ANNUAL REPORT - Global Development Network

REGIONAL
RESEARCH
COMPETITIONS
(RRC)
ABOUT THE COMPETITIONS
The Regional Research Competitions (RRCs) are the first phase of
GDN’s Global Research Capacity Building Program and are
targeted towards individual researchers in developing and
transition countries. The Program carries out GDN’s mission to
build capacity and enhance the research environment on both, a
local and global scale, with the RRCs as the initial mechanism to
establish relationships with local researchers.
The RRCs are executed in partnership with 7 of GDN’s 11 Regional
Network Partners who are located in different parts of the world.
These partners utilize GDN grant funds to identify and support
local research talent in their regions. Researchers who participate
in the RRCs have access to additional services such as mentoring,
training workshops, and the opportunity to get their potential
work published and presented to diverse audiences.
SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA
African Economic Research Consortium (AERC)
Top: Plenary session at the AERC
Biannual Research Workshop,
2-6 December 2012.
Above: Pavlo Sheremeta, EERC
President, at the EERC Grant
Competition and Research
Workshop, 18 December 2012.
In 2012, AERC awarded 11 grants through the RRC. A major
emphasis of AERC’s programs is on the quality and policy relevance
of research. Concerted and extremely successful attempts were
made by researchers to use their research results to inform policy in
several African countries. Quality of research is achieved through a dynamic support
system that features peer-review and technical and literature backup.
CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE
Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education – Economics Institute
(CERGE-EI)
GDN ANNUAL REPORT 2012
8
CERGE-EI funded 24 projects in their RRC during the year. Their research teams gather
each year for intensive workshop sessions on formulating research ideas, promotion of
research through the policymaking process and publication strategies. GDN-supported
research findings are being accepted for publication at consistently higher rates than in
the early years of the program. In 2012, one GDN-sponsored paper on the informal and
formal services sector was accepted for publication in Eastern European Economics
within six months of completion. CERGE-EI hears consistently from external project
reviewers that the quality of both complex policy questions and technical skills of the
region’s researchers is ever-increasing.
COMMONWEALTH OF INDEPENDENT STATES
Economics Education and Research Consortium (EERC)
EERC awarded 19 grants in 2012 for the RRC. The geographical distribution of proposals
this year was characterized by a smaller number of applications from the European part
of the Commonwealth of Independent States and an increasing number of applications
from Central Asia. The percentage of female researchers who applied to the
Competition was 49 percent higher than the previous year. These trends indicate that
GDN is successfully reaching a wider and more diverse talent pool via its regional
partnerships. Two EERC-GDN studies on household expenditure data, labor supply, and