Message from the Director

 

Since its inception six years ago, ATI has steadily increased its Capacity Development (CD) services to our 45 Sub-Saharan African member countries. We worked hard to diversify the CD vehicles by doing more seminars, workshops and tailor-made training programs to supplement the regular face-to-face training at our premises graciously hosted by the people of Mauritius in Ebène. We are now implementing ATI’s ambitious second phase (May 2019—April 2024) endorsed by our Steering Committee in Luanda, in March 2019. At the heart of the second phase’s strategy is a significant scaling up of ATI’s services to reduce the unmet training demand in traditional topics and provide CD services in new emerging priorities. The strategy relies on a nimble approach that allows ATI to listen to CD demands from our members and adapt our offering to their evolving training needs.

Over the past few months I have had the opportunity to visit several member countries (eSwatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Seychelles and South Africa) to discuss ATI second phase. My hosts shared with me their feedback on the quality of ATI’s services, their vision on future CD needs and how we can continue to assist them.

I was very proud to hear the authorities’ appreciation of the top-notch quality and relevance of our training and the warm hospitality their delegates receive from ATI staff. These visits to member countries helped me gauge the importance economic policymakers attach to governance and corruption, gender, and climate change in their development priorities. I reiterated ATI’s commitment to strengthen CD efforts in these areas.

To implement our scaling-up strategy, our activities over the last months focused on fundraising, upgrading our training facilities, and fostering team building. On the fundraising, our efforts have borne some fruits with twelve countries committing financial support for ATI’s second phase, compared to three during the first phase. I would like to express our gratitude to Angola, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe for their efforts and financial contributions, which signal the importance ATI member countries attach to their training institute. Regarding our training facilities, our premises have been expanded with the addition of new offices and space for larger gatherings, including peer-learning and conferences. To bolster staff engagement and team spirit, we organized a full-day team-building exercise, jointly with AFRITAC-South (AFS).

This new edition of our newsletter highlights our latest achievements and introduces some of the devoted men and women who are part of this adventure. I look forward to your steadfast support in our endeavours to contribute to capacity building for a fast-growing Africa.

Abdoul Aziz Wane