South Africa
Support for Economic Growth Analysis (SEGA) and Mandela Economics Scholars Program (MESP)
From 1998 to 2003, the Joint Center was part of a consortium working on USAID’s SEGA and MESP program in South Africa. This five-year effort focused on the capacity of government departments, universities and policy research groups or think tanks to generate information and analysis pertinent to South Africa’s macroeconomic agenda. The Joint Center acted as the grants administrator for the SEGA portion of the project. In this capacity the Center issued Requests for Proposals to economic non-governmental policy research institutes for three rounds of funding and also administered the grants to chosen recipients. Administration of grants involved technical assistance, program monitoring, and program evaluation. The Joint Center also coordinated periodic forums on research findings.
Principal funding for this effort came from the United States Agency for International Development, via a subcontract from Nathan Associates (www.nathaninc.com). Other support was provided by the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID) and the Australian AID. (AusAID). Research and technical assistance is now being provided through the Joint Economics Aid and Poverty Programme (www.jeapp.org.za ), an affiliate of the African-Asian Society.
For further information on SEGA initiatives, go to Nathan Associates
This project is supported with funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development and Nathan Associates.