Aide-mémoire

AMFI NETWORK LTD UK an ABR Affiliate, CENTREPRISE AFRICA UK
in Collaboration with

Office of The Senior Special Assistant to the President on MDGs, The Presidency,
Federal Republic of Nigeria

Presents an

International Conference & Workshop

On Capacity Strengthening
Towards Attainment of Millennium Development Goals
in Sub-Sahara Africa

23rd - 25th July 2008

London, United Kingdom

Aide-mémoire

Background

At the 2000 Millennium Summit, 189 Member States of the United Nations endorsed the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), as a framework to fight poverty, and to accelerate human development. Three of the eight goals are directly related to health, education, social development and partnerships. However several challenges – policy, implementation, and financing - limit the widespread implementation of the interventions, which could result in improved outcomes, especially of the poor and accelerate progress towards the targets of the MDGs.

Most of the constraints to addressing to scaling up interventions for better results toward MDGs attainment are found at the policy level and include weak sectoral strategies, plans and budgets; poor linkages between the various sectors and national development strategy and failure of State and National policies and plans to adequately address inequities in access to development services.

In Africa, governments, non-governmental organizations, donor and bilateral agencies as well as the private sector have been addressing policy level issues in their works on poverty reduction strategies (PRS) to achieve MDGs. Similarly, the African Union’s NEPAD programme has been collaborating with is development partners both in the private sector such as African Business Roundtable (ABR) to evolve cutting edge analytical tools for better confronting major challenges that member states face.

An important effort in this regard is the “Enhancing Knowledge Sharing Project on Poverty Reduction Strategies and the Millennium Development Goals” which aims to support African countries to exchange their PRS/MDGs experiences and expertise, thereby enhancing their capacity in the preparation and implementation, and monitoring of poverty reduction strategies in a manner consistent with the goals of NEPAD and the MDGs.

One lesson learned from the recent knowledge audit and electronic roundtable discussions undertaken under this project is the need for policy level capacity building on how to address the inequities that are evident in achieving sustainable development under the MDGs framework. A couple of studies have been carried out by various organization including ECA, NEPAD and ABR on “Mainstreaming equity in the development agenda of African countries” that identified the main sources of development inequities in African countries and proposed a set of interventions for consideration by policy makers.

Building on the above, AMFI NETWORK UK an ABR Affiliate, CENTREPRISE AFRICA and Office of the Senior Special Assistant on MDGs to the President, Federal Republic of Nigeria with Office of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa proposes to undertake an International Conference/Workshop for senior PRS/MDGs practitioners in government and non-governmental organizations, including civil society organizations, working towards the attainment of MDGs Sub-Sahara Africa.

Objectives

The objective of this conference is to provide participants with the tools and skills on how to effectively utilize networking and partnership forums to enhance knowledge and experience sharing across African countries on best practices, experiences, challenges and lessons learned on PRSs and MDG planning and implementation. Since the specific theme of this conference is “Achieving Sustainable Development Through Partnerships”, particular emphasis will be on providing participants with the tools and knowledge on how to identify the constraints to achieving MDGs especially those related to health, education and social development inequities.  The workshop sessions will also explore and examine ways of integrating sectoral development agenda in order to foster the realization of MDGs in Sub-Sahara Africa.

Methodology

The conference methodology is designed to encourage the highest level of interaction between participants and the resource persons on one hand and among participants themselves on the other. The workshop sessions will involve plenary presentations, practical utilization of knowledge-sharing platform and group activities.

Presenters, Facilitators and Resource Persons:

Opening Remarks: Prof. Tunji Olagunju, Special Assistant to the President on NEPAD Federal Republic of Nigeria

Welcome Address:     Sen. Dalhatu Tafida – Nigerian High Commissioner, UK

Inaugural Session:     Hajia Amina Ibrahim – Senior Special Ass to the President on MDGs,
                                  The Presidency, Federal Republic of Nigeria

Conference Sessions: Andrew Mitchell – Shadow International Development Secretary-UK Conservative Party

Dr. Bamanga Tukur, CON – Executive President African Business
                                Roundtable and Chairman NEPAD BusinessGroup

Dr A. A. Roberts – Coordinator & Project Team Leader Global Partnerships Development Initiative

Myles Wickstead – Ex head of The Secretariat to the Commission for Africa                        

Workshop Sessions:Supachi Panitchpaki - Under Secretary General, United Nations Conference for Development

Dr Kasirim Nwuke - Chief, MDGs/Poverty Analysis & Monitoring Section, United Nations Commission for Africa

Dr. Donald Kurtis – Department for International Development, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom

Rep. Office of the World Bank Director on MDGs (To be confirmed)

Please note that a detailed event schedule will be forwarded in due course.

Target Participants 

Senior government officials and Focal officers who are coordinators and members of the National and State Poverty Reduction Strategies/MDG Teams, especially those responsible for the implementation of various MDG programmes both in advisory capacity and as desk officers, State Commissioners and Special Advisers, National and State Legislatures, Local Government Administrators, Senior members of the States and Federal Judiciary, Private Sector Operators, Finance and Bank Executives, Legal Practitioners as well as Project Management Consultants.  Also included are coordinators/senior experts who specialize on PRSs and MDGs from Civil Society Organizations, researchers in Economics/Social Development from African Universities/Research Institutes and private sectors closely working with various National and State MDG Teams across Africa.

Expected Accomplishments:

At the end of the event, participants are expected to:

• Increase their knowledge through sharing the experiences of PRS/MDG National and State Teams in addressing policy related constraints that countries face towards attainment of  MDGs;
• Analyze the benefits of Conditional Grants Strategy in developing economies and be able to effectively apply its gains towards achievement of MDGs at the state level.
• Securely embed health equity in national development plans and PRSs to foster achievement of equitable health outcomes;
• Apply analytical tools such as the MDG-Mapper and concentration indices for enhanced policy formulation, implementation and monitoring and evaluation.
• Engage in a virtual Community of Practice (CoP) and facilitate CoPs to contribute quality content to enrich the PRS/MDG Knowledge Base amongst participating states across Africa.

Document and share non-documented (tacit) knowledge and expertise via e-discussion sessions, electronic roundtables and e-facilitation techniques;

Utilize the PRS/MDG Knowledge Base to track and monitor the implementation of MDG-based PRSs share experiences, success stories, best practices and lessons learned.

Working Language

The conference working language will be English
 
Dates and Venue:
23rd – 25th July 2008
Turner Suite, Holiday Inn – Bloomsbury, Coram Street, London WC 1N 1HT
(2-5 Min walks from Russell Square Tube Station)

Cost Per Participant: £1,375.00
The above cost includes Conference Materials, Workshop Tool Kits, Breakfast and Lunch, Welcome Cocktail, Investment & Networking Dinner and Award Presentation Gala.

Accommodation:
A Special hotel rate of £150 per Double Room including English breakfast and VAT has been secured at the Conference Venue above.

Contact
Desk1:  Victor on Tel: +234 (9) 3132629, Fax: +234 (9) 31422627

Desk2   Claire on Tel: +44 (0) 8808 7822, Mobile: +44 (0) 79316 76841
             Justin on Tel: +44 (0) 77899 77855, Nig: +234 80 6576 6583, 80 2973 2117

Event e-mail: mdgsdev_events@yahoo.co.uk