AERC 20th Anniversary Conference,
15–17 September 2008
Distinguished scholars, policy makers
and other dignitaries from across Africa and around
the world recently participated in a three-day international
conference from 15–17 September 2008 on Natural
Resource Management and Climate Change in Africa,
at the Hotel Intercontinental in Nairobi. The African
Economic Research Consortium (AERC) was hosting the
conference to mark its 20th anniversary of capacity
building in sub Saharan Africa. Through a series of
commissioned papers and discussion, the conference
brought together a solid body of policy-relevant information
on these urgent global issues.
Over 300 participants, including African
policy makers and advisors drawn from the highest
levels of government, renowned African scholars, a
multitude of researchers, and other AERC network members
were in attendance. The three days of intense discussions
addressed the physical, socioeconomic and global impacts
of natural resource management and climate change
with reference to sub-Saharan Africa. Climate change
is particularly relevant for poverty reduction measures,
since agriculture forms the backbone of the continent’s
economies and the livelihoods of Africa’s poor.
Among other issues, participants explored
appropriate ways of managing natural resources and
sensitizing the region’s governments to advise
their communities to take a proactive stance on climate
change so as to reduce their vulnerability to the
vagaries of weather. One of the participating scholars
was Prof. Richard S. Odingo, a distinguished Professor
of Geography and Environmental Studies and the Vice
Chair of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel of
Climate Change (IPCC), the organization that shared
the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former United States
Vice President Al Gore for speaking out on global
warming.
Conference Presentations
The conference opened with a keynote address by Hon.
John Michuki, Kenya’s Minister for Environment
and Natural Resources. Four papers by leading scholars
were presented in two plenary sessions on the conference
themes. The first plenary session, on Natural
Resource Management, featured two presentations:
Prof. Paul Collier, of the Centre
for the Study of African Economies (CSAE), University
of Oxford, focused on the links among Managing the
Exploitation of Natural Assets. His paper was discussed
by Prof. Benno Ndulu, Governor, Bank of Tanzania.
Prof. Anthony Venables of the University
of Oxford, then presented a paper on Managing Resource
Revenues. Prof. Jacques Pegatienan, Advisor to the
Director General Ministry of Finance, Côte d’Ivoire,
was the lead discussant of this paper.
Prof. Odingo presented
the first paper in the second plenary session, devoted
to Climate Change, on the subject
of Climate Change and Its Interactions with Economic
Development in Sub-Saharan Africa. The paper was discussed
by David Jhirad, a specialist in global energy challenges.
Prof. Rashid Hassan, Director of
the Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy
in Africa (CEEPA), University of Pretoria, South Africa,
addressed Effects of Climate Change and African Agriculture,
with a focus on coping and adaptation mechanisms for
sub-Saharan Africa. The lead discussant for this paper
was Dr. Mahendra Shah of the International Institute
for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Laxenburg, Austria.
The conference also featured four parallel
sessions with the presentation of a wide array of
research papers on the two broad themes, Natural Resource
Management and Climate Change, many targeting specific
regional examples. Lead presenters in these areas
included the following:
Wide participation
AERC invited senior academics and policy officials
from across sub-Saharan Africa to this international
conference, among them ministers, permanent secretaries,
directors and principal officers, and distinguished
scholars. They were identified on the basis of their
individual professional proficiency as scholars as
well as their policy roles in the implementation of
natural resource management and climate change adaptation
strategies. Representatives of various regional organizations
involved in training and research on these issues
were also invited to the conference. Overall, the
selection of participants reflected AERC’s research
priorities and commitment to maintaining linguistic
and subregional balance.
About AERC
The African Economic Research Consortium is a leader
in policy-oriented economic research in the continent.
It was established in 1988 as a public not-for-profit
organi¬zation devoted to building capacity for
economic policy research into problems pertinent to
the management of economies in sub-Saharan Africa.
This is carried out through two main programmes: research
and postgraduate training.
In response to the special needs of
the region, the AERC Research Programme uses a flexible
approach to improve the technical skills of local
researchers, allow for regional determination of research
priorities, strengthen national institutions concerned
with economic policy research, and facilitate closer
ties between researchers and policy makers. The Training
Programme augments the pool of economic researchers
in sub-Saharan Africa by supporting collaborative
graduate programmes in economics – at both master’s
and PhD levels – as well as improving the capacities
of departments of economics in local public universities.
AERC is supported by donor govern¬ments, private
foundations and international organizations.
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For more information about this International Conference
or AERC, please contact:
The Executive Director
African Economic Research Consortium (AERC)
Middle East Bank Towers, 3rd Floor, Milimani Road
Tel: (254-20) 273-4150 / 273-4157
Fax: (254-20) 273-4173
exec.dir@aercafrica.org
communications@aercafrica.org
www.aercafrica.org
