Zeinab Sabet

ERF 18th Annual Conference on “Corruption and Economic Development” kicks off in Cairo

March 25, 2012 Leave a comment

Economic Research Forum (ERF) kick-started its 18th Annual Conference today with its first plenary session, featuring an impressive line-up of speakers. The focus was on the issue of measuring corruption and its consequences, framing the discussion that will be further explored at the plenary sessions over the next two days of the conference.

ERF 2012 Conference - Opening and Plenary session 1

Following the opening remarks of Ahmed Galal, ERF Managing Director, and Abdlatif Al-Hamad (Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development), Professor Paul Collier highlighted how the costs of corruption are hard to measure and greater than it is possible to imagine. He provided examples of both ‘grand’ and ‘petty’ corruption and contrasted commercial public sector corruption with the type found in the private sector.

Daniel Kaufmann (Brookings Institution) discussed the many different measures of corruption and their relationships, underlining the importance of the interactive relation between transparency, freedom of speech and association, democratic accountability and the fight against corruption. According to him, transparent countries do better in terms of fighting corruption. However, the impact remains limited when the rule of law is weakly implemented. “One does not fight corruption by ‘fighting corruption’, voice and democratic accountability matters” he stated.

Finally, Serdar Sayan (TOBB University of Economics and Technology) underscored new approaches to gauging corruption in different parts of the world, using survey-based measures to assess perceptions.

A pre-Conference workshop exploring aspects of the Arab awakening took place yesterday in an attempt to assess where the Arab mass movements came from, understand the changes that have emerged in the region over the past year and identify lessons learned from other countries/regions which experienced a political transition in the recent years.

Panel session 1: Political Economy Settlements

Videos interviews with workshop speakers and participants are available on ERF blog and ERF 2012 playlist onYouTube

Filed under 18th Annual Conference, Conferences and Events, ERF Annual Conference Tagged with accountability, annual conference, Arab awakening, arab region, corruption, economic development, ERF, erf2012, transition, transparency

“Corruption and Economic Development”: Focus of ERF’s 18th Annual Conference

March 22, 2012 Leave a comment

Corruption is unethical. It is often associated with violence, crime and, in extreme cases, may result in popular revolts, a fact experienced by this region first hand. This year the Economic Research forum (ERF) Conference on Corruption and Economic Development will be held on March 25-27 2012 in Cairo. The conference comes at a time when MENA region is undergoing significant political transformation and many sociopolitical changes.

The definition of corruption and the extent to which corruption is the product of the rules governing economic transactions will be discussed at the plenary sessions, which will feature renowned economists and opinion makers.

Follow proceedings from the ERF conference on the ERF blog. Social Media coverage will be provided by the GDNet team.

Twitter

@ERF latest

@Connect2GDNet

#ERF2012

Filed under 18th Annual Conference, Conferences and Events, ERF Annual Conference Tagged with arab region, corruption, economic development, ERF, erf2012, MENA region

GDNet’s outreach to policy efforts and South to South learning presented at the “Food Secure Arab World Conference”

March 4, 2012 Leave a comment

In her reflection on the discussions that took place at the Food Secure Arab World Conference, organized by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UN-ESCWA), Doctor Sherine Ghoneim – Director GDN Cairo – brought up the following questions:

How can we maximize the impact of research?
How can we inform policy process in a timely fashion?
What will it take to make a difference?

Watch highlights from Sherine Ghoneim’s talk and learn more about the type of work GDNet is doing to support Southern researchers and help their research travel further to reach policymakers:

Filed under Conferences and Events Tagged with gdnet, Health, IFPRI, Nutrition, Sustainable Development, UN-ESCWA

GDNet Participates in the Food Secure Arab World Conference

February 29, 2012 Leave a comment

By Maya Madkour, GDNet

Development practitioners, researchers and policy-makers from the world over convened early February in Beirut, Lebanon to come up with a roadmap for creating a healthy, secure Arab World, free from hunger. Working together to translate research into policy, participants came from a variety of different backgrounds; and of course, GDNet was there.

The Food Secure Arab World Conference, organized by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UN-ESCWA), called for better policy implementation, regional knowledge platforms pooling local knowledge, and collaborating with local and international partners on food, nutrition, and water security issues.

GDNet to develop a series of How-to-Guides on “Communicating Research Effectively”

February 27, 2012 Leave a comment

I just came back from a two weeks mission in Buenos Aires and thought of writing this short story to share with you not only the purpose of my mission, but also the next steps that GDNet is planning to undertake to better build the capacity of its researchers in terms of research uptake in policy.

While being hosted by CIPPEC (Center for the Implementation of Public Policies Promoting Equity and Growth) – GDNet’s strategic partner in Latin America – I had the opportunity to work closely with the Civil Society Directorate staff on developing a GDNet resource pack on research communications to be launched online by mid 2012. The resource pack is intended to compile a series of toolkits addressing the required steps for effective communication of research findings, together with the material produced during the research communications capacity building workshops; it includes PowerPoint presentations, handouts, as well as recommended readings.

Following an introduction on research communications, the resource pack will include a guide on how to develop a communication strategy; communicating effectively with target audience; media and how to make research newsworthy; effective tools for communicating research, including how to write an effective policy brief and how to best use Web 2.0 tools; presentation skills; and monitoring and evaluation of the communication strategy.

GDNet reaches out to researchers

February 23, 2012 1 Comment

By Maya Madkour – GDNet

GDNet is now reaching out to its researchers, letting them know their work has been featured on a number of its regional windows. Part of a strategic decision to cultivate long-term partnerships with its users, GDNet understands the importance of putting a name, and face, to the organization.

GDNet staff now contact researchers every week to find out how they can create a better, more rewarding online experience. Researchers are then informed that their profile is on rotation, where users can access their work, information, and find out more about what they do; they’re encouraged to participate, and play an active role; whether by submitting their most recent work, using online services, or by providing feedback.

The reactions we’ve elicited were heartwarming to say the least; many were excited to find out their work had been featured. One particular researcher was happy she found a platform where she can learn from other users and get feedback on her work. Accessing Southern knowledge from many parts of the developing world also made her very happy.

We will continue creating direct linkages between GDNet staff, researchers, and our audience, to better accommodate their needs and serve as a knowledge hub and intermediary.

Filed under Research Tagged with gdnet, knowledge hub, regional windows, research, South

“Understanding and Avoiding the Oil Curse in the Arab World”, why this topic?

February 2, 2012 Leave a comment

At the ERF Conference on “Understanding and Avoiding the Oil Curse in the Arab World”, I had the opportunity to interview Ahmed Galal, Managing Director of the Economic Research Forum about the importance of the topic to the region and the role of ERF in producing knowledge about the important issues of natural resources and long-term development.

Ahmed Galal, Economic Research Forum (ERF)

Watch more videos with Abdullatif Al-Hamad, Director General and Chairman of the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development and Ibrahim Elbadawi, Economic Policy and Research Center – EPRC, Dubai Economic Council & Economic Research Forum – ERF) on ERF Blog.

Filed under Conferences and Events

“Understanding and Avoiding the Oil Curse in the Arab World” was the theme for the ERF & AFESD Conference

January 23, 2012 Leave a comment

Organized jointly by the Economic Research Forum and the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, the conference “Understanding and Avoiding the Oil Curse in the Arab World” was held in Kuwait on January 15-16, 2012 and convened around 100 regional and international researchers.

Eleven countries of the twenty-two members of the League of the Arab States are oil exporters and they account for approximately 55 percent of global oil reserves and 29 percent of natural gas reserves. The hydrocarbon sector dominates these economies, contributing about 50 percent to GDP and 80 percent to government revenues. Neighboring countries are also impacted by oil, through its impact on labor earnings, capital mobility and trade in goods and services between oil and non-oil exporters. If the region does not harness the power of natural resources, it is likely to experience extreme volatility, post-boom growth collapses, Dutch disease, weakened institutions and rent-seeking behaviors: the so called “oil curse.” The reverse also holds.

In this context ERF has initiated a major research undertaking on “understanding and avoiding the oil curse in the Arab world,” which aims at understanding the macroeconomic challenges related to oil dependency as well as exploring options to address those challenges including fiscal, financial, monetary and exchange rate policies.

Bringing together renowned academics and policy makers, the primary objective of this conference was to initiate discussions on the macroeconomic challenges posed by oil dependency in Arab countries, and of policies for harnessing the power of natural resources. The conference was preceded by a workshop, which was held in Cairo on October 7- 8 2011 to discuss draft papers.

To view posts from the Conference, check the ERF blog

Download the conference agenda

Follow-us on twitter @ERFlatest

Filed under Conferences and Events Tagged with AFESD, Arab World, economic development, ERF, oil, Oil Curse, Oil Dependency, social development

Some findings on the investment climate and business environment in Africa

January 9, 2012 Leave a comment

Once again, I am sharing with you a couple of video interviews I made in Kampala, Uganda at the GDNet-TrustAfrica Policy Workshop held on June 7-8, 2011.

Francis Kemausuor, Energy Centre at the Kwameh Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana, presented the findings and recommendations from his paper on “Jatropha biofuels in Ghana – Making informed policy decisions”. The study addresses the role policy can play in the emerging biofuels industry to the benefit of Ghana. It shows that jatropha production could be more rewarding for investors when using irrigation under the application of fertilizer, and could be even more promising at the national level if Ghana begins commercial production of clean jatropha oil.

Margaret Matanda explored the complexity of the new market entry and the risk taking by earthenware manufacturers through her paper on “Entrepreneurial orientation and access to new markets by small-scale earthenware manufacturers in Western Kenya”.

Filed under Capacity Building Tagged with africa, Capacity Building, gdnet, media, policy brief, TrustAfrica

Take away lessons from the GDNet-TrustAfrica Workshop

January 8, 2012 Leave a comment

It has been quite a while since I posted the last blog from the GDNet-trustAfrica Policy Workshop held in Kampala, Uganda, on June 7-8, 2011.

During the workshop, I have had the opportunity to interview some of the participants about the so-called “take away lessons” from the workshop. I thought of making a blog out of those interviews since it is important for GDNet to keep an eye on what participants learn from the research communications capacity building events, and to use their comments and critics to improve the training workshops and materials.

Watch highlights from researchers sharing what they learned from the workshop below: