The African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) -supported policy institutes/think tanks have committed to undertake Country Policy and Institutional self-assessment (CPIA), Country Reviews and conduct a survey on lessons learnt from the Ebola crisis. They aim to provide actionable policy recommendations for capacity building for crisis management in the continent.
The decision was taken at the ACBF-led fourth Policy Institute Committee (PIC) Consultative Forum held on 9 April 2015 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, under the theme “The Policy Institutes Committee and ACBF: Effective Partnership for Capacity Building in Africa”, where representatives from 23 think tanks made a number of resolutions related to the conduct of studies on select issues of strategic importance to the continent.
“Think tanks should pay more attention to networking,” said Dr Robert Nantchouang, Officer-in-charge of the ACBF Knowledge, Monitoring and Evaluation Department at the start of the forum. “By developing strong alliances and relationship with sister think tanks, a lot more could be achieved than would otherwise be the case if each think tank was to work independently.”
The executives of the think tanks in attendance used the platform to interact and explore the possibilities of collaborating with other ACBF partners, decided on the practical ways to conduct and extend the CPIA self-assessment exercise the Country Reviews and the Study on lessons learnt from Ebola affected and non-affected countries.
ACBF partners proposed specific areas and countries where the expertise and collaboration of the think tanks are needed. Drs Koffi Adorgloh and Adam Suleiman, representing the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) and the African Evaluation Association (AfrEA) respectively, informed the think tanks on the different areas of partnership with ACBF-supported think tanks.
Dr. Nantchouang also advocated for a strong partnership between ACBF and its supported think thanks in the framework of the new ACBF business model. One of the key achievements of the Forum was the establishment of an Expert Group composed of five members tasked to produce a position paper on a framework for efficient resource mobilization for the think tanks.
The PIC is a strategic network which regroups the ACBF supported think tanks/policy institutes across Africa. They meet twice a year to share experience and reflect on practical policy solutions for the benefit of the think tanks and African economies. The next Consultative Forum of the PIC is planned to be held in October 2015.
