About

The last few years have witnessed several large shocks to the international economy, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and the most severe drought in East Africa in more than 40 years.

As most other countries, Kenya struggles to absorb the impact of these shocks, notably the sharp increases in the cost of living on top of economic activity only just starting to recover from the pandemic.

Handling the external economic pressures while protecting the most vulnerable, puts extraordinary pressure on economic policies pursued by the Government of Kenya (GOK).

It is increasingly difficult to tackle the economic challenges, while dealing effectively with widespread poverty and high-income inequality.

This project helps provide evidence-based research in key policy areas to assist the GoK in its pursuit of necessary economic reforms – by providing evidence of how such reforms would likely impact the economy, on the one hand, and different income groups in Kenya, on the other.

Such evidence would enable GoK to select reform measures that are tailored to the specific characteristics of the current Kenyan economic structure and society – and thus, enhance the effectiveness of policies pursuing poverty reduction and/or adaptation to climate change.

In addition, the project aims to enhance the international standing of the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) through increased publications in internationally recognised journals, which would attract more highly qualified Kenyan researchers, thereby developing the availability of high quality and home-grown evidence for economic policy making.

  • The specific objectives of the proposed collaboration, which includes 16 individual research projects, are to increase:
  • The number of economic policy reforms promoted by the National Treasury and Economic Planning that are based on solid evidence in and from Kenya.
  • The influence of academic research in the policy formulation process by engaging key players from the policy side in the research process, dissemination of findings and application of results.
  • Research output and publications of high quality from the collaborating partners.
  • The research capacity of relevant Government officials.

 The AERC is responsible for general management of the project, guided through a Steering Committee, consisting of the National Treasury and Economic Planning, the AERC, UCPH-DERG, and the Royal Danish Embassy (RDE) in Nairobi.

The Steering Committee meets bi-annually – in May/June to approve the work plan and budget for the coming financial year and in November/December to approve the annual progress reports (including financial reporting).

The dissemination of research results includes:

  • Policy seminars/conferences to discuss key findings and recommendations.
  • Publications (e.g. papers in international journals) with joint authorship between AERC and UCPH-DERG on pieces of collaborative work.
  • Other means of dissemination, notably ways to encourage broad policy debates.

Project Period

1 June 2023 – 30 May 2026.

Project Budget

Total project budget = 10,000,000 DKK of which UCPH receives half.

Funding

The project is funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark through Royal Danish Embassy in Nairobi, RDE.