SPECIAL INITIATIVES

PEP's MPIA program has initiated a multi-country research initiative on the impacts of the global economic and financial crisis on developing countries with financial support from AUSAID, IFPRI, UNICEF and PEP. To launch this initiative, several MPIA researchers attended a one-day workshop on methodological approaches for analyzing the impacts of the current economic crisis on developing countries on June 9th in Santiago (Chile), immediately preceding GTAP's 12th annual conference.

The workshop was hosted by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and several economists from ECLAC took part in the discussions. The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), represented by David Laborde was also present and announced its wish to be an active participant in the project. The workshop was conducted by Bernard Decaluwé, Véronique Robichaud and Renato Flores. In the course of the day, three documents were discussed by the participants and a core model for the study of the impacts of the economic crisis was elaborated:
 

• "Distributional Impact of Financial and Global Economic Crisis on developing countries : A survey" (prepared by Ismaël Fofana, with Bernard Decaluwé and Renato Flores);
• "The Impact of Global Economic Crisis on South Africa" (prepared by Margaret Chitiga, Bernard Decaluwé, Ramos Mabugu, Hélène Maisonnave and Véronique Robichaud)
• "The PEP Standard Model" (prepared by Bernard Decaluwé, André Lemelin, Hélène Maisonnave and Véronique Robichaud).

All participants were also required to prepare for the meeting a note on the possible impacts of the crisis on their own country for discussion during the workshop. Results of this study will be presented at the PEP general meeting

PEP-Africa is working with teams of local researchers in Burkina Faso, Cameroon and Ghana to simulate the impacts of the crisis and potential policy responses on various dimensions of child welfare: income, calorie intake, school participation, child labor and access to health. The national teams are coached by an advisory group including several PEP researchers and resource persons - Ismaël Fofana, Sami Bibi, Massa Coulibaly, John Cockburn, Abdoulaye Diagne and Bernard Decaluwé - as well as Luca Tiberti from UNICEF's Innocenti Research Centre in Florence.

It is noteworthy that PEP-Africa was the only Southern-based institution among ten research centers invited to bid on this project, a sign that PEP is succeeding in promoting greater participation of local researchers in major studies concerning developing countries. A final report is due before the end of the year. For more information (pdf 107k)