Training Overview
The AERC Training Programme is designed to augment the pool of economic researchers in sub-Saharan Africa by supporting postgraduate studies in economics and by enhancing the capacities of departments of economics in local public universities.

AERC supports the Collaborative master's Programme in Economics (CMAP) for anglophone Africa (excluding Nigeria and South Africa) and has recently embarked on a similar Collaborative PhD Programme in Economics but this is for sub-Saharan Africa. The collaboration features joint enforcement of standards through annual evaluation and assessment by external examiners, a common curriculum and its development, a joint facility for teaching electives, and joint development of teaching materials.

The Consortium also maintains close links with collaborative master's programmes in Nigeria (under the umbrella of the Foundation for Economics Education-FEE) and in francophone Africa (run by the Programme de Troisième Cycle Inter-universitaire en Economie-PTCI) and some Universities in South Africa. Of note is that all the above mentioned initiatives stemmed from AERC research into graduate training in the continent.

CMAP builds the capacity of mid-level economic managers and policy analysts and produces first class students interested in careers in academia. CMAP does this by delivering economics programmes in Africa that meet international standards, that are relevant to African needs, and that can eventually be sustained from local resources. Twenty-one universities in 16 countries participate in the programme. The seven category B universities offer their own master's degrees under this collaborative programme; category A universities send their students to category B institutions for master's studies.The division into category A and Category B is a long the lines of capabilities to mount a masters in Economics in the universties.

The typical CMAP programme takes 18-24 months and is divided into three components: core courses: 9-12 months; elective courses: 3 months at the Joint Facility for Electives (JFE) in Nairobi; and thesis research: 6-9 months. The JFE admits around 125 students from CMAP universities who have completed the core courses. Once they complete the electives and examinations they return to their institutions for their final year.

Using the CMAP model, AERC launched a Collaborative PhD Programme in 2002 with its own Academic Board, at four host universities covering the critical four African regions(Southern Africa, Eastern Africa, Anglophone West Africa, Francophone Africa)- University of Cape Town, University of Dar es Salaam, University of Ibadan and University of Yaounde II. Four other participating institutions, the universities of Cocody, Nairobi, Benin and Witwatersrand, will also admit and award degrees in the programme.The structure is that each region has a host university that offers the core courses and a degree awarding univeristy. The programme supports 21 students from sub-Sahara Africa every year

The PhD programme is designed as a four-year course and is expected to have a life of 15 years to achieve a reasonable level of output, with some 400 students expected to pass through the programme in that time. The innovative nature of the programme lies in a model that combines course work and thesis, thereby complementing and enhancing the quality of existing doctoral programmes, rather than providing a substitute. Collaborative PhD students, like CMAP students, participate in a Joint Facility for Electives. Here the students take two electives after successfully completing their core courses. In addition a language module is introduced- where english is taught to francophone students and french to anglophone students.

The Academic Boards for CMAP and CPP, with members drawn from participating universities, are largely responsible for the academic substance of the two programmes. AERC facilitates curriculum development and joint enforcement of standards. AERC also builds the capacity of participating economics departments, supports library facilities and manages the Joint Facility for Electives (JFE), a residential programme of elective courses conducted at a facility in Nairobi. As the executing agency, AERC is responsible for all resource mobilization and grant and contractual arrangements for the collaborators.