The African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) through its Knowledge Management and Program Support Department (KMPSD) is geared towards generating, sharing, disseminating and utilizing knowledge for capacity building and development management. The ACBF knowledge management program seeks to achieve four major objectives, amongst others. These are to:

• Enhance the performance of internal project and program operations based on best-practice methodologies, strategies and instruments.
• Foster the sharing of best practices in capacity building, in the design and implementation of development policies and programs as well as in reform programs that are directed at strengthening the effectiveness of Africa’s development process.
• Contribute to programs and mechanisms for extracting and sharing tacit knowledge for the benefit of national and regional development.
• Enhance returns to, and the efficiency of, investments in capacity building

One of the key instruments in the Foundation’s knowledge management toolkit is the Senior Policymakers and Development Managers’ Knowledge Sharing Program (SPM-KSP). SPM-KSP provides a platform by which successful development practitioners (serving or on retirement, sabbatical, and leave of absence) who have made significant contributions to the development process in Africa or other developing regions, and are willing to document and share their memoirs – are targeted for extracting tacit knowledge for the benefit of future efforts at African development. SPM-KSP specifically targets very senior policymakers and development managers, including visiting academics and eminent guests to the Foundation. Participating policymakers and development managers are selectively drawn nationally, regionally, continentally and globally from the public and private sectors; national, regional and continental institutions; international development agencies; civil society organizations; ACBF partner institutions; tertiary institutions of learning; research and specialized training institutes, among others.

The program started off in 2003 with Ambassador Vijay S. Makhan. In 2007, the Foundation re-launched the SPM-KSP series with an initial target of six distinguished personalities, including the first guest in 2003, Ambassador Makhan, a former Assistant Secretary-General of the then OAU and later Interim Commissioner of the AU. The distinguished personalities will each speak to a specific theme that aptly captures the essence of their development experience:

Dr. Callisto Madavo
The World Bank and sub-Saharan Africa – The Next Policy Paradigm, Share of the Region’s Development Assistance Funding and Challenges Facing Africa Region’s Operations.

Amb. Vijay S. Makhan
Making Regional Integration Work in Africa – A Reflection on Strategies and Institutional Requirements.

Ms. Eveline Herfkens
Africa and Development Assistance Cooperation – Successes, Pitfalls and Areas for Further Reforms.

Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
Transparency and Accountability in the Management of Public Funds – How Sensibly Must African Countries Stand?

Mrs. Christina Svensson
The Future of Bilateral Aid in Africa – Components, Size, Flow, Conditionalities and Relative Importance.

H.E. Benjamin William Mkapa
Retracing The Economic Achievements of Tanzania: Lessons and Insights for Africa’s Sustainable Development Results.

A key output of the SPM-KSP will be a publication titled ‘Development Memoirs.’ The size and layout of this published memoir will be similar to that of an ACBF Occasional Paper. Once in this format, the knowledge ‘captured’ will be disseminated widely amongst ACBF’s partners and stakeholders both on the Continent and beyond. Memoirs generated through the SPM-KSP will provide professional insights, reflections, skills, processes and experiences in the management of specific policies and programs as well as serve as case studies detailing skills, processes, practices and experiences associated with specific policies and programs that made measurable impact on growth.