Call for papers - The West-African Digital Transformations Forum

The forum aims to take stock of existing knowledge and to support young scholars to bring African research, especially from West Africa, into closer dialogue with global research, public policy, and regional development efforts. 

The Forum is a three-day, in-person event and will be structured around three complementary pillars:

• Day 1: A research lab dedicated to developing new research projects and programmes on digital transformations in West Africa;
• Day 2: A research workshop during which young African economists will present and discuss their papers on digital transformations in West Africa and across the rest of the continent;
• Day 3: Roundtables and panels to strengthen the digital research-policy connection.

Organisers: The  Foundation for Studies and Research on International Development (FERDI), the Global Development Network (GDN), the African Centre for Equitable Development (ACED), CERDI (Clermont Auvergne University, CNRS, IRD), and the African School of Economics (ASE), with the support of the Clermont International Development Hub (PCDI

This call concerns the day 2 of the Forum, which will focus on academic exchange around research papers. 

The goal is to provide constructive and contextually-grounded feedback on recently conducted or ongoing research, expose participants to a variety of methodological approaches, and support participants in positioning their work  within both international academic debates and the regionally defined research agenda that will be introduced on Day 1.

Keynotes: Jenny Aker (Cornell University), Moussa Blimpo (University of Toronto).

This call is open to:

• macroeconomic and microeconomic papers on the economics of digitalisation in Sub-Saharan Africa;
• young researchers, i.e. those currently pursuing a PhD or who have obtained their PhD within the last five years;
• nationals of an African country.

The GDN is issuing a call for expressions of interest  targeting social science researchers and research institutions working on public policy issues in West Africa and the Sahel who wish to collaborate within the framework of a research programme incubator. 

For further information, please consult the terms of reference for this call for expressions of interest (in French on the GDN website).

The submission deadline is 25 April 2026.