News / National
Mugabe to open ACBF summit
20 Apr 2016 at 06:42hrs | Views
PRESIDENT Mugabe is expected to officially open the Capacity Development Forum organised by the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) early next month.
About 500 delegates drawn from all African countries, Europe and the United States are expected to attend the forum to be held in Harare between May 2 and 5 this year.
The third forum will coincide with ACBF's 25th anniversary. Government has also set up an inter-ministerial committee to prepare for the forum.
Formed in 1991, the ACBF is partially owned by African Governments with ministers of finance from the continent making up its board of governors.
Addressing the media last week, ACBF director of knowledge, monitoring and evaluation, Dr Thomas Munthali revealed that President Mugabe would open the forum.
"We are going to have a number of players from all over the continent including think tanks which are institutions that are supposed to provide analytical work in their countries of residence so that they encourage evidence-based policy planning and programming," said Dr Munthali.
"As we move forward with Agenda 2063 which is the blueprint for the continent in terms of development aspirations. There is also the Sustainable Development Goals and what is important is the need to build the capacity for us to be able to deliver on them and institutions such as the ACBF is critical in not just supporting that process, but also co-ordinating the work of capacity building by other players on the continent.
"We have strong links with the African Union Commission and we have done work including an assessment of what kind of capacities are required for us to deliver on Agenda 2063 including the external risks that will be involved which we need to mitigate against."
Dr Munthali said it was important for the African continent to devise and retain capacity within its human resources.
Manager in the office of the executive secretary Mr Bakary Kone said it was critical for the African continent to take a lead in its development instead of relying on international organisations.
"What was happening before is that development agencies such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank and the rest of them would come and say 'these are the policies that are good for you'.
"So the response was we are in a better place to reflect on our own policies. That is the reason the first 10 years of this organisation (ACBF) were entirely devoted to supporting good policy-making in African countries.
"If you check 25 years ago, in most African countries, investment was guided by the vision of the founding fathers, but there was no research. It was all about the vision and legacy.
"What was introduced by this organisation was that before coming up with policies, we can analyse the policies that are in place already and conduct research to come up with more policy options. On the basis of that, you decide what you want to do next," said Mr Kone.
About 500 delegates drawn from all African countries, Europe and the United States are expected to attend the forum to be held in Harare between May 2 and 5 this year.
The third forum will coincide with ACBF's 25th anniversary. Government has also set up an inter-ministerial committee to prepare for the forum.
Formed in 1991, the ACBF is partially owned by African Governments with ministers of finance from the continent making up its board of governors.
Addressing the media last week, ACBF director of knowledge, monitoring and evaluation, Dr Thomas Munthali revealed that President Mugabe would open the forum.
"We are going to have a number of players from all over the continent including think tanks which are institutions that are supposed to provide analytical work in their countries of residence so that they encourage evidence-based policy planning and programming," said Dr Munthali.
"As we move forward with Agenda 2063 which is the blueprint for the continent in terms of development aspirations. There is also the Sustainable Development Goals and what is important is the need to build the capacity for us to be able to deliver on them and institutions such as the ACBF is critical in not just supporting that process, but also co-ordinating the work of capacity building by other players on the continent.
Dr Munthali said it was important for the African continent to devise and retain capacity within its human resources.
Manager in the office of the executive secretary Mr Bakary Kone said it was critical for the African continent to take a lead in its development instead of relying on international organisations.
"What was happening before is that development agencies such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank and the rest of them would come and say 'these are the policies that are good for you'.
"So the response was we are in a better place to reflect on our own policies. That is the reason the first 10 years of this organisation (ACBF) were entirely devoted to supporting good policy-making in African countries.
"If you check 25 years ago, in most African countries, investment was guided by the vision of the founding fathers, but there was no research. It was all about the vision and legacy.
"What was introduced by this organisation was that before coming up with policies, we can analyse the policies that are in place already and conduct research to come up with more policy options. On the basis of that, you decide what you want to do next," said Mr Kone.
Source - the herald
