Celebrating the achievements of 2024 and Outlook towards 2025
Jane Mariara
Executive Director, Partnership for Economic Policy; Professor of Economics University of Nairobi
I am delighted to share what we, at the Partnership for Economic Policy (PEP) accomplished in 2024. In a world going through unprecedented changes and facing multiple risks related to health, climate and financial crises and an unstable geopolitical landscape, PEP’s mission to ensure that policy solutions most suitable to local contexts are designed taking local expertise into account becomes even more important. This is because the ongoing crises increases the vulnerability of populations in the Global South and intensifies complexity on the ground.
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I am excited to report that in line with our commitment to promoting local research leadership in Southern countries, we completed several major research programs over the last year focusing on a range of subjects. These included facilitating women’s economic empowerment; answering the critical question of financing green energy transition in the Global South; understanding the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war on African economies, especially women; creating meaningful employment for youth in Africa; and building capacity to conduct high quality impact evaluations.
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Building PEP’s thought leadership in emerging areas – We explored two new areas of research in 2024. First, PEP aimed to build its thought leadership in the emerging area of how artificial intelligence is affecting jobs globally with a focus on developing nations, which was one of the themes of our annual policy conference– organized in June last year physically in Nairobi for the first time since the pandemic. The conference also featured a dialogue from a research program reviewing policies to create dignified and fulfilling work for young men and women across the African continent, in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation. Second, local PEP researchers in Pakistan and South Africa, supported by the Center for Global Development, explored the crucial role of local and foreign investment, including that by Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs), in particular, in financing green energy transition in the Global South.
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Continued research on supporting women’s economic empowerment – PEP continued to focus its research on empowering women in Southern countries with support from funders like the Hewlett Foundation and Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC). ?A recently concluded program explored macroeconomic policies to promote gender equality in Africa, while another studied how soft skills training in Kenya could boost women’s employment in the formal economy. As part of the ongoing research on how the Russia Ukraine war is impacting African economies, researchers analyzed how the war affected women in the labor market. Further, with the Hewlett Foundation’s support, local researchers concluded two research programs on strengthening local capacity to conduct high quality impact evaluations in five African countries.
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Mentoring the next generation – To build the capacity of young researchers, PEP continued to offer its online training in development economics in partnership with the University of Florence, as well as offered a new course in leveraging monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) tools to LKMP researchers. Importantly, it developed and launched a self-paced, interactive, bilingual online course to strengthen researchers' capacity to integrate?gender equality and inclusion (GEI) principles in their research, supported by IDRC. PEP also supported multiple scholarships in 2024, including the Africa Fellows in Education Program (AFEP), which admitted 10 new fellows; a fellowship with the Center for Effective Global Action?(CEGA), and the Structural Transformation of African Agriculture and Rural Spaces (STARS) Fellows Program in collaboration with Cornell University.
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Ongoing research –?As part of its ongoing programs, local PEP researchers are exploring the challenges in implementing the uptake of renewable energy by rural micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) for modernizing agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa and South-East Asia, supported by IDRC. Local researchers are also building the capacity of Canadian Small Organizations (SMOs) and their country-level partners in conducting effective monitoring and evaluation to inform decision-making, supported by Global Affairs Canada. PEP researchers are analyzing the challenge of access to equitable health care in Ethiopia, supported by the Fund for Innovation in Development, and will complete the program on review of policies creating decent employment for youth in 10 African countries in early 2025.
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Enhancing PEP’s reach – PEP continues to work with existing partners and also to build collaboration for capacity building in research and policy engagement in the Global South. Further, PEP welcomed its cohort of six new Research Fellows from the Global South this year and continued to participate in multiple international fora to strengthen the voice of Southern researchers in development debates. In particular, PEP increased its efforts at making critical research accessible to its global audience through a new PEP Blog and the Executive Director’s newsletter – Southern Lens on Development.
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As another productive year comes to a close, I take the opportunity to thank our donors, partners, the Board, mentors, researchers, staff and management for their continued support and belief, and wish everyone a wonderful 2025.
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领英推荐
?PEP’s Highlights from 2024?
?New research initiatives get underway:
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?Promoting Southern Voices in Global Debates:
●?????? The Science Summit of UNGA79
●?????? Second Global Evidence Summit
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Global research lead, World Bicycle Relief. Focus: development, food security, livelihoods, mobility, transport, welfare, gender
1 个月Thanks for the update Jane! Some great and impactful work at PEP! Looking forward to more exciting updates in 2025.