SAGA PROGRESS REPORT (12/03-12/04) &
UPCOMING WORKPLAN (1/05-12/05)

• SAGA co-financed the aforementioned DPRU conference on African Development and Poverty Reduction: the Macro-Micro Linkage, held in Cape Town (http://www.commerce.uct.ac.za/dpru/dpruconference2004). The conference brought together researchers and policy makers. The keynote address was given by the new Chief Economist for Africa at the World Bank, and the senior economic adviser from the South African President’s office was present throughout.
  

• We held a major conference, Ghana at Half Century (http://www.saga.cornell.edu/saga/ghhfcent.html). It was designed as the first of a series of events to analyze economic and social policy in the run up to 2007, Ghana’s 50th year of independence. There were academic papers as well as policy panels, with the country’s leading policy makers, from past and present, participating and taking the long view on policy making.
  
  
• The idea of the Economy of Ghana Network (EGN), to bring together academic research and policy makers, was approved by a general meeting of academics and policy makers. The structures are now in place and the network is being developed by ISSER.
  

• Ravi Kanbur has been available as requested to provide a global perspective on discussion of South African issues. At the request of USAID-South Africa he has addressed a gathering of Parliamentarians and a gathering of senior South African officials including the Director General of the Treasury. He has served as adviser and peer reviewer to the Fiscal and Finance Commission a statutory body reporting to Parliament on Center-Province financial relationships.
  

• David Sahn has been engaged in direct talks and discussions with the Minister of Education to discuss opportunities and challenges that result from a move to eliminate user fees, as well as working intimately with the Director General for planning in the Ministry on identifying key investment strategies to increase enrollments, improvement school quality, and raise test score results. Toward this end, the Ministry of Education has asked Cornell University to take a lead role on developing the analytical capacity of the Ministry in the formulation of a new education strategy. Given the extended effort this involves in terms of data collection, analysis and staff time, which goes beyond the core abilities of SAGA to finance, we have a $200,000 contract directly with the government to help them realize these objectives.
  

• In Madagascar we are engaged in discussion with the Minister of Education to broaden our activities. We anticipate a follow-up for another $100,000 of services in the next calendar year for the SAGA teams to directly assist in incorporating our research findings in the planning process.
  
  
• A major activity that is being planned is a “Northern Road Show” in Ghana. Almost all technical seminars and conferences in Ghana take place in Accra. Our intention is to take a group of prominent Ghana experts, from inside and outside Ghana, for a week of seminars in the poorer northern part of the country, to engage researchers and policy makers in their home institutions on questions of growth and poverty reduction.
  
  
• We have begun discussing the next phase of activities in South Africa, and prominent among the options are to take the research and related policy discussions down to the Province level, where much of the implementation actions is. At the same time, we will aim to support DPRU’s interest in raising its profile to the regional level.
  
  
• Ravi Kanbur’s interactions with South Africa policy making institutions will continue as the demand arises from USAID-South Africa and others.
  
  
• To improve outreach with the Agency, SAGA researchers have begun a monthly seminar at USAID in Washington to disseminate key lessons and findings from SAGA.
  

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