On 23 March 2011, ACBF Executive Secretary, Dr. Frannie Léautier delivered the first Distinguished Lecture Series at The University of The Gambia. She delivered a lecture entitled, “What role for capacity development in Africa after 50 years of independence? Capacity for extracting natural resources, or capacity for innovation in approaches to economic development?”
Introducing the lecture series, Professor Muhammadou Kah, Vice Chancellor of The University of The Gambia (UTG) highlighted that the primary goal of the Distinguished Lecture Series is to bring transformative change to the people in The Gambia and Africa as a whole. The Lecture Series, he said, presents an opportunity to present the good work being done for the Continent, or for the good of the Continent to the world at large. Professor Kah added that the UTG looks forward to forging a deeper relationship with ACBF, as it strives to increase access to tertiary education for the Gambian youth, as well as in the West Africa region. He commended Dr Léautier's interaction with the University of The Gambia, saying that this would augur well for the UTG, when collaborating on events involving intellectuals who are involved in bringing about the much-needed competence for development.”One should definitely to be associated with such events”, he said,”in order to hoist up capacity building and economic growth of the African continent in particular”.
Delivering her lecture, Dr Leautier focused on the key historical elements that have, over the last 50 years, impacted on Africa’s socio-economic development. She emphasised the positive developments that Africa has achieved with pro-poor innovations through the use of technology and natural resources. The Executive Secretary gave pointed examples, such as the use of text-based money transfer system using mobile phones, M-PESA, provided by Kenya’s SAFARICOM. The lecture also outlined some of the remaining development challenges for the continent, in light of the Millennium Development Goals. “Africa may not be able to reach certain targets with the MDGs”said Dr Leautier. “Nevertheless, we have gained considerable insights into our own resilience as a continent in the face of the global crisis. A number of factors have enabled Africa to recover quickly in particular the Continent’s lack of deep integration with the global financial system and the substitution of western FDI flows with South-South flows from the emerging markets, among other factors.”
The lecture highlighted regional integration as one of Africa’s strengths and an integral part of the continent’s growth. Such integration provides Africa with a comfortable platform from which to innovate and learn trading patterns. Capital markets and the investment potential for Africa has grown over the last 50 years, with the role of the private sector playing a pivotal role, particularly with respect to innovative regional integration patterns in Africa. With regards to the continent’s stability, Dr Léautier lecture pointed out that on the whole democracy has been increasing, with 19 elections being held in Africa since Ghana’s independence.
The lecture goes on to state that encompassing all the elements mentioned above is the need for national capacity a key requirement for successful development management. Through the recently published Africa Capacity Indicators (ACI), ACBF, in its position as Africa’s capacity development arm, concludes that although African countries have made strategic capacity development choices, much remains to be done. Strengthening capacity to meet the MDGs is a priority. Skills remain short in areas such as managing complex economies in Africa and managing and developing policies, while remaining innovative in approach. This calls for assertive leadership that can tackle both remaining and emerging development challenges. In its conclusion, the paper states that Africa needs to harness the last 50 years in order to propel herself forward. However, the capacity development must remain innovative, experimental and work through partnerships.
The lecture was based on a paper first presented at the American Economic Review in January 2011 in Denver Colorado where Dr. Leautier was the Keynote Speaker at an event hosted by the Africa Finance and Economics Association (AFEA).
