adminBusiness Reporter
The African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) will hold its 3rd African think tanks summit over the next two days at the Elephant Hills Hotel in Victoria Falls.
This year’s theme will be “Creating a Sustainable Future for African Think Tanks in Support of SDGs and Agenda 2063.” The summit is being organized in partnership with the African Union Commission, the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency, and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.
The summit, to be held from 8-9 April 2016, will draw representation from think tanks across Africa to offer a practical roadmap to help countries implement the African Union Agenda 2063 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
These global and regional development agendas lay out an ambitious but achievable way forward for Africa; one that will require the focused effort of all of Africa’s intellectual resources to accomplish.
“Despite over a decade-long history of development planning, many African countries continue to experience challenges in designing, implementing and monitoring of their (socio-economic) development planning frameworks,” says Prof. Emmanuel Nnadozie, Executive Secretary for the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) which is secretariat to the Africa Think Tank Network.
“Success of these agendas will require advocacy and sensitization about the details of such frameworks, strengthened capacities to integrate such initiatives into national planning frameworks, evidence-based policymaking, an institutional architecture and skills to monitor and follow-up on implementation outcomes. This is where the think tanks come in as they will play a key role as governments roll out these Agendas,” Professor Nnadozie said.
With the recent adoption of the SDGs, the task of implementing them along with Agenda 2063 should begin in earnest. However, this effort will require more analytical and scientific rigor than was the case with the Millennium Development Goals.
There are more goals and targets to meet. Whereas the MDG’s consisted of 8 goals and 18 targets, Agenda 2030 comprises of 17 goals and 169 targets, and Agenda 2063 contains 20 goals and 34 priority areas including multiple targets.
The value of the African think tanks then comes into play as the knowledge bodies understand better the development landscape prevalent in their countries.
Both agendas are anchored by the three integrated dimensions of sustainable development: economic, environmental and social. This adds yet another layer of complexity to the policy implementation process, since, not only must policymakers design programs that facilitate growth but they must ensure that such growth meets the litmus test of economic, environmental and social sustainability.
“The key message is that capacity in all its three forms – human, institutional and soft – remains the missing link in attainment of Africa’s development priorities.
Further, ACBF’s 25 years experience in developing such capacity has shown that there is need to craft strategies that will go beyond just developing this capacity.
There is need to develop strategies for retaining, harmonizing and utilising such capacities on the continent. This calls for building strong partnerships with think tanks and various stakeholders for sustainability of such efforts,” said Prof Nnadozie
“To efficiently tackle the capacity challenges, however, there is need to provide political and financial support to institutions that have experience in capacity development as well as solid understanding of the continent’s development architecture so as to effectively coordinate capacity development efforts for Africa’s sustainable and inclusive development,” he added.
Online Reporter