Towards a Bank-wide Framework for Capacity Development was the theme of a workshop organized the African Development Institute (EADI) of the African Development Bank (AfDB) on 4 October 2013 in Tunis, within the context of the Bank Group's Capacity Development Network (CD-Net).

It was the inaugural workshop of the CD-Net, which is a critical component of the Bank's capacity building strategy. Victor Murinde, EADI Director, Victor Murinde, presided over the half-day session with discussions on two presentations made by Floribert Ngaruko, Chief Learning Economist of EADI.

Representatives and focal persons from over 13 Bank departments, who are involved in capacity development in the Bank, attended the workshop. In his opening remarks, Murinde emphasized that the inaugural meeting of CD-Net was timely because there was need to coordinate the capacity development activities of the Bank.

"EADI provides the focal point for various departments and units which contribute to capacity development in the Bank. So, through the CD-Net, it is possible to harmonize the different approaches used across the Bank in order to build a Community of Practice (CoP) in capacity development activities involving various departments," Murinde observed.

Furthermore, participants noted that capacity development activities in the AfDB needed to be recorded and evaluated in a synergic, systematic manner so as to encourage learning from a comprehensive stock of experience.

At the end of the debate, the following three main strategic conclusions were acknowledged:

The Bank envisions becoming a leading enabler of capacity development in areas such as infrastructure, governance regional integration as well as higher education, science and technology and private sector development.

That these areas are well articulated in the Bank Group Capacity Development Strategy (2010-2014) and the Capacity Development Strategy (CDS) Mid-Term Review Report.

The Bank Group's Ten Year Strategy (TYS) puts capacity development at the centre of Africa's structural transformation and at the core of the Bank's role in the transformation with the possibility of standing out as one of the areas the Bank can benchmark its comparative advantage.

In conclusion, participants summed up that already there are so many capacity building and training packages to be disseminated in a more proactive way including distance training. To go forward,however, it recommended that the CD-Net should endeavour to generate a clear, practical document of membership with a secretariat, craft out realistic work procedures and terms of reference for the network, while proceeding to articulate a comprehensive program of activities on quarterly basis, to compare capacity building activities from various department.