Tackling issues of capacity deficiency in Africa

On governance, development and economic sustainability, capacity deficiency has been identified as the utmost challenge constraining Africa’s journey to economic and social transformation. Indeed, realisation of the Africa’s Agenda 2063 and Sustainable Development Goals are in danger if something is not done quickly to build both personnel and institutional capacities, experts say.

Youth unemployment, endemic poverty, low industrialisation, declining and unstable commodities prices, as well as, persistent poor infrastructure development have become permanent features. Central to why these challenges largely remained unresolved is inadequate capacity. “Capacity remains the missing link in achieving the development agendas in Africa,” the Executive Secretary of the African Capacity Development Foundation (ACDF), Prof Emmanuel Nnadozie, said in his welcome remarks at the 25th anniversary of ACDF and the Third Pan-African Development Forum, which held between May 2 – 5, 2016, in Harare, Zimbabwe. It is, however, not sufficient to just build capacity, as retention, sustainability, harmonisation and utilisation of the capacity are crucial issues the continent must come to terms with. Even as a lot has been achieved in the last 25 years of the existence of ACDF, with 2015 being the foundation’s most remarkable year when most of its 35-member countries met their commitments to it.

On its part, the ACDF has rewarded the commitment through the development, creation and support to autonomous think tanks, which conduct context-specific research. Efforts have yielded the creation of knowledge sharing and peer-learning platforms, as well as, the investment in data collection through the Africa Capacity Report. The foundation has also engendered the investment in education and training via ACBF-supported training programs.

With regard to implementation of African Agenda 2063, ACBF has supported the Africa Union in doing assessments on the capacity requirements for implementing the Agenda and developing implementation strategies along with the anticipated risks and strategies to addressing them.

“The Foundation has also come up with an assessment of the critical technical skills required for the flagship programs under the First Ten Year Implementation Plan of Agenda 2063. The Foundation is therefore well-placed to advise African countries and businesses on the focus areas,” Prof Nnadozie said.

ACBF was established in 1991 to help strengthen the human and institutional capacity of African governments and non-State actors for policy formulation and implementation, as well as, for development management. The mandate of the Foundation is even more relevant to the African continent today in its quest for economic and social transformation.

As revealed during one of the sessions, Africa currently has only 35 engineers per million people today, compared to 168 for Brazil, 2,457 for the European Union and 4,103 for the United States. In agricultural research, Africa has 70 researchers per million inhabitants, compared to 550 in Latin America and 3,000 in the USA.

Former ACBF executive secretary, Dr. Soumana Sako, who is also the former Prime Minister and former Minister of Finance of Mali, urged a new approach to partnership, calling for greater collaboration and greater solidarity. He likened the approach of some donors to the idea of African development to a car being driven while being managed by remote control, saying that donors should stay in the car, rather than blaming the driver if it crashed.

Gladly, the ACBF has been recognised by continental bodies as an African knowledge and capacity building service provider of choice. It is also seen as having unique knowledge of Africa’s capacity building landscape, thanks to accumulating in-depth understanding of the capacity needs of African countries and playing a lead role in assessing capacity with national partners.

The ACBF, in its quarter of a century existence, has developed a strong network of think tanks and collaborated with universities, governments, and civil society. This may have put the foundation in a unique position with strong coordination capabilities, a potentially wide delivery network, and the influence to leverage support.

There is, however, a consensus that for the ACBF to accomplish expected transformative objectives, countries need to pay attention to capacity development and allocate resources accordingly. Despite 2015’s achievement, the foundation still needs to be fully supported politically and financially by African governments. Also, partners, especially the non-traditional ones, need to recognise that the continental capacity needs are enormous and re-inventing the wheel will be retrogressive.

“We need to move forward fast. Hence to efficiently and effectively tackle the capacity challenges, there is need to provide political and financial support to institutions that already have experience in capacity development, as well as, solid understanding of the continent’s development architecture, which includes understanding the key players. This is to effectively coordinate capacity development efforts for Africa’s sustainable and inclusive development. ACBF brings that unequivocal value to the table – building on its 25 years of work on the continent,” Nnadozie said.

While the 25 years of the foundation had, indeed, been a very remarkable one, what is missing is not the nomenclature, but commitment t implementation and compliance. There is the need to ensuring that the capacity being sort is not one capable of promoting inequality in access to social amenities, tearing down social fabric and promoting non-inclusive economic growth.

Speakers in Harare expressed concerns about equating development strictly on the basis of GDP, even as there have to be a retrospective thought on why institutions on the continent lack desired capacity in the first place.

In the words of Zimbabwe’s acting President, Dr. Phelekezela Mphoko, who was the special guest of honour at the event “I am excited that ACBF has become a very successful African story; this is 25 years of remarkable growth and unquantifiable contribution to Africa.”

There is, however, a consensus that for the ACBF to accomplish expected transformative objectives, countries need to pay attention to capacity development and allocate resources accordingly. The foundation needs to be fully supported politically and financially by African governments. Also, partners, especially the non-traditional ones, need to recognise that the continental capacity needs are enormous and re-inventing the wheel will be retrogressive.

“We need to move forward fast. Hence to efficiently and effectively tackle the capacity challenges, there is need to provide political and financial support to institutions that already have experience in capacity development, as well as, solid understanding of the continent’s development architecture, which includes understanding the key players. This is to effectively coordinate capacity development efforts for Africa’s sustainable and inclusive development. ACBF brings that unequivocal value to the table – building on its 25 years of work on the continent,” Nnadozie said.

He stressed that the task of strengthening institutional and human capacities still remains even more relevant, especially as the continent witnesses new challenges with the implementation of Agenda 2063 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).