OCEANS: ECA introduces model to advance policy and economic planning in Africa

Kigali, 30 October 2012  - The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and Applied Development Research Solutions (ADRS) announced the launch of the Online Economic Analysis System (OCEANS), a web-based economics tool to help policymakers and researchers make quantitative predictions of African economies.

OCEANS is a new interactive website that allows users to design, simulate and forecast the impact of alternative economic policy scenarios. The interactive tool allows users to easily input policy reforms for a given country and, within minutes, view how the policy choices affect the country’s economic growth, employment and income. Since each country model is based on its unique input-output dataset, the generated results are unique to each country.

Access to OCEANS is free to all African member-state governments, organizations, and institutions that use the system to conduct public policy research on Africa.

Dr. Adam Elhiraika, Chief of the Macroeconomic Analysis Section, Economic Development and NEPAD Division of UNECA, who ushered this innovative tool to fruition under the auspices of UNECA says, “The OCEANS website is the first of its kind. We believe that the interactive tool will become a unique hub for mainstreaming and integrating macroeconomic and sectoral policies in national development strategies.”

Dr. Asghar Adelzadeh, the Chief Economic Modeler at ADRS, created OCEANS by expanding on earlier African country models ADRS built. Dr. Adelzadeh says, “Over the past decade ADRS has built a number of web-based models for African countries. We are pleased about the opportunity to demonstrate the OCEANS website and how it can enhance policymaking and economic capabilities in Africa.”

The launch of the website will be held at the African Economic Conference at the Serena Hotel in Kigali, Rwanda on October 30.

Applied Development Research Solutions (ADRS) is a South Africa and U.S. based economic modeling and research company.  For more information, contact Cynthia Alvillar at +1 (925) 997-5423, or via email at alvillar@adrs-global.com