Partnership for Economic Policy

Pep 2024 program accomplishments - in line with pep's commitment to promoting local research leadership in the global south, we completed several major research programs this year, focusing on various subjects. These included facilitating women's Economic empowerment; answering the critical question of financing green energy transition in the global south; understanding the impact of the russia-ukraine war on african economies, especially women; creating meaningful employment for youth in africa; and building capacity to conduct high quality impact evaluations.we also explored two new areas of research in the year. First, pep aimed to build its thought leadership in the emerging area of how artificial intelligence is affecting jobs globally with a focus on developing nations, which was one of the themes of our annual Policy conference organized in june 2024 physically in nairobi. The conference also featured a dialogue from a research program reviewing policies to create dignified and fulfilling work for young men and women across the african continent, in Partnership with the mastercard foundation. Second, local pep researchers in pakistan and south africa, supported by the centre, explored the crucial role of local and foreign investment, including that by multilateral development banks (mdbs), in particular, in financing green energy transition in the global south.pep also continued to focus its research on empowering women in southern countries with support from funders like the hewlett foundation and canada's international development research centre (idrc). A recently concluded program explored macroeconomic policies to promote gender equality in africa, while another studied how soft skills training in kenya could boost women's employment in the formal economy. As part of the ongoing research on how the russia-ukraine war impacted african economies, researchers analysed how the war affected women in the labour market. Further, with the hewlett foundation's support, local researchers concluded two research programs on strengthening local capacity to conduct high-quality impact evaluations in five african countries.to build the capacity of young researchers, pep continued to offer its online training in development economics in Partnership with the university of florence and offered a new course in leveraging monitoring, evaluation, and learning (mel) tools to lkmp researchers. Importantly, it developed and launched a self-paced, interactive, bilingual online course to strengthen researchers' capacity to integrate gender equality and inclusion (gei) principles in their research, supported by idrc. Pep also supported multiple scholarships in 2024, including the africa fellows in education program (afep), which admitted 10 new fellows; a fellowship with the centre for effective global action (cega), and the structural transformation of african agriculture and rural spaces (stars) fellows program in collaboration with cornell university.as part of its ongoing programs, local pep researchers are exploring the challenges in implementing the uptake of renewable energy by rural micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (msmes) for modernizing agriculture in sub-saharan africa and south-east asia, supported by idrc. Local researchers are also building the capacity of canadian small organizations (smos) and their country-level partners in conducting effective monitoring and evaluation to inform decision-making, supported by global affairs canada. Pep researchers are analysing the challenge of access to equitable health care in ethiopia, supported by the fund for innovation in development, and will complete the program on review of policies creating decent employment for youth in 10 african countries in early 2025.pep continues to work with existing partners and to build collaboration for capacity building in research and Policy engagement in the global south. Further, pep welcomed its cohort of six new research fellows from the global south this year and continued to participate in multiple international fora to strengthen the voice of southern researchers in development debates. In particular, pep increased its efforts at making critical research accessible to its global audience through a new pep blog and the executive director's newsletter southern lens on development.new research initiatives get underway: project on inclusive and sustainable procurement cooking models to support home-grown school feeding in ethiopia, supported by idrc. Support of in-country research centres and their Policy counterparts in east and west africa in evidence informed Policy making (eipm), supported by the hewlett foundation. Support of expanding women's Economic empowerment in cameroon, burkina faso, and tanzania, supported by the hewlett foundation. Support to strengthen organizational effectiveness by the hewlett foundation.