1. Establishing Effective Knowledge Exchange Structures for Africa’s Development Stakeholders Steffen Janus March 27, 2011

2. APDev aims to be: ● A multi- stakeholder forum ● An African-country-led mechanism with an active role for RECs ● An integrated community of practice ● A knowledge base & mutual learning hub ● A network for knowledge, policy & practice links

3. APDev consists of two basic inter- related building blocks: EXPERTISE Knowledge Repository (online database) Community of Practitioners working for Africa’s Development Reports, Statistics, Case studies, guides, check lists, etc. Knowledge sharing and collaboration, in both virtual and physical spaces.

4. Collaboration and Experience Sharing between Africa’s Institutions ● Not a new thing. Has been around for many years ● But often ad-hoc, bilaterally or focused on specific sectors Need for more systemic and regular knowledge exchanges amongst Africa’s development stakeholders

5. Knowledge Exchange: Mutual learning from Practice on what works and what does not. ● Institutional capacity needs assessment needed ● Both cross-sectoral and sectoral expertise required Knowledge SupplyDemand for Knowledge

6. Knowledge Exchange: Mutual learning from Practice on what works and what does not. ● African stakeholders have a lot of experience to share ● Much of this experience and expertise is directly relevant to other stakeholders on the continent Knowledge SupplyDemand for Knowledge

7. The APDev Knowledge Exchange Initiative ● Systematic Knowledge Exchanges between Practitioners and Policy makers ● Focus both on institutional capacity constraints and thematic issues ● Both virtual and face-to-face dialogues, many facilitated by video conferencing technology

8. Who are the stakeholders? ● Very inclusive process: All APDev stakeholders can participate ● Initial focus on RECs as key drivers of regional integration on the continent

9. SADC Gaborone, Botswana COMESA Lusaka, Zambia EAC Arusha, Tanzania IGAD Djibouti ECCAS Libreville, Gabon ECOWAS Abuja, Nigeria CEN-SAD Tripoli, Libya UAM Rabat, Morocco NEPAD Midrand, SA ACBF Harare, Zimbabwe AUC and UNECA Addis Ababa AfDB Tunis, Tunisia Map of future virtual regional sites for Knowledge Exchanges via video conferencing

10. Linking in national-level stakeholders ● Involvement of national governments, civil society, private sector and academia ● Use of Global Development Learning Network (GDLN) to facilitate knowledge exchanges through distance learning technology

11. APDev Online Community Platform / Knowledge Repository F2F VC APDev Dialogues Monthly Dialogues addressing institutional capacity constraints Regular thematic knowledge sharing dialogues Regular dialogues addressing institutional capacity constraints Thematic KE dialogues Two parallel Knowledge Exchange Tracks

12. Immediate next steps ● First video-conference based knowledge exchange pilot addressing knowledge management as a key institutional capacity constraint reported by RECs (end April) ● Consultation on pilot thematic knowledge exchange track on Trade Facilitation (May 5-6) ● Subsequent knowledge exchanges (1-2/month)

13. Linking back to APDev’s objectives ● A multi- stakeholder forum ● An African-country-led mechanism with an active role for RECs ● An integrated community of practice ● A knowledge base & mutual learning hub ● A network for knowledge, policy & practice links

14. APDev Knowledge Exchanges are BY you and FOR you ● Invitation to contribute additional thematic tracks ● Invitation to sponsor knowledge exchanges ● Invitation to participate in all APDev knowledge exchange activities, both actively and passively

15. Thank you!