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Technological Effort, Innovation Capacity and Capability Building: This is the title of a background study by Professor Karl Wohlmuth for UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organization), Vienna in the context of the UNIDO Project “Adding Value to Africa’s Industry and Trade through Agro-industry and Agro-business. An Agenda for Action”, the purpose of which is to formulate new strategies to overcome the trend of de-industrialization in Africa. Also a Main UNIDO Report and an International Book Publication by UNIDO on “Promoting Agribusiness for Africa’s Prosperity”, containing a chapter by Professor Karl Wohlmuth, will be part of the output of the UNIDO project (see the respective entries to the Publications List of IWIM by Professor Karl Wohlmuth )
Institutions and Investment in Sudan/South Sudan: This is the title of a major study finalized by Berhanu Denu, Lecturer at Addis Ababa University during his recent research visit at IWIM. The study was financed by the Volkswagen Foundation in the context of the Governance and Social Action in Sudan Project (see the Volkswagen Foundation project). Mister Berhanu Denu has used a variety of methods to analyze investment conditions and investment climate in Sudan/South Sudan. Important economic policy phases in Sudan were distinguished to look at the specific investment performance and the investment conditions in the context of institutional failures. Also panel econometrics was used to identify the institutional constraints to investment. Survey techniques were used to analyze the transactions cost of doing business in South Sudan and to assess the investment climate in South Sudan after the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (see the Abstract of the Study). The study will be published in the IWIM Book Series as Volume 18 (see the list of books that have appeared so far in the IWIM Book Series). A further SERG Discussion paper on an Agenda for Institutional Reform and Investment Promotion in South Sudan will be researched by the author and will appear quite soon (see the recent paper by the author on peace and reconstruction in South Sudan which has appeared already in the SERG series of IWIM). For this study and for other researches Mister Berhanu Denu will pay another research visit to IWIM in Bremen during June/July 2010.
Treffen der afrikanischen Staats- und Regierungschefs in Abuja, Nigeria vom 8. - 10. März 2010 zum Thema der Neuausrichtung von Landwirtschafts- und Industriepolitiken: Professor Karl Wohlmuth nahm auf Einladung der UN-Organisation für industrielle Entwicklung in Wien an der Konferenz der afrikanischen Staats- und Regierungschefs in Abuja als Experte teil (weitere Infos, siehe die Pressemitteilung, die Fotos des Events und die Deklaration von Abuja).
Meeting of the African Heads of State and Government in Abuja, Nigeria on the Development of Agriculture and Agro-Industries in Africa: The Heads of State and Government, the Ministers of Industry, Agriculture, Trade and Commerce, the Central Bank Governors, and Senior Experts from 42 African countries met in Abuja, Nigeria on March 8 - 10, 2010 at the High Level Conference on the Development Of Agribusiness And Agro-Industries In Africa. Also representatives of six African Regional Economic Communities, representatives of international organizations, heads of banks and finance institutions, representatives of donor agencies, of international NGOs, ambassadors, and senior experts participated in various functions at the conference. Six regional and international organizations (UNIDO, UNECA, African Development Bank, African Union, FAO, and IFAD) have prepared the event under the initiative and leadership of UNIDO. The Federal Government of Nigeria and its Acting President have supported the event. During the meeting A Programme Framework 3ADI (African Agribusiness And Agro-Industries Development Initiative) was discussed and endorsed, a new Financial Mechanism in support of 3ADI was proposed and recommended, and an Abuja Declaration On Development Of Agribusiness And Agro-Industries In Africa was discussed and adopted by the African Heads of State and Government (see the Abuja Declaration , the Photo Gallery and other conference documents ). The six African Presidents/Executive Directors of these regional African and international platform organizations have confirmed their intention and have committed themselves to develop in the next few months an Action Programme on the basis of the Abuja Declaration so as to keep momentum with the initiative and to redirect industrial and agricultural strategies and policies in Africa.
Professor Karl Wohlmuth was invited by UNIDO to attend the High Level Conference as an expert. Professor Karl Wohlmuth was involved in related preparatory studies, researches, meetings and conferences in Vienna (at UNIDO) and in Addis Ababa (at UNECA). He is especially doing expert work on issues of new STI (Science, Technology and Innovation) policies which are connected to the main theme of the High Level Conference on Development.
New Economics Teaching Programme: The School of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Jacobs University is starting soon with a new economics teaching programme with the title Global Economics and Management (GEM). For this and other programmes at Jacobs University a new professor of economics who is teaching macroeconomics/development economics/economic policy is sought. Professor Karl Wohlmuth is a member of the search committee at Jacobs University.
Guest Researcher at IWIM: Mister Berhanu Denu, a lecturer from Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia will again stay for two months at IWIM to finalize his PhD study on Institutions and Investment in Sudan after Civil War, with particular focus on South Sudan. The research project is funded by the Volkswagen Foundation (see the scope of the research programme on Governance and Social Action in Sudan after the Comprehensive Peace Agreement). He has worked in the research project with a New Institutional Economics approach to investigate the issues of investment promotion by reconstructing relevant institutions in Sudan/South Sudan after the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of January 2005. Focus is especially on South Sudan by the way of analyzing the complex issues of reconstruction of institutions after the decades long civil war. Prior to the research stay at IWIM Mister Berhanu Denu has participated at the Second Grantees Meeting of the Volkswagen Foundation’s Africa Initiative at Bayreuth University (see his most recent SERG research paper number 37).
Bremen Africa Conference 2010: An International Conference on the theme “The Impact of the Global Financial Crisis on Economic Reform Processes in Africa” was held on January 28 -29, 2010, in the Haus der Wissenschaft Bremen (see the programme). The conference was organized by Prof. Dr. Hans H. Bass and Dr. Joy Alemazung, Bremen University of Applied Sciences, Dr. Tobias Knedlik, Economist Researcher at IWH Halle, and by Dr. Osmund O. Uzor from IWIM as the Project Coordinator for the conference (see the statement by Professor Karl Wohlmuth in the Final Session of the International Conference). The four Organizers and the four members of the Scientific Committee (Dr. Reuben A. Alabi, Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Nigeria and Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Prof. Dr. Robert Kappel, University of Leipzig and Hamburg and President of the German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Hamburg, Prof. Dr. Dietwart Runte, Dean, Faculty of Business and Economics and Business Administration, Bremen University of Applied Sciences, and Prof. em. Dr. Karl Wohlmuth, IWIM, University of Bremen) will be the Editors of the forthcoming Volume 15 of the African Development Perspectives Yearbook which is scheduled to appear in 2010 (see on the African Development Perspectives Yearbook Project). A summary of the Conference Results in the form of a Conference Policy Brief will appear in the next few weeks.
Guest Researcher at IWIM: Dr. Reuben A .Alabi attended the Bremen Africa Conference 2010 in the Haus der Wissenschaft Bremen and then visited IWIM to discuss about new projects and researches with Professor Karl Wohlmuth. Dr. Alabi is preparing for further discussion papers for the IWIM Blue Series Discussion Papers (see his already published research papers on education, income distribution, and poverty in Nigeria as numbers 114 and 109 of the Series ). Also new projects, like the planned Conference for Researchers, NGO representatives and Policymakers on Education, Health and Poverty Alleviation in Nigeria to be held in Ekpoma, Nigeria in December 2010 and to be organized by the Alli Ambrose University, Ekpoma, Edo State, and supported by the Africa Initiative of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, were discussed.
Research Output Dr. O. O. Uzor: Dr. Uzor has produced a new research paper on his Investment and SME Development (ISMED) Model and the relation to Public-Private Partnerships in the Promotion of Agro-Industrial Clusters in Nigeria. The paper is titled “The ISMED Model and Public – Private Partnerships in the Promotion of Agro-Industrial Clusters in Nigeria” and has appeared as the IWIM Blue Series Discussion Paper Number 118, January 2010 (access the paper).
Research Output by Professor Karl Wohlmuth: An article on the role of the Emerging African Markets in the World Economy was published recently in “Berichte”, January/February 2010, as well as an article about the 20 years of cooperation between the Research Institute of the IWVWW and the IWIM in the same issue of the journal; Professor Wohlmuth is a member of the executive board of the IWVWW e. V. (see on the activities of IWVWW their homepage: http://www.iwvww.de and http://www.arge-institute.de ).