On the 8th of May 2019, a coordination meeting was organized at the AERC offices in Nairobi, to discuss the next step for the newly signed partnership between AERC and PARI. With this partnership, PARI aims to contribute to AERC’s effort at enhancing the capacity building for economic policy research and graduate training in sub-Saharan Africa.
Prof. Njuguna Ndung’u – Executive Director of AERC, Dr. Innocent Matshe – Director of Training for AERC, Dr. Tom Kimani – Manager – Training Programme and two senior researchers from PARI participated in the meeting. The discussions were mainly focused on the research grant provided for the postgraduate training in economics (Master and Ph.D.), faculty and thematic research activities as well as organization of workshops and regional policy forums to disseminate the research outputs.
Another important aspect of the meeting was the discussion of options for further collaboration. This would include the participation of selected AERC postgraduate students at a side event organized by ZEF at the AAEA conference in 2019. A second side event will also be organized at the 2021/2022 AAEA conference to share the results of AERC’s postgraduate students over the course of the partnership. Senior researchers from ZEF will offer the students courses in economics at the joint facility for electives. Senior researchers from ZEF will further engage with the students to technically support them in their research activities.