The AERC Annual Policy Seminar to Cast Spotlight on Climate Change and Economic Development in Africa

The African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) will host its twenty fourth annual Senior Policy Seminar on March 30, 2022 on a virtual platform. This year’s seminar will assist policymakers, and other actors to better understand the impact of climate change on economic development, particularly focusing on policies that will  build and strengthen the resilience of sub-Saharan African economies to ensure sustainability of growth and development. 

Themed “Climate Change and Economic Development in Africa”, the forum will focus on policy proposals that can be adopted to shape Africa’s response to climate change.  

Four papers will be presented during the seminar, followed by a policy roundtable. These papers synthesize frontier knowledge and evidence from country case studies for a comprehensive process of packaging evidence-based policymaking. 

The overarching goal of this year’s Seminar is to improve Africa’s readiness to confront climate and environmental shocks and leverage the opportunities they present through climate-smart sets of economic policies.

“Climate change has emerged as one of the key socio-economic and developmental challenges confronting policymakers in Africa, with the potential for reversing the significant gains made in poverty reduction and inequality, social inclusion, economic growth, and development in the last two decades.We notice supply side shocks that drive domestic food and energy prices are critical to this thinking and the mitigation process said AERC Executive Director, Prof. Njuguna Ndung’u.

The roundtable will bring together policymakers, researchers, and high-level private sector and non-state actors. Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Agriculture, Hon. Peter Munya, EGH, will deliver a keynote address at the event.

The four papers to be presented will focus on: 

      I.         Climate Change and Agriculture: Challenges, Opportunities and Policy Options.

    II.         Climate Change, Poverty, Inequality and Covid -19: Avoiding the Worst Impacts.

  III.         Energy and Climate Change: What Policy options exist.

   IV.         Urbanization and Climate Change Vulnerability. What next?

To enhance mitigation and adaptation to climate change, African governments are required to make major structural investment and policy decisions that will influence the rate, structure and character of economic growth and development for the long term. This is especially so given the path-dependence and lock-in nature of most infrastructure investments. 

The expected outcome of the Senior Policy Seminar will be to raise awareness and knowledge among senior policymakers, private sector, and non-state actors on the role of Climate Change in Africa through evidence-based research; Identification of enabling government policies for climate change, and exchange of country-specific experiences through a roundtable discussion.

The AERC Senior Policy Seminar is an annual forum convened to provide high level African policy makers the opportunity to come together to learn about the results of AERC research, exchange policy experiences with each other and interact with AERC researchers in an atmosphere of peers. But above, adopt policy propositions that enrich economic management choices and designs applicable in their respective countries.