Organizers: Cornell University/ISSER/The World Bank
Accra, Ghana

Sub-Saharan Africa is the sole continent where, on current projections, the millennium development goals are almost certain not to be met. What is to be done? It is clear that to advance the discussion further we have to get beyond the simple “growth versus distribution” dichotomy. Without growth, there is no prospect of the goals being met. But even with growth, at current levels of inequality many of the goals will not be met. What is needed, rather, is shared growth. Shared growth is important not only because for a given rate of growth more sharing leads to more poverty reduction. It is also important because, given Africa’s current inequalities, ethnic divisions, geographic-climatic disadvantages, and the epidemic of HIV/AIDS, without shared growth there might be no growth at all.

But the issue of how to achieve shared growth in Africa is still open. What policy and interventions mix has the best prospect of delivering shared growth? How does this mix differ from country to country? What is the balance between macroeconomic policies and policies for micro-sectoral transformation in agriculture, education, health and in gender relations? What institutional transformations, ranging from property rights to improving the public sector, are going to be necessary? What is the role of local level, community based organizations and initiatives? At the same time, what is the role of the global system of trade and finance? These are among the questions that are in need of answers.

To address these and related questions, Cornell University, The Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER-University of Ghana) and the Africa Region of the World Bank will be holding a major international conference in Accra, Ghana, on July 21-22, 2005. The conference organizers are Ernest Aryeetey (ISSER), Ravi Kanbur (Cornell University) and John Page (The World Bank).

The organizers now invite submissions, completed papers or substantial abstracts (3-5 pages) to be sent electronically to isser@ug.edu.gh

The submission deadline is January 15, 2005.

Decisions will be communicated by March 15, 2005. The conference will meet the travel and accommodation costs of participants based in Africa, one person per paper selected. Papers presented at the conference will in turn be considered for publication in a refereed journal or academic press volume.