 PERI’s African Development Policy program combines applied research and capacity building to help understand the challenges and opportunities for accelerated economic development in Africa. In collaboration with selected African universities and research networks, PERI’s African Policy Summer Institute (APSI) provides training for African policy makers on structural and emerging issues in African development. East African Policy Workshop
Training Course on Capital Flight and Development Financing
Over the past four decades, African countries have lost over $1.3 trillion due to capital flight, while they face large and growing financing gaps. This is a major obstacle to the continent’s efforts to achieve sustained high growth and poverty reduction. The capacity building workshop offers an opportunity for policy makers to discuss the nature and magnitude of capital flight from African countries. The objective is to propose strategies to curb capital flight, enhance its reversal and repatriation, and maximize the gains in terms of economic development. The workshop was attended by policy makers from sixteen countries from West and North Africa. French Edition of Africa’s Odious DebtsApril 2013 -- The French edition of Africa’s Odious Debts: How Foreign Loans and Capital Flight Bled a Continent was officially launched in Dakar, Senegal on April 19, 2013. In Africa's Odious Debts, James Boyce and Léonce Ndikumana reveal the shocking fact that, contrary to the popular perception of Africa being a drain on the financial resources of the West, the continent is actually a ‘net creditor’ to the rest of the world. The extent of capital flight from sub-Saharan Africa is remarkable: more than $700 billion over 1970-2008. But Africa’s foreign assets remain private and hidden, while its foreign debts are public, owed by the people of Africa through their governments. The French edition – La dette odieuse de l’Afrique : Comment la dette et la fuite des capitaux ont saigné un continent – is published by Editions Amalion. Contacts: |
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May 2013 -- The African Development Bank, in partnership with PERI, delivered a capacity building workshop for African policy makers in Eastern and Southern Africa on “Macroeconomic Policy for Inclusive Growth, Employment Creation and Poverty Reduction” in Nairobi, Kenya. 
While African countries are witnessing growth resurgence since the turn of the century, they have not achieved commensurate progress in poverty reduction. A key reason is that growth has not generated proportionate job creation and that growth has not been broad based. Strategies to accelerate poverty reduction must therefore involve a refocusing of macroeconomic policy on ‘real’ development goals, notably employment creation and inclusive growth, over and beyond the traditional short-term objective of macroeconomic stability. In this context, this course discussed innovative policies for generating growth that is inclusive and accompanied by employment creation and poverty reduction. This is the second workshop under the AfDB-PERI partnership.
April 2013 -- The African Development Institute of the African Development Bank, in collaboration with PERI, held a regional workshop on “Capital flight reversal and development financing in Africa” in Dakar, Senegal, from April 15 to April 18 2013. The workshop marks a beginning of a partnership between PERI and the African Development Bank in capacity building for African policy makers. It is expected that this partnership will grow to include other premier knowledge institutions in Africa.
