Researchers at Cornell, in collaboration with Clark Atlanta University (CAU), have received funding to support a five-year, $8 million effort to conduct research and training aimed at promoting economic growth and relieving poverty in Africa The activity is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID).
Heading the multidisciplinary team of researchers is David E. Sahn, professor of economics in the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell. He also is director of the Cornell Food and Nutrition Policy Program, a social science research institute that is among the world's leading centers for economic policy research on Africa. Other key Cornell faculty engaged in the research include N'dri Assié-Lumumba, associate professor of Africana studies and education, a leading sociologist; Ravi Kanbur, the T.H. Lee Professor of World Affairs and professor of economics, who is at the forefront of efforts to mix quantitative and qualitative research methods; Chris Barrett, associate professor of applied economics and management, who is pursuing mixed methods in African fieldwork; and Stephen Younger, an economist and senior research associate in nutritional sciences, who has written widely on issues of economic reform and poverty in Africa.
"Despite significant policy reforms in many sub-Saharan African countries, the achievements on growth and poverty reduction have been disappointing even in politically stable countries -- with rare exceptions," said Sahn. "Our goal is to conduct a series of research projects to identify the economic, social, institutional and natural constraints that keep Africa's poor from prospering in the context of growth-oriented reforms."
The research group, which includes economists, anthropologists, geographers, political scientists and sociologists, will explore issues related to access to education and health services, health and nutrition, the HIV/AIDS pandemic, poverty, poverty traps and dynamics, food insecurity and empowerment of the poor.
Specific research projects, methods and technical assistance activities will be defined in collaboration with African policy makers, stakeholders and researchers," said Sahn. "We do know, however, that we will take a bottom-up perspective."
This perspective is unique in that it focuses from the start on the capabilities of individuals, households and communities -- their productivity, their vulnerabilities, their institutions and their environment, Sahn says. In particular, detailed consideration will be given to how economic and social development occurs at the community level. This is unlike most approaches used in the past that have been top-down in nature, analyzing how costs and benefits of reform trickle down through the economy to the poor.
In addition to the research projects, the AID grant will fund technical assistance from the collaborating universities and a series of small grants to support U.S.-based researchers wishing to work in Africa. The small grants portion of the grant will be administered by CAU, which is a private, coeducational institution of predominantly African-American heritage, formed in July 1988 through the consolidation of the United States' first black graduate and professional institution (Atlanta University, established in1865) and the nation's first black liberal arts college (Clark College, established in 1869). CAU is a member of the Atlanta University Center, the largest consortium of African American private institutions of higher education in this country.
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