One of the key instruments in the Foundations 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 development efforts in Africa. Participating policymakers and development managers are selectively drawn across Africa and the world 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 output of the knowledge-sharing program is carried in an ACBF Publication Series titled Development Memoirs. The program essentially seeks to institutionalize a process by which the extracted tacit knowledge is used as an input in process or institutional performance improvement.

Three further interviews were carried out and they included:

Ms. Eveline Herfkens, ex-Minister of Development Cooperation in the Netherlands, and currently the Executive Coordinator of the UN Millennium Campaign, drew on her experience and shared insights on Africa and Development Assistance Cooperation Successes, Pitfalls, and Areas for Further Reforms. Her interview focused, among other issues, the challenges of dealing with domestic political economy issues when raising funds for development assistance to Africa; the challenges of the Millennium Campaigning in trying to raise awareness on Africas challenges to meet the 2015 target; and shedding some light on the unsettled question of the optimal modalities of aid delivery systems in Africa, balancing the reality of government failure on the one hand, and the exigency for capacity building of the same African governments for improved public service delivery on the other hand.

Dr. (Mrs.) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, ex-Finance Minister of Nigeria, Member of the World Bank Commission on Growth and Development and recently appointed Managing Director, World Bank, drew on her experience and shared her insights on: Transparency and Accountability in the Management of Public Funds How Sensibly Must African Countries Stand Her interview focused among other issues on her opinions over the challenges facing a typical African Finance Minister; her characterization of the present economic and financial policy environment in sub-Saharan Africa and what it would take to achieve transparency and accountability; the challenges faced in the cancellation of US$18 billion debt of Nigerias US$30 billion Paris Club Debt; and her opinion on the issue of the optimal modalities of transparency and accountability in the management of public expenditure in Africa, balancing the reality of government failure on the one hand, and the exigency for capacity building of the same African governments for improved public service delivery on the other hand.

Mrs. Kristina Svensson, ex-Swedish Ambassador to Zimbabwe, drew on her experience and shared insights on: The Future of Bilateral Aid in Africa Components, Size, Flow, Conditionalities and Relative Importance. Her interview focused, among other issues, on the future of development cooperation in Africa, including critical sectors that should be targeted for productive and mutually beneficial management of development assistance in Africa; the importance of capacity building versus traditional technical assistance for the future of development cooperation in Africa; the challenges in deciding on the optimal modalities for delivering development assistance to Africa, balancing pervasive government failures and lack of capacity on the one hand, and the centrality of efficient public service delivery and the complexities of competitive domestic political forces, on the other; and personal impression about Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) as a mechanism for addressing poverty in Africa, particularly in the context of the Paris Declaration and the European Commission.