The main topics emphasized in AIPA’s research programme are associated with the goal of economic growth and economic democratization through:

		the integration of disadvantaged communities into the critical sectors of the mainstream economy;
		capacity building to facilitate this process;
		the promotion of economic growth at effective rates
		the promotion of redistributive equity; and
		the creation of both a conducive environment and the appropriate support institutions to achieve these goals.

Specific research programmes include:

		Integration of disadvantaged South Africans into the mainstream economy
		Industrial Development
		Trade and Trade Facilitation
		Investment
		Capacity Building
		Post Graduate Scholarships Programme
		Black Entrepreneunrship
		Institutional Support Services
		Urban Development
		Policy Reform
		HIV/AIDS

AIPA embarked on research to formulate a macro-economic strategy to provide a defined framework and point of reference within which sectoral research activities could be pursued. This programme encompassed the following ten themes:

		Growth with equity
		Financial, fiscal and monetary affairs
		Savings and investment
		Community savings (and the emergence of the stokvel phenomenon in South Africa)
		Industrial and trade policies and competition
		Agriculture, including land reform, small farmer development, and marketing and trade issues
		The labour market
		The regional impact of structural adjustment on Southern African countries
		Privatisation
		Lessons from African and non-African countries on policy reform.

The results of the research were published in August 1997 under the title "Growth With Equity"

Following a review of this programme by South African and an international economists and public officials from ministries of finance, labour, and trade and industry, several additional research themes have been added under Policy Reform. They include alternative macroeconomic strategies designed to lead to growth with equity, sectoral research topics to deepen the analysis contained in Growth With Equity and topics that deal with the important questions around delivery of growth with equity.

AIPA has been in existence since 1992 as a research institution and carries out high level research across Africa. Over the past years we have been on the path to expand into surveys (electronic surveys) through a call centre. This Unit carries out surveys of empirical data, on labour, agriculture, commodities, education, employment unemployment, health, HIV/AIDS, political trends, Consumer data, Service quality and customer satisfaction studies, product and advertising testing. Test marketing/ consumer panel, usage and attitude studies/ opinion polls e-surveys etc. Analyze it swiftly and feed back the public, Government Departments and the private sector as appropriate. It is envisaged that it will enable policy makers to take appropriate action on current and up-to-date information on the ground.

Experience during the last four decades has shown that the benefits of economic co-operation among African countries will accrue only if economic co-operation in groupings (preferential trade areas, free markets, economic communities, etc.) are viable and operationally effective. Given the failures of previous such groupings in Africa, the first objective of AIPA’s research in this area is to identify the reasons for this lack of success and to determine whether there are more effective approaches and mechanisms than protocols and treaties. Emphasis is given to the role of the private sector and to the generation of national economic dynamism as a first step.

To this effect AIPA will assist in formulating specific practical plans and projects. An important objective from the domestic point of view is to encourage South African business, to be active in finding markets and investment opportunities in other African countries and vice versa.

AIPA identified the need for an Africa Investment Service Centre if Africa is to move forward in attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). The Centre has been stimulated in part by knowledge accumulated through interaction with global investment Promotion Agencies and approaches made to AIPA for assistance from several African countries. AIPA is convinced that virtually all the skills necessary to substantially provide effective FDI services exist within the continent and particularly, through certainly not exclusively, within South Africa. It is envisaged that the Africa Investment Service Centre will provide a means to harness these skills and apply them effectively throughout Africa.

AIPA believes that tertiary education in South Africa is more relevant to the economic and scientific development of Africa as a whole. To this effect, AIPA placed over eight hundred post/undergraduate candidates from various African countries in South Africa in several tertiary institutions. AIPA believes the network of such scholars in Africa will speed up the development of NEPAD.