"The Foundation would rather the Dialogue be known for the quality of its arguments than for the seniority of its guest list, though it expects to attract both."
The Okotokata Dialogue is an annual, invitation-anchored convening held in Accra over two working days in the second half of each year. It will bring together roughly one hundred and fifty participants drawn from African finance ministries and central banks, African and Chinese universities and research institutes, bilateral and multilateral development finance institutions, contractors and private operators, journalists, and the Foundation's own scholarship holders.
It is deliberately mid-sized. A gathering of four hundred people becomes a stage; a gathering of thirty becomes a private club. At one hundred and fifty, in a venue with one plenary hall and three side rooms, participants can reasonably expect to speak to anyone present over the course of two days, which is the point.
It is also deliberately unglamorous in form. There is no negotiated communiqué, no signing ceremony, and no ministerial procession. Papers are circulated six weeks in advance and every paper has a discussant who has read it. Two of the sessions are closed and operate under the Chatham House rule. The Foundation would rather the Dialogue be known for the quality of its arguments than for the seniority of its guest list, though it expects to attract both.
African finance ministries & central banks
African & Chinese universities and research institutes
Bilateral & multilateral development finance institutions
Contractors & private operators
Journalists
The Foundation's own scholarship holders
African finance ministries & central banks
African & Chinese universities and research institutes
Bilateral & multilateral development finance institutions
Contractors & private operators
Journalists
The Foundation's own scholarship holders
A gathering of thirty becomes a private club.
One plenary hall, three side rooms — everyone within reach over two days.
A gathering of four hundred people becomes a stage.
At one hundred and fifty, in a venue with one plenary hall and three side rooms, participants can reasonably expect to speak to anyone present over the course of two days.
No stage-and-audience arrangement, no overflow room watching on a screen — a footprint small enough that every conversation in the building is, in principle, reachable.
Convened by the ODA Foundation's Research Centre as the annual meeting point of its intellectual and scholarship tracks.