ACBF to focus on capacity for African regional integration

The African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) Executive Secretary Professor Emmanuel Nnadozie says the organisation has achieved its mission of building human, institutional and organizational capacity in a sustainable manner adding that the ZIPAR Executive Director, Dr. Pamela Nakamba-Kabaso who benefited from ACBF support was a shining example of the capacity building programme.

 

Speaking during the opening of the ACBF Strategic Studies Group (SSG) inaugural workshop at Hotel Intercontinental in Lusaka on 7th March 2014, Prof. Nnadozie said that his vision was to bring capacity building back to the centre of development programmes in the foundation. He added that the establishment of think-tanks and the building of capacity of middle level management had contributed to the significant economic growth in many member countries.

 

Prof. Nnadozie remarked that before ACBF, many African countries such as Ethiopia had few Economists at PhD level but now they were many and helping to drive development.

 

From a human capacity dimension, ACBF has gone beyond. If anyone is in doubt that ACBF can build capacity, they should come and see this woman (Dr. Pamela Nakamba-Kabaso), she benefited from ACBF support and she is a very capable person”, he stated.

 

Earlier, the ZIPAR Executive Director in her welcome remarks to the SSG delegates mentioned that she benefited from an ACBF scholarship through the Ministry of Finance to pursue a Masters in Economics, an initiative which she said changed the picture of economic and social development in Zambia.

 

The ACBF Executive Secretary also stressed the importance of the SSG workshop which he said brought together a global pool of technical and professional experts that will guide and advise the Foundation on specific research areas of critical importance to Africa. This will enable ACBF proactively identify and address pressing development issues confronting the continent.

 

After almost 10 years of existence, the ACBF subjected its Knowledge Management (KM) function to an independent evaluation whose report in October 2011 revealed that amongst other issues there was an apparent disconnect between the key ACBF Technical Advisory Panels and Networks (TAPNETs) and the Foundation’s Operations. Also, the activities of the network were found to be not in sync with the strategic objectives of the Foundation’s Third Strategic Medium Term Plan (SMTP III) thus the evaluation report recommended the redesign of the TAPNETs into a more dynamic network to be known as the Strategic Studies Group.

 

The Foundation, adopted the evaluation recommendation and communicated its decision to redesign the TAPNETs into the SSG to network members at the last 8th Annual TAPNET Meeting, held in Yaoundé, Cameroon, in November 2011.