IDEP – taking the lead in building African capacity
By Petchezi Essodeina, Communication Officer, ECA
31 October 2005

Addis Ababa, 31 October - The African Institute for Economic Development and Planning (IDEP), one of the subsidiary bodies of ECA based in Dakar (Senegal), ended its 45th Executive Council session in Addis Ababa on 28 October after a two-day meeting to review its performance report.

The pan-African training institution also approved its programme and plans for the next biennium.

Participants representing Egypt, Nigeria, Tanzania, Angola and Cameroon addressed among other issues, the challenges facing IDEP today, especially its increasing role in assisting African countries to enhance their policy-making skills and long-term perspective planning in the context of globalization.

“IDEP has achieved a lot over the past years in producing African technocrats and policy-makers, with regional perspectives on African development issues,” said Hakim Ben Hammouda, the director of ECA’s Trade and Regional Integration Division. He was addressing participants on behalf of Abdoulaye Janneh, the new Executive Secretary.

Since IDEP was created in 1963, over 2000 students from 50 African countries have graduated from the institution, completing MA degrees in economic policy management and analysis as well as short term training courses on emerging issues such as regional integration, debt management, agricultural policies and industrial development.

According to Diery Seck, the director of IDEP, one of the main concerns of his institution today is to adequately face the need expressed by African countries for better ownership of their policy agenda. His ambition is to make IDEP the backbone of a wide African intellectual network, promoting original thinking on development challenges.