1. CENTER FOR STRATEGIC INITIATIVES CORE PROGRAMS
THE AFRICAN SKILLS MOBILISATION PROGRAMME
1.0 BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT
Public sector institutions as well as non-state organizations across Africa suffer from substantial
human and institutional capacity challenges. Whilst this may be attributed to a variety of internal
and external factors, it is evident that the lack of a structured initiative to mobilize and deploy
high-level African expertise from both within Africa and the diaspora has aggravated these
capacity challenges,with dire consequences on the socio-economic development of the continent.
In fact, research shows that inadequate utilization of Africa’s skilled professionals will continue
to be a significant challenge for emerging African countries in the next decade. The predominant
use of expatriate consultants and other professionals for the execution of projects and other
development activities in Africa is clearly not sustainable in the long term. The experience of the
advanced countries and regions of the world, attest to the critical role played by their own regional
experts and professionals mobilized from around the world to support their development agenda.
Africa could and should learn from this experience and mobilize its own brainpower to lead the
transformation of Africa.
The alarming levels of emigration of highly-skilled professionals from Africa (especially Sub-
Saharan Africa) to more developed regions, clearly has been a contributory factor to the human
capacity gap in Africa.According to the 2015 Revision of the U.N. World Population Prospects,
more than half of the global population growth between 2015 and 2050 is expected to occur in
Africa. While this suggests that the region will benefit from a large human resource base, Africa
has and continues to experience significant levels of brain drain. For Africa, the average high-
skilled emigration rate (10.6 %) is approximately 12 times higher than the low-skilled emigration
rate (0.9 %). Additionally, the high/low skilled migration gap is particularly wide for Sub-Saharan
Africa where the propensity to move among highly skilled workers (12.6 %) is 32 times larger
than among the low-skilled (0.4 %). This phenomenon is a major constraining factor for growth
and development in Africa and must be addressed holistically. Indeed, it underpins the need for a
comprehensive, robust, home grown initiative that will allow African countries to effectively
maximize the use of its brainpower, especially in public and private sector management and
administration.
It is against this background that the Center for Strategic African Initiatives (CSAI) is promoting
the implementation of an African Skills Mobilization Programme (ASMP), which is an innovative,
multi layered framework to use African skills to transform Africa. The initiative has three
overarching goals. Firstly, it seeks to identify, document and maintain a database of African
professionals and experts in Africa and around the world, as well as profile the broad range of
skills they possess. Secondly, it seeks to promote mutually beneficial interaction and exchange of
knowledge, information and ideas between African professionals in diverse fields, through a

2. variety of structured engagements, events, and other networking arrangements. Thirdly, the
initiative seeks to facilitate the deployment of African professionals and experts in strategic
technical, managerial and administrative capacities on short and medium to long term contract
basis for project assignments, in both the public and private sector across Africa.
The African Skills Mobilisation Programme will not only focus on addressing human and
institutional capacity challenges in Africa, but will also provide a structured mechanism and
platform for constructive dialogue and collaboration between African experts. It is expected that a
large number of public sector institutions, private sector organizations as well as other non state
actors, will benefit from the technical, managerial and administrative support that experts from the
ASMP will provide. The programme will initially prioritize countries with high capacity constraints, such
as those emerging out of conflicts or embroiled in conflicts.
It is envisaged that the ASMP will make a significant contribution to the consolidation and
utilization of Africa’s brainpower and provide leadership in setting Africa’s agenda and priorities
for growth and development.
2.0 PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION FRAMEWORK
The ASMP will be implemented through three inter related programme components namely, the
Africa Skills Bank, the African Experts Summit and the African Executive Service. The different
components will feed into and reinforce each other.
2.1 THE AFRICA SKILLS BANK (ASB)
The ASB will be an online interactive database and talent bank that will document the skills, expertise and
achievements of African professionals and experts from around the world. It will connect African
professionals with organisations and companies in search of the best talents from Africa in diverse fields.
The ASB, as an online consulting platform, will provide opportunities for Africans around the world to
contribute to the development agenda of the African continent, by providing consulting services on a short
to medium term basis from remote locations, without necessarily having to relocate physically to Africa. In
the process,it will also offer opportunities for longer term sustainable employment for African experts. In
addition, the ASB will serve as a professional and knowledge network that will provide a platform for the
exchange of knowledge, information and ideas among Africans, and will offer continuous access to high
quality professional mentoring, particularly for young African professionals.
The ASB initiative will be implemented in two phases. The first phase will involve the design and
development of the ASB portal. The main objective during this phase will be to ensure that the
system architecture is robust enough to deal with the anticipated high volume of traffic on the
platform and the complex nature of subscriber transactions to be effected. In this regard, efforts
would be made to ensure that the technical integrity of the system is guaranteed, including

3. providing for privacy and security considerations. The second phase of implementation will
involve populating the database with the profiles of African experts from diverse backgrounds.
This phase will incorporate three main interventions. First, there will be targeted country-specific
launches of the Africa Skills Bank in collaboration with local focused groups and professional
associations, to attract and register their members as ASB subscribers. Strategic linkages with
relevant institutions and programmes, both in Africa and other parts of the world, will be developed
and maintained to continuously update and enhance member subscription to the ASB. The second
intervention will involve launching and promoting the ASB during relevant international
conferences and other events in and outside of Africa. The third intervention will be to implement
a structured and sustained publicity drive to showcase the ASB using a variety of communication
platforms, including advertising through online channels (Google, Social Media, Email
Marketing) and Multimedia platforms (print, radio and television) in selected pilot countries.
The construction of the ASB portal is ongoing, and it is currently at a stage that could be described
as a Minimum Viable Product. It can be accessed through the following link:
www.africaskillsbank.com. Funding for the technical upgrading of the portal is currently being
explored.
2.2 THE AFRICAN EXPERTS SUMMIT
The subscribers to the ASB will each year attend the African Experts Summit which will be
organized as a flagship calendar event at a location and time to be determined in consultation with
strategic partners and key stakeholders. The primary objective of the Summit is to promote
experience and knowledge sharing on practical and successful models which can be used to address
specific developmental challenges confronting Africa, and how different stakeholders at the
continental, regional and national levels could work together collaboratively to replicate such
successful models in Africa. The main focus of the Summit will be on identifying problem solving
approaches to development. It is evident that whilst significant efforts have been made in Africa
in formulating policies at the highest level of decision making, there still remains a very serious
gap in policy implementation. It is envisaged that the Summit will make very substantive
contributions towards bridging this gap.
The Summit will be a three-day high level conference to be attended by a diverse range of
participants including experts and professionals from both the public and private sectors from all
over Africa and beyond, including those from the diaspora, senior policy makers and government
officials, corporate executives and other private sector operators, parliamentarians, academia and
researchers, civil society representatives and media practitioners. The overarching theme for each
Summit will be framed around a set of issues of fundamental importance to the development of
Africa. This will form the basis for the plenary sessions of the Summit. In addition to this, the

4. Summit will have a number of mini-plenaries and panel discussions focusing on selected thematic
pillars and specific sectors that will allow for intensive participation by all stakeholders. Keynote
speakers and distinguished experts with practical experience and proven track record in their
professional fields, will be invited to lead the various plenaries and panel discussions.
The African Experts Summit will also serve as the main annual networking event for professionals
and experts who are members of the African Skills Bank. In this regard, the Summit will include
a number of other networking events and programme activities that will afford the opportunity for
ASB subscribers to interact with each other. The organization of the Summit will be coordinated
by the Center for Strategic African Initiatives, in close collaboration with other strategic partners.
A side attraction of the Summit will be a Trade and Technology Fair and an Executive Talent Fair
which will focus on the following: (i) showcase the finest home grown technologies developed by
Africans and their collaborators (ii) bring companies and institutions that are looking for specific
African talents to hunt for them through the fair.
It is proposed that the inaugural Summit, to be attended by 500-700 participants, will be held in
the first quarter of 2017. A draft Summit Programme is presented as an Attachment to this Concept
Note. Co sponsors and funding partners for the Summit are currently being sought.
2.3 THE AFRICAN EXECUTIVE SERVICE
The primary objective of the African Executive Service (AES) is to deploy high level African
experts and professionals in particular those registered with the Africa Skills Bank, with
experience in public and private sector management, to work directly on specific short, medium
and long term projects across the African continent, on contract basis.Through this exercise, it is
anticipated that the experts will help to deal substantively with specific challenges based on
demand from public sector institutions and private organizations in different parts of Africa.
Additionally, the AES will facilitate the transfer of knowledge and practical skills to local officials
who will work closely with seasoned experts deployed under this initiative. It is projected that at
least 200 experts will be deployed by this scheme every year in diverse, strategic capacities, with
a minimum of 500 local professionals benefitting from skills and knowledge transfer. Whilst
formal and academic training programs are useful in human resource capacity building, it is
evident from development experience that skills transfer on the job is often more practical,
effective, and sustainable. It is envisaged therefore, that the AES will play a very critical role in
the development of human capital in Africa. The transformation of Africa will not depend only on
its natural resource endowment, but more importantly on the development of its human resource
potential.

5. It is expected that a large number of public sector institutions, private sector organizations as well
as other non state actors, will benefit from the technical, managerial and administrative support
that experts from the AES will provide. The initiative will generally prioritize countries with high
capacity constraints, such as those emerging out of conflicts or embroiled in conflicts. For purposes of
private sectorcapacitybuilding, the deployment of expertswill be demand driven based on specific capacity
requirements.
Although services to be offered by AES will be fee-based, a provision will be made for volunteer
executives to participate in the programme on a case by case basis. The management and
administration of the AES will be coordinated by the Center for Strategic African Initiatives, in
collaboration with local partners in beneficiary countries. Funding for the start up phase of the
AES is currently being explored.