After preparing its Medium Term Strategy and Indicative Work Programme 2003-2006, IDEP is now engaged in the process of implementing the activities envisaged in that key document. They include an In-depth Systemic Assessment (ISA) and the preparation of a Matrix of Action Plan (MAP) for the Institute. The aim is to strengthen IDEP’s capacity and revamp its programmes so that it can better address the major issues facing the African continent, as required by its mandate.

One important aspect of this process is the enhancement of IDEP’s visibility throughout the continent and beyond. This maiden issue of the quarterly IDEP e-Newsletter is a step in that direction. The e-Newsletter is to serve as a source of information on developments in IDEP as well as a useful channel of communication with its various partners or stakeholders: member States, IDEP alumni, the Donor Community and sister institutions, among others. It is meant to complement the bi-annual IDEP Newsletter, which will be revived in the near future.

We hope that through this medium you will know more about the work of the Institute. Your comments and suggestions would help us to constantly improve on our performance.

Diéry Seck

Director

UPDATE ON TRAINING ACTIVITIES

The MA programme was enriched as a result of some innovative changes introduced by the Training Division and based on the demand from member States. In particular, a course on Governance & Economic Policy was introduced for the first and second semesters of the 2002/2003 Academic Year.

Theses

1999/2001 and 2000/2002 Academic Years

The first quarter of this year saw the defence of four theses by the following trainees from the 1999/2001 and 2000/2002 Academic Years:

- DIONE Ngor : Impact of Human Capital on Economic Growth in Senegal;

 

- HENDAH Mohamed Mahmoud Ould: Agricultural Credit and Rural Development in Mauritania;

 

- NDONG Abdoulaye: Financial System and Economic Growth in Senegal;

 

- TOURÉ Alioune: Econometric Analysis of the Determinants of Demand for Imports of Milk and Dairy Products in Senegal;

2001/2003 Academic Year

Trainees of the 2001/2003 Academic Year are in various stages of completion of their theses. Eight (8) trainees out of fifteen (15) who successfully completed the course work have presented their thesis proposals. They are:

- ALOUYA P. Essomanam: Analysis of the Determinant Factors of Tax Revenue in Togo;

 

- CISSE Mamadou: Analysis of the Relation between Unemployment and Education in Senegal;

 

- DAFF Mamadou: Determinants of Investment in Tourism in Senegal;

 

- DIOP Saër Diabou: Trade Relations between Senegal and UEMOA since 1970 : Impact on the Economic Growth of Senegal;

 

- HESSOU Prince: Wage Bill and Budget Deficit in Togo;

 

- ISSAKA Seydou: Impact of Public Investment on Rural Production in Niger;

 

- MASABO Oscar: Effects of External Debt on Private Investment in Rwanda;

 

- SECK Saliou: Impact of Financial Liberalization on Mobilization of Domestic Savings: The Case of Senegal.

Although it was implemented in October 2002, this four-week training course deserves to be mentioned in this issue of the e-Newsletter mainly because it was the first to be organized for Portuguese-speaking participants at IDEP.

The course was sponsored by the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA) and delivered entirely in Portuguese. The 25 participants (20 men and 5 women) were senior professionals occupying relatively high positions in their countries. They were selected out of 73 qualified candidates from 5 countries, namely Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique and Sao Tome & Principe. One participant came from an NGO and the others from Ministries and public sector institutions.

The general objectives of the course were:

1. To enhance the professional capacity of senior agricultural development officers in Portuguese-speaking African countries;

 

2. To upgrade skills for applying practical tools and methods for preparing, evaluating and implementing agricultural development projects;

 

3. To promote synergies through exchange of experiences and ideas among participants, and therefore among their respective countries, concerning various issues related to agricultural development projects.

The training programme was composed of the following modules:

1. The place of agricultural projects in socioeconomic development in Africa;

2. Preparation of agricultural projects (feasibility studies);

3. Evaluation of agricultural projects;

4. Implementation of agricultural projects;

5. Practical computer applications.

Three training experts from Mozambique (2) and Cape Verde (1) participated in the delivery of the course modules. All the 25 trainees successfully completed the course and got their certificates.

Evaluation questionnaires filled out and submitted by the participants at the end of the programme indicated a high degree of satisfaction, particularly with respect to relevance of the programme, thematic coverage, pedagogical approach, attainment of course objectives and general working conditions. The main difficulty encountered was that many participants did not have the basic computer literacy required for the computer application module.

The closing ceremony took place on Thursday 31 October 2002. It was attended by Senegalese officials from the Ministries of Agriculture and Finance as well as representatives of International Organizations in Dakar (UNDP, FAO, Conference of Ministers of Agriculture in West and Central Africa, and the Agricultural Policy Expertise Network in West and Central Africa). The Embassies of Portuguese-speaking African countries in Dakar, namely Cape Verde and Guinea Bissau, were also invited.

The database and list of IDEP’s former trainees, now to be displayed in the entrance hall, will enable the IDEP community to look at the history of the Institute and its achievements over the years. It will also make it easier to keep track of the Institute’s former trainees.

United Nations Economic Commission for Africa

During a mission to Addis Ababa, 21 to 31 January 2003, the Director of IDEP, Dr. Diery SECK, held consultations with senior management of ECA and with OPRM. He briefed them about recent developments at IDEP and discussed budgetary, personnel and programme issues. He also discussed with the Legal Adviser of ECA the draft agreements proposed by IDRC regarding the transfer of SISERA to IDEP. It should be noted that in November 2002 SISERA’s Steering Committee decided that SISERA be relocated at IDEP.

At a Senior Management Team (SMT) meeting organized by the Deputy Executive Secretary of ECA, the Director was invited to brief all Division Chiefs about IDEP’s recent developments and future activities. In his presentation he proposed collaboration between each division and IDEP in the context of Sub-Programme 9 and with respect to IDEP’s other activities.

African Union (AU)

After several contacts between IDEP and AU, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed on 17 February 2003 during a visit to the Institute by an AU delegation comprising Dr. René Kouassi, Director of Economic Affairs and Ambassador Vijay S. Makhan, Commissioner for Industry, Trade and Economic Affairs.

The Director also held discussions with AU officials in January and February 2003 concerning a course on Regional Integration that IDEP has agreed to deliver on behalf of AU.

Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA)

Several discussions have been held with COMESA officials on a proposed Memorandum of Understanding and a proposal for IDEP technical assistance to COMESA. These initiatives are expected to be finalized soon.

World Bank

The Director visited the World Bank Institute (WBI) during a mission to Washington, 2-13 January 2003. He met with a number of Bank officials and gave a brief presentation of recent developments in IDEP, especially in the area of training. He underscored the need to jointly design, organize, fund and evaluate training activities. WBI expressed a strong interest in collaborating with IDEP under the formula proposed. Further consultations aimed at identifying specific courses that could be organized jointly, will be held in the near future.

 

United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

As a follow up to the meeting of SISERA’s Steering Committee in November 2002, in Kampala, the Director met with Dr. Rita Aggarwal of the Africa Bureau, SAGA Coordinator during his mission to Washington in January 2003. He also met with Arthur Wesneat, Africa Bureau, Coordinator for Trade Initiative. As a representative of USAID on SISERA’s Steering Committee, Dr. Aggarwal was happy with the decision to relocate SISERA at IDEP. The Director gave a detailed briefing on IDEP’s internal restructuring and current resource mobilization campaign. The USAID officials recommended that IDEP should follow up on programme financing matters with representatives from USAID’s Global Bureau and the USA Trade Department.

As part of his mission to Washington, 2-13 January 2003, the Director met with officials of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). It emerged from the discussions that IFPRI has a lot to offer to IDEP, especially in the areas of agricultural policy and modelling. It was agreed that IDEP would send a follow-up letter to the Director General of IFPRI and propose that future collaboration be framed under an MOU that would have a multi-year programming of joint activities.

The Director attended the annual convention of the Allied Social Sciences Associations (ASSA), which was held in Washington between 2 and 13 January 2003. During a session organized by the African Finance and Economic Association (AFEA), he had an opportunity to give a short presentation of IDEP and its programmes. He also met with several young African economists and had informal discussions with them about IDEP and its role as a premier African Institute.

 

The provision of Internet services at IDEP has come a long way, having started as a point-to -point dial-up link in 1996, with the now obsolete 9,600 bps modem.

Between January and March 2003, the bandwidth was increased from 64Kbps to 256Kbps, using a dedicated leased line from Telecomplus Company. To match this moderate speed connection, the entire LAN system had to be revamped with the old CISCO routers changed and the firewall hardware added to keep would-be security intruders off bounds. The servers too were upgraded and now, using the Internet at IDEP is not very different from being somewhere in Europe or America as far as the technology is concerned.

ECA to Install a VSAT Link at IDEP

In an effort to increase bandwidth and connectivity capacity at its Sub-regional Development Centres (SRDCs), the Economic Commission for Africa is supporting a project to install a high-speed VSAT Link at IDEP effective from June 2003. Indeed the link will further increase the capacity of the connection for data, voice and video which the Institute needs to deliver its training and research programmes.

With an increased budget for library materials, the library’s capacity is being developed for it to become one of the best stocked in Africa with regard to economic research data and information. To achieve this, a concerted acquisition programme was launched in January 2003 to acquire key data and materials to meet the objectives of the Institute’s training and research programmes. The acquisition programme is to be implemented so as to cover different categories of data/literature and will lead to the acquisition of external databases/digital libraries, data and literature on economics, finance, agriculture and other relevant subjects.

A new system has been put in place for the provision of security and cleaning services at IDEP. Apart from providing identification badges to all staff and visitors entering the Institution’s premises, a security company has been hired to provide 24-hour security services. The cleaning of the building and offices has also been contracted to a private company. As a result, there has been a tremendous improvement in the security and cleaning of the Institute.

About 50 ultramodern computers, some printers and UPS have been ordered by the Institute.

They are expected to arrive soon. The acquisition of this new equipment is in line with the ongoing process of modernizing the Institute and its overall capacity to implement its training and research programmes. The equipment will greatly increase the efficiency of the staff and improve access to computer facilities for trainees in the various programmes. The Institute has also ordered two vehicles: one Peugeot 307 Saloon car and one Toyota Mini-bus. The acquisition of these vehicles will, among other things, facilitate the transportation of participants and organization of field trips during conferences and training programmes carried out by the Institute.

The beginning of the year 2003 saw the departure of four colleagues who left IDEP on early retirement. These were: Mrs Fatima Therese Santos of the Library Section, Mrs Victorina Ndao of the Training Division, Mr Kaye Elimane Toure and Georges Diokh, both of the General Services Section. They had been at IDEP for close to three decades! We wish them all the best as they make their next moves in life.

Three new staff members were recruited during the first quarter of the year:

Mr.  C. Touré as Senior Finance Assistant

Mr. A. Coly as Finance Assistant

Mr. M. B. Diop as Research Assistant.

We wish them a happy stay at IDEP.

During the month of February, 2003, a computer training course in MS Word and Excel was organized for all IDEP staff. It is expected that the enhancement of computer application capacity will help the staff to upgrade their skills. More training activities of this kind are planned to take place later in the year.

© IDEP 2003