UN-DESA • UNDP Ecuador • Ecuador Ministry of Economic Policy Coordination

Training workshop and technical meetings
Quito, Ecuador
28 August–30 August 2012

DESA/DPAD together with the Government of Ecuador will provide a training workshop to introduce government officials to modelling tools needed to evaluate human development strategies and how these can be influenced by economic shocks. This workshop will be followed by two days of technical coordination meetings.

The workshop is part of the project "Strengthening Macroeconomic and Social Policy Coherence through Integrated Macro-Micro Modelling". The project aims to improve the capabilities of government staff to: a) evaluate the impact of global external shocks on national development, specifically in terms of meeting the MDGs; b) formulate economic and social strategies to mitigate and compensate the adverse effects of the said shocks; and c) anticipate and prepare for crises events so as to avoid setbacks on the path to human development.

The workshop will be attended by a group of government technical officials representing the Ministry of Economic Policy Coordination, the Central Bank, the Ministry of Social Development Coordination, and the Ministry of Finance.

During the workshop DPAD will:

• Review the functional specifications of the MAMS model and associated microsimulation techniques;
• Describe the file structure of the MAMS model;
• Explain the ISIM-MAMS interface and its use;
• Run simulation exercises with the ISIM-MAMS interface;
• Discuss policy issues that would be addressed through policy simulations in order to elaborate policy notes.
• Present the current state of the MAMS database and discuss any ongoing data needs

During the technical coordination meetings, DPAD will:

• Explain the steps to construct the 2007 Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) for Ecuador and the required adjustments for the MAMS model;
• Determine the need to estimate elasticities and other coefficients for the MAMS model;
• Establish the steps and procedures needed to complete the database for the model;
• Establish deadlines and deliverables for the working group.