Publication and Dissemination

To ensure timely and cost-effective dissemination of AERC research, AERC publishes a series of edited and externally reviewed research reports. These are typically in the form of Research Papers emanating from the thematic research process. Less technical executive summaries and abstracts from these papers are also produced in order to facilitate access and citation of the papers.

Papers from Collaborative Research projects are produced as Working Papers periodically in order to make them available to the research and policy community as quickly as possible. After revision, many of these working papers are eventually compiled and published as volumes.

AERC also publishes a Special Paper series of commissioned studies on specific issues to motivate new areas for research or new activities.

In addition, with the assistance of the Communications Division, the Research Department produces Research News, a newsletter that informs the network on AERC research. This periodical typically provides the following features: Policy Forum, Viewpoint, as well as Collaborative Research, Research Feature, Research Methodology, abstracts of completed thematic research papers and calendar of activities of the research programme.

AERC has been directing more effort towards assisting researchers to effectively disseminate their research results and, therefore, maximize impact. This effort includes concept and methodology sessions for assisting researchers to access international journals; support for national economic policy workshops where research is used to inform issues of national policy concern; a study of the various policy processes to inform researchers on the potential links between research and policy; and support for regional journals and economic associations as professional outlets for research results.

Publication and dissemination of research results are also on AERC preoccupation. Apart from the AERC series of refereed and non-refereed publications mentioned above, the assistance given to the network of researchers to disseminate their results in professional and policy forums is already bearing fruit. The professional stature of African researchers has been given a considerable boost, with AERC research being published in international journals. For example, there has been a special issue of World Development exclusively devoted to papers drawn from AERC-supported research, and a number of supplemental issues of the Journal of African Economies highlighting AERC plenary papers have been published. Further recognition of the network is demonstrated by the large number of requests both through AERC and directly to the researchers for their involvement in various professional undertakings, internationally and locally.

On the policy front, national economic policy workshops have become very useful forums for policy dialogue. Some of the senior researchers are increasingly involved in policy advisory roles. Internationally, the network has been used frequently as a sounding board for major policy considerations by the multilateral financial institutions such as the World Bank. AERC researchers have to date been invited as witnesses to four testimonies to the US Congress on matters pertaining to African development and the operations of the international financial institutions affecting it.

Senior policy seminars provide a forum for discussing policy-oriented syntheses of AERC research and for obtaining feedback from policy makers on the AERC research agenda. By 2003, five such seminars had been held on the following diverse issues: Macroeconomic and Exchange Rate Management, in Nairobi, Kenya (1995); Financial Sector Reforms, in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire (1996); Fiscal Policy, in Accra, Ghana (1997); Revenue Mobilization, in Gaborone, Botswana (2000); and Macroeconomic Policy and Poverty Reduction in Africa, in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (2002).

More recently, the biannual research workshops have become a venue for engaging in policy-oriented activities. For example, several sessions have been devoted to presentations such as the African Development Bank's (AfDB) African Economic Outlook, UNECA's Economic Report on Africa, and the World Bank's World Economic Report.

In addition, a"policy roundtable" has become a regular feature of the plenary sessions of the biannuals. By this feature, policy practitioners are called upon once in a year to discuss policy-relevant issues associated with the respective plenary topics, e.g., Regulation and Deregulation (May 2001); and Public Sector Delivery (May 2002); and Governance and Economic Development-The role of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (December 2003).