AGRODEP provides capacity strengthening for African agricultural experts through training courses, grants, workshops, technical resources and publications. Its goal is to enable African experts to lead research and policy analysis on strategic development questions in Africa. Key activities include over 25 training courses attended by 275 participants, 83 grants awarded, annual members' workshops, co-hosting the 2014 GTAP conference, and a library of models, datasets and publications.

1. www.agrodep.org
AGRODEP’S Capacity
Strengthening Activities
Betina V. Dimaranan
AGRODEP Project Manager
IFPRI-MTID

2. Brief Background
• Project launched in October 2010
• Facilitated by IFPRI
• Key SRO partners: ASARECA, CORAF-WECARD,
and FANRPAN
• Other partners include: GTAP, PEP, UCL, Univ
Pretoria
• Coordination Team based in IFPRI Washington, DC
and IFPRI-Dakar
• Guidance/advise from:
• Scientific Advisory Board
• Steering Committee
• Network Advisory Board
• Three major components: Models, Data, Network
• Membership-based
www.agrodep.org
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3. Goal and Key
Roles of
AGRODEP
Goal of AGRODEP
To position African experts to take a leading role in both:
• the study of strategic development questions facing African
countries as a group and
• the broader agricultural growth and policy debate, which traditionally
has been dominated by external actors and concerns.
Key Roles
• Promoting access to and use of state-of-the-art economic modeling
tools
• Facilitating access to existing data sources for research and policy
analysis
• Building a network of state-of-the-art researchers:
• Supporting collaboration among leading African scientists and their peers
outside Africa
• Building a dynamic research community that can respond to the emerging
and long-term needs of CAADP growth and poverty reduction agenda.
www.agrodep.org
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4. AGRODEP
MEMBERSHIP
• Eligibility:
• Citizen of and based in Africa
• Ph.D. obtained within the last 15 years, current Ph.D. student or has
a Master’s degree (but with significant experience and training)
• Research experience (publications, trainings)
• Benefits:
• Access to AGRODEP resources – data, models, publications
• Eligibility for AGRODEP research and travel grants, training courses,
workshops
• Exposure to network and opportunities for collaboration within Africa
and outside
Affiliate Membership
www.agrodep.org
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5. 183 Current regular Members: 56 F,
127 M
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
male female
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
male femalewww.agrodep.org 5
by nationality
by location

6. Capacity-
Strengthening
Activities
• Training Courses – average 8 courses/year
• Grants Programs
• research, conference travel, seed funds
• feedback from reviewers or mentors
• Annual Members’ Workshops
• Conferences
• co-organized global 2014 GTAP Conference in Dakar
• Technical Resources
• Model Library
• Data Library
• Resources Library
• AGRODEP Publications
• Working Papers
• Technical Notes
• Data Reports
• Publication Awards
• Research/Networking Opportunities
www.agrodep.org

7. Training Courses*
www.agrodep.org
• Applied Microeconometrics
• Applied Nonparametric
Econometrics
• Applied Panel Data
Econometrics
• Augmented Gravity Models
• Evaluation of Public Policies
• Estimation of Economic Impact
of High Food Prices Using
Micro Data
• Experimental Methods for
Impact Assessment
• Poverty Measurement and
Analysis
• Productivity and Efficiency
Analysis
• Building and Updating a Social
Accounting Matrix
• Household Survey Data: Sampling
and Processing
• GAMS-Based CGE Modeling,
Basic and Advanced
• Multi-Country, Multi-Sector General
Equilibrium Analysis:
MIRAGRODEP
• Agricultural Distortions and Value
Chains
• Assessing Crop Production,
Nutrient Management, Climatic
Risk and Environmental
Sustainability with Simulation
Models
• Impact Evaluation (IE) and
Analysis of Development
Interventions: Parts I, II & III
* 25 training courses and 275 participants so far

8. Photos from some
AGRODEP Courses
www.agrodep.org 8
Applied Panel Data Econometrics, Sept. 2013
Experimental Economics, May 2014 Poverty Measurement and Analysis, Jan. 2014
Impact Evaluation and Analysis, Dec. 2013

9. AGRODEP
Grants Program
• Grants for Innovative Research
• annual calls, open only to AGRODEP members
• 22 grants awarded since 2011
• 3rd round launched in October 2014: “Linking Country Policies
ro Agricultural Development Outcomes”
• 11 proposals, 3 awarded
• Grants for Gaps in Research
• annual calls, open to AGRODEP and non-AGRODEP members
• 9 grants awarded since 2012
• 3rd round launched in Aug 2014: “Using Trade for Development”
• 55 proposals, 3 awarded
• Grants for Research Valorization (conferences, publication fees)
• continues year-round
• 48 grants awarded since 2011
• Seed-Fund Grants (associated with specific training courses)
• continues year-round
• 12 grants since 2012
www.agrodep.org

10. Members’ Workshops
• 06-08 June 2011
• 13 November 2012
• 19-20 November 2013
• 2-day workshop (2011) on
climate change and on food
prices / price volatility (with
experts as speakers)
• AGRODEP members
presented and received
feedback on their
AGRODEP grants research
(2012, 2013)
• AGRODEP staff and
members of governance
groups participate
www.agrodep.org

11. Co-organized the 17TH Annual
GTAP Conference
• 18-20 June 2014
• 194 economists from 52
countries
• 50 participants from Africa
(40 received sponsorship
from AGRODEP, IFPRI’s
FSP, UNECA, WTO)
• 28 AGRODEP members
attended (15 presented)
• AGRODEP held training
courses before and after
the event
www.agrodep.org

12. Technical
Resources
21 MODELS, including:
• PEP 1-1 and 1-T Models
• IFPRI Standard CGE Model
• MIRAGRODEP Model
• PE-Trade Model
• ERATO Model
• Micro-Macro Distributional
Analysis Toolbox
• RECS Toolbox
• Gravity Model
• GAMS Training Toolbox
280 DATASETS,
including:
• Household Survey
Data
• National Agricultural
Statistics
• Social Accounting
Matrices
• Development Indicators
• Socioeconomic
Indicators
• Trade Statistics
www.agrodep.org 12

13. AGRODEP
Publications
www.agrodep.org
• Working Papers (14)
• From members’
research activities
• Technical Notes (12)
• includes model and
toolbox documentation
• Data Reports (5)
• dataset documentation
(SAMS)
WP # 14: Mulangu, F., M.
Miranda, and E. Maiga. August
2015. Is More Chocolate Bad for
Poverty? An Evaluation of Cocoa
Pricing for Ghana’s
Industrialization and Poverty
Reduction.
TN # 12: Laborde, D. and Tokgoz,
S., March 2015. Partial
Equilibrium Trade Simulation
(PETS) Model: Documentation.
DR # 5: Cabral, F.J. March
2015. A 2007 Social Accounting
Matrix for Guinea Bissau.
Aside from journal articles from members’ grant-funded research.
* 11 awards so far for Excellence in Publications (in highly-ranked journals)

14. Communications
Activities
www.agrodep.org
Monthly Newsletter
First issue - April 2011
Latest issue – August 2015
AGRODEP Bulletin (quarterly
First issue – March 2012
Latest issue – June 2015
Quarterly Updates
First issue - September 2011
Latest issue – June 2015
Sent only to SAB, SC, NAC members
Other announcements on the
website
Regular AGRODEP news – news blast
Blog announcements – to members

15. Research /
Networking
Opportunities
• AGRODEP members required to post the CVs and
links to their GoogleScholar and/or ResearchGate
profiles
• Specialization List – lists members by areas of
specialization (e.g. agricultural finance, economic
modeling, food policy analysis, etc.)
• Occasional calls from other institutions for research
collaboration opportunities for AGRODEP members,
e.g. RESAKSS, ECDPM
• More than 50 individuals listed as “Friends of
AGRODEP,” includes training course instructors,
reviewers and mentors, authors of documentation,
and other contributors to AGRODEP
www.agrodep.org
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16. Thank you!
We look forward to the next phase to push further in
achieving AGRODEP’s stated goal:
To position African experts to take a leading role
in both:
- the study of strategic development questions
facing African countries as a group and
- the broader agricultural growth and policy
debate, which traditionally has been dominated
by external actors and concerns.