Senior Policy Seminar X Brief
Policy makers and advisors from across
Africa will gather in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on 7–9
April for sober reflection on one of the world’s
most pressing issues. The occasion is the tenth Senior
Policy Seminar (SPS X) sponsored by the Nairobi-based
African Economic Research Consortium (AERC). Three
days of intense discussions will assess the role of
climate change and its impact on economic development
in Africa.
The region-wide seminar will bring together
an estimated 70 African policy makers and advisors
drawn from the highest levels of government and representing
25 countries in the continent. The meeting will address
the physical, socioeconomic and global impacts of
climate change with reference to sub-Saharan Africa
and is particularly relevant for poverty reduction
measures since agriculture forms the backbone of the
continent’s economies and the livelihoods of
Africa’s poor. Renowned African scholars will
explore the ways of sensitizing the region’s
governments to advise their communities to take a
proactive stance to climate change for reduced vulnerability
to the vagaries of drought and flooding.
One of the participating scholars is
Prof. Richard S. Odingo, 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. To policy
makers who feel that poverty issues are more pressing
than climate change, Professor Odingo, a member of
the Geography Department of the University of Nairobi,
points out that “we can’t solve poverty
until we stop climate change”. This is the challenge
facing the participants at this seminar.
Participatory seminar
AERC Senior Policy Seminars provide a structure for
the frank exchange of experiences. The structure turns
on syntheses of relevant research findings presented
by senior scholars. Each session then features a brief
summary of the presentation and a floor discussion
by the policy makers themselves. Among the presenters
will be Dr. Casey Brown of the International Research
Institute for Climate and Society, New York, Dr. Mahendra
M. Shah of the International Institute for Applied
Systems Analysis, Austria, and Prof. John Asafu-Adjaye
of the University of Queensland.
Wrapping up the debates will be a working
session in which participants identify additional
key areas of research they would like to see to assist
them in policy formulation. This atmosphere generates
spirited interaction among the participants and helps
the policy makers to fine tune their own approaches
as they apply the lessons and details of AERC-supported
economic policy research from elsewhere on the continent.
Besides this specific immediate result, the seminars
improve the prospects for cooperative policy research
between policy makers and researchers. The outcome
of the consultations serves as input into AERC’s
policy research agenda and helps with the identification
of structures and methods intended to promote collaboration
among policy makers and researchers, both within individual
countries and across the continent.
Wide participation
To ensure a broad spread of countries and institutions,
while maintaining a manageable number for easy discussion,
AERC invites senior officials from across sub-Saharan
Africa to these seminars. Among them are ministers,
permanent secretaries, directors and principal officers.
A large contingent is drawn from relevant government
offices of Ethiopia. They were identified on the basis
of their individual professional experience with implementing
climate change strategies and their interest in policy-oriented
research, as much as their position in government.
Representatives of various regional organizations
involved in training and research on these issues
are also expected to attend. Overall, the selection
of participants reflects AERC’s research priorities
and commitment to maintaining linguistic and subregional
balance.
Previous Seminars
These annual events have addressed an array of topics
that are relevant to Africa’s policy agenda.
Last year’s seminar, for example, considered
the lessons learnt in the management of commodity
booms and how they can be applied to enhance economic
development. Other seminars have looked at issues
of governance and pro-poor growth; how to finance
pro-poor growth; poverty, growth and institutions;
financial sector reforms; fiscal policy; revenue mobilization;
and the macroeconomic policy framework for poverty
reduction. . The seminars are intended to inform policy
makers about the latest developments in policy research,
provide a forum for sharing experiences, and promote
a closer relationship between researchers and policy
makers.
For more information about this workshop
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
