Institutions and state capability
Public administration, regulatory quality, service delivery, accountability, implementation capacity, and institutional reform.
Research Program 02
Economic Development, Governance, and Institutions
Research on the institutional foundations of shared prosperity, effective government, productive investment, and regional economic transformation.
Program purpose
The Horn of Africa combines expanding markets, a young population, strategic trade routes, natural resources, rapid urbanization, and significant technological change. These opportunities coexist with institutional constraints, fiscal pressure, uneven infrastructure, limited financial access, political uncertainty, and exposure to external shocks.
The program examines how governments, markets, and public institutions can convert regional assets into broad-based development. Research connects economic policy with administrative capability, political incentives, implementation systems, and distributional consequences.
Research priorities
Macroeconomic and fiscal policy
Public finance, debt sustainability, revenue systems, expenditure priorities, monetary conditions, and economic resilience.
Finance and investment
Banking systems, consumer and enterprise finance, financial inclusion, investment climate, development finance, and capital formation.
Trade and infrastructure
Regional integration, ports and corridors, logistics, energy, digital infrastructure, supply chains, and productive connectivity.
Inclusive growth
Employment, enterprise development, urbanization, human capital, social protection, and equitable access to opportunity.
Digital transformation
Digital public infrastructure, government data systems, technology policy, administrative modernization, and responsible innovation.
Policy contribution
The program produces institutional diagnostics, economic and fiscal assessments, public-investment analysis, reform options, implementation strategies, and scenario-based decision support. Foresight Lab contributes data engineering, modeling, forecasting, simulation, and geospatial analysis.
Questions guiding the program
Turning regional potential into durable public value.
- Which institutions enable effective implementation?
- How can public finance support resilience and growth?
- What expands responsible access to finance?
- Which infrastructure investments produce regional benefits?
- How can digital systems strengthen public capability?
- How should reforms distribute risks and opportunities?