adminLloyd Gumbo Senior Reporter
ZIMBABWE will this week host a continental summit where think tanks from all African countries will share notes on how the bloc can achieve Agendas 2030 and 2063.
About 130 delegates are expected to attend the summit to be held at the Elephant Hills Hotel in Victoria Falls this weekend.
The Third African Think Tanks Summit is running under the theme “Creating a Sustainable Future for African Think Tanks in Support of SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) and Agenda 2063.”
The African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) is hosting the summit in partnership with the African Union Commission, NEPAD Planning and Co-ordinating Agency and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.
ACBF executive secretary Professor Emmanuel Nnadozie yesterday said despite a decade-long history of development planning, many African countries continued to experience challenges in designing, implementing and monitoring of their development planning frameworks.
“Success of these agendas will require advocacy and sensitisation 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,” said Prof Nnadozie.
The transformational goals lay out an ambitious way forward for Africa, which experts say are achievable as long as right mechanisms are put in place.
It is for that reason that African think tanks are expected to play a major role in helping the continent implement and achieve these goals.
Said Prof Nnadozie: “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.
“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, harmonising and utilising such capacities on the continent.
“This calls for building strong partnerships with think tanks and various stakeholders for sustainability of such efforts.
“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 which includes understanding the role of such key players as think tanks so as to effectively co-ordinate capacity development efforts for Africa’s sustainable and inclusive development.”
The First African think tank summit was held in Pretoria, South Africa, while the second one was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The ACBF was established in 1991 to build human and institutional capacity for good governance and economic development in Africa.
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