MIASA holds policy conference

Merian Institute for Advance Studies in Africa (MIASA), University of Ghana has on November 21 -22 organised a policy conference on “Accelerating Africa’s economic transformation towards shared prosperity and sustainability” at the
conference centre of the Institute of Statistical Social and Economic Research (ISSER), University of Ghana.

The conference was organized by MIASA in collaboration with the Institute of Statistical Social and Economic Research (ISSER), University of Ghana, German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA), and the Kiel Institute for the World Economy to provide a space for exchange between researchers, policy maker, development practitioners and other stakeholders in development to
present and discuss the most recent policies relevant research findings on Africa’s economic development, its present patterns and future.

MIASA is an Institute under the College of Humanities at the University of Ghana and is jointly funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the University of Ghana. MIASA serves as a hub for exchange, networking, and collaboration among leading researchers from Germany, Ghana, and other scholars from around the globe.

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Welcome MIASA Policy conference
21.11.2023
Dr. Grace Diabah, MIASA Director ‘Ghana’
Dr. Susann Baller, MIASA Director ‘Germany’

On behalf of the Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa (MIASA) and its two directors, we welcome you to MIASA’s second policy conference, which focuses on “Accelerating Africa’s economic transformation towards shared prosperity and sustainability”. This conference has been co-organised together with one of MIASA’s German partners, the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA), and the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) at the University of Ghana, Legon.

Our special thanks go to the programme committee of this conference, which is composed of four distinguished scholars in the field of economic research, Prof. Charles Ackah (ISSER), Prof. Jann Lay (GIGA), Prof. Abena Oduro (Department of Economics at the University of Ghana and spokesperson of MIASA’s Executive Council) and Prof. Rainer Thiele (Kiel Institute for the World Economy).
MIASA is an Institute for Advanced Studies at the University of Ghana, which offers a large international fellowship programme and which organizes academic events and conferences under the broader thematic umbrella of “Sustainable Governance”.

The guiding question for MIASA bears on how the practice of historically grounded social sciences and humanities in Africa can address sustainable governance as a theoretical and conceptual challenge likely to yield new answers to key societal problems. MIASA aims at making African thinking increasingly relevant in global research and theory-making. While we encourage critical debate on different aspects of knowledge production, we are also interested in contributing to policy relevant research as well as in exchange with policy-makers and practitioners. We are very happy that this conference facilitates this kind of policy-relevant exchange.

MIASA is supporting research under the broader theme of “Sustainable Governance” by focusing on three main thematic corridors, sustainable peace, democracy and sustainability transformation, including its environmental dimension in a context of climate change.

Africa’s economic transformation is at the heart of all these themes and key when addressing the issues of shared prosperity, of who is sharing prosperity when and where and under which social, political and economic conditions, and how these conditions may be transformed in a more sustainable way. The contributions to this conference will offer further insights. We are honoured that the conference will be opened by two particularly distinguished keynote speakers, Professor Kevin Chika Urama, Chief Economist and Vice President for Economic Governance & Knowledge Management at the African Development Bank Group, and Prof. Stefan Dercon, Prof. of Economic Policy and Director of the Centre for the Study of African Economies (CSAE) at the University of Oxford. We are also looking forward to the poster session today, which will present research of PhD students and early career scholars from Nigeria and Ghana, and to the two keynotes delivered tomorrow by two colleagues from the University of Ghana, Dr. Nkechi Owoo and Dr. Edward Asiedu. And we are grateful to all guests who travelled from close and far in order to contribute your insights to this conference.

We would like to thank the conference conveners for having organised this conference. Our special thanks go to the Provost Prof. Daniel Frimpong Ofori for his continuous support of MIASA. Organising this conference would not have been possible without the support of our sponsors and partners, in particular, MIASA’s main sponsor, the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research, as well as MIASA’s co-sponsor, the University of Ghana.

A big thank you also to the organising team, in particular, to Dr. Agnes Schneider-Musah (MIASA coordinator), Gabriele Tetzlaff at GIGA and the MIASA administrative team.
A warm welcome to all of you. Akwaaba. We hope that you will all have a very successful conference.

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