Théophile Azomahou is a Professor of Economics and Director of Training at the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC). His research focuses on development economics at the cutting edge of evidence-based policy, quantitative empiricism and economic theory. He has published in peer-reviewed academic journals and is a visiting scientific director. Prior to joining the AERC in February 2021, he served as Director of Research at the United Nations University - UNU (2008-2018), where he led, among other teams, the UNU Research Group on “Economic Development, Innovation, Governance and Institutions”. He also taught at the Maastricht University School of Business and Economics (2010-2020), as Professor of Development Economics. He has been a Professor of Economics at the University of Clermont Auvergne, CNRS-CERDI since 2015. Professor Azomahou holds a PhD and a Master’s degree in Economics, both from the University of Strasbourg, France. He also completed executive training on “A Cutting Edge of Economic Development” at the Harvard Kennedy School in the United States. He is a Senior Fellow of the Pan African Council for Scientific Research and has served as a resource person for AERC since 2019.

Professor Plane was Director of the CERDI between 2000 and 2013, and a member of the United Nations Committee for Development Policy (CDP) from 2010 to 2016. He is also a member of the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) and the Economic Research Forum (ERF), a network of researchers on the Middle East. He specializes in public enterprise reforms, privatization processes and public-private partnerships in developing countries. He also works on issues of national and territorial competitiveness, including exchange rate policies, and, from a more microeconomic perspective, analysis of the productivity of manufacturing firms in a context of integration into the global economy. In addition, he is responsible for the Sustainable Competitiveness Observatory program at the FERDI and participates in research partnerships with WAEMU and CEMAC.

LProfessor Abdoulaye Seck holds a PhD from Suffolk University in Boston, earned in 2011, the same year as his CAMES teaching certification. Prior to that, he completed his Advanced Studies degree (DEA) in 2002, as part of the Inter-University Graduate Program, Dakar campus. In 2018, he became a full professor. His teaching covers various disciplines such as international trade, econometrics and research methodology, at UCAD and other universities in the sub-region. His scientific publications have appeared in journals such as the Journal of African Economies, the Journal of African Trade, Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, World Economy, and Review of Development Economics, among others. These publications earned him two scientific awards in 2009 and 2014. He recently published a book entitled “La Recherche Appliquée en Économie: Méthodologie, Communication Scientifique et Financement” (Applied research in economics: methodology, scientific communication and financing) published by L’Harmattan. He initiated the African Forum for Economic and Social Research (FARES), a virtual research presentation and discussion platform that brings together African researchers, both academic and professional. He has been a Research Fellow and Corporate Member at the PEP Network, a Visiting Scholar at the IMF, and a technical advisor to the Ministry of Agriculture in Senegal.