ALPI Regional conference on lessons learned

ALPI Regional Conference on Lessons Learned, 27 September 2006

ALPI is a tripartite effort to improve the effectiveness of US development assistance to Africa. ALPI creates a venue, outside of the traditional procurement sphere, for African NGOs, US PVOs, and USAID: three key stakeholders in the development of Africa, to collaboratively, identify, discuss and address common challenges at the policy, practice, and operational relationship levels. ALPI activities have sought to:

Implement joint advocacy actions to inform and improve policy,
Create venues for technical and professional exchange leading to improved practices, and
Promote more equitable, effective and mutually beneficial relationships between key actors.

In order to achieve concrete outcomes, ALPI has since 2003 focused its activities at the national level in Ghana, Mali, Senegal, Kenya and recently in Rwanda where country teams have developed activities tailored to their specific needs and are implementing them. A critical element for the success of country plans has been the joint ownership by all three groups in the ALPI process. A joint activity currently being executed in Ghana is the NGO/CSO Standards Project - a civil society self regulatory mechanism.

Countries were selected based on a number of criteria including:-

USAID presence
a commitment of all three-stakeholder groups to form and manage a tripartite country team
a track record of committed participation in previous ALPI activities,
availability of a strong African organization with the necessary human and social capital to facilitate the collaborative planning and joint action at the country level.

Through the establishment of linkages between country processes and InterAction – the American Council for Voluntary Action (the largest network of NGO in the US and the home of the ALPI), the three stakeholders seek to improve the effectiveness of US assistance to Africa -- policy formulation, technical approaches, and delivery mechanisms.

ALPI partners (USAID missions, U.S. PVOs/NGOs, African NGOs) lead the process at the country level and participate in the design of the program, the decision–making process, implementation, and evaluation. They choose discussion themes and research topics and also select attendees to regional conferences in Washington and other advocacy meetings.

The Ghana Country Team, made up of CARE International, OICI, GAPVOD, USAID DG Team and POSDEV is hosting this conference and will prepare the conference report.

CONFERENCE OBJECTIVE:

The conference sought to achieve the following:

Capture the collective and individual experiences of ALPI country teams and of InterAction;
Discuss progress made in addressing issues of common interest to ALPI stakeholders
Identify lessons learned in forging relationships for development
Devise strategies to address identified challenges: NGO/CSO collaboration with the private sector for rapid economic growth and poverty reduction; NGO/CSO involvement in the execution of the millennium challenge account in Africa
Enhance the profile of the ALPI in Ghana

APPROACH:

The conference brought together twenty seven key participants from Kenya, Ghana, Senegal, Mali, United States of America, and two observers from Rwanda. In addition, fifteen - twenty organizations from Ghana were invited to enrich the discussions on the NGO/CSO environment in Ghana, CSO relationships with the private sector as well as provide an overview on future relationships with government on recent US policy initiatives in Ghana, especially on the Millennium Challenge Account.

The Ghana Country Team worked with InterAction to draw on a variety of resources for this event, including enlisting the services of Ms Carolyn Long an independent development Consultant with long experience in Africa Liaison Program Initiative and InterAction.

Each country team presented a full report on its country activities; stage reached challenges and the future.

Workshop sessions included interaction with the Private Enterprise Foundation; the Millennium Development Authority in Ghana – the implementers of the millennium challenge account compact for Ghana as well as with Ghanaian NGO/CSO and their networks.

METHODOLOGY:

The conference was officially opened by Mr. Dennis Weller, USAID Mission Deputy Director, on 27^th September.

The format for the conference was interactive small group sessions and some panel presentations followed by questions and answers.

LANGUAGES:

Simultaneous interpretation French/English.

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