The International Growth Centre, where Blavatnik School of Government Professor Paul Collier is co-director, has won an investment of £51 million from the UK government to expand its work.
The money will allow the IGC to continue its research in sub-saharan Africa and Asia, and expand its activity to 15 countries. Justine Greening, Secretary of State for International Development, announced the award in London earlier this month.
Prof Collier, who heads the IGC Steering Group with Robin Burgess of London School of Economics, was pleased with the development. Writing in the IGC March newsletter, he said that 'governments of poor countries struggle with daunting problems, some unique to their own circumstances. Soundly-based policy choices that respond to these problems can pay dividends far in excess of the cost of the underlying knowledge. Global excellence in knowledge that helps poor countries to help themselves - the mission of the IGC - is money well-spent.
Founded in 2009 and funded by the UK Department for International Development , the IGC works to promote sustainable growth in developing countries. Through its network of partner countries, research programmes and academics in sub-saharan Africa and Asia, it provides advice on good governance and sound economic policy, based on local research.
The IGC is based at the London School of Economics in partnership with Oxford University, with Robin Burgess of the LSE and Paul Collier serving as co-directors of the Steering Group. The Steering Group also includes Tony Venables from Oxford, Timothy Besley and Adnan Khan from LSE and Chang-Tai Hsieh from the University of Chicago.
The IGC's newest partner country is Liberia, where research will focus on natural resource management, macroeconomic policy, urban planning and improving the government's capabilities.
Other partner countries include Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Mozambique, Pakistan, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. The Centre's 10 different research programmes seek to understand the mutliple factors influencing economic growth, with work on topics ranging from agriculture to human capital to finance to governance and beyond.
To read more about IGC's work, visit their website at www.theigc.org, or download a summary here.
