Dear Friends,
Welcome to the fifth edition of Africa Capacity.
ACBF acknowledges the importance of partnerships in building capacity in Africa. In September, the Foundation and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs (DFAT) agreed on a partnership to strengthen knowledge sharing and learning with the Australia Africa Community Engagement Scheme (AACES). The two organizations agreed that there are future opportunities for closer collaboration in the implementation of the AACES as well as other Australian Government’s development initiatives in Africa.
ACBF participated in the 2014 Annual Meetings of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund held in Washington DC on 11-13 October 2014. The mission provided an opportunity to engage officials of the Bank at operational and Board levels and to update them on the status of the Foundation’s operations, especially on the implementation of its set of reforms. So far, the Foundation has implemented reforms that have resulted in a more focused, more efficient and better governed organization that pays serious attention to results and to its sustainability.
The 2014 annual summit of the group of 20 (G20) developed and emerging economies met in November at the Australian city of Brisbane. This year, the grouping addressed the global growth challenge in an ambitious and meaningful way, by focusing, among other things, on empowering development so that developing countries can attract infrastructure investment, strengthen their tax base and improve their people’s access to financial services. Among the concerns from Africa is the poor representation of the continent at the summit. South Africa is the continent’s sole member, meaning that Africa’s views are not adequately canvassed and G20 commitments to Africa are not always kept. At the summit, Africa had a duty to convince the grouping to address its major concerns, particularly the strengthening of productive capacity, increasing productivity, value addition and accelerated industrialization.
ACBF has been instrumental in putting capacity development at the center of Africa’s development agenda and achieved tangible results across the continent in this regard. As a result, capacity building has become a priority in the development strategies of most African countries today. The Foundation has championed the building of human and institutional capacity in the public sector and for non-state actors. ACBF produces the Africa Capacity Report (formerly, Africa Capacity Indicators Report), an annual report that gauges the state of capacity development on the continent and addresses a capacity-related theme of critical importance to the continent. The 2014 ACR focuses on building capacity to accelerate regional integration in Africa.
The 2013 Africa Capacity Indicators Report produced by ACBF is now free and can be downloaded from the ACBF website www.acbf-pact.org/aci2013. Past issues (2012 and 2011) are also available.
Next: PARTNERSHIPS - Leveraging ACBF resources to support the Australian Africa Community Engagement Scheme (AACES)
