Africa Think Tank Platform Project

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The economic shocks associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine war have further highlighted the need for strong African institutions to support effective economic decision-making on a host of regional issues. Despite the enormous pay-offs, many institutions in the region that support policymaking lack the incentives and capacity to conduct rigorous research and engage with policymakers on regional economic policy concerns. Addressing these challenges and encouraging a greater regional effort to collaborate on the development of effective policies will be critical to improving economic policy decision-making in Africa.A project to strengthen the capacity for evidence-based policymaking on regional priority issues (e.g., climate change, regional economic integration, public health) has the potential to deliver better development outcomes across Africa. The project is suitable for support through the IDA Regional Window because its aim is to focus exclusively on advancing regional integration by fostering progress on cross-country priorities that are associated with significant positive externalities. For example, the project will support policymakers in implementing the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) which has the potential to double intra-African trade, increase the region’s GDP by 7 percent and reduce the population living in poverty by 30 million – and which is supported by national governments across the region. Without the project it is unlikely that national governments will internalize the cross-border benefits of closer trade ties and underinvest in the underlying policies needed for effective implementation. Through its focus on establishing a platform to promote regional cooperation and develop public goods relevant for all countries (e.g., expanded pool of policy professionals and common research standards), the project is also expected to deliver significant economies of scale compared to a solely national approach that is more likely to suffer from duplication and fragmentation of effort. The project aims to establish and operationalize a platform for effective cooperation on regional policy issues between country level policymakers, regional associations and think tanks. Through this platform it will build the capacity of the African Union to support and strengthen research on critical regional economic policy issues, including regional integration and IDA20 regional policy priorities (e.g., economic transformation; agriculture, livestock and food security; human capital; digital and technical innovations; and the energy transition). The AU will be supported to establish and operate a functional and sustainable platform that: (i) convenes key stakeholders from governments, think tanks and academia to identify and discuss pan-African priority areas for policy; (ii) bridges the divide between the policy research community and policymakers to facilitate research uptake and promote linkages between think tanks, Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and national governments; (iii) provides technical assistance and institutional support to selected EPIs and fosters collaboration among them; and (iv) undertakes and supports resource mobilization for the platform and its beneficiaries’ to support long-term financial sustainability. The project is expected to be pan-African in scope (i.e. including North Africa).