Why Think tanks Matter in Africa 2020

January 30, 2020

The Policy Center for the New South hosted a "Why Think Tanks Matter in Africa", in the framework of the annual Why Think Tanks Matter Forum, organized by the Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program (TTCSP). The Why Think Tanks Matter events serve not only to demonstrate the value and importance of think tanks around the world but also to highlight their instrumental role for determining in an early stage the new challenges that countries may face in various political and economic contexts. In this edition, speakers discussed the critical work think tanks perform in Africa according to their expertise.

Speakers
Mouhamadou Moustapha Ly
Economist, African Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
Currently economist within the African Department of the International Monetary Fund in Washington DC, where he works on East African economies on various macroeconomic policy subjects and surveillance, he is also an affiliate professor of economics at Mohamed-6 Polytechnic university in Rabat (Morocco). Prior to that, Mouhamadou was senior economist at the Policy Center for the New South in Rabat (Morocco) working on development related issues and regional integration in the African continent. Mouhamadou also spent several years as assistant professor at Gaston Berger university in Saint-Louis (Senegal) and a lecturer at Auvergne university (France) and City university (London). He also worked as research fellow at the African Center for Statistics in the United Nations Econo ...
Khalid Chegraoui
Senior Fellow
Khalid Chegraoui is Senior Fellow at the Policy Center for the New South and Vice Dean of Political Sciences and International Relations at the Faculty of Governance, Economic and Social Sciences of the Mohammed VI University.  He began his teaching and research career in 1992 as a Research Assistant Professor at Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdallah University in Fez after earning his first doctorate in African Studies from the Mohammed V University in Rabat focusing on West Sub-Saharan Africa. He also earned a Doctorate of State in African Studies from the same University in 2002, where he focused on Contemporary West Africa, in 2003 he became Professor of History and Political Anthropology at the Institute of African Studies, Mohammed V University, consultant on African and Midd ...
Luigi Narbone
Director, Mediterranean Platform & Professor of Practice, Luiss Guido Carli University
...

RELATED CONTENT

  • September 28, 2026
    This paper was initially published in French on the website of the Fondation Jean-Jaurès. There was a historic decline in Official Development Assistance (ODA) in 2025. Foreign aid to developing countries from members of the OECD-DAC fell by some 23%, the largest decline on record and the second consecutive annual decline. Aid to Africa fell by more than 25%. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) described this decline in ODA to Africa as “a shock like no other.” It differ ...
  • September 25, 2026
    Dans cet épisode d’Africafé, Amadou Diop analyse les défis de sécurité maritime auxquels font face les pays de l’Afrique atlantique, de la piraterie aux trafics transfrontaliers. Il souligne la nécessité de mutualiser les moyens et de partager l’information entre États. L’échange aborde...
  • Authors
    Marianna Albuquerque
    September 23, 2026
    The author of this opinion, Marianna Albuquerque, is a 2022 alumna of the Atlantic Dialogues Emerging Leaders Program.As world leaders gather in New York for the 81st United Nations General Assembly, climate change returns to the center of multilateral diplomacy under markedly different circumstances. The debate is no longer confined to whether the world must decarbonize, but increasingly centers on how the transition will happen, who will bear its costs, who will capture ...
  • Authors
    Luladay Berhanu Mengistie
    Guillaume Gérout Suominen
    September 21, 2026
    The African Union Summit of February 2026 instructed the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Council of Ministers to negotiate a Protocol on Industrial Policy and Development. This work, handled without adequate preparation, is likely to reproduce the weaknesses it is meant to remedy. This paper is a conceptual mapping exercise, written to raise the preparatory questions before drafting begins, rather than to prescribe outcomes.It proceeds in five sections:1. It works towar ...
  • Authors
    Joana Ama Osei-Tutu
    September 12, 2026
    The author of this opinion, Joana Ama Osei-Tutu, is a 2017 alumna of the Atlantic Dialogues Emerging Leaders Program.South-South cooperation (SSC) is often presented as an alternative to the hierarchical relationships that have historically characterized international development. In principle, SSC means Global South countries learn from one another, share expertise and resources, and develop solutions grounded in their own experiences, rather than importing models designe ...
  • September 11, 2026
    Le marché du travail marocain connaît, depuis les années 2000, une expansion continue de la scolarisation qui ne s'est pas accompagnée d'une transformation équivalente de la structure productive de l'économie, ouvrant la voie à des situations d'inadéquation verticale entre le niveau de formation des actifs occupés et les exigences des emplois qu'ils occupent. La présente étude analyse les déterminants du déclassement (sur-éducation) et du surclassement (sous- éducation) à partir des ...