The CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions and Markets (PIM), supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and Cornell University are calling for concept proposals for the Structural Transformation of African Agriculture and Rural Spaces (STAARS) fellowship program.
The STAARS initiative is a collaboration with Cornell University, the African Development Bank (AfDB), the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC), the Partnership for Economic Policy (PEP), and the World Bank. PIM has established a collaboration agreement with Cornell University to provide technical mentorship and support for selected early-career African researchers. Find out more about the STAARS initiative.
The STAARS project builds on the World Bank “Myths and Facts in African Agriculture” project to pursue in-depth, rigorous, policy-oriented research on the causal determinants of productivity and income growth, asset accumulation, rural employment and risk management in African agriculture and rural spaces.
The STAARS Fellowship began in 2016 and to date has supported eight fellows from diverse backgrounds. Find out more about the STAARS Fellows in 2016.
STAARS fellows will be selected through this competitive call for proposals. Once selected, STAARS fellows will be paired with mentors at Cornell University with whom they will jointly author a paper on a topic of mutual interest relating to structural transformation in sub-Saharan Africa.
Prospective STAARS fellows are invited to develop proposals in the following thematic areas.
- Dynamics of agriculture inputs use, technological change, and productivity growth in sub-Saharan Africa.
- Rural factor market performance, labor exits and productivity in sub-Saharan Africa.
- Food security, nutrition and health linkages in sub-Saharan Africa in sub-Saharan Africa.
- Poverty dynamics and resilience against shocks in sub-Saharan Africa.
Please note that STAARS fellows’ rigorous policy analysis should use existing panel data, such as the Living Standards Measurement Study – Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA) or similar datasets. LSMS-ISA panel datasets are available for a number of countries in Africa including Nigeria, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Malawi and Uganda.
Applicants are required to prepare a maximum 2500 word (5 page) concept proposal in English, which motivates the selected research issues and objectives, outlines data sources, proposed methodology and contains a convincing plan for completing the project by December 15, 2017.
Concept proposals must be submitted via email to staars@cornell.edu by March 15, 2017.
Download the full Call for Proposals for more information, including the concept proposal template.