Kenya's capacity development

I’ve been reading a magazine that I received in the mail from the World Bank Institute (after a subscription that I had totally forgotten about) called Development Outreach… the Sept. 05 edition on Capacity Development. An article by a member of the World Bank Task Force on Capacity Development was quite insightful.

The Task Force is apparently set up to recommend changes in the way the World Bank affects African capacity, both directly through operations aimed at capacity development, and indirectly the way it conducts its overall business of development lending and cooperation in Africa.

Callisto Madavo (the author of the article titled “Five Key Messages”) highlights the following five key messages gleaned from the Task force’s assessment of Africa’s capacity development efforts and consultation with Africans:

i) Capacity is the missing link in Africa’s achievement of the Millenium Development Goals.

ii) Capacity development aims at an effective state and an engaged society. A state is deemed effective when it delivers quality public goods and services meeting the needs of the population. The state will be effective only when an engages society demands change and holds the Government accountable for such delivery.

The effective state and engaged society together shall reach the end goals of poverty reduction, growth, empowerment, peace and security.

iii) Africans must take the lead in capacity development and aid management. To address the right issues and be effectively implemented, capacity development must be a home-grown country strategy developed and carried through by African country stakeholders and institutions.

iv) External partners must engage existing capacity in African countries. External partners must respect Africa’s ownership of the design and implementation of national capacity development strategies, should commit funding towards building indigenous capacity instead of expatriate salaries and support and funding and other support should be customized to meet the African country’s needs.

v) Achieving capacity outcomes requires independent monitoring. Mutual accountability encourages transparency, improved political and economic governance.

Hope you’re still there…. What I found most encouraging about the article is that the World Bank is actually concerned about Capacity Development. In my mind, this means that the bank is weaning African governments and other development institutions and we should soon be able to chew and enjoy a quality existence. But that’s only if we do our part… and agree to be the engaged society and/or the effective state that embraces and relentlessly pursues capacity development.

By the way, the World Bank Institute sends issues of this magazine for no cost to readers in 3rd World Countries(... i just don't remember how exactly i subscribed.)