Business
The African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) providing member states more leverage
The African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) as met with its African member states, as part of its continental fundraising efforts.
The consultations on the fringes of fifth Joint Annual meetings of African Union (AU) Commission and UN Economic Commission for Africa conference of Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, in Addis Ababa Ethiopia, saw African contributions to close to US$ 20 million in new commitments to the ACBF by African members.
During the meeting, South Africa also announced its’ intention to join the ACBF.
The meeting on Tuesday, demonstrated further support and ownership by African member states of the continent’s Capacity Development Agenda. The Chair of the ACBF Board of Governors and Nigerian Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala emphasised the need for African countries to increase their financial support to the Foundation, in view of the continent’s pressing capacity needs and the transformational change agenda. She indicated that African financial support is critical to leverage further support from the Foundation’s non-African donors.
ACBF Executive Secretary, Dr Frannie Leautier said that African sponsorship and ownership of the Foundation has increased over the years: “When the ACBF was created 21 years ago, there were only 12 African member countries. In the last 5 years, Africa’s paid-in contributions have almost tripled, which shows a growing level of support, commitment and confidence”, she said.
Chairing the pledging session, AU Deputy Chairperson Erastus Mwencha appreciated the ACBF’s support to capacity development in African countries and the Foundation’s support to the AU Commission over the past 20 years, indicating that ACBF is an important, strategic institution for African countries. He noted that transforming economies requires enhancing capacities, hence the pressing need for Africa to support the ACBF.
The meeting was the second ACBF pledging conference in support of the Foundation’s Third Strategic Medium Term Plan. An earlier session was held in Arusha, Tanzania, in September 2011, where a commitment of US$ 14.6 million was pledged by the African members.
