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Capacity building workshop for selected African research centers

by Ralf Krueger — last modified 2008-11-11 09:43

Background on the workshop and its programme.

To view the full concept note, please use the following links: Concept Note - English; Note Conceptuelle - Francais.

To view the workshop report, please use the following link: Workshop Report - English.

The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) are jointly implementing the Development Account project on “Knowledge networking and sharing in a south-south partnership framework to strengthen the capacity of African policy community towards meeting key MDGs” to bridge the gap between researchers and policy makers by building the capacity of selected knowledge centres in Africa and by facilitating networking among themselves and with their counterparts in Latin America and the Caribbean to enhance their ability to access, generate, and adapt knowledge that could inform the work of policy makers. The project also involves building the capacity of policymakers to enhance their ability to use policies generated by the knowledge centres for better policy targeting, execution and alignment to achieve the MDGs. Thematically the project focuses on macroeconomic policies for achieving the MDGs. Within ECA the Trade, Finance & Economic Development Division (TFED) has been tasked with the implementation of this project.

It is against this backdrop and as part of the project on “Knowledge networking and sharing in a south-south partnership framework to strengthen the capacity of African policy community towards meeting key MDGs” that ECA and ECLAC have jointly organized a Capacity Building Workshop for selected African research centers, which was held in Bujumbura, Burundi on 29-30 May 2007.

The objectives of the meeting include:

Initiating a network of research institutions working on macroeconomic management issues.
Creating a better understanding of appropriate and effective strategies for improving the use of knowledge generated in the research centres for strengthening national macroeconomic policies through shared experiences by participants.
Discussion of the ways in which tools such as macroeconomic modeling used in some research institutes like KIPPRA (Kenya) or AFRINEM (South Africa) contribute to enhancing knowledge generation and policy making.
Presentation of the ECA/ECLAC project on “Knowledge networking and sharing in a south-south partnership framework to strengthen the capacity of African policy community towards meeting key MDGs” and of ECA’s macro modelling activities, and discussion of mechanisms of collaboration with national research institutions.

Programme – Tuesday 29 May 2007 (presentations as links placed with the institution names)

09:00 – 09:30 Registration

09:30 – 10:00 Welcome address

Hakim Ben Hammouda, Director ECA-TFED

10:00 – 11:15 Session I: Assessing research capacities in MDG-based policy making: Experiences of national research institutions

CURDES, Burundi: Ferdinand Bararuzunza

CERAPE, Rep. of Congo: Jean-Christophe Boungou Bazika

Discussion

11:15 – 11:30 Coffee/tea break

11:30 – 12:45 Session I (continued)

LEA, Gabon: Jean-Sylvain Ndo Ndong

Discussion