Background

The African Institute for Economic Development and Planning (IDEP) is a Pan-African Institution created in 1962 by the General Assembly of the United Nations. Newly independent African countries felt the urgent need to build-up domestic human capital as a necessity for sustaining independence and promoting socio-economic development. IDEP was then given the mandate to train policy makers and development professionals, to provide advisory services for African governments and regional organisations, to promote original thinking and research on Africa’s policy issues, to become a centre of excellence with full intellectual freedom that will lead the debate on African development issues and uphold the economic independence of African countries.

This Pan-African Institute began its operations on 21 November 1963. The first Statute of the Institute was approved by ECA resolution 93 (VI) of 27 February 1964 and its first Governing Council elected in November 1964. The present Statute was adopted by ECA resolution 350 (XII) on 27 March 1979, and subsequently by the UN General Assembly at its 34th session. IDEP is a subsidiary body of the ECA and, over the years, has maintained a close working relationship with its parent organization.

The headquarters of IDEP is in Dakar, Senegal. It is conveniently located in the centre of the city, behind the National Assembly and close to most Government Ministries and UN Agencies.  

MEMBER STATES

The 53 member States of the Institute are the following: Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tome e Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zimbabwe.  

ORGANIZATION

IDEP's organizational structure consists of the following:

• The IDEP Governing Council of 20 members, inter alia, lays down the general principles and policies governing the functioning of the Institute and approves the work programme and budget. The Governing Council meets once every two years to review IDEP’s performance report and to approve the programs and plans.  It selects from its members an Executive Committee of five (5) persons.

• The Executive Committee: It is a new governing body of IDEP and reports to the Governing Council.  It meets twice a year to monitor the implementation of programs and the decisions of the Governing Council.  It also gives guidance to the Director in his management of the Institute.  It is composed as follows: the Chairperson of the Governing Council; One representative of the governments; One representative of the three regional organizations;    One representative of the private sector; One representative of Civil Society; and The Director of the Institute.

• The Advisory Board  : The Advisory Board is expected to provide IDEP with sound intellectual guidance with respect to its substantive programs in research, training and advisory services and help promote and strengthen the Institute’s visibility and scientific credibility.  It meets at least once a year.  Its new composition is as follows: The Director of IDEP as the Chairman; The Deputy Director of IDEP; One Senior Lecturer of IDEP; five Professors appointed from the five geographical sub-regions of the continent; and three Professors of appropriate university disciplines from outside Africa, one from industrialized countries, one from Latin America and one from Asia.

• Management and Administrative units of the Institute are: Office of the Director; Deputy Director; Research Division; Training Division; Consultancy/Advisory Services Division; Administration and Finance Division (which incorporates Personnel and Registry, General Services, Finance and Accounts); Library and Publications Services; Interpretation/Translation and Conference Services Section. 

In order to carry out its mandate and accumulate in-house expertise, IDEP is strengthen its professional staff by hiring several economists, specialists in other social sciences and general support staff with capacity for administrative and financial management.

IDEP has prepared a plan for the upgrade of its computing and telephone facilities, further automatization of its financial and administrative services and advanced computer training for all its staff.

IDEP's VISION

At the beginning of the 21^st Century, global economic trends favour a greater economic role of markets and a new role of States. However, an important element of this global shift is the continuing recognition that institutions matter. In this connection, Africa needs appropriate and credible regulatory regimes as well as appropriate and strong institutions to manage market systems. Given this situation, training and research remain at the centre of IDEP's mandate. However, the globalization and liberalization processes dictate that IDEP should endeavour to restructure the methodology and content of its training, research, management and other activities. IDEP has embarked on this reform process in various fields. In the areas of training and research, the content is being broadened to include issues of globalization, regional integration, governance, civil society, and many short term training programmes.

The major challenge facing Africa in this first decade of the twenty first century is to reverse the trend of economic decline which has afflicted the region since the 1970s and to strengthen the capacity of the economies for participation as effective partners in the global economy. The challenge of African development has in recent years been compounded by the combination of rapid changes in technology and continued liberalisation of world trade in the process of globalisation, coupled with the new trading environment ushered in by the establishment of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

IDEP is thus determined to continue to play a leading role in assisting African countries to effectively addressing the development challenges of the 21^st Century. IDEP firmly believes that it will continue to have an important niche as a bilingual pan-African training institution; its well established training programme will remain crucial and relevant in building African capacity that surmounts linguistic barriers, and that produces African technocrats and policy-makers, with regional perspectives on African development issues.

African countries have recently declared their intention to exercise more ownership of their policy agenda. This new stance gives rise to new challenges and opportunities for IDEP, which is the only continent-wide institute that is mandated by African governments to provide the expert services described in its mission.

MISSION  & MANDATE

The primary mission of IDEP is to assist policymakers and other stakeholders in enhancing their skills in the areas of policymaking, long-term perspective planning and institutional and regulatory reforms as well as facilitate the emergence of policy ideas and consensus positions in Africa. Through its research programme, IDEP seeks to create a new body of knowledge and to act as an interface between research and policymaking communities. 

The formulation of the Institute’s strategic goals is founded in the need to operationalize the main components of its mission and to chart a course leading to the revival of its credibility and uncontested relevance. Towards this end IDEP undertakes a wide range of activities related to economic development and planning in Africa and aimed at promoting and defending the economic independence of African countries and peoples.

To attain its mission IDEP employs the following strategies:

• Conducts training programmes  on different aspects of development and planning,  in order to equip African policymakers and other stakeholders with the latest skills that will enable them to respond to emerging policy challenges;  

• Act as an interface between the research and policymaking communities;

• Promote original thinking and research on Africa’s policy issues;

• Organizes conferences, seminars and workshops on  pertinent African development issues;  

• Become a center of excellence with full intellectual freedom that will lead the debate on African development issues.

• Provides direct consultancy and advisory services to African countries;

• Networks with like-minded institutions;

• Maintains  information and documentation services on economic development and planning. 

 

The areas in which the Institute focuses its activities are identified based on a) the agenda of the regional organizations that formulate and implement Africa’s continent-wide strategy for economic development and b) the national priorities selected by African countries.  To attain a high degree of effectiveness in the delivery of its mission, IDEP will concentrate mainly on three broad thematic areas, namely:

• Regional integration including issues on convergence, harmonization of policies and legislation, policy formulation at the regional level, regional infrastructure building, economics of peace building, etc…

• Trade policy and trade negotiations under the WTO including formulation of trade-related incentive policies, competitiveness-enhancing policies, generic and commodity-based  WTO negotiations, etc…

• Economic growth and development including growth strategies, macroeconomic management, finance, human capital, HIV/AIDS, education, migration, gender, etc. 

 

WORKING  LANGUAGES

IDEP is a bilingual institution with English and French as the languages of all operations. It has a permanent staff and facilities for simultaneous interpretation and translation; lectures, seminars and all other activities are conducted in both languages. Indeed, IDEP is the only regional institution of its kind, able to transcend the language differences in the delivery of its services and serve all countries of the Continent.   

 

FUNDING PARTNERS

The Institute’s finances are derived from the United Nations and the annual assessed contributions from all African member States who, by virtue of their membership of the UN, are automatically members of IDEP. 

Donors are increasingly aware of the need to enhance the skills of African policymakers rather than use foreign consultants.  It is also generally agreed that it is more economical to train Africans in Africa than overseas. 

The Institute seek to forge close long-term collaborative ties with Pan-African organizations such as the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the African Union (AU), the African Development Bank (ADB), and the Association of African Universities (AAU)

The United Nations General Assembly, the African governments and the United Nations Development Programme along with bilateral and multilateral donors have, over the years, comprised the major funding bodies for IDEP. However, the current funding strategy emphasises diversification of funding sources to include various Foundations, Private Sector institutions and other Non- Governmental agencies.  

NETWORKING PARTNERS

Networking is one of the ways in which IDEP strives to enhance its capacity for better service delivery through collaborative projects and building synergies in training, research, advisory/ consulting services and seminars. Networking also involves sharing of information, experiences and other resources with like-minded institutions at various levels including: workshops, seminars, public lectures, as well as facilitating the dissemination of each other’s publications.

IDEP benefits from a wide outreach network stemming from its many alumni in key positions throughout Africa.  Over the years, IDEP has built a wide network of outstanding lecturers/researchers who contribute significantly in the Institute’s activities and serve as its antennae across the continent. 

Establishment of a network of African economic research centers that will cooperate with IDEP in the conduct of policy-oriented research focusing primarily on the Pan-African policy agenda. IDEP will also seek collaboration with existing research networks such as the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) in Nairobi, the Economic Research Forum (ERF) in Cairo, the Organization of Social Science Research in East and Southern Africa (OSSREA) in Addis Ababa, the African Knowledge Network Forum (AKNF) in Addis Ababa and the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) based in Dakar.

SCIENTIFIC COLLABORATION

Third, international scientific collaboration will also help the Institute increase its credibility and impact.  This will be attained through active involvement of the Advisory Board, research visits of renowned scientific figures and collaboration with research and training centers in Africa and abroad.  This collaboration will also include participation of senior or retired policymakers in the Policy Forum and in the Visiting Scholar program. 

 

ACHIEVEMENTS

Since it became operational in November 1963, IDEP has registered numerous achievements, including the following:

• Training- Over the years IDEP has graduated over 2000 students from 50 African countries who have successfully completed M.A. degrees and short-term training courses, These graduates are now effectively serving as senior policymakers, economic policy analysts, strategic planning experts, industrial development specialists, agricultural policy analysts, etc. in national, subregional, regional and international institutions.

• Bilingual publications including, Monographs, Occasional papers and a Newsletter, that are widely disseminated.

• Serves as a platform for policy dialogue and advocacy, through organizing conferences, workshops, seminars and the public lecture series.

• Provides intellectual leadership on African economic development issues.

• Provides consultancy and advisory services to member States as well as regional and international organizations, in relevant technical areas as per demand;

• Has developed a well computerized pan-African library and documentation facilities.

• Has developed well equipped facilities for national, regional and international conferences.

 

IDEP

DAKAR - SENEGAL

Tel: 221-33 823 10 20

Fax: 221-33 822 29 64

E-Mail: unidep@unidep.org  

         idep@unidep.org