Page 75 - AERC Strategic Plan 2 July2020

THE AERC 2020–2025 STRATEGIC PLAN

training programmes (thus benefiting their economic-policy decision-making). The AERC
is more likely to be sustainable if it is delivering services to the broadest possible range
of African stakeholders, ensuring that groups (including women) who have traditionally
been under-represented in its activities can participate on an equal footing with others.
This will help ensure that the full range of economic policy-related matters are considered,
while also empowering these under-represented groups. It will make the AERC relevant
to a broader range of stakeholders.

There is an assumption that strengthening the AERC’s performance will lead to
organizational sustainability and greater funding. This is an assumption that needs
to be continually tested with funders. The funder landscape is changing as traditional
bilateral-aid volume decreases and private-sector aid volume increases. Significant shifts
are occurring in economic performance in Africa, which will see many countries graduate
from developing-economy status. National governments in Africa are slowly building
their own economic policy-related institutional performance (including national think
tanks) and it is imperative that the AERC remain relevant in this changing context.

Intermediate Outcomes

Intermediate outcomes are the short-to-medium term outcomes the AERC needs to
produce in order to achieve the end-of-strategy outcomes. These would be expected to be
achieved within a two-to-four-year period. These do not need to be achieved in a linear
fashion but demonstrable progress towards them must be evident within two years. The
ME system has been designed to track progress against these intermediate outcomes.

There are four intermediate outcomes within this outcome pathway:

2.4. Improved collaboration with economic policy decision-making institutions;

2.5. Enhanced capacity to diversify funding base;
2.6. Improved organization support system; and

2.7. Enhanced visibility and opportunity in under-represented regions of Africa.

In order to ensure it remains relevant, the AERC needs to improve its collaboration with
economic policy decision-making bodies in Africa. These bodies include directorates of
economic affairs and research units at ministries of finance, central banks, national policy
research institutes, and think tanks across Africa (including under-represented areas).
Hitherto, the AERC’s engagement with these bodies has been indirect in that its alumni
have gone on to hold senior positions in these organizations. This will no doubt continue
but will be augmented by a more strategic and tactical approach to collaboration that
will see the AERC engage more directly with these organizations in order to better
understand the policy context. This will support the delivery of policy relevant economic

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