Training Sessions & Capacity Building Workshops
Session Overview
The afternoon slot on Day 2 is given over to five parallel hands-on workshops. Prof. Tendai Mhaka anchors the policy-analysis tooling track and Dr. Sadiq Abubakar the data-infrastructure track. The remaining three workshops are run by ACBF training partners drawn from the African School of Regulation and the African Economic Research Consortium.
Content is organised by skill rather than by topic: policy memo structuring, evidence synthesis under time pressure, public-finance modelling, qualitative-data infrastructure for think tanks, and the convening skills required to host high-stakes ministerial dialogues.
Each workshop is capped at 25 delegates and runs as a single ninety-minute session — the format is closer to a graduate seminar than to a conference panel. Materials and follow-up exercises are sent to all participants in the two weeks after the Summit.
Key Topics
- Policy memo structuring under time pressure
- Evidence synthesis for ministerial briefings
- Public-finance and tariff modelling tooling
- Convening high-stakes dialogues — facilitation craft
Speaker
Prof. Tendai Mhaka
Director of Policy, Zimbabwe Policy Institute
Prof. Tendai Mhaka directs policy research at the Zimbabwe Policy Institute, where she leads programmes on public-sector governance, land reform, and decentralisation. Her work informs SADC's land-tenure policy dialogue and Zimbabwe's public-administration reform programme.
Dr. Sadiq Abubakar
Commissioner, AU Knowledge Commission
Dr. Sadiq Abubakar serves as Commissioner of the AU Knowledge Commission, where he leads continental work on research networks, knowledge management, and capacity building for African policy institutions. He coordinates the AU's flagship Think Tank Strengthening Programme.