Project Leader:
Research Team:
October 2009
Commencement: October 2009
Completion:
Funded by:
The Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), New Delhi, India, is conducting a project entitled, “Emerging Economies Research Dialogue,” with the support of the Regional Office for South Asia and China of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada. The overall aim of the project is to set in motion a sustained dialogue among emerging economy scholars, professionals, academics and policy-makers on issues of contemporary relevance for these economies to help build, sharpen and share evidence on common or differentiated policy concerns facing these economies in their new global roles. The context of the dialogue is the increasing weight of emerging economies in the overall global economy as well as their enhanced role in the institutions of global governance and the associated need for strengthening research on issues of global relevance and increasing direct, un-intermediated flows of information, research and analysis among emerging economy researchers. The dialogue has adopted a light network of think-tanks approach to facilitate dialogue and to pool, package and marshal the research and analysis for consumption by relevant agencies and officials.
The specific aims of the project are as follows:
- To commission and eventually disseminate in published form a set of analytical papers from eminent scholars from emerging economies. These papers are expected to have clear and immediate policy relevance on the fundamental policy problems confronting these economies as they take new roles on the world stage
- To provide important academic inputs into policy-making in emerging economies and to redirect emerging economy academic research towards common or differentiated policy concerns
- To lead to the emergence of a set of common or differentiated interests around which a loose network of emerging economy research scholars can be formed
The dialogue is focused on the following four themes: agriculture, food security, and livelihoods; technology and innovation; energy, environment, and climate change; and health. In addition, there is an underlying cross-cutting issue of global governance in each of the thematic areas with the objective of persuading the subject area specialists to reflect on international relations and global public goods dimension of their work and for participating international relations experts to better understand the technical complexities of globally relevant issues. The project has three central organizational modalities comprising two multi-country conferences, an interim brainstorming workshop and related publications.
The first multi-country conference, entitled, “Emerging Economies in the New World Order: Promises, Pitfalls and Priorities,” was held on 12-13 April 2010 in New Delhi. Twenty research papers by eminent scholars from eleven countries were commissioned six months in advance of the conference. Participants came from three countries in Latin America (Brazil, Chile, and Mexico) and four each from Asia (China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia) and Africa (South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria, Kenya). The country experts presented various aspects of their national experiences, policy priorities and the main messages emanating from their own research. Discussions, which were led by high-level Indian policy-makers and academics, included exchange on experiences of regional governance innovations and reflections on implications for emerging economy priorities, challenges, and role in global governance.
The follow-up review-cum-brainstorming workshop was organized on 21 March 2011 in New Delhi to identify issues for deliberation at the next meeting and point the way forward. The workshop included previous conference participants from Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Kenya, and Malaysia and representatives from the Government of India, think-tanks, universities and industry associations.
The second conference, “Emerging Economy Perspectives and Priorities in the New Multi-polar World,” with focus on “Food, Energy and Health security: What Roles for Technological and Institutional Innovations?” is being held on 14-15 November in Beijing in partnership with the School of Public Policy and Management, Tsinghua University and the Brookings-Tsinghua Centre for Public Policy. The dialogue is being organized in Beijing with the particular aim of bringing together eminent researchers from across emerging and developing economies, and policy-makers, academics and the wider policy-relevant community from China. It is hoped that this would further contribute to the emergence and development of a set of common or differentiated interests around which a loose network of emerging economy research scholars can be formed that can provide important academic inputs into policy-making in emerging economies.