A program for the advancement of African economics

Abstract

This is a proposal for the formation of a US-Africa Science Foundation. This foundation will support basic research among scholars based in African universities and research institutions, on the one hand, and scholars based in the US, and particularly the African Diaspora community, on the other. The primary goal will be to foster collaborative links between the two groups. For the African based researchers, the principal benefit will be to help further internationalize (or globalize) their activities and to give such researchers access to the contacts and experiences of their US based colleagues. For the US based researchers, the primary benefit will be to help provide on the ground, African experiences and local knowledge for use in their research. This proposal will first make the case for a Program in African Economics. We remark later on that this could also serve as a model for a Program in Social Sciences. The hope is to begin with economics and gradually extend the research collaboration to the rest of the social sciences.