Conference on Agriculture for Development in Sub-Saharan Africa
Mombassa, Kenya | May 28-29, 2009

The African Economic Research Consortium, in collaboration with the University of California at Berkeley and with the support of the Ford Foundation and the Gates Foundation, will host a conference on Research Frontiers in Agriculture for Development in Sub-Saharan Africa, to precede the AERC's Biannual Research Workshop in May 2009. The conference is a follow-up on the World Development Report 2008 and the June 2008 AERC Plenary Session on Agricultural performance and a Green Revolution in Africa. The objective is to assess progress in economic research in support of smallholder competitiveness.

Event Program
Conference sessions will open with a leading speaker followed by 2 paper presenters selected via a competitive process. The presentations will be organized around six themes as follows:

1	Access to assets and property rights Klaus Deininger, The World Bank (USA) Nicholas Ngepah, University of Cape Town (South Africa) Munenobu Ikegami, International Livestock Research Institute (Kenya)
2	Technological change in smallholder agriculture Aliou Diagne, Africa Rice Center - WARDA (Benin) Benedito Cunguara, Institute of Agriculture and Forestry Economics (Austria) John Olwande, Egerton University (Kenya)
3	Institutional innovations for smallholder competitiveness Willis Oluoch-Kosura, Collaborative MSc in Agricultural & Applied Economics (Kenya) Bjorn Vollan, University of Mannheim (Germany) Gabriel Elepu, Makerere University (Uganda)
4	Vulnerability and resilience in the context of shocks and crises Marcel Fafchamps, Oxford University (UK) Wassie Berhanu, Addis Ababa University (Ethiopia) Lydia Ndirangu, KIPRRA (Kenya) and Wageningen University (Netherlands)
5	Smallholder participation to markets and value chains Eleni Gabre-Madhin, Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (Ethiopia) John Hagwe, University of Pretoria (South Africa) Cyrille Bergaly Kamdem, Universite de Yaounde (Cameroon) and CIRAD (France)
6	Governance and collective action in support of smallholder competitiveness Christopher Udry, Yale University (USA) Sylvain Kpenavoun, University of Abomey-Calavi (Benin) Abdu Muwonge, The World Bank (USA)

One-day Workshop on Impact Assessment
On May 30, 2009 (immediately following the two-day conference) we will hold a workshop on impact evaluation methods and practice, led by Profs. Elisabeth Sadoulet and Jeremy Magruder at the University of California. The workshop is open to all.

If you have questions about the agenda or selection of topics, please contact Willis Kosura and Alain de Janvry. For questions about attending the conference or arranging travel, please contact at Joyce Kiplimo at AERC.