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There is now real optimism of the prospects of Africa reclaiming the 21st century given its recent sterling growth performance and the number of successful reforms undertaken. There have been considerable and noticeable efforts to invest in innovation, infrastructure, integration, institutions and a revamp of incentive systems to develop new values that allow for transparency, accountability and greater social inclusion. New forms of leaderships have emerged at various social levels and institutions to drive a development agenda based on peer‐learning and knowledge‐sharing. Africa, in so doing, is unearthing deep skills and the reaping low‐hanging fruits needed to speed its ambitions to attain the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and sustainable development. This broad development agenda has required Africa to adopt strategic and practical solutions to the development challenges it faces. This volume interrogates a number of issues that are crucial for the attainment of sustainable development in Africa: a responsive governance framework, the demographic transition and youth bulge, conflict and related dynamics – such as disarmament and demobilisation, capacity building in post‐conflict and fragile states, the role of donors in enhancing (or otherwise) local development efforts, the need to understand the “softer‐side” of capacity development; and above all the role of savvy and strategic leadership. Understanding these issues and beyond, by organizations like the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF), will determine whether Africa will achieve its development ambitions in the very near future.

Today, more so than ever before, the African Continent is confronted with many challenges on its path to sustained growth and development. There is no denying the fact that Africa needs to substantially improve growth performance if it is to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). These various challenges facing Africa’s sustainable development were the main focus of the 20th Anniversary Summit of the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) held in the picturesque city of Kigali, Rwanda ‐ under the theme ‘The Future of Africa is Now! The Critical Role of Capacity Development. The aim of this introductory paper of the special issue is to provide a summary of the key presentations from the Summit with special focus on leadership, innovation and the role of the private sector and science and technology, networks of skills and knowledge, rebuilding after conflict, and sustainable support to capacity development. Moreover the paper will also provide a summary of the steps outlined by the summit to build capacities for emerging challenges beyond the MDG. The paper will also include an overview of the ACBF’s flagship publication‐Africa Capacity Indicators Report (ACIR) launched during the Summit and finally conclude by highlighting a key outcome of the Summit ‐ ‘Kigali Resolution’.

Using case study analysis, this paper aims to examine the application of capacity development perspectives, critical towards urban tourism that is inclusive and regenerative.

The study design used a mixed qualitative methods approach underpinned by the inclusive tourism development framework following Scheyvens and Biddulph (2017). This comprised in-depth interviews, focus groups and observational research. A community-based approach was adopted in a diverse cultural and socio-economic field setting.

The findings demonstrate that people who are marginalised hold valuable tacit knowledge and unique skills that can complement expert tourism knowledge and contribute to the development of more sustainable places and inclusive communities. This finding challenges claims that capacity development must occur before their participation. Local government, alongside non-government organisations and community groups, were found to have a significant role to play in ensuring that residents and people who are marginalised are included in sustainable tourism development.

This study contributes to the burgeoning discourse regarding stakeholder capacity development and readiness for inclusion in urban tourism initiatives. Importantly, regenerative development approaches are applied within the gambit of capacity development making this a unique attempt to integrate stakeholders into the design and implementation of tourism planning processes that uphold inclusive and regenerative priorities.

There have recently been concerted efforts by many post‐conflict African countries to formulate and implement policies and measures that will reconstruct and develop their societies. Much of the discussions of realizing post‐conflict reconstruction and development have generally focused on disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) of ex‐combatants. What is however, missing is a discussion on capacity development and capacity building initiatives to help in reconstruction in the period after DDR. This paper therefore examines the importance of capacity development in post‐conflict African environment. It notes that while demobilising and disarming warring factions is important, the success of reconstruction efforts in a post‐conflict environment depends largely on the ability to build and develop capacity and skills that are pertinent to helping reconstruct and promote the development goals of the countries. It is argued that post‐conflict societies should have a coherent and co‐ordinate approach to rebuilding, reconstructing and developing the capacity of the state in order to achieve the state’s legitimacy and effectiveness. Such capacity development measures should involve the development of physical infrastructure; the building of the state’s institutional structures; the promotion of good political and economic governance; skills and education training for individuals; and measures to improve and deliver security and social services.

International development practice has had as its dominant paradigm the rational-analytic model of project planning, management and evaluation. This is reflected in the widespread adoption by donor agencies of results-based management (RBM), side by side with conventionally used tools for monitoring and evaluation (including logical framework analysis (“logframe”), logic model and results frameworks). Donor agencies rely upon such tools to generate the evidence base for measuring “success” across the spectrum of their work, even though projects differ enormously in their nature, scope and time-span. Process-led capacity development projects and input-led infrastructural or straightforward service delivery projects require very different yardsticks of performance monitoring and appraisal. Drawing on insights from the complex adaptive systems (CAS) literature, the purpose of this paper is to explore how projects focused on capacity development necessitate a more eclectic approach, including – but not restricted to – RBM methodology.

Using the insights of CAS theory, and with particular reference to projects which have capacity development as their prime focus, this paper explores a broadening of conventional project management practices.

The paper posits an integrative approach to managing international development projects focused on capacity development – one which would recognise the values of instrumental utility and goal-setting associated with the application of the tools of RBM, while situating that within a more open, system focused and holistic approach to projects and their outcomes, placing emphasis on context, adaptability and learning.

The research enquiry presented is discursive rather than empirical, and builds on established theory and constructs of three distinct conceptual fields: first, the RBM approach to project and programme implementation; second, the “complexity” strand of organisational management literature; and third, the capacity development strand of international development discourse.

The paper intersects disciplinary boundaries between project management, organisational studies and international development theory and practice.

The birth of the African Capacity Building Foundation on February 9, 1991, was the culmination of intense efforts and groundbreaking commitment to capacity building in Africa by Africa Governors of the World Bank, the Bank itself and the cofounding Institutions ‐ the African Development Bank and the United Nations Development Program, as well as numerous other individuals. The successes chalked by ACBF towards attainment of its objectives have vindicated those who held the view that establishing an indigenous African institution, with focus on and commitment to the course of Africa’s development was the right course of action at the time. Twenty years on, ACBF has supported nearly 250 projects and programs in 44 African countries and committed more than US$400 million to build capacity on the continent. Projects and programs supported by the Foundation have drawn synergy with and complemented countless other activities of various development institutions operating on the Continent. ACBF’s support has been crucial in the building of development capacity in Africa, whether in ministries of finance and economic planning or central banks. For many among us who dedicated to this initiative and worked towards its realization, we remain humbled by the opportunity to witness the twentieth anniversary of ACBF.

This study aims to examine the mediating role of resource capacity on the effect of administrative capacity on local level development.

Data is obtained from three Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) in the Central Region of Ghana using a survey. A structural equation modelling that includes a formatively measured construct (administrative capacity) is used in the analyses.

Leadership, human resource management, financial resource management, technical and adaptive capacities are supported as formative constructs of administrative capacity. More so, it is established that administrative capacity has an effect on resource capacity. Also, administrative capacity and resource capacity each has an effect on local level development. The mediation analysis shows that resource capacity mediates the effect administrative capacity has on local level development.

Administrative capacity is a necessity for local governments as enhancing it together with the resource capacity of MMDAs are vital if local level development is to be achieved. In this regard, administrative and resource capacities of local governments must be pursued by both the central government and decentralised governments for the latter to achieve its primary mandate.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to empirically ascertain leadership, human resource management, financial resource management, technical and adaptive capacities as the dimensions of administrative capacity using a structural equation model. Given that there is a lack of consensus on the dimensions of administrative capacity, this study contributes significantly to the discourse. The study also highlights the need to pursue and enhance administrative and resource capacities for local level development.

The paper presents a process of development of the capacity of resources used in the improvement of an organization. The purpose of this paper is to determine the conditions in which the development of the improvement capacity is sustainable.

As the basis for the study, the following prerequisites have been adopted: potential effects of the use of resources in a process can be expressed by their capacity, which involves the productivity and volume of the resources; a model of sustainability of improvement is based on the procedure ABC and principle of continuous improvement; an improvement process involves two components: subject matter (eliminating problems) and methodical (learning how to eliminate problems during the execution of subject matter tasks) projects; the methodology of Six Sigma can be a reference model, which is studied to identify and interpret elements and relationships that are characteristic for the process of sustainable development.

There have been formulated a model of the process of developing the improvement capacity in which the subject matter and methodical tasks are coupled, a model of the Six Sigma process that refers to the features of the process of development of the improvement capacity and three principles for sustainable development of improvement capacity.

The principles refer to decisions on the improvement process made at basic (strategic, tactical and operational) levels of an organization.

Capacity development in fragile environments in Africa has often proven to be a complex undertaking. This has largely been because of existing knowledge gaps on what exactly causes fragility of states, the economy and society. The liberal peace development model that generally informs post‐conflict reconstruction and capacity development has a limited conception of fragility by narrowly focusing on the national dimensions of the problem, promoting donor‐driven solutions, emphasizing minimal participation of beneficiary actors in the identification and prioritization of capacity development needs, and by subcontracting the design and management of projects and programs. The resulting capacity development impact has generally been disappointing. In the absence of homegrown strategic plans, stakeholder participation and ownership, international development partners have all too often addressed capacity gaps by financing training, supply of equipment and professional exchanges of parliamentarians and parliamentary staffers. These efforts usually achieved their presumed number targets but tended to ignore addressing the larger issues of political economy within which capacity development take place. However, the recent re‐conceptualization of parliamentary capacity development as a development of nationally owned, coordinated, harmonized, and aligned development activities seems to be gaining growing attention in Africa. As the experience of Rwanda eloquently demonstrates, capacity development is essentially about politics, economics and power, institutions and incentives, habits and attitudes – factors that are only partly susceptible to technical fixes and quantitative specifications. These structural factors have to be negotiated carefully and tactfully.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the issue of how best to develop teacher capacity in Cambodia. Since the 1990s the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (MoEYS), with its development partners, has undertaken the tremendous task of rebuilding Cambodia’s shattered education system. Many of the policies and programmes that have been developed hinge on building teacher capacity. This paper investigates the extent to which the capacity of teachers in the schools in this study was developed under the current cascade model favoured by the MoEYS.

Using a case study methodology data were collected, primarily, through semi-structured interviews with teachers in three government primary schools located in different geographical areas, and ministry officials and advisors based in these locations.

The findings identified that the current cascade model of capacity development, apart from watering down what is taught as it filters along the system, is not developing the requisite capacity of teachers. The findings suggest that the current model limits what constitutes capacity and for whom.

An expanded model of capacity development is forwarded that includes: school-based training for all teachers on an ongoing basis; incremental training; and regular training for trainers and principals.

This paper offers valuable insights that contribute to the ongoing discussion of how best to develop teacher capacity in Cambodia. It may also offer insights on developing teacher capacity to those working in similar situations.