The PEP African Office in Senegal holds a national press conference with Canadian and British ambassadors

On Monday, December 10th, PEP’s African Office, based at the Consortium for Economic and Social Research (Consortium pour la recherche économique et sociale – CRES) in Dakar (Senegal), held a national press conference to announce a new PEP multi-country research initiative for Policy Analysis on Growth and Employment (PAGE).

This initiative is  funded by PEP’s long-time donor, the International Development Research Center (IDRC) of Canada, as well as a new collaborator, the Department for International Development (DFID) of the United Kingdom (or UK aid). Total funding for this initiative is 11M$, managed jointly by PEP’s four core partners in Senegal, Peru, the Philippines and Canada.

The event’s importance was highlighted by the participation of both the Canadian and British ambassadors to Senegal, Their Excellencies John Perry Calderwood and John Marshall, as well as IDRC Programme Officer, Dr Flaubert Mbiekop (based in the IDRC regional office in Kenya), who shared their respective institutions’ support for this initiative and PEP’s contributions to research capacity development in developing countries.
On the photos above, from left to right:

• His Excellency Johh Marshall, UK ambassador to Senegal (on the left) and PEP's African representative and director of CRES, Pr. Abdoulaye Diagne
• His Excellency John Perry Calderwood, Canada's ambassador to Senegal
• IDRC Regional Programme Officer Dr Flaubert Mbiekop

In the news
The event benefited from wide media coverage in the country, namely through the leading national newspaper, Le Soleil :

• See article (in French) on p.11 of this e-edition of the newspaper here: LeSoleil, Mardi 11 décembre, 2012

As well as televised reports in two of the most popular national TV newscasts (in French):

• on Africable (first panafrican TV channel): Mercredi, 12 décembre 2012 - 20h newsreport
• on RTS1 (first national TV channel in Senegal): Mardi, 11 décembre 2012 (link is forthcoming)

And through several broadcasts from Radio Senegal International, during the next day.

• Listen to one of these reports (in French) - Tuesday, December 12, 2012 (link is forthcoming)

The event was also meant to initiate a more fluent exchange between PEP and national/regional media, and to assist in promoting the scientific expertise and research findings of PEP-supported local researchers to the general public and policy makers/stakeholders.