Economic Diplomacy: Overview

• Staff
• Funding

Economic diplomacy is concerned with setting the ‘rules of the game’ for the conduct of economic policy. Effective economic diplomacy requires simultaneously understanding the domestic political economy environment and associated constraints on government negotiators, and the external negotiating environment with its own set of political economy constraints.

Economic diplomacy matters to Southern Africa because the rules of the game shape domestic economic policy in important ways, and in an increasingly multi-polar world international economic negotiations are growing in importance across a number of fronts. These may shape domestic and regional economic policies in ways that could be inimical to pursuing sustainable outcomes. Therefore it is necessary to ensure regional interests are articulated and understood.

SAIIA’s primary purpose is to assist with the articulation of such interests by conducting high-level analytical work and making it publicly available in digestible forms to key Southern African actors involved in economic diplomacy and policy processes, and their international counterparts. Our objective is to conduct and disseminate analytical policy-relevant work pertaining to the economic interests of Southern African countries in key international economic negotiations, with a view to informing negotiating options. We have four particular areas of focus:

• South Africa’s Trade, Industrial and Exchange Rate Policies
• Regional Economic Integration
• Regulatory Reform
• Multilateral Economic Governance (G20 Leaders’ Forum; the World Trade Organization)
• Past Research

Staff

Funding

The project is funded by the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), the British High Commission in South Africa (BHC) and the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA).