ECA/ PEP Conference Pledges to Invest in Knowledge and Research for Poverty Alleviation
21 June 2006
The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and the Poverty and Economic Policy Research Network (PEP) kick started their joint Conference on Poverty Measurement and Impact Analysis by holding the plenary session on Sunday June 17, 2006 in Addis Abeba.
Opening the Conference on behalf of USG Abdoulie Janneh, the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa, Hakim Ben Hammouda, Director of Trade and Regional Integration Division (TRID) underlined the role of the Commission, who, as a knowledge-based institution, "focuses on promoting economic and social development through networking and building stronger partnership worldwide".
Eminent African and international economists, researchers and policy analysts are attending the Conference which is being organized by several other partners, namely the Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies of De La Salle University, (Manila) and the Centre Inter-universitaire sur le Risque, les Politiques Économiques et l'Emploi, (Laval University).
Welcoming the Directors of the PEP's sub networks, Prof. John Cokburn and Prof.Bernard Decalue of the Laval University, as well as Dr.Celia Reyes of the King Angelo University in the Philippines, Ben Hammouda commended the quality support ECA has been getting from their respective institutions. Focusing on poverty alleviation as its major overarching goals, ECA has embarked, through its African Center for Gender and Development, on developing gender aware micro simulation and macro economic models to evaluate impact of policies on poverty reduction, and help African countries undertake necessary adjustments, according to Ben Hammouda. It is with view to achieving such goal that generating knowledge and investing in research has become a requisite to address causes and level of poverty, through adequate macroeconomic policies and micro-level actions.
Analyzing poverty, while taking into consideration the structural linkages between cross cutting issues such a gender and the environment, growth and development, etc, can only "ensure and enhance the capacity to successfully implement poverty reduction strategies", noted Ben Hammouda.
Of particular importance for ECA, he added, is the need to boost collaboration and research efforts in a number of areas so as to inform current efforts aiming to reduce poverty. Among these areas, the Speaker insisted on: interaction between non-market economy and market economies, gender-sensitive poverty profiles, and various household surveys to generate gender- disaggregated data, impacts of HIV/AIDS, and development of realistic indicators for MDG reporting and monitoring.
Taking the floor, Dr.Evan Due, representative of the Development Research Centre (IDRC-Canada) that funds the PEP Network underscored the Center's endeavour to work closely with international agencies such as ECA, ensure policy relevance and foster solid empirical research to instruct policies and cushion adjustments.
Other guest speakers at the plenary session were the Directors of the PEPs three-sub networks that gave brief snapshots of their respective mission, and announced some of their future initiatives both in Africa and elsewhere.
Featuring high on the agenda of the plenary session were the four presentations that followed the opening ceremony. Researchers from Indonesia, Bangladesh, Kenya and India expounded the findings of their surveys which overall focus was the impact of policies and reforms on poverty reduction, using advanced analytical concepts and tools.
More information rich surveys and papers are also being presented and discussed during this weeklong conference during parallel sub network sessions.
In addition, individual meetings are scheduled to take place between resource persons and participating researchers on Thursday June 22 nd .
Selecting new research proposals and agreeing on potential areas of collaboration with ECA within the framework of its activities in poverty reduction will be yet another major achievement of the Conference.
* For more details on the 5 th PEP Network meeting, and other network activities, you may visit the PEP website at www.pep-net.org
* For more details, please contact:
Alfred Latigo ,
Senior Economic Affairs Officer,
Project Leader, PEP Meeting/ ACGD,
UNECA
Tel: (251- 1) 115- 443445
Email: alatigo@uneca.org
Or
Houda Mejri,
Information Officer - ACGD,
UNECA
Tel: (251-1) 115- 443337
Email: hmejri@uneca.org |
