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Call for Papers: Macroeconomic Policy Formation in Africa: The theme of the next African Development Perspectives Yearbook will be “Macroeconomic Policy Formation in Africa" (see the Call for Papers). Interested scholars are invited to submit papers for thematic studies on the subject areas and case studies for countries in all five African sub-regions (North Africa, West Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, South Africa). Also case studies on the role of African regional organizations (African Union, APRM/NEPAD, UNECA, African Development Bank) and on regional economic communities (RECs) are welcomed.
Volume 15 of the African Development Perspectives Yearbook on “Africa and the Global Financial Crisis – Impact on Economic Reform Processes” is forthcoming soon (Vgl.: link to the African Development Perspectives Yearbook publications). The African Development Perspectives Yearbook is edited by an international group of researchers.
International Research Competition of the Volkswagen Foundation Sub-Sahara Africa Initiative: African post-doctoral researchers will be supported by a new programme of the Volkswagen Foundation (Information for Applicants). There are Junior Fellowships and Senior Fellowships available. Objectives of the programme are capacity building in the African academic community, high quality research on current social, economic and political problems of the continent, and the support of programmes to intensify research cooperation of African scholars with a European partner institution and African researchers/African partner institutions.
Professor Karl Wohlmuth was asked to spread information about this new programme as he is involved since 2005 in researches of the Volkswagen Foundation Sub-Sahara Africa Initiative (see the IWIM Governance Sudan research programme). The Research Group on African Development Perspectives Bremen and the Sudan Economy Research Group (SERG) network at the University of Bremen will support applicants in the domain of their research interests by linking them to partners and mentors (Contact: Professor Dr. Karl Wohlmuth, Email: wohlmuth@uni-bremen.de)
Post-Conflict Stabilization in Africa: Professor Karl Wohlmuth has written review articles on important UN and IMF publications about post-conflict stabilization in Africa (see the publications of the Author). The relevance of these studies for the country cases of Sudan/South Sudan is brought out clearly in these articles, as Sudan/South Sudan can benefit a lot from the lessons of these studies in the crucial period towards the Independence Declaration of South Sudan on July 9, 2011 and in the years after.
International Call for Papers: Interested scholars doing research work on Sudan’s economy are invited to submit research papers, commented documents and policy-oriented papers on the economic development perspectives of the two states in Sudan after the Independence Declaration on July 9, 2011. Sixteen policy areas being of interest for such an exercise were identified (see the International Call for Papers ). So far the discussion on the Sudan separation issues is limited to political, social, ethnic, and legal considerations. These papers will be reviewed and published in the New Series of the Sudan Economy Research Group (SERG) Discussion Papers at the University of Bremen. These studies are part of a new research project "Economic Policies in Sudan after the Referendum of 2011". The purpose of the new research project is to investigate into the new policies that are requested in Sudan after the Independence Declaration. The economic issues of the separation agenda and of the reconstruction and development agenda in the North and in the South are of interest, but most important is it also to look at the cooperation requirements and opportunities between the North and the South after the Independence Declaration. All papers should therefore look carefully at these issues and at the cooperation agenda as both states will lose in terms of economic development if cooperation and coordination activities are not forthcoming.
In a first step the research papers and the policy-oriented papers will be discussed and published in the new edition of the SERG Discussion Paper Series. Invited are papers according to the list of sixteen areas that were identified as core issues being of particular interest. In the second step a discussion process will be started on the policy implications of the papers to discuss the issues of the papers according to the main policy areas. The networks of the contributors will be used for this exchange of ideas. In the third step a dialogue with economic ministries, civil society institutions, and experts in the North and in the South of the Sudan will be started on the issues to compare and contrast the insights from the papers with current government policy prescriptions and alternative views and plans on policy formation in Sudan. Applications for financial support were already started to finance the publication activity, the network establishment, and later on the dialogue forums in Khartoum and Juba.
New Industrialization Strategy for Africa based on Agriculture Development: Professor Karl Wohlmuth has consulted on, edited and synthesized a comparative study with eight case studies for the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) in Vienna. The study documents a new direction of industrial development in Africa – based on the development of agro-industries and agribusiness. The eight case studies (Cameroon, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Zambia) represent the different conditions in Africa with regard of economic size and power, resource endowments, economic opportunities, and development level. The analyses give detailed information on the situation and on the prospects and allow it to derive policy conclusions for two economic power houses of Africa (South Africa and Nigeria), for four least developed countries (Ethiopia, Mali, Senegal, and Zambia), and for two other African (lower middle income or low income) countries (Cameroon and Kenya). It comes out that there are plenty of opportunities for the countries to benefit from a new industrialization strategy that has a particular focus on agro-industries and on agribusiness. It is also possible to realize on the basis of such a strategy multiple development objectives: export diversification, import substitution, human development and nutrition improvements, rural development, employment creation and poverty alleviation, as well as linking the agriculture and industry sectors in a future-oriented way by the instrument of integrated value chains. A Transformation Index measures the progress and the performance of these eight countries in developing agro-industries and agribusiness. The results give evidence that also the least developed and landlocked countries of Africa (like Ethiopia, Mali, and Zambia) have already successfully embarked on such a strategy and increasingly realize their development chances. The Report will be published by UNIDO.
This study is part of the Abuja Initiative of UNIDO and five other international and regional organizations (FAO, IFAD, African Union Commission, African Development Bank, UNECA). The African Heads of State and Government have approved in March 2010 in Abuja the Abuja Declaration which addresses the issues of a new agro-based industrialization strategy. It was recommended at the Meeting that it is necessary to analyze more deeply the objectives and instruments to pursue such an Industrialization Strategy for Africa and to look at the potentials and strategies of African countries to develop agro-industries and agribusiness along these lines. It was proposed that suitable strategies should be based on individual country characteristics, resource endowments, local capacities, and human capabilities (see the Abuja Declaration and the link to the joint research project with UNIDO).
Sudan Governance Project Bremen: New Publication on the Implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) for Sudan (see the link to the information from the publisher Boydell & Brewer Ltd), and Information on a New Book about Sudan on Institutions and investment in Sudan: Socio-Economic and Institutional Foundations of Reconstruction and Development (see the Abstract/Publication Information and the link to IWIM Book Series).
Inequality, Poverty and the Health Sector in Nigeria: Professor Dr. Reuben Adeolu Alabi, Department of Agricultural Economics, Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma Edo State, Nigeria, e-mail: bayobimb@yahoo.com, and Fellow of Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Bonn, Germany
is again visiting Bremen in December 2010 to submit a research paper on the “Redistributive Impacts of Public Expenditures for the Health System in Nigeria”. The study was supervised by Professor Karl Wohlmuth and is financed by a fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. The Study will be published in the IWIM Blue Series Discussion Papers. Professor Alabi has as well studied the redistributive impacts of public expenditures for the education system in Nigeria (for other papers of the author see the list of IWIM Blue Series Discussion Papers).
Economic Policies in Sudan after the Referendum of 2011: Two papers are now prepared in this new research project for the SERG Discussion Paper Series (see the list of SERG publications ). Mister Berhanu Denu G., Addis Ababa University, prepares a research report on “An Agenda for Reconstruction and Development in Sudan and South Sudan”. The paper will focus on institution-building based on his new institutional economics approach; he researches the role of institutions for development during war and peace times in Sudan and South Sudan. Proposals for the establishment of new institutions to allow for a better coordination of economic policies between the North and the South are also made.
Another paper will be provided for the SERG Series by Professor Karl Wohlmuth, Bremen University, on “Learning from Economic Policy Failures in Sudan. Lessons for the North and for the South”. The paper will reflect also on the insights of economic policy-related researches on Sudan by the SERG (Sudan Economy Research Group). Many findings of the SERG researches on industry and small enterprise development policies; agricultural and agro-industrial policies; macroeconomic, public financial management and exchange rate policies; regional and spatial development policy; poverty reduction and human development policies; and on foreign trade and investment policies are still relevant, as most of the policy proposals based on these and similar analyses never had been implemented in Sudan because of bad governance and war and conflict (see the list of these SERG publications in alphabetical order and also by subject areas.)