SAGA Progress Report

SAGA
B16 MVR Hall
Ithaca, NY 14853
(607) 255-8931
Fax (607) 255-0178
saga@cornell.edu

SAGA Progress Report
October, 2002

II. RESEARCH

Most of this section is organized by the activities being planned and implemented in SAGA countries. During the previous six months, lengthy deliberations between Cornell University (CU) and USAID were devoted to selecting a geographic focus for SAGA activities. The selection was made from countries with USAID country missions and groups of countries that comprise regional missions. The choice of countries/regions in SAGA was determined based on a set of criteria that included: The mission commitment to working with the local SISERA institute; an indication that Mission and/or SISERA institute is able to bring the proposed research topics into the policy-making arena; the topics proposed by the Mission and SISERA institution have a strong policy orientation and are "cutting-edge" topics; the quality of presentation of mission and/or local SISERA institute's submission; the topics are cross-sectoral or multi-disciplinary in coverage; the topics proposed are informative to current or upcoming mission program/strategy in economic growth and the social sectors; the Mission is in a Francophone region; the feasibility of success in research collaboration and institution building, including SISERA institutes capacity to conduct and benefit from collaborative research; and the proposed research is consistent with major themes of SAGA. The countries receiving the highest scores were Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, South Africa, and Uganda as well as the West Africa region.

We next proceeded to define broadly which of the four SAGA research themes would be the focus in each of the countries/regions, in consultation with our SISERA partners, USAID Missions and USAID Washington. This demand process is still evolving, and we expect that it will continue to do so over the next few years. Part of our task as principal investigators is to ensure that we have coverage at the country level of all the SAGA themes, recognizing that not all themes will be emphasized in each of the countries.

In considering the details below on each of the countries/regions, it is apparent that the pace and nature of the process in each of the countries and regions differs markedly. Beyond the fact that the event of 9/11 had an adverse affect on the pace of start-up in general, circumstances on the ground in each country inevitably have important implications for our progress and prospects. For example, political events in Madagascar have slowed the pace of SAGA implementation there; and the recent coup attempt in Côte d’Ivoire has resulted in considerable uncertainty as to our the future of our planned activities there. Each of the countries/regions also presents different challenges and opportunities that shape the research program, and these are largely conditioned by the nature and capacity of our SISERA partners. The strength of researchers at DEPRU in South Africa contrasts markedly, for example, with the limitations of other SISERA institutions. Similarly, ISSER’s breadth of research expertise and longstanding involvement at the highest levels of policy dialogue in Ghana enables certain options not found elsewhere. On the other hand, some of the SISERA partners have more limited expertise and capacity that narrows somewhat the potential scope of activities. This is well illustrated, for example, by the case of CREA in Senegal and CEE in Madagascar. Data availability also, in part, drives the research agenda at the country level. Data availability for Uganda and Ghana with repeated integrated household surveys (modeled after the living standards surveys) contrasts with Senegal where there are no such data sources, implying the need to include data collection as an activity in the case of the latter. There is also markedly different policy environment across countries and government policy priorities that contribute to different types of SAGA activities. The considerable variation in scope and content of the research and training activities described below, thus, reflects all these factors.

One final note concerns the resource constraints faced by each of the activities described below. SAGA’s research funds, spread across years and activities need to be supplemented to implement many of the plans described below. In virtually all cases we expect to pursue other sources of financing, such as Mission buy-ins, SISERA research grants, funding from other international organizations, and so forth, to realize the ambitious objectives of our collaborative work.

Next Section

Return to SAGA Progress Reports