African Capacity Building Foundation

(The Herald) - The African Capacity Building Foundation should intensify capacity building programmes in Africa to spur development in the continent as well as fight dependency on Western countries.

Speaking at an ACBF reception on Monday evening, the dean of African Ambassadors in Zimbabwe Mr Mwana Nanga Mawampanga said Africa cannot move forward in the absence of adequate capacity. "African countries cannot move forward unless we build capacity. Africa has a lot of potential and resources and what is missing is the capacity to build a better Africa," he said.

Mr Mawampanga, who is also the Democratic Republic of Congo ambassador to Zimbabwe, said the benefits of building capacity would also cascade to other countries that were already making use of experts from the continent. He said capacity building would avert incidents where youth were dying while trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea, Red Sea, and Indian Ocean in search of greener pastures in Europe yet they could be productive at home if they were capacitated.

He urged African countries and other donors to continue supporting ACBF financially so that it could speedily implement programmes aimed at Africa’s development. Mr Mawampanga said there was need to emulate China which is one of the fastest growing countries in the world whose success was hinged on capacity building. "We need to support ACBF and provide them with all the support to use resources efficiently. Lobby those non-African members and non-African countries with resources so that they can help Africa," he said.

ACBF executive secretary Dr Edwin Forlemu said the immediate challenge facing the continental body was to mobilise resources for its activities. For its 2007 to 2011 programmes, the foundation had received US$201 million from donors against a budget of US$350 million required to fully implement its programmes. He was optimistic that more funding would be availed. The Harare headquartered ACBF was established in 1991 thorough collaborative efforts of the African Development Bank, United Nations Development Programme and World Bank with a mission to build capacity for sustainable development and poverty eradication in Africa.

Its membership grew from 12 at inception to 45 to date among which 29 are African countries and 12 non-African.

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