Regional Integration, Trade and Sustainable Competitiveness

↪ Analyse the determinants of competitiveness and productive transformation in African economies, within a context of regional integration and global openness.

↪ Support regional institutions (UEMOA, CEMAC) in the design, monitoring and evaluation of their economic policies.

↪ Assess the impact of economic policies (fiscal, trade, agricultural and digital) on growth, employment and economic resilience.

↪ Contribute to a better understanding of the conditions for African countries’ integration into global value chains. 

• In support of WAEMU, publication of a series of reports on vulnerability and resilience in the region, food security in member states, rural transformation through digitalisation, youth employment in rural areas, fiscal capacity, fiscal disparities, and environmental taxation.
• In support of CEMAC, contribution to the operational launch of the CEMAC Business Climate Observatory and support to the Commission’s work on the creation of a multilateral stabilisation fund aimed at smoothing the use of oil revenues and strengthening the countercyclical role of fiscal policies in the sub-region.
• Ongoing update and restructuring of the databases of the Observatory of Sustainable Competitiveness.

Research on exchange rates and value chains, including publications by Patrick Plane et al. in Review of World Economics and The World Economy

↪ Book by Jaime de Melo (2025) Essays on Africa’s Integration: Prospects and Challenges for Markets and Regional Public Goods, examining the economic conditions required for the viability of regional integration projects