In 2010, Africa Governance Institute has fully committed its programme activity, launched with the Inaugural Workshop held on 3-4 November 2009. This success is to be congratulated and extended especially in these times when it is imperative that Africans reappropriate for themselves the terms for their development.

1/. The multi-sectoral crises and the institutional fragilities that are currently shaking up the Continent, confirm that change becomes imperative. Increasing inequalities, chronic food insecurity, climate change, political and institutional instability, protracted conflicts and proven violence towards citizens who only seek to exercise their rights are the signs of the major changes that are underway. The impact of these situations is amplified by the fact that until now, governance models and strategies applied in Africa have mainly been imported, and don’t take into account the ownership. Fifty (50) years after their independence, most African countries (despite their considerable wealth) live this development as an unreachable horizon and not as a feasible perspective.

2/. AGI is trying to create the political conditions and collect the intellectual base in order to respond to this challenge, as part of its three-year programme of activities, by:

• Developing and promoting an innovative vision of governance;
• Managing the resources and the collective intelligence on governance through its website, its electronic documentation center and various appropriate tools.
• Developing and strengthening capacity of individuals and African institutions (in particular, the African Union, APRM and Regional Economic Communities) in governance;
• Offering a framework for collaboration, coordination and networking of activities, institutes, centers and other stakeholders of governance in Africa.

AGI’s added value is that it will strive to combine the functions of a forum for exchange and source of information, as well as that of a mechanism for strengthening and rebuilding capacity for developmental governance in Africa.

This innovative concept emphasizes on a shared approach, proactive and not simply reactive as in the previous sense of “good governance”. The Annual Lectures held in 2010 have already highlighted a number of requirements for an emerging Africa, whose well being of citizens must be the constant preoccupation of the leaders: the need for strong institutions that respect human rights at all levels of governance (local, national, regional, continental); connection between reflection and action, the duty of memory, the need to anticipate, the wisdom and responsibility (ethics) of stakeholders.

3/. To contribute in taking up the challenges linked to promoting developmental governance in Africa, AGI’s strengths are: its continental positioning, which gives it the possibility of having an objective look at what constitutes the diversity of States and societies, as well as what Africans have in common, and the involvement of a wide diversity of stakeholders who act at all levels of governance on the continent. These strengths should enable it to correct the foibles of not very technocratic approaches, which still characterize discussion and prevailing approaches, thus linking them to the experience, expectations and aspirations of all protagonists involved in building modern African societies.

4/. Finally, for its sustainability and in order to escape one of the many African paradoxes, AGI, once it has constructed an African agenda, should endeavor more than ever to mobilize African funding. Africa cannot continue to have its future financed and so inevitably its dreams by others and this, despite its strong desire and commitment to the continent. Governments, large companies and organizations and foundations involved in governance at continental level, often themselves victims of wars and social crises, or who think simply that bad governance is the sore that impedes managing state affairs, should contribute to finding solutions to what nowadays seem a failure of the continent. AGI for its survival should in the coming three years, strive to define and implement a strategy for mobilizing financial resources, especially within the continent itself.