AIAE begins research on Social Protection Strategy

Efforts towards evaluating the state driven social protection programmes in Nigeria and Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) will soon be boosted as the African Institute for Applied Economics (AIAE) has begun a research on social protection strategy in Nigeria.

The Institute on the 15th of December, 2011 in its Seminar Room, at a research methodology seminar, brought seasoned experts and research fellows together to do a critique of the proposal to kick start the programme. The initiative is part of the AIAE’s on going research programme to influence policy for sustainable development.

The Executive Director of AIAE, Professor Eric Eboh while welcoming the participants said the research seminar was designed to subject the work to scientific scrutiny and validation, elicit technical inputs in order to ensure scientific quality, policy relevance for the benefit of users.
Professor Eboh added that the research work of the Institute traditionally goes through four stages which include; research concept note, research proposal which is subjected to technical/scientific seminar to improve research quality, policy consultation seminar with end users and final dissemination. The tangible end products of these are research papers, policy briefs, press primal and others.

Leading the discussion, Rev. Fr. H. Eme Nchoku of the department of Economics, University of Nigeria, Nsukka disclosed that the objective of the research work, among others, was to profile and evaluate the success or otherwise of some selected social security programmes in Nigeria with case studies in some countries in the Sub Sahara Africa (SSA).

The study is timely and germane due to persistent high rates of poverty and malnutrition, volatile food prices and the calamities of weather and war, growing interest in social protection issues in SSA and others. Participants from different think tanks, NGOs, CSOs, Universities and AIAE research fellows attended the seminar.