Development Policy Management Forum (DPMF)

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