Equity and Growth Though Economic Research
Client: USAID
Year Completed: 2002

The EAGER project was designed to accelerate economic growth and equity in Sub-Saharan Africa and build applied research capacity by effectively applying research results to public policy initiatives.  Research topics were demand-driven, chosen by policymakers from the public and private sectors. 

IBI was responsible for the capacity building and institutional strengthening components of this project.  IBI led the design of the consultative process and the subsequent collaborative research method.   The project’s trade policy component involved collaborative work between African and US researchers working on demand driven policy research.  IBI worked closely with African co-authors and research institutes in an effort to strengthen their research, writing, and presentation skills.

The EAGER project successfully produced research results used by decision-makers in fourteen countries to improve public policy and accelerate economic growth.  Over the five year project, IBI produced three book-length reports, six policy papers, and eight briefs.  As a subcontractor to AIRD IBI produced a number of the successful research and policy reform projects and played a key project management role.  IBI designed a successful policy dialogue process whereby policy-makers were involved from the inception in each project.  Stakeholders were able to test reforms -- in many cases while the research was still in progress – to monitor impact and adjust policies.

IBI provided research and analysis on all studies carried out under this project, and co-authored several of them.  The following studies were completed by IBI:

  • Bringing Down Barriers to Trade: The Experience of Trade Policy Reform
  • Tanzania Precious Minerals Marketing: Study of current marketing patterns for gold and gemstones produced by Tanzania's estimated 550,000 artisanal miners found that they were contributing at least ten times current estimates to GDP, but that most materials were exported through Kenya. Recommended modified tax incentive structure, balancing large-scale formal mining with artisanal, and marketing improvements.
  • Ghana Cross-Border Trade: Socioeconomic study of cross-border trade: incentives and effects.
  • Foreign and Local Investment: Kenya, Uganda and Mauritius: Econometric study of the relationship between foreign and local investment based on international financial databases and case studies in Kenya, Uganda, and Mauritius. The purpose is to examine which leads the other under what circumstances, and explore synergies and trade-offs.
  • The WTO/GATS and liberalization of financial services in Africa: Written before the financial crisis in Asia, this study noted the opportunities offered by globalization and computerization of financial services, but also warned of the risks for developing countries of rapid capital inflows and outflows.
  • Fixing African Economies: Policy Research for Development (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2004): Book includes case studies from 6 African countries on the impact of research on their policy making process.