Call for Projects: Combined Challenges of Ageing and Socio-Economic Contexts

The Agence française de développement (AFD) group is a public institution that finances, supports and accelerates transitions towards a more just and sustainable world. It implements France’s development and international solidarity policy.

Focusing on long-term development trajectories related to settlement/depopulation dynamics is a key topic, which is not taken into account at this stage and yet has major strategic and financial implications for a development agency.

Ageing is an unprecedented event in the history of humanity according to the population division of the United Nations. 2020 marks a historic turning point where the evolution curves of the proportion of people aged 65 and over on the one hand, and people under five years of age intersect and engage in strongly divergent directions, on the other hand.

Themes

• To shed light on the specificities of AFD’s countries/regions of intervention, analyses are therefore already needed on the themes raised by the IMF note mentioned above. It should also include:
  • The articulation with the growing challenges of climate change by examining whether the sociodemographic characteristics of aging transitions are (or not) essential to limit/mitigate the effects of climate change, what would be the adaptive capacities of aging populations, and if these issues, for the time being, “emerging”, are to be further developed as part of the proposed research programme;
  • Major trends in national, regional and international migration. Indeed, they can note differences in economic and legal attractiveness (attraction/repulsion) in “geo-historical” migrations between regions and continents (Mexico/United States, Maghreb/Europe, South Asia/United Kingdom, Turkey/Germany, Balkans/Western Europe); “increased” migration by the evolution of communication technologies and social networks that make permanent settlement migrations evolve towards migrations without definitive break with the countries of origin; migrations of health care providers such as doctors, nurses, care workers;  additionally, “constrained” migrations with the spread of conflicts of all kinds and the exacerbation of geopolitical crises; finally, migrations linked to the slowdown of globalization, the return of protectionism and the strengthening of restrictive national laws and regulations and its corollary, the closure of borders (United States, Europe of 28) and finally, progress in regional development and mobility at the continental (Africa, Balkans) or national (China, South Asian countries).

Purpose

• In order to study in more detail the socio-economic challenges and perspectives for the mentioned geographies (Western Balkans and South-East Asia) and the themes of intervention of AFD, the Department of Economic Diagnostics and Public Policies (ECO) AFD’s Innovation, Strategy and Research (ISR) Executive Directorate is calling for expressions of interest for a 24 month global research programme.
• This new research program aims to examine how demographic structures and dynamics as well as plural forms of socio-economic development are articulated/nested. Research is expected to clearly identify, describe and analyze these links, both from an academic perspective but also with a view to an informed operationalization and facilitation of dialogues that AFD conducts with its public partners in the countries in which it operates.
• More specifically, the research projects covered in this call will focus on population dynamics in three of the traditional fields of demography (mortality/morbidity, aging, migration) and modes of (de)settlement and territorial planning (territorial identities, urbanization/rural areas in particular in relation to natural environments) and their impacts/ interactions with the socio-economic issues present and to come in these geographies.

Funding Information

• The total budget requested for the expected deliverables may not exceed EUR 200,000.
• Co-financing is encouraged.
• The deadline for payment of funding is two years maximum.

Eligible Projects

• Research projects should, as far as possible, involve the following disciplines: sociology, demography, geography, history, political science, urbanism and spatial planning, economics, legal and administrative sciences (taxation, social protection, employment), environmental and biodiversity sciences.
• Multidisciplinary work is sought after and particular attention will be paid to the quality of researchers, either individually or mobilized by research institutions. Proposals for country studies must have a partnership dimension including research institutions from the countries in which the studies are carried out. In addition, research involving academic and non-academic actors (think tanks, statistical institutes for example) sharing their knowledge, their skills and experiences in providing concrete answers to scientific questions that can be later endorsed by public actors will be privileged.

Eligibility Criteria

• Constitution of the research team
  • AFD encourages candidate institutions to call on partners from other institutions/organizations in the target countries to complete their team and meet the requirements of this call.
  • The application must specify the main institution of the team and the affiliations. The main institution that will submit the application on behalf of the entire team will imperatively be an academic institution (university, research center, laboratory) or recognized as having produced knowledge recognized as such (think tank for example).
  • A single lead institution may submit several projects, provided that the principal researchers have the expertise to conduct the proposed thematic analysis and that the proposals include operational tracks/proposals (of the policy papers style) consistent with the chosen research axis.

For more information, visit AFD.