By Maureen Chigbo, Reporting from Accra, Ghana

CAPACITY is a major challenge to the implementation of the African Union Agenda 2063, aimed at transforming the socio-economic landscape of the region, according to Yaw Osafo-Maafo, senior minister, Republic of Ghana. Osafo-Maafo, made this known on Monday, September 4, at the opening of the two-day 26th annual meeting of the board of governors, BOG, of the African Capacity Building Foundation, ACBF, in Accra, Ghana.  The theme of the BOG 2017 meeting is “Building Capacity and Mobilising Resources for Africa’s Transformation”

Osafo-Maafo said: “Tackling this challenge is crucial if we want to ensure that Africa achieves its socio-economic transformation and be a global player today. If we lose the battle of capacity building, we lose the whole war of socio-economic development.”

He stated in a prepared speech, which he did not read at the event because he spoke off cuff, which was made available to Realnews, that Ghana understood this challenge long time ago and have since partnered with ACBF since 1993 to tackle the most critical capacity gaps – with satisfying dividends.

He listed some of the gains Ghana got from partnering with ACBF to include training programmes for the Ghana institute of Management and Public Administration, GIMPA, and establishment and sustained growth of the sub-regional Masters of Economic Policy Management Degree Programme, EPM, and the Public Sector Management Training Programme.

ACBF also supported the Institute for Democratic Governance, IDEG, to evolve into a stellar think-tank on issues of good governance and democracy.  “Through ACBF’s support the Institute has developed robust operational modalities and engagement strategies that have enabled the institutions to attract numerous local and international partnerships. IDEG has emerged as a highly respected policy think tank with strong advocacy capabilities and strong convening powers,” he said.

Other good work done by ACBF, according to him, are the production and the dissemination of fit-for-purpose and relevant knowledge. ACBF’s 2015 flagship, the Africa Capacity Report, focused on the pertinent issue of Domestic Resource Mobilisation. The 2017 edition of the Africa Capacity Report with the theme: Building Capacity in Science, Technology and Innovation for Africa’s Transformation”

He described the Africa Capacity report as “a timely contribution as it came when we were all thinking about what to do and what capacities to build in order to efficiently mobilise internal resources for our own national development agendas.”

“Today again, you will agree with me that the theme of this Board of Governors Meeting is extremely compelling. This well-thought out theme, speaks to issues that we should collectively focus on in realizing a stronger African Agenda and achieve the socio-economic transformation of our continent.

“This agenda should speak to the critical issues facing the continent when it comes to accessing the resources allocated to development. If we know where the resources are, then not accessing them is a real and basic capacity issue. If we are able to access the resources, but not being able to efficiently allocate them to the economically and socially productive sectors is also a real and basic capacity issue. If we manage to mobilise the required resources for development, then not being able to absorb them remains again a real and basic capacity issue,” he said.

– Sept 5, 2017 @ 11:09 GMT