THE African Capacity Building Foundation, the continent’s leading capacity development institution, has pledged to use its expertise to help regional economic communities, RECS, achieve their objective of integrating Africa and leveraging its sustainable development. According to Emmanuel Nnadozie, the executive secretary of the foundation, the RECS, if well capacitated, would be able to effectively coordinate the implementation of the first 10 years of the action plan of African Union’s Agenda 2063 and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

At a just ended retreat for regional economic communities in Abuja, Nnadozie said the ACBF’s assistance to the communities would be in collaboration with partners such as the New Partnership for Africa’s Development’s Agency (NEPAD Agency) and the International Institute for Democratic and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA).

“The Foundation plans to scale-up on its regional economic training programs to cover such areas as regional integration, trade

and domestic resource mobilization, amongst others,” he said.

He said the ACBF had published knowledge products to meet the capacity needs of the communities.  They include the 2016 “Survey of the Capacity Needs of Africa’s Regional Economic Communities and Strategies for Addressing Them” and the 2014 Africa Capacity Report, ACR, which focused on capacity imperatives for regional integration in Africa. Among other things, the 2016 survey called for strengthening of the mandates of the executive secretaries and heads of Africa’s RECs to manage internal mechanisms and governance structures as well as for minimizing duplication of capacity building activities across the communities.

Meanwhile, a  major recommendation in the 2014 ACR report is that the RECS emulate the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, in establishing a trust fund to which member states and development partners will contribute in order to their enhance internal capacities resource planning, mobilization and utilization.

The Abuja retreat was organised by the ACBF, International IDEA and ECOWAS, and was attended by representatives of most of the eight African Union-recognised RECS.

—  Jun 12, 2017 @ 15:10 GMT