Prof. Emanuel Nnadozie, Executive Secretary of the African Capacity Building Foundation, hosted Mr. Michael Keen, Deputy Director for Fiscal Affairs, IMF to discuss how the two institutions could work together in developing Africa’s capacity both at human and institutional levels based on their comparative advantages. The Executive Secretary was accompanied by Ms. Wanjiku Nyoike, a programme officer in his office, and Dr. Thomas Munthali, director for research, knowledge monitoring and evaluation.
In his remark, Prof. Nnadozie briefed Mr. Keen on the activities of ACBF and expressed its commitment to reengage with IMF. He mentioned that previously ACBF worked with the IMF where the latter used ACBF to support AFRITACs (Africa Regional Technical Assistance Centers) in the late 2000s.
The Executive Secretary briefed the Deputy Director on ACBF’s three areas of capacity building on the continent: Investment in capacity building institutions at country and regional levels; Technical support for the implementation of funded projects and programs; and Knowledge generation and sharing.
“I am happy that over the years, ACBF has helped in creating a cadre of middle level managers, built capacity of institutions and parliament, and made contributions in supporting regional integration by supporting capacity of African organizations (ranging from Regional Economic Communities to African Union)” Prof. Nnadozie pointed out.
“Building on the joint collaboration that ACBF had with IMF around the AFRITACs, it is even more important now when ACBF is spearheading capacity building efforts around domestic resource mobilisation. It is hence timely to re-engage and work together on the capacity dimension of domestic resource mobilization and others” Prof. Nnadozie noted.
Mr. Keen on his part thanked the ACBF for organizing the bilateral meeting, and underscored that IMF is interested to know more about the ACBF knowledge generation work and other training activities, so as to align efforts on common programmatic areas. “I’m delighted to meet with you and work with you closely. We have some activities in selected African countries that we can cooperate with and develop on. I thank you for the initiative, and would like to follow up on this important meeting” Mr. Keen said.
ACBF was established 24 years ago with support of the AfDB, World Bank, 12 African Countries and a number of bilateral development partners. Currently, ACBF is operating in 45 African countries, including a network of policy think tanks, which has proven critical for building capacities for accelerating development on the continent.
