Building capacity in Africa: The impact of institutional, policy and resource factors

This paper analyzes capacity building in Africa based on the experiences of the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF). The ACBF was set up through a collaborative effort of African Governments, the World Bank, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the African Development Bank (ADB). The study develops a conceptual framework of capacity building followed by a review of the major perspectives explaining capacity deficiency in Africa. The empirical analyses show that there is a relationship between capacity building and institutional factors such as non-receptivity of policymakers toward policy analysis, politicization of policymaking and lack of capacity prevailing in Africa. The correlation analyses reveal a statistically significant relationship between capacity building and the availability of human and material resources in the region. However, the weak relationship between capacity building and some of the resource variables such as donor funding and expatriate staff as well as the insignificant number of studies seem to suggest that the relationships should be further explored with a large data set. The study also indicates that gestation period, integration of program elements and institutional setting must be carefully considered in designing capacity building projects in Africa.