Apr 14, 2016 | News

More emphasis should be given to African-led Think Tanks

Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe - The African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) organized the 3rd Africa Think Tank Summit in partnership with the AUC, NEPAD and UNECA on 8-9 April under the theme “Creating a Sustainable Future for African Think Tanks in Support of the SDGs and Agenda 2063”.

Speaking at the opening of the Summit, the CEO of the NEPAD Agency, Dr Ibrahim Mayaki emphasized the importance of a change process in order for governments to ably mainstream the use of local think tanks to deliver on both Agenda 2063 and the 2030 SDG Agenda. He placed further emphasis on the value of cumulative knowledge in African think tanks towards a continent-led and owned structural transformation driven by context-relevant knowledge and innovation.

Dr. Mayaki further underscored the importance of strong and effective think tanks, which can only the realized through targeted institutional, human skills, policy and leadership capacities.

The Summit concluded with proposals on key strategic interventions. These included the need and role of regional organizations such as the AUC and NEPAD together with the ACBF and UNECA to engage Member States on the importance of mainstreaming the function of think thanks in development planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

Source: NEPAD