UNU's Activities in and on Africa
Development
Africa Series
UNU Food and Nutrition Programme (UNU-FNP) and UNU Office in New York (UNU-ONY)
Contact: Sara Shapiro and Jean-Marc Coicaud
Time frame: 2007–2009
The series of symposia relates to Africa’s failure to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). UNU and Cornell University are collaborating to map out the state of scientific and policy knowledge in four critical areas: "The African Food and Nutrition System" (held November 2007), "From Governance and Development Crises to Security Crises" (April 2008), "HIV/AIDS and Public Health" (tentatively June 2008) and "Environment and Sustainability" (Pending). A final event, to take place in July 2008, will outline the lessons learned from the preceding events and will aim to developing policy recommendations.
The conferences are attracting leading international academics with substantial representation from African Scholars and policy makers. Book length volumes will be published based on papers from conference participants. Multimedia is being used to maximize outreach efforts, including webcasting and digitally archiving the symposia. Through this process, the UNU and Cornell, in cooperation with other UN agencies and African academic institutions aim to foster fundamental knowledge and policy formation in the aforementioned areas in the African context, which will strengthen future capacity development initiatives in the region.
The objectives of the Africa Series are to identify and address gaps in knowledge and policy as well as the problems preventing Africa from achieving the MDGs. It is envisioned that the policy knowledge developed in the series will be utilized in a high level meeting on the theme “Africa’s development needs: state of implementation of various commitments, challenges and the way forward” (see General Assembly Resolution A/62/242), to be held during the 63rd session of the UN General Assembly on 22 September 2008.
As the UN Secretary-General mentioned in his opening message (November 2007), at the inaugural symposium of the Africa Series, the Africa Series is not an end in itself. UNU- FNP and the UNU office at the United Nations, New York envision through this process and in cooperation with other UN agencies and academic institutions working in and on Africa, to contribute to advancing fundamental knowledge and policy formation in the aforementioned areas in the African context, and thereby strengthen future capacity development initiatives in the region.
Tags: Africa, development, nutrition, symposium, Africa Series, policy recommendation, MDGs, public health, HIV/AIDS, security crisis, governance
The Impact of Globalization on the World’s Poor
UNU World Institute on Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER)
Contact:Erik Thorbecke, Machiko Nissanke
Time frame: 2006–2007
The final output of the project on the Impact of Globalization on the World’s Poor is expected to be a volume encompassing studies from the conferences held in Asia, Africa and South America; the publication is foreseen in early 2009. Within the framework of this project, numerous research papers focusing on African related issues have been published, for a complete list see: Impact of Globalization on the World’s poor webpage, as well as a special issue of the journal African Development Review (Vol 20, No. 1 (April) 2008).
Tags: Africa, development, globalization, poverty, globalization, impact, sub-Saharan Africa
Gender and Food Security
UNU World Institute on Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER)
Contact: Basudeb Guha-Khasnobis
Time frame: 2006–2007
The project on Gender and Food Security encompasses an Africa focus, and follows the earlier project on hunger and food security which aimed to examine the effect of the status of women relative to men on various aspects of food security. A project meeting was held in Accra, Ghana in May 2007, where one-half the participants were women. The project expects to derive comparative (successful) policy lessons that can be transferred between Asia and Africa.
Tags: Africa, development, gender, food security, lessons
Southern Engines of Global Growth: China, India, Brazil and South Africa
UNU World Institute on Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER)
Contact: Guanghua Wan, Amelia Santos-Paulino
Time frame: 2006–2008
In 2007, UNU-WIDER began a new project on the Southern Engines of Global Growth: China, India, Brazil, and South Africa. Following on the fact that South Africa was selected as one of the growth drivers, a number of researchers from Sub-Saharan Africa will further be involved in the project. A project conference will be held in Johannesburg in September 2008.
Tags: Africa, development, economic growth, South Africa
Designing Africa’s Poverty Strategies for Policy Simulation
UNU World Institute on Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER)
This project began in 2004 and continued in 2006-2007. It has constructed and applied microsimulation models for four African countries: Botswana, Uganda, Nigeria and Cameroon. Using information contained in national level household income and expenditure surveys to analyse tax and/or social transfer programmes, the country teams developed microsimulation models that can be applied to concrete policy challenges facing each country. The models run on a user-friendly interface, developed in 2005, that make them more easily accessible to policymakers.
The models will be presented to researchers and policymakers in Africa. As a second phase of the project, it hopes to offer development of the microsimulation models to additional African countries and also to develop macroeconomic models for Bostwana, Cameroon, Nigeria and Uganda that will link to the existing microsimulation models developed during the first phase of the project.
This project has constructed and applied microsimulation models for five African countries: Botswana, Uganda, Nigeria, Cameroon and South Africa.
Tags: Africa, development, poverty, income, Botswana, Uganda, Nigeria, Cameroon, microsimulation, expenditure, model
African Development: Myths and Realities
UNU World Institute on Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER)
Contact: Augustin Fosu
Time frame: 2008–2009
UNU-WIDER's Research Programme and Development Conferences in 2008-2009 will focus on studies on Africa, and include African contributors. In addition, one project conference in 2009 is planned for African Development: Myths and Realities – the reasons put forward for Africa’s disappointing development record, attempting to differentiate between myth and reality, and to seek a blue print for public policy into the 21st century.
Tags: Africa, development, myth, reality, lessons, blueprint
National Human Development Report 2006, Liberia
UNU Peace and Governance Programme (UNU-PG)
Contact: Ted Newman c/o Nicholas Turner
Time frame: 2004–2007
The UNU Peace and Governance Programme contributed to the 2006 National Human Development Report for Liberia which focused on human development and peacebuilding. The mission to Liberia, undertaken by a UNU officer at the request of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), involved consultations with a range of UN agencies based in Liberia and with local stakeholders – including civil servants, civil society, media, and the University of Liberia – to assess the peace-building and development process in the country.
The report, which focuses on the role of capacity development in reconstruction and peace-building, became a key instrument for stimulating debate within the country and amongst donors.
Tags: Africa, Liberia, development, Human Development Report, consultation
Regulation of Private Security Sector in Africa
UNU Peace and Governance Programme (UNU-PG)
Contact: Ramesh Thakur c/o Nicholas Turner
Time frame: 2006–2007
The Peace and Governance Programme co-organized a conference on “Regulation of the Private Security Sector in Africa” in April 2007, with the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) in Pretoria, South Africa. The conference brought together academics, researchers, practitioners, government officials and representatives of foreign missions, interrogating the phenomenon of the private security sector industry in Africa, and the means appropriate and necessary to regulate it. The book Private Security in Africa: Manifestation, Challenges and Regulation was published in November 2007, based on the results of this research.
Tags: Africa, development, economy, private sector, regulation
The Secretary-General’s Report (2008) on “Africa’s development needs: state of implementation of various commitments, challenges and the way forward”
UNU Office in New York (UNU-ONY)
Contact: Jean-Marc Coicaud
Time frame: 2008
The United Nations University has been tasked by the UN Office of the Special Adviser on Africa (OSAA) to coordinate the drafting of the Secretary-General’s report on “Africa’s development needs: state of implementation of various commitments, challenges and the way forward” to be submitted to the high level Meeting on Africa’s development needs to take place on September 22, 2008. UNU-ONY will work with UNU-WIDER, UNU-CRIS and Cornell University to draft the report.
As Africa is increasingly the main focus of the international community, the report will examine Africa’s sustained development needs, the challenges it faces, as well as take stock of all main commitments made by the international community and by African countries and organizations to address these issues. It will also propose a set of practical, strategic and results-oriented recommendations for both the international community, including the United Nations system and African countries, and regional organizations to address Africa’s special needs.
The report will draw on the two previous reports of the UN Secretary-General’s Advisory Panel on International Support for NEPAD , as well as various reports from the Secretary-General on NEPAD (including the Progress in Implementation and International Support documents). As stipulated in paragraph 15 of the General Assembly resolution A/62/242, the report will be prepared in cooperation with relevant UN development agencies, the Bretton Woods Institutions, and other relevant regional and international financial and trade organizations. In addition to a short introduction laying out the background, the scope and the main vision, the report will include three main sections: Africa’s development needs and challenges; commitments and the state of implementation; and recommendations and the way forward.
Tags: Africa, development, UN Secretary-General’s Report, high level meeting on Africa
UNU-WIDER Ph.D. internship and sabbatical programmes
UNU World Institute on Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER)
Contact: Guanghua Wan
Time frame: 2006–2009
UNU World Institute on Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER) has aimed over the past two years to include more African participants in its Ph.D. internship and sabbatical programmes. As a result two African interns (one from Ethiopia and another from Nigeria) will participate in the programme in 2008. UNU-WIDER also invites scholars working on topics broadly related to its programme to work at the Institute for short periods and participate in its research activities. In 2008 UNU-WIDER will host one visiting scholar from Ethiopia.
Tags: capacity development, Africa, economy, Ph.D. internship, sabbatical programme
UNU-WIDER short-duration training courses on microsimulation (part of the project entitled “Designing Africa’s Poverty Strategies for Policy Simulation”)
UNU World Institute on Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER)
Contact: Asghar Adelzadeh
Time frame: 2006–2007
Participation in the short-duration training courses on microsimulation (a project on reform in taxation and transfer policies that aims at increasing the capacities of policy makers and researchers in Africa to simulate the impact of macroeconomic policies) increased over 2006-2007 from four to nine African countries (including Botswana, Cameroon, Nigeria, Uganda, Zambia, Mozambique, Namibia, Ghana and Tanzania).
About 20 individuals of the country teams participated in ten training workshops, most of them held in Africa, but also in 2007 at international conferences held in Addis Ababa, Austria and Helsinki, as part of the capacity-building activities. The project expects to hold another one or two workshops in 2008 and presentations of the model and website at various African institutes.
Tags: capacity development, Africa, development, economy, short-duration training course, microsimulation
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Page last modified 2009.05.14.
