Simon Mizrahi, Director of AfDB Quality Assurance and Results Department with the AfCoP team and national coaches.
The African Community of Practice (AfCoP), whose secretariat is at the Quality Assurance Department (ORQR) of the African Development Bank (ADB), organized a training seminar on Rapid Results Initiatives (IRR) in Abidjan, Cote D'Ivoire on the 8th and 9th of June 2016.
Opening the seminar, ORQR Department Director, Simon Mizrahi, underscored the importance of strengthening countries' capacities in establishing evidence-based policies and in the delivery of development results noting that this is essential to the Bank's mandate.
The training was attended by more than 30 national coaches from the 17 member countries of the AfCoP Project. In the context of the flagship program, namely the Africa for Results Initiative, the training seminar aimed at strengthening the coaches' capacity to initiate, implement and evaluate Rapid Results Initiatives and train stakeholders in their respective countries.
It provided an opportunity to learn, share ideas and experiences and adopt a common methodology to achieve tangible results in Africa. Case studies and group work allowed the coaches to gain practical knowledge on the implementation of the IRR within AfriK4R and become trainers in their respective countries. The ultimate goal is to encourage IRR for achieving results in African countries as a way to conduct public affairs in the participating countries.
According to the coaches who participated in the training, upgrading provided by this seminar is very timely to allow better supervision and more effective support at the country level. This will also help to reinvigorate the network of national coaches counting on the experiences of each other. The success of the seminar lies on the ability to create a real platform for continuous exchange and learning.
Managing for Development Results (MfDR) is a key imperative step towards developing a results oriented performance culture much needed to achieve tangible development progress. In this regard, the Rapid Results Initiative (RRI) methodology is a powerful tool to support mainstreaming of MfDR in African countries in order to change people's lives.
Since the launch of the Africa for Results Initiative (AfriK4R) in 2012, national coaches working in the context of national Communities of Practice (CoPs) have emphasized their actions on empowering governments, parliamentarians, private sector and civil society organizations in the 17 member countries of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) to accelerate regional policy implementation through MfDR tools, principles, and practices.
Most of the participating countries have reached a stage when they have implemented one or more RRI cycles or will soon implement the Rapid Results approach. Therefore, strengthening the coaches' capacity based on the first RRI experiences within AfriK4R would not only enable optimal implementation, but also ensure success. This will ensure that a standardized approach is followed by the AfriK4R countries while enhancing quality and comparability of results.
The report on the state of the development of results-based management in the regions of COMESA UEMOA are available on the link below:
UEMOA Report FR:
AfriK4R COMESA Report FR:
AfriK4R COMESA Report EN:
For information on the AfriK4R initiative and AfCoP, please visit the AfCoP website: www.afrik4r.org.
On AfCoP
Launched in 2007, the African Community of Practice (AfCoP) is a coalition of over 4,000 development leaders and practitioners from 68 countries globally. Its objectives are to share lessons learnt, experiences and best practices on Managing for Development Results (MfDR) in Africa. AfCoP members work for African governments, civil society, and as independent experts in the field. The African Development Bank (AfDB), in partnership with the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF), is supporting AfCoP in mainstreaming MfDR on the continent.
On AfriK4R
The Africa for Results (AfriK4R) initiative which was initiated in 2012 is the AfCoP's flagship program. It aims at promoting regional integration in Africa through an approach of public finance management based on managing for development results (MfDR) principles and practices. To date, 17 countries have committed to the AfriK4R initiative, namely Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cote d'Ivoire, DR Congo, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The WAEMU and COMESA regional economic communities are also partners on the AfriK4R initiative.
