ABSTRACT
The record of capacity development in Africa over the past decade is mixed. Yet the experience is also full of lessons learned and approaches tested that provide a treasure trove of evidence for building a more successful and sustainable approach. Some of the lessons are for the international donor community, whose practices of aid management have often contributed to this record of disappointing outcomes. Other lessons are for African countries, who have frequently failed to take the lead and accept ownership and responsibility for their own development strategies. These lessons focus not only on overall leadership and country-level incentive systems, but also on sector-level practices. To be sure, the experiences in Africa over the past decade have resulted in some improvements and changes that suggest the next decade may offer new hope. But a number of challenges remain. One challenge is to resolve the tension between short-term output-driven frameworks and longer-term adaptive approaches that have shown to be more effective. Another challenge is to create enabling conditions under which African governments engage with a wider variety of stakeholders from civil society in the design and implementation of capacity-development initiatives.
