The Center for African Development Policy Research (CADPR) is an interdisciplinary academic program established at Western Michigan University in October 2000. The Center is a joint program of the WMU Department of Economics of the College of Arts and Sciences,and the Diether H. Haenicke Institute for International and Area Studies. It is an interdisciplinary program intended to foster collaborative research activities with relevant WMU academic departments and units in implementing it's activities. The specific objectives of the Center include:

• Supporting academic activities and programs that contribute to understanding the development and environmental problems of Africa in the form of seminars, workshops, conferences, and discussion or working paper series,
• Coordinating and facilitating short term research and training programs and seminars in collaborations with WMU academic departments and other institutions of higher education and research, in order to promote economic development and business opportunities in Africa,
• Pursuing collaborative external grants in order to implement the Center's activities and objectives,
• Facilitating academic linkages and exchanges of scholars between WMU and institutions of higher education and research in Africa,
• Contributing to WMU's mission of 'student centered university' by serving as a clearing house of research by WMU students, faculty, and visiting scholars, focused on international development in general and African development in particular,
• Collaborating with institutions of higher education and research in Africa in the study of key areas of development such as natural resource management, institutional and sustainable development. The Center will also be involved in collaborative training and capacity building projects with African institutions.