The annual forum serves as a platform for researchers, policy-makers and other stakeholders to discuss ongoing research and to enter into dialogue on policy-relevant issues resulting from research.
TIPS hosted its seventh annual forum in September 2003 together with the Development Policy Research Unit (DPRU).
This year's forum focussed on South Africa's progress in addressing growth and poverty since democracy and the challenges it still faces in these areas. Key themes included:
- Explaining low economic growth in South Africa in the last decade.
- The changing structure of the South African economy and microeconomic reform.
- Sectors as engines of growth and employment in the last decade.
- Poverty, labour markets and income inequality in the post-aparthed period.
- Privatisation, regulation and competition.
Various prominent South African government figures and academics, as well as international speakers, participated in the Forum, including South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, David Kaplan of UCT, Erik Thorbecke of Cornell University, the University of Toronto's Albert Berry and Rohinton Medhora of the IDRC.