The United Nations African Institute for Economic Development and Planning (IDEP) organized a first round of seven short courses for mid-career and senior level African policymakers during the first semester of 2016.

Those courses are part of IDEP's portfolio of traditional short courses (organized on a yearly basis) and addressed the following important topics for Africa's development:

Agricultural policy in Africa from 14th to 25th March 2016

International trade policy from 5th to 15th April 2016

International trade negotiations from 11th to 22nd April 2016

data analysis from 18th to 29th April 2016

Fundamentals of development planning from 2nd to 13th May 2016

Industrial policy in Africa from 17th to 27th May 2016

Macroeconomic modelling from 23rd May to 3rd June

All the seven short courses took place at IDEP's headquarters in Dakar, Senegal.

In the framework of those training programs, 177 policymakers from 45 African countries were trained. All the five African sub-regions were represented and the continental coverage ratio was 83%. With regard to gender considerations, the number of female officials trained was 69 (39% of the participants), which reflects IDEP's sustained efforts to attract female participants in its programs, given the relatively low number of female applicants.

Through the evaluation questionnaires, participants expressed their satisfaction with the quality of the courses. This was reflected in high ratings in terms of overall satisfaction, quality of the delivery, relevance of the course modules and competence of the experts. Generally, participants considered that the courses fulfilled their expectations very well.

The closing ceremonies of the training programs were chaired by high-ranking Senegalese government officials, including the Minister of Industry and Mining of Senegal. Ambassadors of countries represented in the courses also attended the ceremonies and commended IDEP for continuing to build the capacities of African government officials in key areas of development planning and economic policy management.

For the second semester of 2016, IDEP is starting the second round of short courses with the course on Mineral Policy and Contract Negotiations for public officials organized from 11th to 22nd July 2016.