Prior to the onset of the global financial crisis, Africa had made significant progress toward sustainable economic development. It had achieved five years of growth at an annual average of six percent, an indicator of success seen in many nations across the continent, not just in oil-producing and commodity - exporting countries. Structural economic reforms, an increased commitment to fighting inflation, and promotion of a more favorable international business environment contributed to producing measurable results seen in such benchmarks as foreign currency reserve growth and inflation rate drops to single digits.

Countries in Africa made social gains, as well. Though only Tanzania is on track to meet most of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Mali and Burkina Faso are well positioned to meet several of the goals, and at least ten states are on track to achieve the primary education target.

Projections suggest that Mozambique is likely to achieve the child mortality and infant mortality goals, and Senegal is expected to achieve the eighth goal, which relates to a global partnership for developmentwith a special focus on ensuring that sufficient investment goes into development.

The global recession, rising poverty, the food and fuel crises, and the impact of climate change jeopardize ongoing progress in Africa, which also continues to be threatened by political instability and the risk of conflict. Further success toward achieving the Millennium Development Goals and sustainable peace in the region will depend in part on the implementation of effective capacity development initiatives that reflect and respond to the particular realities and challenges present in fragile, post-conflict African states.

Effective capacity development must begin, then, with comprehension of the root causes of Africa's fragility and conflict; the lingering impact of a colonial legacy of weak, inappropriate institutions; and the tremendous challenge of creating workable solutions on a continent grappling with such a profound diversity of political, cultural, linguistic, and religious identities.

As many development partners have discovered, failure to understand the aforementioned factors goes hand in hand with failure to understand post-colonial state building efforts in Africa. Too often, state building and capacity development have been carried out as technocratic exercises in which fragile states import and institutionalize inflexible formulae.

The African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF), was founded on February 9, 1991 with a mission to build human and institutional capacity for sustainable growth and poverty reduction in Africa. ACBF is publishing this inaugural edition of its annual Africa Capacity Indicators Report (ACIR) to further its goal of building sustainable, effective institutions and policies to deliver development results for poverty reduction. This Flagship Publication draws on a combination of ACBF's two decades of work, the results of the Africa Capacity Indicators field studies completed during 2010, and technical background papers.

This Report introduces a unique and unprecedented series of data on the state of capacity in Africa. It also examines key issues and challenges confronting in-country and cross-border capacity development. The ACIR will serve as a major diagnostic tool and guide the development of priority actions by providing practical insights and recommendations where necessary.

To this end, the ACIR will form the basis for advocacy on major capacity development issues and bring to the attention of policy makers and other stakeholders the thematic and sectoral factors that might be affecting state and societal effectiveness in the delivery of specified mandates. It will serve as a tool to galvanize capacity development and poverty reduction actions in Africa by providing research-informed data on capacity development from across the continent.

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