The Botswana Institute for Development Policy Analysis (BIDPA) hosts the thematic research area "Trade Policy and Pro-Poor Growth", under the Southern African Development Research Network (SADRN). SADRN is hosted by the Trade and Industrial Policy Strategies (TIPS) in South Africa and is funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC).

The mandate of the network is to ensure that the Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries have the requisite research and negotiating capacity to enable them to negotiate for a fair share of the benefits of global trade at the WTO and other fora. Specifically, the network has the objective to achieve trade, growth, globalization and poverty reduction through:

• Increasing supply of policy-relevant research in SADC by increasing the pool of suitably-skilled researchers based in institutions in SADC;
• Improving the policy relevance of research by developing the capacity of policy makers to discerning research users;
• Developing an appreciation of evidence-based policy making by engaging policy makers in the design, specification, implementation and review of research projects; and
• Building institutional capacity in key organizations in SADC by creating centers of excellence in focus thematic areas of research.

To meet the SADRN objectives of increasing supply of policy relevant research in SADC, BIDPA, under the auspices of the "Trade Policy and Pro-Poor Growth" theme invites government departments (or government research departments) from SADC Member States to submit proposals to be considered for research on Trade Policy and Pro-Poor Growth.

Submission Instructions

Submit a proposal describing your topic of interest; proposed methodology; motivation for the topic and its potential impact in your respective country (or in the SADC region) and the proposed budget.

Please note that the identified research topic should be in line with the theme and should be of policy relevance to the country concerned.

Guidelines for submission:

Deadline for submission: 24^th April, 2009

Notification of the accepted paper: 4^th May, 2009

• Notification of receipts will be sent to the designated authors soon after receipt of the proposal.

Funding

Funding is available for only one project and as such only one proposal will be selected from the submitted proposals.

For further information regarding the project please contact, Professor Roman Grynberg

BIDPA Thematic Working Group Project Coordinator at rgrynberg@bidpa.bw or ? 3971750 or fax to ? 3971748.

For more general information on SADRN, please see: http://www.tips.org.za/programme/sadrn