Africa Leadership Forum (ALF)

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Africa Leadership Forum (ALF)
Telephone: +234 39 722 730, 722 731, 722 732, 722 733
Fax: +234 39 722 751

Email: info@africaleadership.org Website: http://www.africaleadership.org

Contact: Mr. Ayodele Aderinwale (MFR), Executive Director

Description

Founded in 1988, the Africa Leadership Forum (ALF) is a non-for profit organization that grew out of the need to assist in improving the capacity and competency of African leaders to confront development challenges. Part of ALF’s mission is to develop leadership capacities in Africa in order to increase productivity of major actors in government, parliament, business and civil society, towards creating conditions for the development of the continent in an environment of peace, stability and security.

The vision of ALF is to develop a new breed of educated, enlightened, articulate, innovative and dynamic leadership ready to meet the overwhelming challenges of bringing Africa to equal partnership status with the rest of the world.

ALF was designed to fill the void created by the absence of entities to capacitate Africa’s potential leaders. The holding of periodic conferences, workshops, seminars and colloquia on a broad spectrum of themes is central to ALF’s mission. The themes are selected on the basis of their relevance to the problems of Africa’s faltering development. The rationale behind this is to create the atmosphere for the training of an enlightened and competent generation of African leaders well groomed to chart a new course for the continent. Its specific objectives are:

• To generate greater understanding and to enhance the knowledge and awareness of development and social problems within a global context among young, potential leaders from all sectors of society, cutting across national, regional, continental, professional and institutional borders and with a view to fostering close and enduring relationships and promoting life-long association and co-operation among such potential leaders;
• To support and encourage the diagnosis and informed search for appropriate and effective solutions to local and regional African problems from an African perspective – within the frame work of global interdependence. This would include the consideration of phased action programmes, which can be initiated by various communities, countries, sub-regions and institutions, drawing on the contribution of current leaders and decision-makers, scientists and younger persons;
• To sensitize incumbent leaders and policy-makers, the media and the public at large – both inside and outside Africa – to the national, regional and global problems of development, strategy, environment and management in a way to facilitate the search for effective solutions;
• To harness and utilize for settlement of conflicts, reconciliation and establishment of harmony among African countries and among Africans, the influence and moral authority of leaders especially the residual influence and moral authority of those not currently in executive positions;
• To undertake actions and measures that will promote and sustain democratic practice and culture in Africa;
• To disseminate information, ideas, solutions to problems, works, reports and activities of the Forum through the publication of books, journals, videos and other means of passing information and knowledge;
• To assist in the development of the spirit and culture of entrepreneurship, self-employment and job creation among young professionals, especially those with an inclination towards an interest in business activities; and
• To develop close network, outreach and cooperation with organizations, institutions and individuals inside and outside Africa, with a view to promoting and enhancing the work of the Forum and for the mobilization and coordination of efforts and resources.

ALF’s work program is tailored towards contributing to the reconstruction and strengthening of the African governance structures and leadership capacity at the regional, sub-regional and national levels. ALF implements programs in African Governance (including technical support for the AU Economic Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC) national processes and a Regional Conference on APRM’s National Programme of Action (NPOA); Local Government and Leadership; a Parliamentary Support Institute; Youth Development and Leadership; and the Democratic Governance Support Initiative (focusing on community leadership and domestication of the Millennium Development Goals).

ALF is governed by a three-tier structure made up a Council of Conveners, Executive Committee and Secretariat. ALF has a five-department management structure, all with departmental heads reporting to the Executive Director.

Track Record

ALF has maintained a high profile at Pan-African level, and has been active across a number of thematic areas, including development, leadership, and governance; conflicts, crises management, prevention and security; culture and literature; and regional integration and cooperation.

African Governance: Arguably ALF’s most significant policy contribution to Africa’s development has been the initiation, design and promotion of the Conference on Security, Stability, Development and Cooperation in Africa (CSSDCA), originally mooted at an OAU summit in Kampala in 1991 and eventually adopted in 2000 at Lomé, Togo. The CCSDCA is a policy development and monitoring framework for the activities and initiatives of the African Union (AU). Prior to the establishment of the AU’s Economic Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC), it also provided an early entry point for the engagement of CSOs with governance and political structures at the continental level. The CSSDCA also provided inputs into the formulation and development of the peace and security mechanisms in SADC and ECOWAS (see separate profiles). The CSSDCA is a standing conference that will convene every two years to revive the progress made by African countries as it relates to all the commitments entered into by them under the CSSDCA.

The African Women’s Forum (AWF): This is a regional platform to facilitate the strategic engagement of African women with development policy initiatives in African, for challenging dominant ideas and creating networking opportunities on gender issues. The AWF strives to promote the collective interest and leadership of women in Africa through research, training and advocacy and the strengthening of the capacity of women’s network. One outcome has been the Index on the Status of African Women (ISAW), an advocacy tool used to promote the role of African women in decision making structures. Using the AWF platform and in collaboration with other CSOs, ALF spearheaded the “Gender Is My Agenda Network” which pushed for the eventual adoption of the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa by the AU, currently the continental policy framework for gender mainstreaming in Africa.

African Regional Parliamentary Support Initiative: This initiative was established to build the capacity of African parliamentarians to engage with various strategic continental development initiatives. ALF has organised six regional conferences for African parliamentarians on diverse issues of strategic relevance. The first of these, a Regional Conference on Parliamentarians & the Sustenance of Political Liberalisation in Africa, held in Ethiopia in 1996, was convened to facilitate the exchange of ideas and experiences among parliamentarians, examine the role of parliament in Africa and enable networking. Subsequent meetings of parliamentarians meetings were convened to discuss issues such as democratization, the CCSDCA, and the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM). An outcome of this series of meetings was the creation, in 2006, of the Parliamentary Support Institute, a capacity building and training program for parliamentary support staff in Africa. The program, piloted in Nigeria, is shortly to be extended to other African countries.

APRM Support Programme: ALF was involved in conceptualizing the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), and has provided consistent support to the implementation of the APRM. At the regional level, ALF has been involved in the country review exercise as well in the design of the APRM management framework. Currently, and in collaboration with the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), ALF is in the process of organizing and Africa-wide conference on the APRM’s National Program of Action (NPOA). The conference will bring together senior executives of African CSOs, key actors from countries already peer reviewed, select members of the various APR Missions, the APR Secretariat and managers of the APRM process in the other participating countries to share experiences and discuss ways of ensuring effective implementation of NPOAs. The aim is to deepen the understanding of NPOA in all APRM participating and non-participating countries towards enhancing the capacity of African CSOs to participate effectively in the management and implementation of NPOA.

ALF also works extensively within Nigeria.

Challenges

ALF is constrained by two main challenges – financing and high staff turnover.

ALF’s inability to attract long-term institutional support has hampered its programmatic work, particularly in areas requiring continuous follow-up.

ALF’s annual budget averages US$1 million – in 2007 the budget was US$ 600,000. From 1995 to 2001, ALF’s core funding was provided by the Un Development Program (UNDP) Regional Bureau for Africa and the Carnegie Corporation in the U.S. Project support came from a variety of sources including: Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), National Endowment Agency, Royal Netherlands Government, Ford Foundation, World Bank, Global Coalition for Africa, Danish International. Development Agency, Africa Development Bank, Friedrich Naumann Foundation, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Japanese Embassy, World Bank, Catholic Organisation For Relief & Development Aid (CORDAID), Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, Norwegian Government, International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development, UNDP, and Carnegie Corporation.

In light of the preference of most donors to fund projects, and in recent years, ALF has found it difficult to attract sufficient core funding. Faced with this challenge, ALF developed entrepreneurial strategies to fill the funding gap. The forum built its own conference centre with 117-room accommodation facilities. The proceeds from these facilities help fund ALF’s operations, although the support is necessarily short term in nature and subject to the vagaries of the economy. As such, ALF still requires a degree of predictable long- term fund to effectively meet its programmatic objectives and mandate.

In the absence of long term funds, the ability of the organization to retain expert technical staff both within and outside its base of operations become a critical challenge for its executive management. The CSO labour market, within and outside Nigeria, is very fluid and there are a number of opportunities. This makes it difficult for ALF to retain staff, a reality that negatively affects programmatic continuity and erodes the organization’s institutional memory.

Opportunities

Commitments to provide core funding support would significantly assist ALF in realizing its objectives. In addition, the ALF will require support for its medium-term projects as well as capacity building, staff training and recruitment highly technical staff as way of strengthening its institutional delivery capacity. Furthermore, additional project funding will be required to deepen and extend the reach of existing programmes that are essential for the sustenance of democratic values across the continent.