ACBF SPONSORS THE AFRICAN INVESTEMENT FORUM - Accelerating Intra-African Trade and Investment
From 8-10 February 2010, in Accra, Ghana, ACBF participated in the African Investment Forum - Accelerating Intra-African Trade and Investment, within the framework of partnership between the Government of Ghana and the Commonwealth Business Council.
The thrust of the theme of the forum ‘Accelerating Intra African Trade and Investment’ was to address how the private sector, the international community and governments can work together to restore high levels of growth in the face of the global economic downturn. The focus was on strengthening linkages between African economies to underpin new trade and investment.
ACBF, a key sponsor of the Forum, organized a plenary session on Capacity Development in Africa. The session, chaired by the Hon. Paul Boateng, attracted a number of key speakers including Baroness Linda Chalker. As part of the plenary, the ACBF Executive Secretary – Dr. Frannie A. Léautier, presented a thought-provoking paper on “Capacity Building and Skills Development as Prime Mechanisms for Africa’s Socio-economic Transformation: Lessons from ACBF’s Interventions.” The paper interrogated the extant literature and experiences of selected ACBF-supported interventions to examine the importance of capacity building and skills development for Africa’s socio-economic transformation.
Dr. Léautier noted, amongst others, that with globalization and the transition to a knowledge economy, knowledge generation is taking place at a rapid pace as well as becoming obsolete quicker, making capacity development vital — especially to allow for the exploitation and utilisation of experiential knowledge, intellectual capital and indigenous knowledge assets. To this end, she noted that investing in human, organizational and institutional capacity is critical for attaining economic vitality, technological progress, and political stability. The paper also addressed issues of migration, urbanisation and the need to leverage cutting-edge technology, and institutional innovations to develop capacity for economic growth and poverty reduction in Africa.
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