iiG delegates from diverse member countries recently gathered in Oxford for a full-day workshop to gauge research progress one year after the consortium’s official inception and to strategise the next stage of each of the areas of academic research on improving institutions for pro-poor growth in sub-Saharan Africa and South-Asia. Participant countries included England, India, Pakistan, Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Ghana, Ethiopia and a visiting delegation from the United States.
The workshop was a diverse dialogue of international opinions, as leading academic minds brought together policy-relevant research on the institutional reforms needed to promote pro-poor growth in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Research interests spanned education, political violence and elections, refugees, social funds, adolescent development programmes, and ultra-poor programmes.
This signalled the start of a week of international collaboration and conversation, with the CSAE Conference 2008 following directly on from the iiG workshop.
Both the iiG workshop and the CSAE conference were highly successful and inspiring arenas for stimulating important academic dialogue and for capacity building among diverse researchers.
Current and prospective iiG research projects discussed included:
Kenyan elections
Uganda and Kenya education projects
The Ultra-poor Programme in southern Sudan
Political violence in Nigeria
Burundian refugees
Social funds in Kenya
The adolescent development programme in Uganda and Tanzania Candidate selection in Nigeria
Aspirations project in Ethiopia
