Research News

The title of the first European Report on Development (ERD), due to be launched in October this year, is "Development in a context of fragility: Focus on Africa". Two conferences were held in May 2009 as preparatory events for this first report, bringing together leading development experts from Europe and Africa.

On 7th and 8th May, the Centre for Research on the Economies of the Mediterranean (CREMed) hosted a meeting in Barcelona, entitled 'The challenges of fragility to development policy'. The conference focused on building a better understanding of the causes and consequences of fragility, and discussed new avenues of development policy that could help move countries away from fragility. Read more about the conference here. To listen to a podcast and hear leading experts consider the challenges associated with fragility and what policies can be pursued to put fragile states on a sustainable development path, please visit the conference page on the website.

Accra, in Ghana, also played host to around 80 prominent researchers and policy-makers from Africa, Europe and international organisations on 21st-23rd May. The theme of this meeting was 'Financial markets, adverse shocks and coping strategies in fragile countries'.

The debate focused on:

• Functioning of the financial markets in African countries in situations of fragility and the role of different mechanisms of financial and capital accumulation (capital, FDI and aid flows from DAC and non-DAC countries, remittances and trade revenues).
• Impact and resilience of African countries to external shocks with a particular attention to food price shock and the current global economic and financial crisis.

Fifteen researchers from across Africa were invited to present their research at the conference as part of the New Faces for African Development initiative launched by the European University Institute.

Read more about the conference here and visit the conference page on the website.

• The European Report on Development (ERD) seeks to enhance the European Union's perspective on development issues. It is led by a multidisciplinary team based at the Robert Schuman Centre of the European University Institute, which is collaborating with a broad network of scholars from both developed and developing countries. The ERD-project is financially supported by the European Commission and five Member States: Finland, Luxembourg, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
• See the earlier news item on R4D: Contributions invited to the consultation on the European Report on Development