THE AFRICAN CAPACITY BUILDING FOUNDATION

The African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) was established on 9 February 1991 through the collaborative efforts of the African Development Bank, the United Nations Development Program, The World Bank, bilateral donors and African governments. The International Monetary Fund became a member of the Foundation in 2002. The Foundation represents a response to the severity of Africa's capacity problems and the challenge to invest in indigenous human and institutional capacity in sub-Saharan Africa. The Foundation's mission is to build capacity for sustainable development and poverty reduction in Africa.

At its establishment, ACBF focused on providing financial and technical support to the building and strengthening of Economic Policy Analysis and Development Management capacity in sub-Saharan Africa. However, since January 2000 the Foundation's mandate has been expanded, following the integration of the Partnership for Capacity Building in Africa (PACT) initiative into its fold. Under the expanded mandate, the Foundation seeks to achieve three main objectives, namely:

• To provide an integrated framework for a holistic approach to capacity building in Africa.
• To 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.
• To 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.

The expansion of ACBF's mandate has broadened its intervention to six core competence areas in capacity building as follows:

• Economic Policy Analysis and Development Management.
• Financial Management and Accountability.
• Enhancement and Monitoring of National Statistics.
• Public Administration and Management.
• Strengthening of Policy Analysis Capacity of National Parliaments.
• Professionalization of the Voices of the Private Sector and Civil Society.

So far, ACBF has made a major stride in the implementation of its mandate. To date, it has committed more than US$250 million to capacity building in some 40 African countries and in the strengthening of Africa's regional organizations to take forward more purposefully commitment to regional integration. The Strategic Medium Term Plan for the period 2002-2006 will commit a total of US$340 million to capacity building on the continent. Within the period of the plan, the Foundation seeks to emerge as an internationally recognized knowledge-based institution generating, collating and sharing knowledge in its core competence areas in capacity building for development management and poverty reduction.