African Economic Research Institutions and Policy Development, 01/05

The International Development Research Centre (IDRC) is pleased to inform you:

"African Economic Research Institutions and Policy Development: Opportunities and Challenges"

An International Conference by:
The Secretariat for Institutional Support
for Economic Research in Africa
(SISERA)
Dakar, January 28-29, 2005

Background

The experience of sub-Saharan African countries in the past two decades with respect to the structural adjustment programmes and other interventions by the Bretton Wood Institutions has underscored the importance of home grown solutions to local problems. It is now widely accepted that external solutions do not in most cases truly lead to the remedies desired. Recent initiatives such as the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) and the development of Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) are receiving quite a lot of attention because they recognize the need to first rely on the continent's own resources in the quest for solutions to the continent's development problems.

Recent empirical evidence strongly shows the overwhelming importance of a conducive policy environment in accelerating economic growth. The key question, however, is to understand the underlying processes through which policy decisions are made.

During the past ten years, there have been deliberate efforts to strengthen the capacity of individual researchers and research institutions so as to enable them play an important role in the policy debate. The Secretariat for Institutional Support for Economic Research in Africa (SISERA) has since July 1997 been providing institutional support to economic research centers in Africa so as to strengthen their ability to play a crucial role in policy development in the continent.

SISERA proposes to organize an international conference with the goal of examining the opportunities and challenges that African economic research centers face in influencing policies.

Objectives of Conference

The main objective of the international conference is to permit economic researchers to share information and experiences with respect to their roles in policy making in their respective countries and region. The emphasis will be on identifying the challenges that these research institutions face and opportunities that have emerged for these centers to play a better role in the design and development of economic policies.

Call for papers
There will be two categories of papers:
* Keynote and invited papers that are expected not to exceed 20 pages or 10,000 words, and
* Contributed papers that should not exceed 15 pages or 7500 words. Both the keynote and contributed papers will be presented in plenary sessions. Contributed papers will be subjected to a double-blind review process. The papers that will be selected will be published as a monograph. Deadline for papers submission

Ø September 15, 2004: submission of the contributed papers Ø October 31, 2004: authors will be notified of the status of their submissions
Venue

The conference will take place in Dakar, Senegal.

Language
The Secretariat will accept papers submitted in either English or French. All papers should, however, also have an abstract in the second language.

Contact for submissions
Authors are requested to submit their papers electronically using MS Word.

Send all submissions to cdaffe@idrc.org.sn.

African Economic Research Institutions and Policy Development

Page Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar, Ph.D.