About

The Structural Transformation and Economic Growth (STEG) programme, established in March 2020, aims to provide a better understanding of structural change, productivity, and growth in low- and middle-income countries. STEG seeks to develop a strong body of evidence that will help country governments, international development organisations, NGOs, and the private sector to design and implement strategies, policies, and programmes that better facilitate structural change, productivity gains, and both sustained and sustainable growth.

To achieve this goal, STEG aims to increase the quantity, quality, and policy relevance of research in the field and engage a greater number and more diverse group of scholars in the research community. With STEG's commitment to ensuring the effective uptake of research, the programme will deliver guidance on matters of policy and distil lessons that can be put into practice by policymakers and other key development actors in low-income countries. The programme will also invest resources into collecting new data and improving the accessibility of existing data. STEG will use balanced evidence products, as well as a wide range of other communications channels, to take stock of existing knowledge and to communicate the new knowledge created by STEG to stakeholders.

STEG is funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and is a five-year programme of academic research budgeted at £12 million, with the potential for a follow-on programme that would cover an additional four years with a budget of £10 million. STEG is implemented by a consortium led by the Centre for Economic Policy Research, and including the University of Oxford, the University of Notre Dame, the African Center for Economic Transformation, the Yale Research Initiative on Innovation and Scale, and the Groningen Growth and Development Centre. Doug Gollin (University of Oxford and CEPR) and Joe Kaboski (University of Notre Dame and CEPR) are responsible for the scientific direction of the programme. 

STEG supports the UN Global Compact and its principles. To find out more, please visit the UN Global Compact webpage