More than 70 African university students from 12 countries have participated this week in the ‘Empowering Africa Workshop’, organized by the Navarra Center for International Development (NCID) together with the University of Pennsylvania and the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. The workshop, which took place on March 15-16, has served as a bridge between some of the continent's brightest students and leading economist researchers who offered them some tools to harness their potential.

Throughout different sessions, university students have heard from researchers how academic work in economics helps guide good policies of this type, as well as the importance of knowledge and the formation of human capital in the economic growth of a country. The other major theme of the 'Empowering Africa Workshop' has been that of public policies, where the need for growth requires leaders who have a solid understanding of the economy, who can adequately model the potential effects of economic growth and have the ability to evaluate public programs based on rigorous testing.

The 'Empowering Africa Workshop' has emerged as the result of joint work between the NCID, the University of Pennsylvania and the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia to support and participate in these processes that seek to get the most out of the African human potential, and that academic institutions should aim to promote research to promote development. “This will affect not only their future, but also ours. Far from denying an unbridled demographic and global leadership change, we must support and give the best of our abilities to participate in that process. The prosperity, stability and modernity of Africa in the medium and long term will be positive for the whole world, and we cannot stay still”, said the director of NCID, Luis Ravina.

The NCID, part of the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS) of the University of Navarra, considered for the sixth consecutive year the best university think tank in Spain and number 54 in the world, according to the 2020 Global Go To Think Tank Index Report, adds with this event another impulse to continue improving the work and impact of research, as well as its international presence, its general contributions and presence in the media, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of United Nations.