Date: 23-28 March 2017

Time: 9:30 – 11:30

Venue: King Fahd Hotel, A01

Background:

Development planning is vital for the implementation of national, regional and global development initiatives. However, the planning profession in many African countries still suffers deficits in leadership skills for coordination of sectoral, sub-national and private sector activities.  Essential specializations in areas of resource mobilization and risk management of selective acquisition of technologies for strategic industrial projects are hardly present in current planning institutions. 

The good news is that ECA’s Macroeconomic Policy Division (MPD) is at the forefront of fulfilling the Commission’s mandate to rapidly close institutional capacity and structural gaps to ensure that African governments seize the opportunities created under the new commitments in international development cooperation.  In this context, MPD strengthens the capacity of member states to design, implement and follow-up on internationally agreed development goals.

Objective:

The main objective of this event is to engage and seek feedback from senior planning officials and professionals on key projects designed to build planning capacity in African country institutions. The side-event will also consider, in collaboration with IDEP, creating standardized training curricula for African higher education institutions covering the fundamental knowledge and skills of development planning. 

Target audience:

-          National planning officers and Representatives  from ECA and IDEP