AGRODEP recently conducted its first training course – out of eight planned for 2012 – in Dakar, Senegal on March 13-15, 2012. The course “Building and Updating a Social Accounting Matrix” was taught by Dr. Ismael Fofana who also coordinates the network component of AGRODEP.
The objective of the training course is to provide hands-on experience in building a Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) from the national accounts tables and in updating a SAM using more recent data. The course also introduced methodology to transform a SAM into an input-output table used by global CGE models (e.g. GTAP or MIRAGE models). The knowledge acquired from the course can be used in other upcoming AGRODEP training courses related to CGE modeling such as GAMS-based Computable General Equilibrium Modeling (basic), GAMS-based Computable General Equilibrium Modeling (advanced), and Multi-country and Multi-sector General Equilibrium Analysis (MIRAGRODEP).
Ten AGRODEP members from Kenya, Nigeria, Côte D'Ivoire, Ethiopia, and Senegal gathered together at the IFPRI-Dakar office and attended the intensive three-day training. Dr. Fofana asked the participants to bring their own primary data and generate SAMs from them, rather than from sample data received from the course -- a usual practice in similar training courses. In addition, he prepared several pre-training activities such as preparing tables for disaggregating the factors and households accounts.
In their evaluations, the participants expressed high satisfaction with the course in terms of the instructor, training materials and content, and the training facilities. Youssouf Kone, a 2011 AGRODEP member and a policy analyst from Côte d’Ivoire, shared his experience about the course:
”The SAM training was a real opportunity to strengthen my ability in economic reasoning and policy analysis. Since the beginning of my career as researcher, I have been involved in the use of computable general equilibrium (CGE) models and SAM, without really knowing the processes of the elaboration of the later, from the primary data to the final product. During the training, we had to understand the various data sources to build SAMs, the different steps in aggregating and disaggregating data, and also the techniques in updating an old SAM. The hands-on experience allowed us to replicate the various steps involved in building and updating a SAM. Learning about the sources of data used to develop SAMs will make it easier for me to interpret CGE-based simulation results.”
You can find out more about the SAM training course and AGRODEP members who attended by visiting the course page. The training materials for this course are available only to AGRODEP members.
AGRODEP will continue to provide high-quality training courses reflecting AGRODEP members’ demand, so that members can maximize their capacity and take a leading role in solving economic problem facing their countries.