{The United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), with the support of the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA) are organising a three day seminar whose objective is to assess the capacity building needs of Anglophone African countries in the area of human resources for private sector development. The seminar will attract more than 25 members from 11 countries.}
Organised under the BADEA-UNITAR technical assistance programme on “Strengthening the Human Resources of Sub-Saharan African Countries for Private Sector Development ”the seminar will increase awareness among decision-makers, mobilize beneficiary countries, assess capacity-building needs and identify existing initiatives in the field. It will promote exchanges between country representatives and will serve to identify the topics to be addressed in the future activities organized by the project. Beneficiary involvement will ensure sustainability and ownership. The technical assistance programme will focus on strengthening the capacity of governments of BADEA beneficiary countries to strengthen their human resources in the area of private sector development.
“Given the private sector’s tremendous potential as an engine of economic and social development, African countries must adopt more strategic approaches to private sector development. However, the governments of many sub-Saharan African countries are poorly equipped to develop sound private sector development policies, implement them effectively, and monitor the results accurately. In particular, they often lack adequate human resources, as well as the ability to upgrade them when the need arises,” said Dr Osvaldo Agatiello a Professor International Economics and Governance at the School of Diplomacy and International Relations of Geneva and an advisor to UNITAR.
According to the African Development Bank (AfDB), the private sector today generates approximately 70% of Africa’s economic output, 70% of its investment, and 90% of its employment. However, the private sector is still composed mainly of informal and small businesses. It also suffers from ineffective regulation, restrictive business environments, poor transport and communications infrastructure, skills shortages, and difficulties in accessing finance. In light of the above, development banks such as BADEA and AfDB identified private sector development as one of their fundamental areas of focus in to reduce poverty and support sustainable growth in Sub-Saharan Africa.
“The Government of Rwanda understands the important role private sector plays in development and is committed to creating an environment where business is able to operate free of bureaucracy, trade barriers and other hindrances. Through continuous engagements with the Private Sector Federation, government is able to have candid round-table discussions to forge a positive path forward for government and business as partners in development. This is not to say that there are no challenges in private sector development. Currently, our skill base level is not where we want it to be. It is in this regard that we have prioritized skills development in various sectors,” said Leonard Rugwabiza, the Chief Economist at the ministry of Finance and Economic Planning.
Since 2013, UNITAR hassuccess fully trained over 250 officials from Ministries of Finance from 38 Sub-Saharan African countries (Anglophone, Francophone and Lusophone countries) through 8 regional and 2 national training courses on Investment and Financing for Development (2013/2014), Development of Public-Private Partnerships (2015), Microcredit in Africa (2015), Negotiation Skills (2016), Project Monitoring (2016) and Domestic Debt Management (2016) with the support of BADEA.
Through these activities UNITAR identified 37 regional and international experts and a large number of potential national experts/correspondents. UNITAR also developed and disseminated training curricula on Investment and Financing for Development, Development of Public-Private Partnerships and on Microcredit in Africa (10 days/60 hours of training time per theme). Both the beneficiaries and the experts involved in the above activities have strongly expressed the need to strengthen the network of experts and correspondents in BADEA beneficiary countries. They also recommended adopting a capacity building approach with a view to achieve lasting and sustainable capacity improvement at the national level.
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