Tuesday 2 September 2008

Visit to FARA by Chief Economist of the World Bank

The Chief Economist of the World Bank, Mr Justin Lin, is visiting Ghana for the High Level Forum. In the days preceeding this event, the Ghana Country Office convened a series of "roundtable" discussions and similar events under a broad theme of 'competitiveness and the transformation to middle-income status'. Issues covered included: financial sector, training and skills development, science and technology in the education sector, and agriculture.

As part of this, the Bank convened two sessions on the last topic, one on agricultural research (theme: closing the productivity gap) and the other on the role of the private sector in agricultural (input and output) markets. For the first of these on agricultural research, the World Bank invited FARA to host a Roundtable. The event took place at FARA on August 30. The discussion had a Ghana focus, but lessons from Africa more broadly were welcomed.