Africa	March 2011	Maputo, Mozambique	103
	(a) Health, Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction in sub-Saharan Africa (b) Challenges Associated with the   Development of Oil Sector in Uganda (Special Policy Seminar)	March 2012 February 2012	Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Kampala, Uganda	107 160
14.	Youth and Unemployment in Africa	March 2013	Kigali, Rwanda	113
15.	Capital Flight from Africa	April 2014	Addis Ababa, Ethiopia	101
16.	Agriculture in Africa’s Transformation: The Role of Smallholder Farmers	March 2015	Maputo, Mozambique	102
17.	Financial Inclusion in Africa	March 2016	Nairobi, Kenya	100
18.	Industrialization in Africa	March 2017	Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire	121
19.	Rethinking Regional Integration in Africa	March 2018	Kampala, Uganda	122
20.   Fragility of Growth in African Economies		March, 2019	Harare, Zimbabwe	143
21.  Agriculture and Food Policies for Better Nutrition Outcomes in Africa		March, 2020	Abuja, Nigeria	117
22.  The Global COVID-19 Health Pandemic and Its Implications for the African Economies		March, 2021	Virtual	307
23.  Climate Change and Economic Development in Africa		March, 2022	Virtual	397
24.  Human Capital and Economic Development in Africa		March, 2023	Hybrid	598