ABOUT US

| DPMF BOARD | | DPMF STAFF | | DPMF DIRECTOR |

         

        Brochure in PDF

        1. Mission & Goals of DPMF
        2. DPMF's Constituencies
        3. Membership
        4. Program Focus
        5. DPMF Governance
        6. Funding
        7. DPMF's Management Board
        8. Office Location

1. Mission & Goals of DPMF

DPMF's fundamental objective is to deepen and institutionalize democratic governance in African countries. Its constituency combines three major categories

(a) policy makers and managers
(b) civil society leaders
(c) researchers

each with its own perspective of the challenges, opportunities and constraints of governance in African countries. By bringing these three categories together to interface and to discuss issues central and critical to democratic governance, perspectives and experiences are exchanged and consequently leading to deeper understanding of the complexity of democratic governance and its evolution in African countries. Hence capacity at a more substantive level is thus enhanced amongst the three categories. This capacity goes beyond mere understanding. It includes discussions of strategies and policy options for deepening participatory democratic governance as well as linking grass root CSO leadership to the policy making process

Another dimension of DPMF's approach is its focus on the sub-regional arena to foster regional integration as well as stressing the comparative aspects of on-going socio-economic and political processes at the national/country level. Hence most of the DPMF activities involve the three categories listed above and take place at the sub-regional level. This means that our constituency cuts across the neat categories normally associated with other major CSOs for example advocacy CSOs focusing on Governments, development CSOs focusing on local communities, or major CSOs focusing only on researchers such as CODESRIA, OSSREA etc. DPMF's constituency is therefore composed of stakeholders with different perspectives and stake in the process of democratization. It is a more complex and challenging constituency. And given its sub-regional focus, DPMF's approach emphasizes regional integration and the future rather than the constraints and pessimism of the past.

All DPMF activities aim at deepening democratic governance in African countries. These activities are clustered around the following areas: -

i. Comparative Research

ii. Policy Analysis of Critical Issues

iii. Sub-regional Capacity building and Sensitization Workshops

iv. Annual General Policy Conference

Back to top

2. DPMF's Constituencies

  • Senior and mid-level civil servants, politicians, parliamentarians, members of the judiciary, local governments, etc.;
  • The leadership of Civil Society Organizations and NGOs concerned with or involved in the institutionalization of democratic governance and the post-conflict reconstruction process;
  • Leaders and trainers of national Development Institutes (DMIs) and Public Administration Institutes (PAIs);
  • Researchers specializing in democratic governance and peacebuilding.

3. Membership

Membership of DPMF is open to individuals and institutions from the above constituencies. Annual membership fees are US $25 for individuals, and US $100 for institutions. Life membership fees are US $500 for individuals, and US $1000 for institutions.

Back to top

4. Program Focus

The DPMF's Programs focus on the following five core activities.

Collaborative and Creative Workshops

  1. Sensitization workshops for senior policy managers from the sub-regional organizations in order to deepen the process of regional integration. Major workshop themes are:
    • Regional integration;
    • Democratic governance;
    • Civil service reforms;
    • Management of internal conflicts and peacebuilding;
    • Strategic thinking and preparation for the future.
  2. Workshops aimed at developing, with policy makers/implementers and civil society leaders, strategies, policies and practical programs for consolidating sustainable peace in post-conflict communities.

    Annual General Policy Conference

This is a pan-African conference organized by DPMF either independently or jointly with a major research network to provide a forum for dialogue between policymakers and researchers on critical topics such as conflict, democratization, regional integration, and development strategies.

Comparative Research

The DPMF research program aims at enhancing the capacity of policymakers and civil society by generating for their use research-based information focusing on the following themes:

  1. Civil Service and Democratic Governance
  2. Conflict and Peacebuilding
  3. Regional Integration
  4. Civil Society and Leadership

Building Networks

In order to build the capacity of various stakeholders and actors to enhance the democratization process, deepen regional integration, and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of development policy management, the DPMF has been facilitating the creation of various networks of civil society groups and DMIs/PAIs.

One such initiative undertaken by DPMF is the forging of active cooperation within and among civil society organizations and research institutes for monitoring and advocacy of democratic governance in the process of deepening regional integration in Africa .

Another initiative is the launch of African Development Management Institutes Network (ADMIN), which is aimed at facilitating exchange of information and experience and the pooling of resources for developing dynamic curricula which will enhance training of civil servants in good governance as well as in critical contemporary issues such as conflict management, peacebuilding, regional integration and strategic thinking.

A third major initiative is the formation of National Policy Forums, which are designed to provide open and democratic platform for policy dialogue between policymakers and civil society groups.

Publication and Information Dissemination

The dissemination of good practices in governance, research findings, and/or basic data and information, through various types of publication, is an integral part of DPMF's program of consolidating and institutionalizing democratic governance. DPMF carries out this important activity of raising knowledge level and consciousness through its various publications and through the generation of databases.

DPMF regularly produces the following types of publications:

  1. Books
  2. DPMF Bulletin (tri-annual)
  3. Policy Briefs
  4. Occasional Papers
  5. Workshop Reports and Conference Proceedings
  6. Roster of African experts in Development Management
  7. DPMF e-News Forum (online newsletter)

In addition, DPMF's website (http://www.dpmf.org) provides regularly updated information about the activities of the organization and full-text documents of its publications except books.

Back to top

5. DPMF Governance

The DPMF has two Governance Bodies:

  1. A General Assembly of DPMF which is made up of all its members and which elects the DPMF Board. The General Assembly meets every two years.
  2. The DPMF Board. It consists of eight elected members including a representative of the host institute (the UNECA) and the Executive Director who is a non-voting member and a secretary of the Board. The Board meets once a year (first week of December with the Annual Conference) and when necessary meets twice a year.
  3. The third organ of DPMF is its Secretariat headed by the Executive Director. The Secretariat conducts the day to day running of DPMF activities.

    DPMF has a fulltime accountant and an external auditor appointed by the Board. Two audits of DPMF accounts are done annually. The first covers the period 1st January up to 30th October. This audited account is presented to the Board, which meets on first week of December. The second auditing is done on 31st December to cover the period of 1st January to 31st December. The audited accounts are then presented to the donors and the Board.

Back to top

6. Funding

The financial contribution to DPMF's operational and program costs has come from DMV/VG of The Netherlands Government, Ford Foundation, SIDA, and IDRC.

Back to top

7. DPMF's Management Board

  • Dr. Sadig Rasheed, Chairman, DPMF and Director, Program Division, UNICEF, New York , USA
  • Dr. Frene Ginwala, Speaker of the National Assembly, Republic of South Africa
  • Prof. Ali Mazrui, Director, Institute of Global Cultural Studies, SUNY Binghamton , USA
  • Prof. Abdoulaye Bathily, Minister of Urbanization and Water, Dakar , Senegal
  • Mr. Jean-Marie Atangana Mebara, Minister of Higher Education , Cameroon
  • Ms. Turkia Ould Daddah, Commissioner, International Civil Service Commission, Mauritania
  • Dr. Hope C. Sadza, Chairperson, Women's University in Africa, Educational Services Center , Harare , Zimbabwe
  • Prof. Haroub Othman, Institute of Development Studies, University of Dar es Salaam , Dar es Salaam , Tanzania
  • Prof. Abdalla Bujra (Secretary of the Board and Executive Director of DPMF)

Back to top


8. Office Location

Headquarters - Addis Ababa , Ethiopia

DPMF's Addis Ababa 's office is located at the compound of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) in Addis Ababa , Ethiopia , where it is hosted.

Contact Address

Executive Director, Development Policy Management Forum (DPMF)

C/O UNECA P.O. Box 3001

Addis Ababa , Ethiopia

Phone: +251 11 5515410/ 5443197

Fax: +251 11 5515410/5514416

Email: dpmf@uneca.org or ABujra@uneca.org

DPMF Nairobi Office

DPMF's Nairobi Office is hosted by the African Centre for Economic Growth (ACEG), which is located on Parklands Road, Opposite Holiday in Westlands, Nairobi , Kenya.

Contact Address:

Executive Director, Development Policy Management Forum (DPMF)

P.O. Box 1559-00606

Nairobi , Kenya

Phone: +254 20 3754542/ 3751131

Mobile (Off): +254 727 823858

Fax: (+254) 20 3754541

Email: dpmf.nairobi@dpmf.org

Back to top