IFPRI Egypt Seminar: A New Social Accounting Matrix & Policy Reform Simulations for Evidence-based Decision Making in Egypt

October 10th, 2016

Time: 11:00 am to 1:00 pm

 Location: Mokhtar Haluda Hall |Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS); 3 Salah Salem St., Nasr City, Cairo, Egypt 

The Seminar Series provides a platform for all people striving to identify and implement evidence-based policy solutions that sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition. The series is part of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funded project called “Evaluating Impact and Building Capacity” (EIBC) that is implemented by IFPRI. It features research-based presentations by top local and international experts on key development topics. Recording and publishing all the events online will create a knowledge repository to inform policy making in Egypt and beyond.

   In partnership with

"A New Social Accounting Matrix & Policy Reform Simulations for Evidence-based Decision Making in Egypt"

To decide which policies, public investments and programs may be best suited to tackling Egypt’s socio-economic challenges, sound data in combination with cutting-edge economic tools can make a big difference. Decision making based on evidence can not only increase intended policy impact, but it can also help avoiding costly mistakes and adding transparency as to why certain policies are favored over others.

With this rationale in mind, the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) with support from the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions and Markets (PIM) are working together since 2012 to build Social Accounting Matrices (SAM) for economy wide policy analysis.

This seminar that co-funded by PIM will launch the new SAM for Egypt that is disaggregated at the agricultural sector and household level. The seminar will also showcase how the SAM can be used to assess the distributional impacts of ongoing and planned policy reform in Egypt using a Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model. As such, the event will not only highlight a new dataset, but will also provide concrete evidence as to how data may help to improve the life of the Egyptian people.