SOAS Development for Transformation Centre

UNDP

• Macroeconomic Policy Analysis Capacity Building Project in Ethiopia: The African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) funded this four-year project. Throughout the project cycle CDPR led SOAS experts from various departments to work with the Ministry of Economic Development and Co-operation (MEDaC), Ethiopia and the Addis Ababa University. This was a training program under 13 macroeconomic topics in which 500 civil servants from various federal ministries and regional bureaus benefited.
• Vietnam’s Socio-Economic Development Strategy 2011-2020: CDPR won a UNDP bid for research on the relative competitiveness of Vietnam’s state-owned and private enterprises and worked with researchers at the University of Manchester on the final report, which will be an input into Vietnam’s next Socio-Economic Development Strategy.
• Economic Policies for Growth, Employment and Poverty Reduction (Moldova in Transition): CDPR conducted a research project which was part of a UNDP programme on pro-poor growth in developing countries. The policy entry points in the study were fiscal policy, monetary policy, exchange rate policy, migration, debt management, and the trade regime. The report identified measures which the government could take to increase the elasticity of poverty reduction with respect to growth. The recommendations placed emphasis on the role of public investment, the need to diversify exports, and policy adjustments at the macro level implied by the government’s policy of European integration.

Other International and Government Institutions

• Rural Labour Markets and Poverty in Mozambique: The Ministry of Planning and Finance (MPF) and UNDP, Mozambique, fund the research under Rural Labour Markets and Poverty in Mozambique. This research was a collaborative project between CDPR/SOAS and the research unit of the Planning and Budget Directorate of MPF. The research involves a survey of 3,000 seasonal and casual rural workers (agricultural and non-agricultural), their households, large and small agricultural employers, and female workers. The project also produced a documentary film based on the lives of rural workers. The research outputs informed the poverty monitoring system in Mozambique and the revisions of the PRSP.
• Sida-funded Ownership Evaluations Project: CDPR undertook an evaluation study of ownership issues in programmes and projects supported by Swedish Sida/UTV. The objective of the evaluation project  was to assess whether the activities financed by Sida accord with Swedish and Sida policies regarding partner country ownership. The point of departure in this evaluation was Sida's long held view that partner countries have the main responsibility for their development and that Sida assists in the creation of pre-conditions for development, that it does not directly drive the process of change, and that the primary responsibility for improving living conditions in partner countries rests with the partner countries themselves. The evaluation was based on case studies of Swedish development co-operation with Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania.