 You probably know the aid and growth debate has been going on for many years, you know The big question really is has all this foreign aid that we've been putting into Developing countries has it actually stimulated Higher growth rates. So that's the question we've been looking at that remains very controversial. So a lot of people have historically said Either no or we can't tell from the data So what we've now been doing perhaps the main aspect of our work is We've got a longer time frame to look over so previously people were looking from the 70s to the 80s So just maybe in five ten-year periods But now we've got 30 to 40 years of data and that helps a lot because we can look at longer term average growth rates and once you do the The I mean there's quite a lot of technical work involved, but once you do it carefully we tend to find a A positive impact of aid on growth that is not massive, but it's it's reasonable and at a moderate size So our conclusion would be that if a country had received Ten percent of its GDP and aid over an extended period of time its growth rate would be about one percentage point higher Then had it not received that aid So that's the general conclusion. This is on average so on and so forth So it doesn't apply to any individual country, but this is the kind of average that we're getting out of the data in Mozambique has come through a long process of civil war and so on and so forth and Finally the the process of conflict finished in the early 90s and it transitioned to to a democracy And since then there's been a lot of what you might say rebound growth So just catching up to where it was in the past because of the the nature of the conflict But what we're seeing now is that a lot of those gains are In a way that a lot of the the gains from from from catching up And not so much there So the question is where does where does Mozambique go from now and the big challenge is is agricultural sector So, you know about 60 percent 70 percent of all people work in the agricultural sector normally in small farms And the biggest problem that we're seeing is that a lack of productivity growth in that sector. So for For a lot of people not just me who've worked on Mozambique It's generating or Stimulating productivity growth in the agricultural sector is going to be critical for a more inclusive growth process we one of the advantages of Productivity growth in the agricultural sector is that it makes food cheaper So therefore there's more scope for wage employment in principle that it becomes More attractive to create factory jobs and so on and so forth because the wages are out of more reasonable potentially more reasonable level So, you know, the owners of factories can can still make profits at reasonable levels So there are benefits from that also by providing More produce onto the market it creates the opportunities for other industries such as agro processing So ideally there will be if there's a productivity growth in agriculture that could help Encourage other industries to start developing. So that's one one aspect. That's not the only aspect There's other things that need to happen in the economy through business reforms through opening up of trade and things like that That would also be beneficial. I think oh There's always the tough questions. I think focusing on the agricultural sector is fundamental and how to do that. I Think there's some there's some quick wins that can be that can be achieved through for example providing high productivity seeds Better road and infrastructure and so on and so forth. So I think that would be the focus, but also I believe The government of Mozambique needs to be willing to experiment So we don't know which specific policy will work to promote the agricultural sector So we need to be able to let's experiment with one or two different public policies if they don't work after three or four years That's fine. Let's try something else But having an open mindset and being willing to fail. I think it's very important There are regional dimensions certainly linking more closely with South Africa There's huge potential there. I mean the energy prospects as well for the region are very important So course Mozambique needs to be looking both inwards and outwards quite as Contribution is that it's it's a very Extended and well-respected network. So a conference like the one we're attending today Brings in people from all over the globe not just from universities in in Europe not just universities in the States but Practitioners as well So it also links together people in a network throughout the world both in the advanced countries and in developing countries I think that's critical and provides a platform for policy discussions Which don't have any particular ideological basis? I believe so being part of the UN system Is is important in that kind of philosophy? I believe