African Successes

The NBER Africa Project plans a series of five meetings between 2007 and 2011. The project will conclude in the spring of 2012.

Preliminary Meeting
Feb. 21-22, 2008 in Cambridge, MA
Agenda, slides, and participant list

On February 21 and 22, 2008, the NBER held a background conference inaugurating the Gates Foundation funded project on African Development Successes. The conference brought together researchers and policy makers from the United States, Africa, and Europe.

The program for the February meeting featured “big think” presentations on economic developments in Africa, presentations on current research, and an overview of available data. Attendance at this preliminary meeting was not required for scholars who might do research under the auspices of the project, nor did attendance at the preliminary meeting imply agreement to undertake such research. However, the preliminary meeting was a good starting point for people who would like to work on Africa but were not familiar with the issues and possibilities.

The topics discussed at the conference included the breadth and sustainability of the current surge in economic growth on the continent, the contribution of rising raw materials prices to that growth, the determinants of agricultural productivity, new data and findings on business conditions faced by African firms, improvements in macroeconomic management in a number of African countries, and the relationship between economic growth and improvements in health. 

Pre-Conference
Feb. 27-28, 2009 in Cambridge, MA
Agenda and participant list

The pre-conference was a small, working meeting for authors on ten projects commissioned in the first year of the Africa Project to present initial findings and gather feedback on the direction of their research.

Research Conference #1
Dec. 11-12, 2009 in Cambridge, MA
Agenda and participant list

The first full research conference of the Africa Project will provide a forum for five final presentations of research projects commissioned by the Africa Project. The meeting will also serve as a pre-conference, where authors on twelve projects will present initial findings and gather feedback on the direction of their research.

Research Conference #2
July 18-20, 2010 in Accra, Ghana

Policy-Oriented Research Conference #3
Summer 2011 in East Africa