1. Strengths

Through its network of 92 research institutions spread across 26 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, ACEG is able to draw from a mass of high calibre researchers with diverse areas of competency to carry out its work. ACEG’s collaboration and networking with continental bodies such as the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF), the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), and East African Community (EAC) Secretariat is a demonstration of its credibility and legitimacy to carry out policy analysis of issues affecting Africa. ACEG’s mailing list has 624 regular recipients of its publications. The degree of networking and collaboration within and outside Africa is therefore one of ACEG’s main strengths.

 

Another of ACEG’s key strengths is the composition of its Board of Directors. ACEG’s Board of Directors is composed of eminent scholars who have wide recognition across Africa and abroad for their integrity, credibility and reputation. The members of the Board of Directors, that include the Executive Director, are individually able to access people and institutions at the highest levels in public and private sectors across Africa and abroad. They have therefore earned themselves profound respect as competent, non-partisan professionals.  ACEG’s non-partisan and impeccable credentials makes it a natural development partner for donors, governments, international organisations, research institutes and other organisations who are increasingly wary of mushrooming institutes with no credible reference.

 

ACEG research work is organised in a way that allows it to outsource research capacity while retaining only a skeleton in-house team of professional staff for ensuring technical thoroughness in design of research projects; provision of leadership and guidance to research teams, review of research outputs; and implementation of dialogue and dissemination activities. ACEG has in-house professional staff of five. Two out of these five have PhDs while 2 have Masters level education. All of them have high technical competence and each over 12 years of experience in research work.

 

To increase the networking capacity and widen the outreach of its information dissemination efforts, ACEG is now on the world-wide-web. The website, www.aceg.org provides all standard information on ACEG, including ACEG institutional profile; past, present and forthcoming programme activities; list of publications and information for ordering the publications that cannot be freely downloaded; as well as information on institutions affiliated with ACEG.

2. Weaknesses

Although ACEG is able to offer policy analysis services drawing from a network of research institutes across Africa and outside Africa, paucity of internal research capacity continues to hinder its ability to take on many projects with bigger geographic coverage. This is mainly due to limited pipeline funding for institutional development of ACEG. Heavy reliance on project findings has led to the Board of Directors considering future consultancy work as part of ACEG activities. However, ACEG needs to carefully weigh the benefits of such activities against the risk of losing its credibility as a leading Africawide policy research institute.

 

Although ACEG has moved at significantly good pace, it has not made sufficient strides in widening the degree of collaboration among African research institutes. This is largely because of the slow process of building a track record with which possible donors can have confidence to support research projects that reach many more countries. This is a challenge that ACEG sees as likely to take some time to completely address, yet worth every single effort. Ongoing discussions with various donors on possible institutional funding for ACEG are already showing positive signs of materialising.

 

Although ACEG has a website, it relies on a dial-up Internet access system to only one PC. A dedicated line with full internet access for all computers at the Secretariat would enable ACEG staff to utilise the full benefits of the information superhighway, thus improving internal efficiency and policy analysis capacity.

3. Opportunities

ACEG’s track record in undertaking regional policy research on key development issues facing Africa, increasing donor attention to issues of regional development and integration provides an opportunity for ACEG to play a pivotal role in regional policy analysis across Africa. In particular, the New Initiative for Africa’s development (NEPAD) provides an opportunity for ACEG to play a leading role in policy analysis on key issues that Africa must tackle for it to succeed. NEPAD’s continental mandate means that policy analysis activities will have to be done in a collaborative manner and ACEG’s network of research partners across Africa makes it a natural partner for such activities. Already, ACEG is involved in regional activities linked to the desire for regional integration in the East African region.

 

One of ACEG’s areas of research focus is poverty alleviation. The problem of widespread poverty in Africa is acknowledged as most countries are preparing Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) that spell out each country’s strategy for combating poverty. ACEG will be well positioned to provide expert inputs into this process. ACEG has been able to carry out two democracy and governance projects for Kenya. Similar studies could be carried out in other parts of Africa since, across Africa, issues of democracy and governance have increasingly taken the centre stage of econimc and political agendas.

4. Threats

ACEG’s role as a pan-African policy research institute and its dependence on donor funds to carry out its activities means that decreasing donor support for Africa could adversely affect its operations. The Centre would benefit greatly from institutional support to create sufficient core funds for sustainability. While the raging problems facing Africa serve to create development challenges such as the ones ACEG addresses, instability caused by political upheavals can pose a threat to ACEG’s operations. In addition, a deeper economic crisis in Kenya would seriously affect the operational stability of ACEG.

5. Diversity

ACEG firmly believes in the concept of equal opportunities for men and women in all aspects of its work.  While this principle is adhered to in the recruitment of members of ACEG’s two key organs – the Board of Directors and the Secretariat – the following diversity table shows that an imbalance exists at the Board level.  Out of the current nine members of the Board, only three are women.

© 2002 ACEG. All rights reserved.
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Last Updated 13 November, 2003