What is ACBF’s vision in capacity development in Africa?

ACBF’s vision is for Africa to be recognized for its socio-political and economic capabilities and endowments a continent with effective institutions and policies acquired through sustained investment in people and institutions. The Foundation aims to become a leader, major partner, and centre of excellence for capacity building in Africa.

Why was ACBF established?

The establishment of ACBF was in response to the severity of Africa’s capacity needs, and the challenges of investing in indigenous human capital and institutions in sub-Saharan Africa. ACBF interventions are premised on four principles: the centrality of capacity to the development process in Africa; the critical role of a partnership and demand driven approach in tackling capacity challenges; African ownership and leadership in the capacity development process; and a systematic, sequenced and coordinated approach to the capacity development process.

Who supports ACBF?

ACBF is a membership based organization comprising 49 Full members comprising three sponsoring agencies (AfDB, UNDP and the World Bank), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which joined the Foundation in April 2002, as well as 45 African and non-Africa countries (Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Canada, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo (Brazzaville), Congo (DRC), Côte d'Ivoire, Denmark, Djibouti, Finland, France, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Greece, Guinea Bissau, India, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Rwanda, Sao Tomé & Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Swaziland, Sweden, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Zambia and Zimbabwe).The African Union is an Honorary member. What is ACBF’s role in capacity development in Africa?

• To build and strengthen sustainable indigenous capacity for macroeconomic policy analysis and development throughout sub-Saharan Africa;

• To improve through co-financing and other networking arrangements, the channeling of donor support for capacity building in the area of the Foundation’s mandate;

• To contribute to programs for the reversal of brain drain from the continent and encourage retention as well as intensive utilization of existing capacity;

• To build capacity in key areas of the public sector with emphasis on the interface between the public sector, on the one hand, and the private sector and civil society on the other; and,

• To provide support for regional initiatives in the area of research and training.

• To establish systematic links between economic research and training institutions and governments to foster greater understanding and communications between such entities  

What is ACBF’s approach to capacity development?

In carrying out its mandate, ACBF is guided by the pursuit of excellence, placing emphasis on quality rather than quantity, attention to sustainability, recognizing that capacity building is a long-term process and is only worthwhile if development efforts become self sustaining; priority for African participation (ensuring African pre-eminence in defining the capacity building process and in playing a leading role in implementation), and by taking a highly strategic approach based on the following principles which maximizes the Foundation’s comparative advantage and its catalytic role in the area of capacity building:

• demand-driven approach, with emphasis on needs assessment, based on responsive intervention in capacity building and clients’ participation to ensure ownership of capacity-building programs.

• selectivity and regional balance to ensure an effective intervention and maximize impact;

• neutrality with respect to policy orientation in countries of intervention;

• emphasis on using innovative and flexible capacity-building operations that can succeed in Africa’s diverse institutions and political settings and that allow African governments and international donors focus their priorities for maximum effectiveness.

• country focus the Foundation maintains a country focus that allows its programs to be customized to the different needs of individual countries-based on national capacity assessment-and to build up a concentration of “cluster" of talent and expertise in one country through various program channels. Through this integrated or “cluster“ approach, ACBF increases the possibilities of having maximum and sustained impact in a country and thus reducing the risk of its operations being isolated or marginalized.

What is ACBF’s work?

Since inception, ACBF portfolio stands at 233 projects and programs in 44 African countries. These projects span the Foundation’s six core competence areas:

• Economic Policy Analysis and Management

• Financial Management and Accountability

• National Statistics and Statistical Systems

• National Parliaments and Parliamentary Institutions

• Professionalization of the Voices of the Private Sector and Civil Society

How does ACBF operate?

ACBF has a threetier governance system:

1. Board of Governors constituting all ACBF member countries and institutions

2. Executive Board constituting 11 members and the Executive Secretary is an ex-officio

3. ACBF Secretariat headed by the Executive Secretary deals with the day to day operations of the Foundation

How does ACBF get its resources?

ACBF determines its activities on a basis of five-year strategic medium term plans, which are implemented through annual business plans and budgets. Resources for the implementation of the strategic medium term plans are sourced from the Members of the Foundation, multi-lateral institutions, bilateral partners and non-traditional donors. Resources are as much human and institutional, as projects and programs can be implemented through partnerships under specific Memorandum of Understanding.

How does ACBF implement its projects and programs?

ACBF encourages countries to undertake rigorous policy analysis and research as well as to design sound programs in order to generate coherent development policies and nurture policy environments that are friendly to interventions in capacity building, and which promote sustainable long-term growth, development, and poverty reduction. The Foundation places premium on the need to strengthen the capacity of the core public sector to implement policies; deliver programs in an effective, transparent and accountable manner; and empower non-state actors to advocate for, or demand, responsiveness and results from public service institutions. The ultimate goal is to improve the lives and prospects of people throughout the Continent. ACBF's approach to capacity development is largely demand-driven emphasizing needs assessments, stakeholder ownership of interventions, project/program sustainability, and synergy of interventions across projects, programs and development funding institutions. Considerable attention is given to the promotion of gender equality and equity in the Foundation's activities and interventions.

What is ACBF’s comparative advantage?

ACBF has a broad mandate embedded within its constitution which gives a wide reach and arena for action within the capacity development processes in Africa. ACBF is well positioned to assist in achieving and managing emerging development challenges because:

• Ownership: it is an autonomous NGO with Africans as full partners to the development of capacities needed for policy analysis and economic management;

• Coordination: the Foundation has been endowed with the responsibility for developing and coordinating processes that lead to capacity in the countries;

• Selectivity: practice within the Foundation has indicated that it has the capability to select and fund activities and institutions to deliver critical capacities;

• Networking: many of the activities of the ACBF demonstrate the Foundation’s ability to network existing entities including economic and research entities as well as governments to achieve results in capacity; and

• Funding: the fact that the Foundation can mobilize funding and technical resources as well as manage its own projects and programs in the critical areas of capacity needed

After 20 years in the business of capacity development, is ACBF still relevant?

i. ACBF is an African organization, based in Africa and run by African experts and thus confer a strategic advantage to the Foundation as it enables it to develop a better understanding of the issues affecting African capacity gaps and to strengthen its response capabilities to more rapidly address Africa’s capacity needs.

ii. The size and scope of operations of the Foundation are such that it complements the efforts of the bilateral and multilateral organizations. Perhaps, without ACBF the multilateral and bilateral agencies working on related issues would not engage in capacity building at the level ACBF operates because it may not be cost efficient to them. External evaluations have commended ACBF for being effective in the scale and scope of its operations after the integration of PACT. This was done in spite of constraints in resources. These reports noted significant achievements in building capacity in the core public sector and among non-state actors to improve the policymaking process strengthen voice and promote a culture and practice of transparency and accountability.

iii. ACBF engages in holistic approach to capacity building. The Foundation recognizes that capacity is multidimensional and builds capacity at multiple-levels: individual level in terms of skills and knowledge, organizational level to strengthen the capability of an organization to perform, and the institutional level to develop an enabling environment for performance and change. The migration to country comprehensive capacity building interventions is a holistic strategy to deal with capacity issues in order to increase contribution to country development goals.

iv. ACBF has been most successful in building capacity in Economic Policy Analysis and Management, particularly with its policy units where sustained capacity building was obtained at a lower cost. The large part of the funding (41%) has been devoted to projects in this core competency area. As a result, the Foundation succeeded to enhance individual skills and organizational capacity for macroeconomic policy analysis and development management in many countries. Therefore, policy units and regional policy training institutions (EPM) might be considered as strategic individual and organizational nodes of entry since they are instrumental for policies leading to good development outcomes. Efforts need to be pursued and deepened in this area.

v. ACBF has a long-term view and a demand-driven approach to capacity building. The Foundation’s long-term view of capacity building and demand-driven approach is seen as advantageous in terms of project selection and relevance, flexibility, responsiveness and local ownership. Capacity development is a long-term process. ACBF is cognizant that support in its core business requires a degree of patience in order to achieve significant and visible results. The long-term support of ACBF to some key institutions has paid off. ACBF has been supporting projects in policy institutes and training programs over the last 16 years. These institutions are today playing a tremendous role in capacity building on the Continent. They give an important leverage and also offer opportunities for visibility and partnership for ACBF. Moreover, the Foundation is mindful of the need for selecting and investing in projects/programs, which have greater chances for long term sustainability allowing ACBF to gradually exit or to decrease its funding without jeopardizing the future of the concerned project or institution. The development of exit strategies is also part of the long-term capacity building approach adopted by the Foundation.

vi. ACBF is very active in building capacity of regional institutions and thus contributing to strengthening the process if African integration. ACBF could claim successes for results achieved in the support to regional training institutions especially in areas of Financial Management and Accountability as well as in Economic policy and Management. Support to Regional Economic Communities is also part of key regional products delivered by ACBF. However, a potential niche remains in the areas of regional and multi country grants where the Foundation needs to balance country presence with regional solution and networks. In that regard, the study of needs assessment for RECs recently conducted was a successful product, which will be exploited through the development of action plans leading to the preparation and funding of comprehensive capacity building programs for RECs.