Page 58 - AERC Strategic Plan 2 July2020

THE AERC 2020–2025 STRATEGIC PLAN

Table 3: Analysis of projected/actual expenditure for 2015–2020
(US$ ‘000)

Strategy 2015/16 2016/17 2017/18 2018/19 2019/20 Strategy %
Strategic Objective Target Actual Actual Actual Actual Projected Total Variance Variance % Total
2015–2020
Objective 1: Enhance
capacity building for 45,677 6,613 6,592 7,240 6,721 7,270 34,436 11,241 25% 56%
economic policy research
and graduate training.
Objective 2: Build and
strengthen national,
regional, and global 6,102 1,115 1,042 1,795 1,521 1,437 6,910 -808 -13% 11%
linkages.
Objective 3: Engage the
private sector in mutually
beneficial research, 308 1 3 113 145 64 326 -18 -6% 1%
training, and policy impact.
Objective 4: Enhance AERC
visibility, outreach, and 3,595 390 418 435 602 1,142 2,987 608 17% 5%
policy engagement.
Subtotal direct 55,682 8,119 8,055 9,583 8,989 9,913 44,659 11,023 20% 73%
programme costs
Programme management 11,085 2,785 1,796 1,910 2,070 1,868 10,429 656 6% 17%
costs
Subtotal 66,767 10,904 9,851 11,493 11,059 11,781 55,088 11,679 17% 90%
General support services
and governance structures 8,191 1,148 1,138 1,372 1,146 1362 6,166 2,025 25% 10%
Total Budget 74,958 12,052 10,989 12,865 12,205 13,143 61,254 13,704 18% 100%

Current Funding Environment

With the current global economic changes, funders are shifting from core funding to
earmarked and targeted funding for quick results and impact. The AERC funding structure
continues to evolve, taking cognizance that sustainability of AERC as an institution
is critical, as is the value that AERC generates in informing policy development on the
continent and capacity building generally. Thus, AERC will seek to emphasize increased,
unrestricted funding to key priority areas, while providing flexibility for restricted funding.

In order to align to the above shifts and dynamics, the AERC funding strategy will include
a directly attributable costs allocation model and overhead recovery policy that will aim
at recovery of the programme costs and overheads from all grant awards. The 2020–2025
Objective 3 is intended to address this challenge by efficiently and rapidly matching
partners’ needs and gaps with resources and priorities to effectively improve economic
management outcomes.

Strategic Plan 2020–2025 Financial Requirements

The requirements for the 2020–2025 Strategic Plan have been developed based on the
MEF and ME Plan that align strategic themes, outcome pathways, outputs, activities and
their associated indicators, baseline, and targets disaggregated annually.

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