Lessons of Experience ACBF

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Lessons of Experience ACBFs Partnership with the
World Bank Institute on African Economic Policy
Management Training Program through the Joint
Japan-World Bank Graduate Scholarship Program
By Dr. Jacques Katuala Manager, Training
Operations Department The Africa Capacity
Building Foundation (ACBF)
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BACKGROUND

• In 1994, the African Capacity Building Foundation
  (ACBF), in partnership with the World Bank
  Institute (WBI) and through the Joint Japan-World
  Bank Graduate Scholarship Program (JJWB/GSP),
  established the Economic Policy Management
  Program (EPM).
• The program was established to train middle and
  senior level policy advisors and managers from
  sub-Saharan Africa leading to a Masters Degree
  in Economic Policy Management.

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African Economic Policy Management Programs
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BACKGROUND (Contd)

• Through this initiative, two EPM programs were
  established An Anglophone Program at McGill
  University in Montreal (Canada) and a
  Francophone Program at Centre dEtudes et de
  Recherches sur le Développement International
  (CERDI) of Auvergne University at
  ClermontFerrand (France).
• In 1998, the two programs EPM programs incubated
  in France and Canada were transferred to Africa
  Partner Universities (APUs).

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The Four EPMS
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PROGRAM GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

• The overall goal of the EPM is to improve
  economic management in sub-Saharan Africa.
• The immediate objectives of these programs are
• To strengthen the institutional and human
  capacity of APUs to that they can be able to
  sustainably organize the EPM Program.
• To train a critical mass of economic policy
  analysts and managers required for meeting
  development management challenges facing
  sub-Saharan Africa.
• To network EPM Programs in Africa and similar
  programs in the world.

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ACHIEVEMENTS OF AFRICAN EPMS

• The four universities have implemented two phases
  of the program and produced the following
  outputs.
• M.A Degree Training
• The four African universities has jointly
  produced over 1000 graduates at the average cost
  of US15,000.
• Graduates are now being employed in Central
  Banks, Development Banks, Government
  Ministry/Agency, University, International/Regiona
  l Organizations, Consultants, etc.

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ACHIEVEMENTS OF AFRICAN EPMS (contd)

• Human capacity building
• In the area of human capacity building in the
  department of economics covered by these
  programs, the faculty members continue to be
  trained as trainers so as they can effectively
  organize courses, workshops and seminars. One
  university has been able to use the EPM Program
  to train its faculty, moving them to the level of
  Ph.D. Through the EPMs, there has been an
  exchange of faculty and even of students.

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ACHIEVEMENTS (Contd)

• Institutional capacity building
• Since the inception of the EPM program, hundreds
  of computers, UPS, printers, 4 dot matrix
  printers, LCD Projectors, scanners, Laptop
  computers, Zip Drives, CD writers, Servers and
  Software have been procured by respective
  program.
• These equipments are housed in an air-conditioned
  computer laboratory, with a twenty-four optic
  fiber Internet connection. The departments
  libraries have been reasonably well stocked with
  titles in Economics and Management. The Program
  has managed to acquire furniture for academic
  staff and students as well as provision of
  suitable classrooms and offices. This has greatly
  enhanced the teaching and learning environment of
  the departments of economics.

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ACHIEVEMENTS (contd and end)

• Networking
• In order to rip the benefits of networking, the
  African EPM Programs have established their own
  network, the Economic Policy Management African
  Network (EPMAN) and meet yearly to exchange
  experiences, ideas and to discuss policy and
  program issues.
• Overall, the EPM Programs have become the beacon
  of light and a subject of pride at all four
  African universities.

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LESSONS LEARNED

• 1. COOPERATION WITH NORTHERN PARTNER UNIVERSITIES
  (CERDI AND MCGILL UNIVERSITY)
• Lessons learned from the incubation in Northern
  Universities are related to the cost of the
  program and the impact of the incubation. At an
  average of US60,000 for each scholar, this cost
  was extremely high when compared to average of
  US18,000 per scholar in the four participating
  African universities. Hosting the program in
  Africa has made it possible to train about three
  scholars for the price of one in the Northern
  institutions.
• As regards the impact of the incubation, a
  retrospective analysis and an evaluation
  conducted at the end of the two programs indicate
  that their impact was limited to training of few
  program managers. The question is did they
  really need to be incubated at CERDI and McGill?
  The answer is no.

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LESSONS LEARNED (Contd)

• 2. Program Governance
• The governance of all the four programs was
  designed so as to enable them to be fully
  integrated into the governance structure and
  organs of each university in which they are
  organized. The main lesson learned was that this
  integration has been more or less successful even
  though the cost of it has been relatively high at
  some universities.

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LESSONS LEARNED (Contd)

• 3. Program Management.
• The main lesson learned from the management of
  the EPM Programs in Africa is that it has been
  successful at some universities while at some it
  has not.
• Two question we have been asked at ACBF whether
  these programs should have been included in the
  Department of Economics given that their main
  focus is on policy analysis, evaluation and
  management and not on economics. The second
  lesson is the fact that existing EPMs have not
  been able to successfully market themselves,
  leading to problems of their financial
  sustainability.

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LESSONS LEARNED (Contd)

• 4. Program contents
• The main lesson learned as regards program
  contents is that it was adapted from the original
  EPM programs incubated at CERDI and McGill to the
  African context. In our view, the contents of the
  program needs to be refined so as it can be
  adapted to changes within the environment.
• The only difficulty is the resistance to change
  by Economics Department at universities that are
  more conservative than the society in which they
  operate. The other difficulty is that of
  developing training materials that reflect this
  environment by faculty training in the program.
  This is mostly due to insufficient experience in
  developing Africa-relevant training materials and
  financial resources.

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LESSONS LEARNED (Contd)

• 5. Training methods and techniques
• Given that the EPM program is a professional
  course with emphasis on application of theory,
  tools and techniques, the teaching of the course
  has not been able to adequately reflect this
  philosophy.
• This underlines the importance of Training of
  Trainers (TOT) workshop for all lecturers
  teaching on the program to sharpen their skills
  to deliver the courses. There is need for more
  cooperation between EPMs, WBI, ACBF and similar
  institutions to organize TOT workshops for EPM
  faculty.

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LESSONS LEARNED (Contd)

• 6. Duration of EPM Program
• In the last two phases, the four host
  universities of the program on the continent did
  not have the same calendar for the course. In
  order to harmonize the duration, it was agreed
  that the course should be offered in 12 months,
  particularly when the 4 months internship is
  replaced with field visits.
• 7. Follow up of EPM graduates
• Except at one university, a systematic follow up
  of scholars has not been undertaken. This is
  again mostly due to the insufficient practice at
  APUs of organizing tracer studies to follow up
  graduates

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LESSONS LEARNED (Contd)

• 8. Networking and mentoring
• In the area of financial sustainability of the
  program, it was noted that none of the four
  universities has succeeded in mobilizing
  co-funding to bridge the shortfall. To address
  this in Phase III, a collective action through
  the Economic Policy Management African Network
  (EPMAN) would be encouraged.

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Conclusion

• Partnership between the World Bank Institute and
  ACBF through the Joint-Japan World Bank Graduate
  Scholarship Program has been a model of
  partnership due to
• The common understanding of the capacity problems
  and opportunities of African countries in the
  area of economic policy analysis and management
  from which the capacity needs were identified.
• The agreement on strategic objectives identified
  from these capacity needs.

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Conclusion (Contd)

• The common understanding of the two institutions
  that ownership of the programs by the four
  universities themselves was one of the key for
  their sustainability.
• Constant adaptation of the design and
  implementation of the EPM programs to their
  African environment and, especially, permanent
  exchange of ideas and information between
  stakeholders on how best to achieve the program
  objectives.
• The issue of insufficient accessibility still
  needs to be addressed

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END OF PRESENTATION

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