What is the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF)?

Background

The establishment of the African Capacity Building Foundation dates back to 1988 when the World Bank convened a brainstorming session in Kenya between its staff and African policymakers, economic managers and academics to exchange views on Africa’s development problem. Sub-Saharan Africa’s limited capacity for policy analysis and economic management was identified as a primary contributing factor to the region’s inability to adjust to the economic dislocations of the 1970’s. It was emphasized that Africa needed to build the necessary capacity in order to develop. The results of the Kenya meeting were presented to several bilateral and multilateral donors and private foundations during a meeting at the Rockefeller Foundation in New York City in January 1989. Participants at the meeting endorsed capacity building in Africa and encouraged the World Bank to pursue the idea of launching a special initiative for the purpose.

Subsequently, the World Bank, the African Development Bank and the United Nations Development Programme agreed to work jointly to develop the African Capacity Building Initiative (ACBI). Following extensive consultation with African and non-African experts, senior African government officials, policy advisers, researchers and university officials, the three Sponsoring Agencies presented the idea of an African Capacity Building Initiative (ACBI) to a meeting of donors in Paris in June 1990. The donors strongly endorsed the Initiative and pledged financial support to fund its activities. A Memorandum of Understanding among the donors created the African Capacity Building Foundation as a vehicle for its implementation. In November 1991, the Sponsoring Agencies formally adopted the Constitution which established the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) as an independent and non-profit organization with its headquarters in Harare, Zimbabwe. ACBF commenced formal operations in 1992. 

The Context:  Capacity Building the missing link in Africa’s Development

The continuing chronic shortage of human and institutional capacity in Africa presents a major constraint to economic growth, poverty reduction and sustainable development. The Continent lags behind all others in technological proficiency, institutional capacity and human development. Many of the African governments lack capacity to design, implement and monitor development policies and deliver programs. The private sector is stunted by inappropriate macroeconomic policies and poorly implemented economic reform programs. It also lacks an effective means for dialogue with the public sector. Civil society institutions are weak and not properly organized to contribute meaningfully to the development process. Facilities for training, research and information technology remain grossly inadequate. Beside poor management, at the core of the obstacles to development in Africa are insufficient transparency and accountability in the public decision-making process and resource allocation.

The expansion of the mandate of the Foundation, as a result of the integration of PACT, is designed to provide the framework within which the Continent’s deficiencies and shortages in human and institutional capacity can be addressed. The expanded mandate is built on partnership at two levels, first at the international level - between African governments and their international development partners and at the national level - between African governments and other stakeholders in national development, comprising the private sector and civil society. The expanded mandate of the Foundation will add considerable value to current efforts aimed at decisively addressing sub-Saharan Africa’s capacity needs.

Guiding Principles. The expanded mandate is based on four major principles, namely: centrality of capacity to the development process in Africa; the critical role of a partnership approach in addressing the capacity problems; African ownership and leadership in the capacity building process; and a systematic, sequenced and coordinated approach to the capacity building process.

Objectives

The main objectives that the expanded mandate will achieve are to:

• Provide an integrated framework for a holistic approach to capacity building in Africa;

• Build a partnership between African governments and their development partners, which allows for effective coordination of interventions in capacity building and the strengthening of Africa’s ownership, leadership and responsibility in the capacity-building process;

• Build a partnership at the national level among all stakeholders to facilitate an inclusive and participatory approach to capacity building and national development; and

• Provide a forum for discussing issues and processes, sharing experiences, ideas and best practices related to capacity building, as well as mobilizing higher levels of consciousness and resources for capacity building in Africa.

An expanded mandate

On June 11, 1999 the Board of Governors, the top governing body of the Foundation, endorsed the recommendation that the Foundation should integrate and implement the Partnership for Capacity Building in Africa (PACT), a new initiative which represents a renewed attempt by African Governors at the World Bank to respond to the Continent’s development challenge. Following thereafter, the Board of Governors at a special meeting held on 12 January 2000 in Harare, Zimbabwe, approved the integration of the PACT into ACBF as per the recommendations of a study commissioned by the Foundation and concluded on December 15, 1999.

PACT is in essence a renewed focus on the persistent problem of inadequate capacity, characterized by lack of indigenous capacities at the levels of skills, knowledge and institutions, and which has permeated all sectors of the African economies, and of the acknowledgment of the failure of past development approaches in Africa in ensuring sustainable capacity on the Continent. It was this very concern that led to the launching of the African Capacity Building Initiative (ACBI) and subsequently, the establishment of the ACBF, to address capacity needs in the areas of macroeconomic policy analysis and development management, which was seen as the vital gap. Like the ACBI, PACT is the product of an intensive consultative process among the African Heads of State, the President of the World Bank, Mr. James Wolfensohn, and his staff, African Governors and Executive Directors at the World Bank, bilateral and multilateral donors, and other development partners.

Our Approach

In carrying out its mandate, the Foundation is guided by the pursuit of excellence, placing emphasis on quality rather than quantity, attention to sustainability, recognizing that capacity building is a long-term process and is only worthwhile if development efforts become self sustaining; priority for African participation (ensuring African pre-eminence in defining the capacity building process and in playing a leading role in implementation), and by taking a highly strategic approach based on the following principles which maximizes the Foundation’s comparative advantage and its catalytic role in the area of capacity building: 

• demand-driven approach, with emphasis on needs assessment, based on responsive intervention in capacity building and clients’ participation to ensure ownership of capacity-building programs.

• selectivity and regional balance to ensure an effective intervention and maximize impact;

• neutrality with respect to policy orientation in countries of intervention;

• emphasis on using innovative and flexible capacity-building operations that can succeed in Africa’s diverse institutions and political settings and that allow African governments and international donors focus their priorities for maximum effectiveness.

• country focus - the Foundation maintains a country focus that allows its programs to be customized to the different needs of individual countries-based on national capacity assessment-and to build up a concentration of “cluster" of talent and expertise in one country through various program channels. Through this integrated or “cluster“ approach, ACBF increases the possibilities of having maximum and sustained impact in a country and thus reducing the risk of its operations being isolated or marginalized.

Considerably more emphasis is currently being placed on the promotion of equity in the gender profile of beneficiaries of the Foundation’s funding support. 

Operations at the Foundation are planned by means of medium-term work programs, which are implemented through annual business plans. Performance is rigorously monitored and evaluated based on quantitative and qualitative indicators.

What is our role?

The Foundation’s principal objectives are to: 

• build and strengthen sustainable indigenous capacity for macroeconomic policy analysis and development throughout sub-Saharan Africa;

• improve through co-financing and other networking arrangements, the channeling of donor support for capacity building in the area of the Foundation’s mandate; 

• contribute to programs for the reversal of brain drain from the continent and encourage retention as well as intensive utilization of existing capacity; 

• build capacity in key areas of the public sector with emphasis on the interface between the public sector, on the one hand, and the private sector and civil society on the other; and, 

• provide support for regional initiatives in the area of research and training.

• Establish systematic links between economic research and training institutions and governments to foster greater understanding and communications between such entities

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