Joining forces - ACBF and ABF have signed a Memorandum of Understanding

The MoU between ACBF and ABF was signed in Accra. Shortly after the signing from left to right: Edem Messa-Gavo, Monitoring and Evaluation Expert ACBF; Mbacke Niang, Director, Programmes and Impact ACBF; Magnus Schmid; Head of Project ABF and Erick Sile, Team leader ABF for Ghana.

13th December, Accra Ghana. The African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) and the GIZ project Agribusiness Facility for Africa (ABF) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in the premises of ACBF in Accra. The ACBF, is the African Union’s specialized Agency for capacity development. ABF supports small farmers and entrepreneurs in setting up micro-enterprises on behalf of the European Union and the German Federal Government.

Having spearheaded and robustly coordinated capacity development programs worth some 790 million Euros across 48 countries and 8 regional economic communities (RECs) in Africa since 1991, ACBF has gathered the requisite experience that makes it the go-to institution for expert knowledge and human resources. ACBF facilitates the timely implementation of continental and national development agendas.

As the African Union’s agency following over 31 years of solid work, the foundation is best placed to advise and support African countries, regional economic communities and institutions on decisive steps to take to develop the practical skills urgently required for the continent’s economic transformation. Africa needs improved governance to succeed with its ambition for transformation, but it can only do this by covering the huge skills deficit the continent has in areas such as engineering and in raising its agricultural productivity to required levels. The African continent needs 1.6 million more agricultural researchers and scientists. These are only a few of the dire needs shown in recent ACBF reports.  

The MoU aims to strengthen the cooperation on the following topics:

• • Capacity Building - Execution and joint delivery of e-learning, blended learning and face-to-face training on climate-smart agribusiness.  
  • Matching Grant Fund (MGF) - Joint promotion, identification, and selection of competitive and innovative proposals under the MGF.  
  • South-South Exchange - Experiences and achievements are documented and disseminated with partners for learning, for South-South cooperation, for further scaling and institutionalization of best practices, and for evidence-based policy support. The formats for exchange may include but are not limited to conferences, expert talks, exchange visits and other online/offline events to enhance networking and knowledge management. ACBF will also support ABF to set up the association for FBS master trainers.

A workshop is planned for February 2024 to draw up a joint work plan for the collaboration.