On Thursday, April 19, 2012 ACBF and WBI co-hosted a panel discussion on “Catalysing Change for Results in Africa-the Role of Capacity Development”, which brought together high-profile leaders from regional institutions in Africa, country ministers, non-state organisations, and the World Bank to share lessons, challenges, and explore critical new directions on capacity development. The forum discussed various issues, including how to strengthen public sector capacity, multi-stakeholder capacity in the sociopolitical environment and the mix of approaches needed to support the economic transformation in Africa.

Co-hosted by Dr Frannie Léautier, Executive Secretary, African Capacity Building Foundation and Dr Sanjay Pradhan, Vice President, World Bank Institute, the discussion was moderated by Shantayanan Devarajan, Chief Economist of the World Bank's Africa Region. Panelists included Hon. John Rwangombwa, Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Republic of Rwanda; H.E. Kerfalla Yansane, Minister of Economy and Finance, Republic of Guinea; Ms Bineta Diop, Executive Director, Femmes Africa Solidarité and Ms Engwase Mwale, Executive Director, NGO Coordinating Council, Zambia.

Over three rounds of moderated debates, panelists discussed the lessons, challenges and new directions on strengthening the capacity of public sector and non-government actors to engage more effectively in the development process. They also discussed the balance between capacity development of both these stakeholders in delivering development results as well as innovations in developing, sharing and scaling up knowledge and learning around effective capacity development practices in Africa.

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