The African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) convened the 9^th edition of the Africa Think Tank Summit on November 8 to 10, 2023 in Lusaka, Zambia. The summit tagged Linking Evidence, Policies, and Practice to Contribute to the Implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement”, provided a platform for participants to share ideas and experiences and devise implementable recommendations on what works and what needs to change in Africa’s approach to implementing the AfCFTA.

CSEA’s Executive Director, Dr Chukwuka Onyekwena, joined other other stakeholders, including policy makers, private sector representatives, researchers, civil society organizations executives, and development practitioners at this meeting, to share ideas and experiences on the various interventions around AfCFTA implementation and offer concrete recommendations.

CSEA participated at the conference on "Social Protection and Economic Uncertainties in Fragile and Conflict-Affected Societies." The event was organized by the Conflict Research Network West Africa (CORN) in partnership with the Institute of Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR), Abuja, Nigeria, from November 8th to 9th, 2023.

 In collaboration with our partner, development Research and Projects Centre (dRPC) represented by Dr. Turnwait Michael, CSEA Researcher, Fidelis Obaniyi presented a paper titled "Poverty Dynamics Amidst Complex Crises and Social Assistance in Nigeria”,and participated as a Panelist in a session titled "Outcomes of Social Protection Programmes: Focus on the Better Assistance in Crisis (BASIC) Project in Nigeria”.

The event provided a platform for participants including conference included scholars, researchers, and policy analysts from universities, think tanks, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones, examined the links between social protection programmes and efforts of peacebuilding, conflict management, and reduction of insecurity in Nigeria.

Papers at the conference examined how these social protection programmes, such as conditional cash transfers, school feeding programmes, COVID-19 palliatives, support for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPS) in Nigeria, youth empowerment programmes, have fared in practice.

CSEA Head of Communications, Drusilla David and Research Associate, Chinedu Ifionu, participated in a two-day strategic consultation on "Advancing Data and AI Competency for Effective and Trustworthy Decision Making in Sub Saharan Africa", organised by the Data for Policy and hosted by the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) from October 25 to 26, 2023 in Accra, Ghana.

The strategic consultation consisted of multidisciplinary and cross-sector exchanges, analysis, and networking structured around discussion panels. It involved about 30 thought leaders from various African countries in Anglophone and Francophone West Africa.

The meeting provided a forum for participants to share critical knowledge and perspectives that can aid in the development of a sustainable model and an inclusive platform that will help improve Africa's connectivity and contribution to global policy for data science and Artificial intelligence.

CSEA’s Executive Director, Dr Chukwuka Onyekwena and Director of Research, Dr Adedeji Adeniran attended the Southern Voice Conference 2023 with the theme “Driving the next Decade of Sustainable Development”, on October 24 and 25 in Nairobi, Kenya.

The event brought together leaders of Southern Voice think tanks and key partners to reflect on the network’s impact on global development and chart the course for the next decade of Southern development.

Dr Onyekwena was a panelist in the session titled 'On the road to 2030- shaping our future'. The conference concluded the Southern Voice Network 10th year anniversary celebrations.  

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CSEA’s Executive Director, Dr Chukwuka Onyekwena participated in the Forum on China-Africa Digital Capacity Building Cooperation in Beijing, China which was held on October 19, 2023.

The forum provided a platform for participants from African countries and China to discuss strategies for digital cooperation.

Dr Chukwuka’s presentation focused on "The Capacities Required for the Development of the Digital Economy in Africa”.

Check out our report which examines the emerging trends in Africa’s digital and data environment.