• To increase the supply of policy-relevant research in SADC by creating a pool of suitably-skilled researchers based in institutions in SADC;
• To improve the policy-relevance of research through growing the capacity of policy-makers to be discerning research users;
• To develop an appreciation of evidence-based policy making by engaging policy-makers in the design, specification, implementation and review of research projects; and
• To build institutional capacity in key organizations in SADC by creating centres of excellence in focused thematic areas of research.

SADRN contributed to some of regional integration efforts through a particular initiative by coordinating industrial policy workshop in South Africa on September�Â� 9 - 10, 2008. The initiative was closely linked to some of SADC's regional goals encompassed in the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Programme and the broader vision of a "common future"�Â� as well as�Â� the on-going development of regional industrial policy framework by the SADC Secretariat. The workshop provided the first steps to facilitate research, discussions and debates between the research community, policy makers and other relevant stakeholders in the area of industrial policy in the SADC region. The workshop engaged a number of policy makers and researchers across a range of SADC countries and was facilitated by Prof. Carlo Pietrobelli.

For more information on the workshop, a full report is available for download below.

The "Services Sector Development" Thematic Working Group was launched on the 18th of June 2009 at La Pirogue hotel in Mauritius. The launch was coupled with a workshop on the same theme, whereby participants from several ESA countries discussed on potential and prospective research on the theme. SADRN has earmarked 11 studies around the theme to be funded under the "Services Sector Development" theme. The Coordinator for this theme is Mr Sawkut Rojid who is a lecturer at the University.

Participants were mainly researchers from Namibia, Botswana, Uganda and Mauritius. The SADRN Network Coordinator was also in attendance as well as the entire coordinating team for the "Service Sector Development" TWG.�Â� �Â�  There resource person for the launch workshop was Dr Tabitha Kiriti from the School of Economics at University of Nairobi, Kenya. She specialises in International Economics, Development Economics and Macroeconomics. She has also published in more than 30 journal articles in these fields, including trade in service research.

Four research proposals were presented and discussed at the workshop. Although five proposals have been considered, one researcher could not attend the launch workshop due to other commitments. The titles of those proposals are given below as follows:

• 1. Prospects for the establishment of an education hub: The case of Botswana
• 2. Railway Sub-Sector Contribution to Poverty Alleviation in Namibia
• 3. Services Sector Development in Uganda: An Analysis of the Role of the Financial Services Sector
• 4. Services Sector Development: A Key to Poverty Alleviation and Sustainable Development in Mauritius

The official launch was taken seriously and respected by the University and Faculty Management. The Dean of the Faculty of Law and Management, Associate Professor Jawaheer was present at the launch and he had the opening remarks.�Â�  The two Vice Chancellors of the UoM, Prof. Ghurib-Fakim and Prof. Rughooputh were also in attendance. Prof. Ghurib-Fakim was given an opportunity to speak on behalf of UoM. He praised the Launch of SADRN TWG on "Services sector Development" as a sign of confidence in the UoM and�Â�  thought that the contribution of such an initiative to the University, young researchers as well as regional integration in Eastern and Southern Africa will be immeasurable. Both speakers were full of praises for the initiative, but especially for International Development Research Centre (IDRC) for providing the funding and opportunities for young researchers to get exposure on these issues.

Names, from left to right:

Mr Mmatlou Kalaba, TIPS Trade Economist and SADRN Network Coordinator; Prof Rughooputh Sunil, Acting Vice Chancellor of the University of Mauritius; Prof Ameenah Ghurib-Fakim, Pro Vice Chancellor, Teaching and Learning and Mr Sawkut Rojid, lecturer at the University and Services Sector Development Theme Coordinator.

About Johan Fourie

Johan Fourie is lecturer in the Department of Economics at Stellenbosch University.  Johan is currently pursuing his PhD in Economic History at Utrecht University.  His interests are wide ranging and include not only trade in services but also South Africa's economic history, infrastructure and the Economics of Sport.  Johan's latest publications include "An application of attractiveness measures to evaluate the structure of the Currie Cup" in South African Journal for Research in Sport, Physical Education and Recreation, forthcoming and "A note on infrastructure quality in South Africa" in Development Southern Africa, Vol. 25, No. 4, October 2008.  In 2008 he participated to the TIPS Annual Forum and presented on "The Development and Importance of Travel Service Exports from South Africa".

About Wamkele Mene

Wamkele Mene holds the position of Director: Trade in Services at the International Trade & Economic Development Division of the dti.  He focuses on multilateral, bilateral and regional trade in services negotiations. As South Africa's Lead Negotiator on services trade, Wamkele provides strategic and policy leadership in all trade in services negotiations that South Africa is involved in. An integral part of Wamkele's work is the crafting and negotiation of favourable market access conditions for South African exporters of services.  He is a graduate of Rhodes University, the University of Detroit Mercy and the Centre for International Studies & Diplomacy at the University of London.

About Professor Melville Saayman

Professor Saayman is at the School of Business Management in the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences at North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus.  He is an expert in Tourism Economics and in Tourism management and development.  Professor Saayman is Director of the Institute of Tourism and Leisure Studies

(see http://www.tourisminstitute.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2&Itemid=2).

About Dr. Rankin:

Dr Neil Rankin is a Senior Lecturer and the founding Director of the African Microeconomics Research Umbrella (AMERU) in the School of Economic and Business Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits).

Dr Rankin obtained his doctorate from the Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford in 2005 and has, since then, been based at Wits.  His research interests are in the field of applied microeconomics. These include: the links between firm performance and labour market outcomes; the impact of trade on firms and workers; the microeconomic aspects of inflation and pricing; and the determinants of educational outcomes.  Much of this research is based on primary data that he has been involved in collecting, both in South Africa and a number of other African countries.

Dr Rankin's recent publications include: "South African Exporting Firms: What Do We Know and What Should We Know", Journal of Development Perspectives, 4 (1): 93-118 with Edwards, L. and Schoer, V. (2008) and "Price setting in South Africa 2001 to 2007 - stylised facts using consumer price micro data", Journal of Development Perspectives, 4 (1): 93-118 with Creamer, K. (2008).

TIPS has the pleasure to invite you to the following Development Dialogue Seminar:

  About Professor Albert Berry:

Albert Berry is Professor Emeritus of Economics and Research Director of the Programme on Latin America and the Caribbean at the Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto.

Professor Berry obtained his PhD from Princeton in 1963.  His main research areas, with focus on Latin America, are labour markets and income distribution, the economics of small and medium enterprise, and agrarian structure and policy.  However, his main ongoing research project is on the role of small and medium enterprises under the current open-economy setting of Latin American and other developing countries, and a related analysis of the labour market impacts of increasing openness.

Professor Berry has worked with the Ford Foundation, the Colombian Planning Commission, and the World Bank, and acted as consultant for a number of international and other agencies.  He has, in the recent past, worked on South Africa's industrial structure, with a particular focus on SMMEs. 

Professor Berry has published more than 100 papers in learned journals and is the editor or co-editor of a number of books including Critical Issues in International Financial Reform (Transaction Publishers, 2003), Labor Market Policies in Canada and Latin America (Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2001), and Poverty, Economic Reform, and Income Distribution in Latin America (Lynne Rienner, 1998). 

TIPS has the pleasure to invite you to the following Development Dialogue Seminar:

About Dr. Jha

Dr. Veena Jha is a Visiting Professorial Fellow at the Institute of Advanced studies, University of Warwick, UK, and a research fellow at the International Development Research Centre, Canada. She is also the executive director of Maguru Consultants Limited, London, UK.

Dr Jha holds a PH.D from the London University, U.K. She has worked extensively on trade and environment issues for over twenty years. She has worked with the United Nations in various capacities for over twenty years. She was the Coordinator of an important UNCTAD/DFID/Government of India initiative on 'Strategies and Preparedness for trade and Globalisation in India'.

Dr Jha has published twelve books on trade and development issues, articles in journals, and was a member of some consensus building initiatives on trade and environment issues in the last decade. She has been a member of several national and international Advisory Boards, notably the United Nations Secretary General's Task Force on Millennium Development goals. She has served as an expert on technical committees of the Government of India, industry associations, and non-governmental organisations on trade and development issues. She has advised several developing country governments on trade and development issues.

About the panel members:

Dr Christopher Loewald was appointed Deputy Director-General of the new Economic Policy Division of the National Treasury in March 2006.  He ran the 2006 Budget as Acting Deputy Director General for the Budget Office and the Chief Director for Fiscal Policy. From 1998 to 2005 he was responsible for macroeconomic policy and international economic policy, including the development of the inflation targeting framework. He co-chairs the Macroeconomic Standing Committee of the Reserve Bank and Treasury, and is a member of the South African Statistics Council. He completed his M.A. and Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins University.

Prof Ben Smit is currently Director of the BER and Professor of Economics at the University of Stellenbosch. He was appointed Director of the BER in 1998 but continues to lecture post-graduate students in the Department of Economics, which he joined in 1975. In 1985/86 Prof Smit spent a year at the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton School of Econometrics in the USA.

Professor Smit has been involved with numerous consulting positions including at the Department of Finance (1992 - to date), the Development Bank of Southern Africa (1994 - 1995) and the World Bank (1996 - 1998). He was involved with the macro-Economic Strategy for Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) in 1996.

Prof Smith is a Member of numerous editorial boards - including those of Studies in Economics and Econometrics and of Management Dynamics: Contemporary Research Journal of the Southern Africa Institute for Management Scientists.

Prof Nicola Viegi is an Associate Professor in economics at the University of Cape Town. A graduate from the Scottish Doctoral Programme in Economics, he has been a lecturer in economics at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, invited lecturer at the University of Malta and at the Ecole Superior de Commerce in Toulouse.  He has been a regular Visiting Scholar at De Nederlandsche Bank.  Nicola's main areas of research are economic policy theory, macroeconomic modelling and regional macroeconomic integration. Current research includes inflation targeting under uncertainty, monetary policy and asset prices, and macroeconomic integration in Southern Africa.