Africa - PACF

The Pan African Competitiveness Forum (PACF) is a new continent-wide competence and action centre for innovation and cluster based competitiveness approaches to national and regional economic development in Africa.

Taking advantage of the “5th Eastern African Regional Conference on Innovation Systems and Innovative Clusters in Africa” celebrated in Maputo, Mozambique on August 25-27th and building on the momentum created in Addis Ababa - the 1st Pan African Competitiveness Forum (PACF) - the PACF Executive and Advisory Boards held their second Advisory Board Meetings on August 28-29.

The Ist Pan African Competitiveness Forum (PACF) has successfully launched a new continent-wide competence and action centre for an innovation and cluster based competitiveness approach to national and regional economic development.

Erica Elk, Director at the Cape Craft and Design Institute in South Africa has been one of the participants of the Pan African Competitiveness Forum in Addis Ababa in April and allows us to share her reflections on the Forum. This article was part of a monthly newsletter from the Western Cape Craft Initiative.

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. 14-16 April 2008
Two hundred participants from more than 30 countries will meet at the first Pan African Competitiveness Forum (PACF) in Addis Ababa. PACF will be launched as a new continent-wide competence and action center on innovation and cluster based competitiveness initiatives in Africa. PACF will support stakeholders from business, knowledge institutions and government to respond more effectively to the unique challenges and opportunities that Africa is facing in the global competition. The conference is organized by the African Union (AU), the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and TCI-The Competitiveness Institute
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As part of the celebration of the Carl Linnaeus 300 year anniversary The Competitiveness Institute - TCI has been co-organizer of the Pan-African Innovation and Cluster Competitiveness Symposium in Cape Town, September 17-18. The aim was to enhance the efficiency of social economic activities financed by aid organizations, with business on commercial conditions. At the symposium representatives from 10 African countries as well as the African Union attended and discussed actions needed encourage new initiatives on cluster initiatives for poverty reduction and regional developments.

On April 25, competitiveness stakeholders in Ethiopia, Ghana, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda convened with representatives from AU, UNIDO, USAID and JICA at a TCI organized forum in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The purpose was to, after having presented the achievements of a number of cluster-based competitiveness initiatives in Africa, discuss further development of the Pan Africa Competitiveness Forum (PACF) as an instrument for accelerated industrialization, value addition in production and increased trade competitiveness in Africa.

A feasibility study - sponsored by SPEED Ghana (GTZ/Danida) carried out by Innogate Inc (Thomas Winther, TCI Commissioner West Africa) in collaboration with The Danida Centre, University of Ghana Business School recommends that innovation and competitiveness is encouraged through active facilitation in the following three emerging clusters in Ghana:

At the Annual Conference in Lyon 2006, cluster practitioners and other stakeholders from business, academia, government and development partners in 8 African countries took the first steps towards "The Pan-African Competitiveness Forum", a collaborative platform for exchange of experiences and mutual learning on cluster initiatives. With the mission to improve living standards and local competitiveness of regions across the world by further development of national and regional cluster initiatives, TCI is committed to work for the implementation of the following agenda during the period of 2007-09.

Initial list of Members of the Pan-African Competitiveness Forum: