Page 78 - AERC Strategic Plan 2 July2020

THE AERC 2020–2025 STRATEGIC PLAN

Table A2: AERC activities that contribute to ‘Organizational’
domain outcomes

Intermediate Activity
Outcome
2.4; 2.5 Implement the GoK Capacity Building Project for Policy Analysis model in one country in each
subregion of Southern, Western, and Central Africa in order to strengthen representation.
2.4 Deliver specialized short-term technical training for policy analysts and researchers in
government institutions, national think tanks, and policy research institutes that strengthen
institutional expertise on data collection and analysis; research methodology; econometric
modelling and estimation; and policy analysis providing research mentorship.
2.4 Deliver direct technical assistance to government entities, including national think tanks, in
designing policy interventions.
2.4 Create a visiting scholars programme for central banks who are members of AERC’s Central Bank
Governors Forum to improve research capacity and offer customized services to inform policy
approach, including specialized convenings and reports.
2.4; 2.7 Deepen outreach to fragile and post-conflict countries for participation in the Central Bank
Governors Forum by sharing/underwriting membership contributions.

2.4 Initiate a call for papers on topical research areas, including transport and movement across
the region (regional integration), domestic resource mobilization, tax policy, and structural
framework for effective policymaking (central banks and ministries of finance).
2.5 Develop a sustainable funding strategy that will include articulating the current and future
funding priorities of funders; exploring strategies for new engagements with governments
outside Europe and America, including Asian countries and emerging markets; packaging support
opportunities for the private sector as corporate social responsibility (CSR) funding; establishing
an endowment fund to harness long term funding and flatten unpredictable funding cycles; and
investigating the use of crowd funding to create a separate line of funding for the organization.

2.5 Establish a permanent office space to house the AERC Secretariat through the support of the host
country government.
2.4; 2.5; 2.7 Expand the ‘Bridge Programme’ through partnering with the international community and
governments of underrepresented countries to jointly undertake targeted, country-specific,
capacity-building initiatives for policy analysis, mentorship, and short-term skills upgrading.
2.6 Develop an organizational strengthening strategy that identifies changes that are required in
management, governance, systems and processes, skills and capabilities and organizational
learning required for the AERC to meet future challenges.

2.6 Strengthen human-resource management to satisfy the demands of internal and external
stakeholders.
2.7 Support universities in the network and from under-represented countries to strengthen capacity
to mount quality graduate training of economists through blended learning at JFE/SFSE, retooling
workshops, and faculty exchange programmes.
2.7 Develop a gender strategy that will among other things identify supply bottlenecks that result in
few women enrolling into PhD studies; establish a scholarship fund for women and a mentorship
programme for early-career women scholars and researchers; conduct sensitization missions
to countries with low women enrolment to encourage more undergraduate women economics
majors to enrol into master’s programmes, thus boosting the number who ultimately enrol for
PhD; place strict quotas on the proportion of support given to universities for scholarships and
JFE/SFSE participation to be allocated to qualified women; and conduct technical workshops
and research mentorship targeted to women, lusophone/francophone speakers and Bridge
Programme participants.

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