The African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF), in line with its Strategic Medium Term Plan II (2007-2011), in 2007 constituted a 12-member task force, drawn from the Foundation's professional staff, to develop a comprehensive Performance Measurement Framework (PMF) and performance indicators for capacity building at the level of the Foundation (that is, within the context of implementation of the Strategic Medium-Term Plan) and at the level of broad categories of the Foundation's interventions in capacity building.

Central to the Foundation's decision to develop a PMF for its capacity- building activities was the need to design and implement a systematic approach for collecting, analyzing, utilizing and reporting on results to assess the performance of the Foundation's interventions. The framework will therefore serve as a tool for enhancing the management and reporting of interventions by measuring the level of achievement of results by the Foundation. The framework will further guide the Foundation in its work and provide evidence-based knowledge and lessons learnt.

Central to the Foundation’s decision to develop a PMF for its capacity-building activities was the need to design and implement a systematic approach for collecting, analyzing, utilizing and reporting on results to assess the performance of the Foundation’s interventions.

Accordingly, the Foundation's PMF task force focused on developing performance indicators in the following thematic areas: Policy units; Training; Public Administration and Management; Financial Management and Accountability; Statistics; Interface; Gender; Parliaments; Knowledge Management; Economic Policy Analysis and Management; and SMTP II.

The Foundation's PMF is anchored to the Results Based Management (RBM) approach and seeks to measure results at three levels: firstly, representing key strategic results and indicators; secondly, performance of ACBF in relation to the SMTP objectives; and, thirdly, the performance of the Foundation, focusing on its effectiveness and sustainability. Gender is considered as a crosscutting theme, which is consistent with the Foundation's vision to mainstream gender in all its activities.

The interest and planning for the PMF dates back to 1996 when the Secretariat prepared a working paper on the development of performance indicators for ACBF-supported projects and programs.

Subsequently, the Secretariat prepared 2 papers for the Executive Board for consideration and organized in 2004 a workshop on Performance Measurement in Capacity Building. In attendance were representatives of ACBF-supported projects and programs as well as those of other institutions involved in capacity building. More recently, ACBF has held two workshops on the subject. The first, held in Harare, was attended by ACBF Program Officers, who had an opportunity to critique the PMF being developed. This was followed by a much larger multi-stakeholder workshop, held in Abuja, Nigeria and attended by ACBF Projects and Programs and members of its Executive Board and Board of Governors. The interactive nature of the multi-stakeholder workshop provided for a dynamic forum and an invaluable opportunity to review the PMF being developed.

The Abuja workshop involved a combination of presentations, working groups, and plenary discussions, out of which emerged a strong consensus that the ACBF-developed framework and indicators offer an opportunity to demonstrate the Foundation's performance. Participants also identified key issues and procedures that needed to be addressed in order to take the Foundation's work forward. It was necessary for ACBF to conduct a base-line study to enable the Foundation identify a base line upon which set targets would subsequently be premiered. More importantly, the Foundation was encouraged to put in place a monitoring and evaluation unit to oversee and track the PMF and indicators developed.

Accordingly, following the approval of the PMF by the ACBF Executive Board in December 2007, a piloting phase has been scheduled for 2008, which will further refine the Secretariat's work. The pilot phase will also involve the collection and processing of data and information for the computation of baseline values and the setting of targets for all proposed indicators.

The development by ACBF of a PMF and indicators will go a long way in enabling the Foundation to track and improve the quality of its capacity building initiatives on the Continent. Additionally, the PMF should make the Foundation more transparent and accountable to its stakeholders. More importantly, the PMF is viewed as a key step in the Foundation's growth and development toward becoming a results- and knowledge-based institution. While the PMF is a reporting tool that measures results at the end of the management process, it is also an invaluable learning tool and provides an opportunity for ACBF and its stakeholders to better assess the impact of capacity-building interventions on the Continent.