In order to mark his mandate at the head of the Pan-African Intergovernmental Organization with an indelible imprint and to contribute to the intellectual transformation of Africa that will induce all transformations, Dr. Coffi Dieudonné ASSOUVI, new Director General of CAFRAD, is committed to building training programs of high international standing. It is in this prospect that, accompanied by one of his collaborators, he participated from January 22 to 25, 2025 in Marrakech (Kingdom of Morocco) in the symposium on the implementation methods of the Certified Public Management (CPM) or public management certificate from Texas State University in the United States of America, one of the best training programs of the world’s leading power. He intends to Africanize this excellent quality and world-renowned American program to enable Africans, even those who do not have the financial means, to access training administered in the United States of America, Europe and elsewhere without too much hassle or discouraging expenses. In doing so, Africa will have the best skills to build itself and to constitute a dynamic force on the international scene in accordance with the African Union Vision 2063.

January 23-24, 2025 – CAFRAD participated in the 2-day high-level symposium organized by the William P. Hobby Center for Public Service at Texas State University and the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA), on how to build and sustain an international professional and educational program called the Certificate of Public Management (CPM) for universities and organizations.

The symposium focused on the modalities and especially on the content and possible adaptations of the program to the African context in order to train the leaders of a new generation. It presented the valuable lessons learned from the 25 years of experience of implementing the program by Professor Howard Balanoff at the Texas State University, as well as innovative modules led by guest speakers who delivered high-level presentations on themes that respond to the current challenges of African public administrations, such as strategic leadership, transformational and resilient leadership, the human being, actor of reforms, transformations and global performance, the development of soft skills or the use of artificial intelligence in the administrative management.

Through this 2-day training, CAFRAD has set itself the objective of being the pioneer of this initiative, working in good intelligence with Prof. Balanoff, Prof. Mekkaoui and Prof. Zemrani, all speakers in the program in the United States, as well as with the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA), the American Association of Public Administration (AAPA), the Texas International Education Consortium (TIEC) and the William P. Hobby Center for Public Service, for the implementation of the CPM in Africa in order to make available to Member States the best training practices currently taught in American universities, while adapting them to the African administration models and the needs of our societies.

CAFRAD is already working with experts from this major project to offer on the African continent an adapted version of the Certified Public Management Program. This is a public management program accredited in the United States that is aimed at civil servants, middle managers, as well as aspiring civil servants from federal, state and local government agencies. It offers systematic training in 7 modules in sequence taught over 14 months, and which aim to improve the professionalism and increase the efficiency of government managers. By enrolling in this professional program, participants will be able to acquire practical experience, a better command of innovative standards, methods and tools, as well as learn the best practices to adopt and apply to the development of organizational or development strategies in their management systems.

In a context of profound changes, skills development is a lever of performance to meet many challenges. Thus, CAFRAD, to demonstrate its relevance within African organizations, is positioning itself to help member states find the best training that meets their questions of adaptation, employability or transformation of management methods. CAFRAD is the leader of the transformation of Africa.

The official launch of the CPM will be announced not only on the CAFRAD website but also through all possible channels in order to ensure wide dissemination of this important continental initiative.