URUGWIRO VILLAGE - The Executive Secretary of the African Capacity Development Foundation (ACBF), Dr. Frannie Léautier, yesterday, officially announced that Rwanda will, in February next year, host the 20th anniversary of the foundation.

She made the revelation after meeting with President Paul Kagame at Village Urugwiro, where they discussed how the cerebrations will be conducted.

According to Léautier, the celebrations will offer a unique opportunity to demonstrate the centrality and continued importance of capacity development to Africa’s growth, as well as the role of the Foundation in this effort.

"We have a partnership with the Government of Rwanda to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the ACBF and also to highlight the key achievements and challenges in terms of building capacity for the rest of the continent,” said Léautier.

During her meeting with President Kagame, Léautier said that they discussed issues related to innovations, areas of capacity to focus on, issues of leadership, the importance of having strong institutions and the role of other Heads of State in preparing a key massage that would come out of the Kigali meeting, to be discussed in the upcoming African Union Summit.

"It will be a knowledge sharing forum as we will be looking back and reflecting the future; there has been a lot of achievement in terms of capacity building but one of the key achievements is the role of independent policy work,” she added.

Meanwhile the Minister of Finance, John Rwangombwa, said that over 20 Heads of States are expected in the country for the event.

In Rwanda, ACBF started its supportive role in capacity building in 1999, when it initiated a needs assessment and formulation of a capacity building strategy for Rwanda’s economic management institutions.

Rwanda will increase its financial contribution to ACBF from US$ 300,000 to US$500,000 for every programme period of three years.

In light of past experience and the capacity building needs, ACBF recommended that Rwanda needed a different approach to capacity building and more specifically public financial management.

To this effect, in June 2001, ACBF approved a Grant of $ 3 million for the Government of Rwanda, which was aimed at supporting the Government in strengthening public financial management.

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