CAFRAD News

CAFRAD’s human capacity increased tremendously in recent times with the recruitment of new Experts with wide-ranging specialities in different fields of public administration, leadership and governance. The five recent additions to the professional staff of the Centre include Dr. Raphael W. ARINAITWE (Uganda), Dr. Shehu Salihu MUHAMMAD (Nigeria), Dr. Mojeed Olujinmi A. ALABI (Nigeria), Dr. Stephane Monney MOUANDJO (Cameroon), and Mr. Sylvestre Zue NDOUTOUMOU (Gabon). Also, a new information manager/documentalist, Mr Abdelmajid HADDAD, has taken over the administration of the Libary, while Najat Yaicht (a polyglot and expert translator) is the new Secretary to the Director-General.

Nigeria’s Department of Technical Cooperation in Africa (DTCA) was a guest of CAFRAD for one week early this year. The team, comprising the Director-General – Dr Yakubu Bassi and the Director of Programmes – Dr Dan Oguns, visited CAFRAD in January, 2009. The mission was to monitor the progress of the two new Experts sponsored by the Nigerian government under the Nigeria Technical Cooperation Fund (NTCF) administered by the African Development Bank (ADB). These 'Technical Ambassadors', he noted, were posted for an initial two-year placement at CAFRAD in order to strengthen the human capacity of the latter as the foremost pan-African training institution. The DG of DTCA informed that 17m of the 32m Africans in the Diaspora were Nigerians, and that the DTCA was set up to confront the phenomenon of brain drain. He noted that while brain drain might be difficult to stop in a globalised world, it could be re-directed and re-circulated to become 'brain gain'. He said such positive efforts at bringing African Experts home were not targeted at Nigerian Experts alone but at all Experts of African descent wherever they might be in the world. He informed that the DTCA was compiling a data base of Experts willing to serve in Africa and the list was growing. He urged such Experts to register on the organisation's website. He was enthusiastic of the possibility of extending the existing partnership between Nigeria and CAFRAD in the delivery of the latter's mandate. The 4-day meeting was rounded up with submission of project proposals requiring funding to the DTCA by CAFRAD. It was agreed that CAFRAD would initiate an MOU between CAFRAD and DTCA for an initial 5-year period in order to strengthen the existing collaboration between the two institutions.

The Permanent Secretary, Personnel Management Office in the Presidency of the Gambia, Mr O. G. Sallah, was one of the last guests to be received by CAFRAD as it rounded up its activities for the Year 2008. Mr Sallah, who was on his annual leave, was in CAFRAD to explore areas of possible collaboration between CAFRAD and the government of the Gambia in the implementation of the public sector reforms policy document of the Gambia, which he said was awaiting formal approval of the government. Mr Sallah, who specifically requested the assistance of CADFRAD in meeting the training needs and capacity-building imperatives of the proposed scheme promised to make the policy document available to CAFRAD as soon as it was officially approved and published by the government. He was also positively disposed to the idea of a workshop on change management as a component of public sector reforms being hosted by the Gambia.

Regional and international institutions, CAFRAD inclusive, have been urged to assist in boasting the capacity development of national anti-corruption institutions in Africa in collaboration with the UN’s Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA). This was part of the conclusions of the Ad-Hoc Expert Group Meeting on “Assessing the Efficiency and Impact of National Anti-Corruption Institutions in Africa” held in Kigali, Rwanda, February 16 – 17, 2009. The meeting was called to explore ways of strengthening the capacity of national anti-corruption institutions by examining a draft report produced by UNECA on the theme. Over fifty delegates comprising experts, current and former heads and officials of national anti-corruption institutions, civil society organisations, academics, media practitioners and parliamentarians from English- speaking countries in Africa attended the meeting. The meeting commended and endorsed the draft background paper and made useful suggestions at improving the quality of the document. Political will in leadership, institution building, use of systemic governance approach, values, morality and culture, and autonomy funding were among many other things suggested as very critical to the attainment of the goals of anti-corruption efforts in Africa

16 countries of Africa were represented by over 30 participants at a high level seminar organised by CAFRAD on “Reform of Public Finance and Budget Management through the Implemention of Performance and Results-Based Management, Auditing, Inspection and Control” in Tangier, Morocco, 23rd – 26th February 2009. The Seminar was organized to look at the existing approaches of performance and results-based methods of management, audit, inspection and control of the public resources and find means and ways to better manage and utilize such public resources, fight the financial crisis and prevent any future re-occurrence. The seminar noted constraints of states in reforms of public finance, budget, performance and results-based management and auditing, inspection and control, which were complicated and diverse in nature. The seminar also considered various alternatives and ways, when and where to be involved more actively to improve performance and result-based management and auditing systems to improve public service delivery and accelerate economic and social development in Africa through effective and efficient management of resources.

Various conclusions and recommendations were made on Performance and Results-based management, Auditing, Inspection and Control that could enhance (i) efficient and effective management of funds and other resources; (ii) determination and measurement of performance in order to achieve results; (iii) control, monitoring and evaluation of outputs and outcomes; and (iv) measurement of the impact of achieved results.
Other follow up recommendations included that:

Managers of projects and programmes should be trained based on approved procedural manuals to harmonize management with auditing, inspection and control. An integrity pact about these procedural manuals should be clear for the management and supervision of projects and programmes to ensure that acceptable ethical guidelines are adhered to;
CAFRAD should take the initiative to create fora in which the African countries could share their experiences and challenges in establishing and measuring progress in implementing performance and results-based management, auditing, inspection and control, and in determining the desired direction to be taken with the initiatives;
CAFRAD should assist countries in building capacity in the public service to initiate and maintain economically viable performance and results-based management and auditing systems;
CAFRAD should initiate a process to avail its annual work programmes to African countries to enable them explore the possibility of collaboration and to benefit from its expertise, seminars and workshops.

The Phase II of LOG-IN AFRICA was kicked off in Nairobi, Kenya, with a workshop held between the 9th and 13th March 2009. CAFRAD was represented at the event by its Director-General, Dr. Simon Mamosi Leo, and Mr Soussi Takati Zoubir - Expert in Informatics at CAFRAD.
The workshop was attended by delegates from 9 African countries’ teams of researchers, the Scientific Advisory Team, and a few stake holders. The workshop aimed at creating a LOG-IN Africa Phase II Proposal to be submitted to IDRC, in line with country proposals from the drafts earlier created.
The Opening Session was addressed by the Project Team Leader, the IDRC, CAFRAD, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, University of Nairobi, and the representative of the Kenyan Minister of State for Public Service who declared the event opened.
In her remarks, the representative of IDRC, Ms Edith Adera, noted that individual countries focused on different aspects of the project during the Phase I, urging the country teams to have a common focus under Phase II. Dr Lelo noted that major conferences were held in South Africa and Uganda to discuss the use of ICTs in managing public services during Phase I, urging that training programmes in e-local governance be put in place. Dr. Kobia of the Kenya Institute of Administration recommended that the outputs be used for the benefit of learning institutions and to improve the service delivery in public service
The Phase II draft proposal was presented at the workshop. During the ensuing discussions, the achievements and lessons learnt from Phase I were highlighted. The issues raised during the presentation included:

Development of tools and applications (methodology and prototype), which was tested in Egypt to be tested in other countries; and the Ethiopian Team prototype (Managing Life Event Services in the Kebeles) to take advantage of those tools as the project proceeds to Phase II.
To enhance capacity building both in the institutions and Local governments
Workshops
To create public awareness
To enhance interaction with public institutions at the individual country level
Complete the project on time

The Workshop on Electronic/Mobile Government in Africa, at which CAFRAD was represented by one of its Experts, Mr Zue Ndoutoumou, jointly organized by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), was held at the United Nations Conference Centre (UNCC) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 17th to 19th February 2009
The Workshop under the theme “Electronic/Mobile Government in Africa: Progress Made and Challenges Ahead” was called to explore regional knowledge into the issues and challenges of e/m government development in Africa, further the thinking of the United Nations on the development of the UN Global Knowledge Repository, develop partnerships for capacity building in the region, and identify capacity building needs for e/m government in the region.
Other organizations and agencies that were represented at the meeting included ECA, AAPAM, AMDIN, CEMAC, COMESA, ECOWAS, IDEP, UN-University of Macao. The following also participated in the workshop, namely : Senegal, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, the Gambia, South Africa, Ghana, Zambia, Rwanda, Tunisia.
The workshop developed two activities: Meeting for sharing knowledge and presentation of the regional and country situation reports; and Training of the participants and partners on using of EmGKR network.
Organizations and agencies presented their activities and their oncoming or current programmes. On their side, countries presented their situation, main issues and perspectives about the areas of e/m-governance. Also, the meeting received the contribution of UNECA expert on how and why taking account of the gender in the areas above. The draft result of the survey on e/m-government was presented.
The meeting put in place the membership of the EmGKR networking. In this instance, CAFRAD accepted to continue to provide e/m-governance information for the African region.
For more information, please contact Mr. Sylvestre Zué Ndoutoumou, zuendoutoumou@cafrad.org

The Conference themes facilitated by resource persons’ presentations, reports from various countries and participants’ discussions included: National Trends in applying Public Management Techniques to the advancement of Women; Career Development of Women within Public Sector Organizations - Factors and Issues; Barriers to Women’s advancement in the Public and Private Sectors; Capacity-building and Networking towards Strategic Partnerships for the advancement of Women; and, Gender with focus on results-based management. The participants made a number of recommendations which included among others:

Governments are urged to scale up literacy and specialized training for girls and women. Measures should be taken to ensure universal primary and secondary schooling for girls;
Through their gender machineries, governments should implement leadership and monitoring programmes for women;
Sensitize all stakeholders on gender equality, especially women in leadership and its significance to the achievement of the MDGs, poverty reduction and sustainable development in Africa. This should be done by all stakeholders.
Governments should involve women in all diagnoses, strategies, implementations, evaluations and monitoring of policies that affect them and their leadership opportunities.
Women networks should be established.
Government gender machineries responsible for gender equality projects and programmes should be adequately funded and given high priority and recognition as other line ministries.
All government policies, programmes, budgets and projects must incorporate gender perspectives. If capacity for gender mainstreaming is lacking as inadequate, training and tools should be provided.
Every government department should ensure that all forms of discrimination against women are discouraged in the countries. Heads of Departments should sign contracts that mandate them to increase the number of women in leadership positions. Each Head of Department should be held accountable if they do not meet the target.
Sensitization programmes should be put into place to promote dialogue between governments, religious leaders and all other civil society stakeholders and development partners, such as CAFRAD, ECA, etc.
In schools and in work places, women should be given training that helps them build their self-confidence, esteem, and professional confidence. Such training can also improve relations between women themselves.

Participants also pledged to put into practice all the recommendations made at the conference. It was also suggested that CAFRAD and the UNECA should co-ordinate follow up activities to assess the extent to which these recommendations have or could become part of projects, programmes and policies to increase the number of women in decision making positions in African countries.

International Conference on Development of an Equitable Information Society: The Role of Parliaments

The 2-day meeting, jointly organised by the UNDESA/UNECA, the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) and the Parliament of Rwanda, at the Parliament Building Kigali, Rwanda from Wednesday 4th to Thurday 5th March, 2009, was preceded by a pre-event programme on 03/03/2009. At the pre-event, various modules on the linkage between ICT applications and development were presented.
Over 150 participants representing 36 African countries, 12 organisations and the press attended the event. The Opening Ceremony was addressed by the Chief of Governance and Public Administration Branch (UNDESA), Director of ICT, Science and Technology Division (UNECA), President of the Pan-African Parliament (PAP), and President of the Senate of the Republic of Rwanda.
The lead paper on “Policymaking Process and the Challenges of Building an Equitable Information Society in Africa: The Role of Parliaments” by Aida Opoku-Mensah of the ECA dwelt on the achievements, lessons learnt and challenges of formulating and implementing ICT policies in Africa. In the Session 2 paper entitled “Significance of ICTs in Global Econmy: Importance of Governance Frameworks, Markets and Regulation”, Marcelino Tayob of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) demonstrated the potentials of telecommunications that have remained untapped on the African continent. The remaining papers addressed the issues of legal reform, information rights, and copyright, and how the parliaments can meet the challenges arising from these in facilitating equitable information society in Africa. Others issues in focus included presentations on the experiences of the European Union and Rwanda, and the opportunities and challenges of developing a continental ICT policy in Africa.

Ms. Lizette Michael, Programme Coordinator, sitting for CAFRAD as member of IASIA Board of Management, attended the Board meeting which was held in Brussels (Belgium), 19 – 20 February 2009.
The IASIA Board of Management, inter alia, took note of the IIAS Director-General’s report, considered preparations for the Rio de Janeiro Conference, 3-8 August 2009 and Bali Congress for 2010, approved both the financial report and the applications of new institutions who wished to join IASIA and discussed IASIA’s publications and policy.
Ms. Michael was appointed to serve as a Member of the full Committee on the Next Steps related to UN/IASIA Standards of Excellence in Public Administration and Training, and also Chairperson of the Regional sub-committee for North Africa and the Middle East on the implementation of the Standards of Excellence. As Chairperson of this sub-region, her task will be to encourage and facilitate dialogue and share thoughts by way of e-mails (copied) with each of the members of the regional group.

The Conference on “Towards Good Governance of Financial and Economic Institutions in African Countries: The Critical Role of Governments, What Measures and Mechanisms should be put in Place to protect African Economy Against the current Global Financial Crisis?" was held in Tangier December 1st- 3rd 2008
The Conference was called to provide a Forum for discussion on the impact of the Global Financial Crisis in African countries. The focus was particularly on efforts to find measures and mechanisms to be put in place to protect African economies against the crisis.
Thirty two (32) participants from eleven (11) African countries comprising of Cameroon, Republic of Congo, Egypt, Gambia, Ghana, Mali, Morocco, Mauritius, Mozambique, Democratic Republic of Congo and South Africa, and three (3) African organizations: The African Development Bank, The Bank of Central African States (BEAC) and the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) attended the Conference.

The impact on African states due to the external shocks of the Financial and Economic crisis was likely to lead to reduction in exports, foreign investment, remittances, foreign Aid, employment and growth. It might also affect exchange rates, cause higher interest rates and may impact negatively financial sector;
Whereas financial innovation in developed countries, in the form of securitised mortgages, expanded leverage, and poorly regulated derivative instruments, allowed some major financial institutions to become dangerously exposed and USA and Europe responded through bail out strategies, African states’ response and approach to confront the challenge of the crisis would be different, based on African realities, mobilization of domestic revenues, and the regulatory mechanisms to be put in place.

Financial crisis infringes on countries with different degrees and kinds of impact. However, African states should strengthen the regulation and oversight of their financial institutions and focus on improving markets, infrastructure and risk management while continuing to harmonize appropriately the prudential fiscal and monetary policies, and take measures towards good governance and transparent management. These are necessary especially to build up the environments favorable for banks to broaden their customer base to risky sectors such as small and medium enterprises as well as to investors in risky assets such as stocks;
Governments should commit themselves to more effective mobilization of domestic revenues and deepening of African capital markets for a more robust mobilization of local savings and financial integration as a response to the decreasing external resources occasioned by the crisis. They should enhance the minimum capital base of banks in order to improve their solvency and maintain an adequate level of bank liquidity. Also should speed up all kinds of reforms to fight corruption, to be more transparent, accountable and establish good environment for business and investment to attract foreign investors;
Opportunities to come together in forums like this should be organized regularly by institutions such as CAFRAD to consolidate the achievements, in terms of the qualitative and quantitative aspects of financial institutions, and enhance the general framework for stimulating economic growth and dealing with the crisis.

The Ad-Hoc Expert Group Meeting on “Assessing the Efficiency and Impact of National Anti-Corruption Institutions in Africa” met in Kigali, Rwanda, February 16th – 17th 2009.
The meeting, attended by Dr Raphael Arinatwe, Expert in Leadership, Governance and Public Policy, explored ways of strengthening the Capacity of National Anti-Corruption Institutions in Africa by examining a draft report produced by ECA “on Assessing the Efficiency and Impact of National Anti-Corruption Institutions in Africa”.
Over fifty delegates of Experts, Heads, former Heads and officials from national anti-corruption institutions/commissions, civil society organisations, academics, media practitioners and a former Members of Parliament from English speaking countries in Africa were present at the meeting.
The meeting commended and endorsed the draft background paper and made useful suggestions at improving the quality of the document. The political will in leadership, institutional building, use of systemic governance approach, values, morality and culture, and autonomy funding among many other things were suggested as very critical.
Regional and international institutions like CAFRAD were to assist in boosting the capacity development of national anti-corruption institutions in collaboration with ECA. CAFRAD is still working on the Memorandum of Understanding with ECA on this matter.

The trio of CAFRAD, World Bank Institute, Korean Development Institute (KDI), and the Moroccan Ministry of Finance jointly sponsored a Seminar on 'Performance Budgeting and Fiscal Transparency'. The event, which focussed on selected countries of the Middle East North Africa and (MENA), was held from 21 - 23 April 2009 at Intercontinental Hotel, Tangier, Morocco. Forty-six (46) participants from the following countries attended the event: Algeria (3), Egypt (2), Kuwait (1), Lebanon (2), Morocco (14), Mauritania (2), Saudi Arabia (2), Tunisia (2), United Arab Emirates (2), 5 experts from the Korean Development Institute, World Bank Institute (2), Ministry of Finance,

France (1), Word Bank, Paris (1), CAFRAD (9), and 5 support staff from CAFRAD. Importantly also, the meeting was also graced by His Excellency, The Korean Ambassador to the Kingdom of Morocco.

A total of twenty papers were presented by 16 experts from the KDI, WB, and Ministries of Finance and Economic Development, Rabat, Morocco, among others. The papers dealt with the following sub-themes: Performance Budgeting: Overall Framework; Application of Performance Management to Sectoral Budget; Challenges to Performance Budgeting; Budget System and Transparency; Budget Formulation and MTEF; Budget Execution; Public Procurement; Control, Evaluation and Information Management System; Internal and External Control; Monitoring and Evaluation; and Integrated Financial Management Information Systems.
The Seminar afforded participants the opportunity to address the variety of issues indicated above. While the proceedings of the seminar will be published, all papers presented could be found on CAFRAD’s website.
The following recommendations were agreed at during the wrap-up session:

The 47th Meeting of the Governing Board and Forum on “Implementation of Capacity Building Programmes of Leadership, Governance and Public Policy in Africa” will hold in Tangier, 29 June – 1 July, 2009
Workshop on Results-Based Management for CAFRAD's Focal Points in French-speaking countries holds in Rabat, Morocco, 25-28 May 2009
The Training Course on new management techniques for budget tracking and implementation hold for two-weeks in September 2009 in Tangier. Countries have started expressing interest in participating in the capacity-building programmes for parliamentarians and parliamentary workers. Nigeria has confirmed the participation of ten Senators and Members of its National Assembly;
The Director-General, Dr Simon Mamosi Lelo, is expected to join over 1500 other participants, including heads of state and of governments, Ministers of Finance, Governors of Central Banks, President and staff of the AfDB at the Annual Meeting of the African Development Bank in Dakar, Senegal, 11 – 14 May 2009
Dr Mojeed Alabi, Expert in Good Governance, Ethics and Professionalism in the Public Sector, will represent and make a brief presentation on behalf of CAFRAD at the Experts’ Workshop on Mapping of African Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in Nairobi, 29-31 May 2009.

CAFRAD e-News: May 25, 2009

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