The world economy has changed significantly in recent times. With greater financial globalisation,
there emerged a mistaken perception that ‘fathomless’ capital was a pattern of this ‘new world’. It
soon became apparent that the recent financial crisis was a result of fragility in the financial system –
in turn a product of limited/lack of transparency in the system. There has been limited understanding
as to how the financial markets work – not only in the developing world where skills are in short
supply – but more importantly by officials in the United States of America (US), European Union (EU)
and Japan despite the fact that these blocks form 80% of global gross domestic product (GDP).Many
EU countries have arguably remained highly uncompetitive and not ready to deal with the
consequences of the global economic downturn. For policy relevance to exist, countries need to
take reforms however painful they may be socio-economically. The paper sheds light on the
implications for capacity building/development in Africa given the realities of the New Economic
World order – especially new finance regulation issues, new international competition, crisis exit
strategies and future technologies. The paper also draws possible roles that can be played by
capacity building institutions such as the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) by
highlighting four major areas: (a) how the Foundation sources new ideas for capacity development;
(b) what approaches to use for resource mobilization and partnerships; (c)howbest to organize the
work of the Foundation in knowledge sharing; and (d) what aspects need to shift in the operational
programs of the Foundation to handle emerging issues. The paper concludes that Africa needs to
develop capacity to respond to shocks effectively.
