The African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET) hosted the inception meeting on the Structural Transformation and Economic Growth (STEG) project on August 13, 2020.
The five-year, United Kingdom funded research project, which was launched in March 2020, is being conducted in four countries: Ghana, Zambia, Ethiopia and Uganda. It is designed to help governments, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and the private sector develop policies to facilitate productivity gains, structural change and sustainable growth in their economies.
The inception workshop was held virtually and it introduced the project to stakeholders in the project countries and solicited views on the research themes and issues which will help researchers fine tune the study to meet the needs on the ground.
The £12 million research initiative is being implemented by a six-member consortium led by the Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), and includes ACET, Oxford University, University of Notre Dame, Yale University and the Groningen Growth and Development Centre, Groningen University.
“As a part of the consortium, ACET will undertake research on drivers of structural transformation, covering areas of ACET’s current work including in agriculture, youth employment and skills, innovation and regional integration”, said Prof. John Asafu-Adjaye, Senior Fellow and Head of Research at ACET.
Data collected for ACET’s African Transformation Index (ATI) will also form the basis of a cross-country study of the drivers of economic transformation in Africa.