Last week, Rwanda hosted a two –day, high level, summit as part of the 20th anniversary of the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF). During the summit, it was emphasized that the Africa’s capacity gaps remain a hindrance to prosperity and needed to be developed if the continent is to achieve its development goals.

As Rwanda identifies ways of building capacity, the responsibility should not be left to the government alone. Initiatives to develop capacity should start from the bottom, and the private sector must make capacity building one of its main concerns.

When institutions and organizations draw up their work plans, targets and budgets, they should clearly identify their capacity gaps and work to address them as a matter of priority. Once a company or institutions has developed its capacity, there is no reason why it’s other goals will not be achieved.

For the larger organizations, they can set up internal capacity building departments. We live in an ever- changing world, especially with technological advancements. To keep abreast, it is imperative that the capacities of the organizations are constantly evaluated and upgraded to ensure that they do not lose pace with the rest of the world.

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