SAGA PROGRESS REPORT (12/04-12/05) &
UPCOMING WORKPLAN (11/05-11/06)

• SAGA, the Ministry of Education and CREA hosted a major regional education conference on November 1 and 2, 2005. This conference brought together various partners with a major focus on education, both on the policy side (policy-makers, international and local organizations,) and the research community (from universities and research centers), to share their mutual experiences and findings regarding the constraint and opportunities to improve educational outcomes in West Africa. Research topics of interest included: household and behavioral constraints to schooling demand; disparity issues (gender, spatial and other socio-economic factors); the role of the private sector; decentralization; public spending efficiency; secondary school transition; drop outs, repetition and schooling attainment; measurement and determinants of cognition outcomes; pedagogical practices and curriculum development; community schools; education-health linkages; and the impact of education on growth.
  

• SAGA sponsored a one day workshop at EPRC to present the results of our research to date to policy makers and academics (http://www.saga.cornell.edu/saga/eprc0204/ug0204.html). The presentations—on topics such as tax incidence, gender equity and time use burdens, infant mortality, and children’s health status—were followed by engaged and critical discussion. The workshop concluded with a roundtable discussion on the future of poverty research in Uganda. Approximately 45-50 participants attended, representing the public sector (Ministries of Finance and Health, members of Parliament, Bank of Uganda, Uganda Bureau of Statistics, and the Development Planning Agency); research institutions (EPRC, IFPRI, Makerere Institute of Social Research, private consultancies and NGOs); academia (Makerere University’s Departments of Economics, Agricultural Economics, and Applied Statistics), and donor agencies (USAID, World Bank, the IMF, and the European Union).
  

• The SAGA Kenya project hosted a national policy conference on “Empowering the Rural Poor and Reducing their Risk and Vulnerability” in February, 2005, in Nairobi. Hosted by IPAR, the event presented research by IPAR, KIPPRA, Tegemeo, the University of Nairobi and Cornell University. Several Members of Parliament and two former Permanent Secretaries were among the approximately 90 attendees, which included representatives from major international donor organizations, international and local NGOs, Kenyan universities and research institutions, as well as members of the SAGA team from Cornell, IPAR, KIPPRA, Tegemeo and the University of Nairobi.
  

• SAGA organized a three-day workshop in Antsirabe, Madagascar on education analysis and survey design. Approximately ten officials and analysts from the education ministry (MENRS) and the statistics office (INSTAT) attended the sessions, which took place in January. The purpose of the workshop was (1) to highlight key issues in the education sector in Madagascar, (2) to discuss ways to collect data on them for policy analysis, (3) to foster collaboration between the education and statistical ministries, in particular through the design of the Progression through School and Academic Performance in Madagascar Study.
  

• We conducted eight policy seminars at USAID last year as part of our effort to engage and have our research informed by interactions with technical specialists and policymakers in Washington.
  

• The conferences held in Ghana and South Africa involved policy makers: Imraan Rasool, Premier of Western Cape, and Alan Hirsch of the President’s Office at the “Micro-Macro Linkages” conference, Cape Town, October 2004; Deputy Finance Minister, Chief Economist for Africa of the World Bank, and Head of USAID-Ghana at the “Shared Growth in Africa” conference, Accra, July 2005.
  

• We have been actively working with the Ministry of Education and INSTAT on addressing pressing policy questions such as the impact of user fees on educational outcomes and the determinants of cognitive achievement. As part of this effort a policy seminar hosted and run by the Director of Planning and Research reported on the results of our joint research collaboration. SAGA and the Ministry of Education (MENRS) made a presentation to policymakers, researchers, and the press on the findings of the Progression through School and Academic Performance in Madagascar Study. (http://www.saga.cornell.edu/images/wp166.pdf). The presentation took place in Antananarivo on March 30, 2005.
  
  
• The DGs of FOFIFA and INSTAT as well as donor representatives from USAID, World Bank, French Cooperation, UNDP, UNICEF, and others attended a policy conference hosted by FOFIFA for the end of the USAID BASIS CRSP project. Not a SAGA event per se, much of the work was co-sponsored by SAGA and segues into SAGA work. We are working with the USAID Mission in Madagascar who has been helpful and expressed interest.
  

• A high level policy conference was jointly hosted by the Ministry of Education, our partner institution CREA and Cornell University. It was attended by the Minister of Education, the Vice Rector of the University of Dakar, the Director of Planning and Research of the Ministry of Education, and other high level officials and scholars.
  

• The policy conference on “Empowering the Rural Poor and Reducing their Risk and Vulnerability” held in February 2005 in Nairobi was opened by the Hon. Peter Kaindi, Assistant Minister of Agriculture and Member of Parliament. Five other Members of Parliament were in attendance for most or all of the event, including the Hon. Franklin Bett, Chair of the Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture. Two former Permanent Secretaries, Prof. Harris Mule (Finance) and Prof. Shem Migot-Adholla (Agriculture) were also among the approximately 90 attendees. Correspondence has continued with these policymakers.
  

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