A landmark Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed by the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) and the NEPAD Planning and Coordination Agency (widely referred to as the NEPAD Agency) to ramp-up the implementation of Africa’s transformation mega plan known as Agenda 2063 and leverage the UN’s Agenda 2030 for the continent’s development. The MoU focuses on several areas of cooperation that will lay emphasis on continental and sub-regional approaches to speed up the implementation of development plans across the African Union’s 55 member-states.
ACBF and NEPAD Agency cooperation in critical areas will speed up implementation of Africa’s long-term development agenda. The MoU has an implementation roadmap from 2018 onward whereby each critical area of cooperation will lead to the implementation of a flagship program or project to benefit Africa.
Priority areas of mutual focus include (i) the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of capacity development priorities embedded in the 1st 10-Year Plan of Agenda 2063 and Agenda 2030; (ii) the joint implementation of AU/NEPAD 2015 – 2025 Capacity Development Plan for Regional Economic Communities on Institutional Development for effective implementation of Regional Development Plans and Agenda 2063; (iii) the joint implementation of findings from ACBF’s assessment of RECs Capacity needs; (iv) partnership in the design and implementation of Critical Technical Skills (CTS) development programs at country and regional levels; (v) cooperation on the development and publication of ACBF’s flagship– Africa Capacity Report and other capacity development knowledge products particularly tools, guides and case studies in Africa’s priority areas of development; and (vi) a joint approach to mobilize resources for the implementation of the areas of collaboration identified.
Chief Executive Officer of the NEPAD Agency Dr Ibrahim Assane Mayaki said, “Being a co-designer of Agenda 2063 rightly places ACBF as a critical actor for its implementation and this is the fundamental reason for which we are here today. We are here to learn from ACBF through its trajectory in more than 40 African countries.”
On asking about the role of Africa’s youth in the ACBF-NEPAD Agency areas of cooperation, Executive Secretary of ACBF Prof Emmanuel Nnadozie said, “Youth unemployment is the single most important challenge facing Africa today. If it is not well managed, would turn the potential of the continent’s demographic dividend into a demographic crisis. Adding to this, he said that the place of the youth in the joint programs of the partnership will be cardinal. Africa’s structural transformation will be hinged on its industrialization which cannot happen with a skills transformation of the continent’s youth.”
Apart from setting clearly defined targets of collaboration in capacity development for Africa’s transformation, both ACBF and NEPAD are looking for innovative ways to mobilize resources from inside and outside of Africa to leverage their joint programs. Before the MOU signed today, ACBF and NEPAD Agency have closely collaborated in inititaves to accompany the African Union and its member-States towards the continent’ transformation since 2004.
