College of Business and Economics | Annual Report 2022 85 Dr Frank Bannor was invited to the 2022 African Economic Conference (AEC), which took place from 09 - 11 December 2022 at the Intercontinental Hotel, Balaclava, Mauritius. The theme for the conference was “Supporting Climate-Smart Development in Africa.” Dr Bannor presented his paper entitled “Economic Growth, Renewable and Non-renewable Electricity Consumption: Fresh Evidence from a Panel Sample of African Countries”. TALENT MANAGEMENT AND CAPACITY BUILDING GRADUATES PEERC’s core staff and research associates are actively supervising honours, master’s, and doctoral students in the fields of public and environmental economics towards developing the next generation of researchers and policymakers in these fields. Since its inception, PEERC has graduated three doctoral students, five master’s students and several honours students. PEERC was selected to participate in the Graduate Placement Employment Programme run by the WRC. The programme aims to equip young graduates with the skills and knowledge needed for the workplace. Senior researchers at PEERC were chosen to mentor graduates while they worked on various research projects. The internship programme ran from January 2022 – July 2022. We are pleased to announce that PEERC has absorbed one of the graduates at the programme’s termination. PEERC has introduced an internship programme for postgraduate students which will commence in 2023. The students will work under the mentorship and supervision of the researchers at PEERC to empower and groom future economics researchers. This internship will allow the Centre to increase output regarding research proposals, publications and, most importantly, skills development. RESEARCH ASSOCIATES AND SENIOR RESEARCH ASSOCIATES The Centre strives to attract internationally recognised researchers. Some of the Centre’s research associates include researchers from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden and the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. RESEARCH COMPLETED RESEARCH PROJECTS Putting the People in the People’s Parliament – European Union At the end of March 2022, PEERC successfully concluded its three-year project entitled “Putting the People in the People’s Parliament”, a European Union (EU) funded project to empower civil society to engage in national parliamentary and provincial legislative processes. The project was done in collaboration with the Dullah Omar Institute (University of the Western Cape), Heinrich Boll Institute, the Public Service Accountability Monitor (PSAM – Rhodes University) and the Parliamentary Monitoring Group (PMG). PEERC published two technical reports on provincial oversight, the provincial equitable share, and post-apartheid education funding. Defining Commercial and Social Infrastructure for Raw Water Use – Department of Water and Sanitation PEERC assisted the DWS and the WRC in revising the National Pricing Strategy on Water Use Charges, i.e., the pricing strategy for raw water use in South Africa. PEERC undertook research that informed the definition of social and commercial users of raw water and criteria to define social and commercial infrastructure. The Department recently released the revised strategy for public comment. Financial and Fiscal Commission 2023/24 Annual Division of Revenue Bill Submission In July 2022, the PEERC Director, Mr Jugal Mahabir, Dr Frank Bannor
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