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FOURTH
ANNUAL MEETING OF ACBF KNOWLEDGE NETWORKS:
March 28-30, 2007
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The Fourth Annual Meeting
gave visibility to the Foundation's knowledge
networks in Mali. It provided an opportunity
for policymakers and other development practitioners
to be appraised of the activities of the
TAP-NETs and how the resource can be tapped.
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| Group
photograph of the opening session of TAP-NETs.
Centra front row is Prof. M. Marimantia
Diara, Hon. Minister of Planning, Mali;
flanked immediate right by H.E. Mande Sidibe,
Former Prime Minister, Mali and on immediate
left, Dr. Genevesi Ogiogio, Manager, Knowledge
Management, ACBF. Directly behind Prof.
Diara is Mr. Bassary Toure, former Minister
of Finance, Mali and former Executive Director,
World Bank. |
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The
Fourth Annual Meeting saw the appointment of
new chairs, vice chairs and coordinating secretaries
for some of the TAP-NETs as well as the reappointment
of serving office bearers for some other TAP-NETs.
The principal officers of the six TAP-NETs following
the Bamako Meeting are as follows:
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| EPANET: |
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| Professor Mike Obadan, Chair, EPANET |
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| Chair: Professor
Mike Obadan; Professor of Economics, University
of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria |
| Vice Chair: Professor
Abdrahamane Sanogo; University of Bamako,
Mali |
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FIMANET:
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| Professor Ademola Ariyo, Chair, FIMANET |
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| Chair: Professor
Ademola Ariyo; Centre for Public-Private
Cooperation, Ibadan, Nigeria |
| Vice Chair: Dr.
Mercy Nyangulu; Financial Consultant & Member,
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Advisory Board,
Harare |
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| PAMNET: |
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| Professor Gelase Mutahaba, Chair, PAMNET |
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| Chair: Professor
Gelase Mutahaba; Professor of Public Administration,
University of Dar-es-Salaam, and Chief Technical
Adviser, President's Office, Tanzania. |
| Vice Chair: Professor
Jimoh Murtala Balogun; Professor of Public
Administration & Inter-Regional Adviser,
United Nations Department of Economic and
Social Affairs (UNDESA/DPADM), New York |
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| PARLIANET: |
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| Honourable John Bosley, Chair, PARLIANET |
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| Chair: Honorable
John Bosley; Senior Advisor ACI/PRP Pact
Zambia, Lusaka. |
| Vice Chair: Dr.
Elizabeth Amukugo; Director, Graduate Institute
of Leadership and Professional Development,
Windhoek, Namibia. |
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| STATNET: |
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| Mr. Peter Wingfield-Digby, Chair, STATNET |
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| Chair: Mr.
Peter Wingfield Digby; Statistical Consultant,
Thailand |
| Vice Chair:
Mr Naasson Loutete-Dangui; Ingénieur
Statisticien-Démographe en Chef Hors
Classe, Formateur en méthodes de collecte
des données statistiques et en Démographie,
Congo Brazzaville |
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| VOICENET: |
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| Dr. Gloria Braxton, Chair, VOICENET |
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| Chair: Dr.
Gloria Braxton; Consultant, former Chief
of Party/Project, Tertiary Education Linkage
Project II, South Africa |
| Vice Chair :
Dr. Hilda Tadria; co-founder and Chair of
the African Women's Development Fund (AWDF) |
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BROWN
BAG SEMINARS
Knowledge Harvesting:
An Impetus for Capacity Building in sub-Saharan
Africa _ The Case of ACBF's Senior Policymakers'
and Development Managers' Knowledge Sharing
Program
(SPM-KSP)
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| Dr. Kobena Hanson, Knowledge Management
Officer, ACBF |
The 2007 ACBF Brown
Bag Series kicked off on March 2,
2007 with a presentation by Dr. Kobena Hanson,
Knowledge Management Officer at the Knowledge
Management and Program Support Department
(KMPSD), on the theme: "Knowledge Harvesting:
An Impetus for Capacity Building in Sub-Saharan
Africa _ The Case of ACBF Senior Policymakers
and Development Managers' Knowledge Sharing
Program (SPM-KSP)". The seminar's paper
builds upon the presentation made by Dr.
Hanson on the Senior Policymakers Program
at a 3-day workshop organized by the Global
Development Network in Johannesburg, South
Africa during the last quarter of 2006.
In his presentation, Dr. Hanson
highlighted the centrality of knowledge for
development in Africa in this era of the knowledge
economy. Making explicit or tacit/implicit
knowledge readily available to researchers,
development practitioners and policymakers
amongst others, is therefore key to bolstering
capacity building and development initiatives
on the African continent.
The presenter further argued
that knowledge management (KM) tools, such
as knowledge-harvesting and knowledge-sharing
systems, can be effectively employed to leverage
knowledge _ both locally and externally generated
_ to bridge the development gap between sub-Saharan
Africa and the developed world. He indicated
that one of the key components in the Foundation's
knowledge management toolkit is the Senior
Policymakers and Development Managers' Knowledge
Sharing Program (SPM-KSP). This program provides
a platform to elicit tacit/implicit knowledge
from development practitioners who have made
significant contributions to the development
process in Africa or other developing regions,
and are willing to document and share their
experiences for the benefit of future development
efforts in Africa. In conclusion, he stated
that knowledge management can become a powerful
tool in capacity building, if adequately harnessed
and effectively used to address globalization,
development and capacity building challenges.
The seminar was chaired by
Dr. Gibson Guvheya, Coordinator of the ACBF
Brown Bag Seminar Series and Knowledge Management
Officer, and attended by ACBF staff members
as well as invited guests particularly from
the academia and ACBF-supported projects in
Zimbabwe.
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GHANA
SPEAKS LECTURE SERIES
INSTITUTE FOR DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE, ACCRA, GHANA
The Institute
for Democratic Governance
(IDEG), based in Accra, Ghana - an
ACBF civil society partner - has initiated
quarterly public lectures to promote
informed discussions on critical issues
affecting national development and
cohesion, peace, stability and democracy
in Ghana.
Dubbed Ghana Speaks
Lecture Series, the quarterly lectures
will help put the current state of Ghana
and its challenges into perspective for
greater public understanding and involvement.
The lectures will also offer the public
an opportunity to frankly debate the
public policy issues and contribute to
their effective resolution. The four
lecture series planned for 2007 include
Ghana @50: Tribe or Nation; Ghana and
Africa's Economic Revolution; Democratic
Governance of Security: facing up to
Ghana's fragility; and Middle Income
Ghana: The Challenge of Development Planning
and Execution.
The lecture series has
been designed to partly commemorate the
Golden Jubilee of Ghana's independence
and also to provide a forum for sustained
dialogue, consensus building and collective
action affecting democracy and good governance.
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