Many African countries have taken important steps in recent years to improve their governance, but further concrete measures are needed to enhance the prospects for sustainable development, participants agreed at the first annual Africa Governance Forum, held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on 11-12 July 1997. "In Africa, as elsewhere in the world, good governance fosters social and economic progress, which, in turn, helps sustain good governance," Mr. K.Y. Amoako, Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), told the gathering, summarizing the "underlying philosophy" of the UN System-wide Special Initiative on Africa. While emphasizing the sharing of experiences among the 14 African countries that presented official reports on their governance programmes, the forum also promoted dialogue with representatives from donor, UN and other international partners.
Over past decades, Africans have paid a high price for the absence of good governance in many parts of the continent, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan pointed out in his message to the forum. But today, he said, "We are witnessing ... a new wave of progress in Africa, based on peace, democracy, human rights and sustainable development. Together, these four principles form the pillars of good governance." And they must rest on a popular mandate, he added. "The will of the people must be the basis of governmental authority in Africa, and governments, duly elected, must not be overthrown by force. That is the foundation of democracy. That is the foundation of good governance."
Photo : UN / P. Sudhakaran
Co-sponsored by the ECA and the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the forum was held within the context of the Special Initiative, whose governance component focuses on three areas: expanding capacities for transparent, responsible and effective governance; strengthening the role of civil society in development, including peace-building; and bolstering the capacity of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) for peace-building, conflict resolution and national reconciliation. UNDP and ECA, which are the lead agencies for this component of the Special Initiative, have been seeking to generate more resources and better coordinate UN and other international assistance for good governance programmes in Africa.
- Salim Ahmed Salim, OAU Secretary-General
Issues of government capacity and effectiveness have been a concern in Africa for some time, Senegalese President Abdou Diouf noted at a November 1996 international symposium held in Dakar, Senegal. But it has been only in recent years that a "virtually organic link" has been recognized between good governance and sustainable development. He hailed the UN Special Initiative, launched in March of that year, for according good governance a "prominent place among its priority preoccupations for assuring the continent's development."
Although the first forum in Addis Ababa covered a wide range of governance topics -- including decentralization, civil society empowerment, human rights, electoral and judicial reform, and public administration -- participants recommended that the subsequent annual forums focus more tightly on selected issues. The second forum, expected to take place in Accra, Ghana, in June, therefore will concentrate on accountability and transparency in government and public service.
Many governance issues were considered "taboo" in much of Africa until recently, UNDP Administrator James Gustave Speth observed at the Addis Ababa forum. But with the wave of democratization, which in a number of countries replaced military and one-party regimes with multi-party systems and increased the influence of civil organizations, these issues now can be discussed more openly. Even more, as the deliberations at the forum highlighted, a broad consensus about the main elements of good governance has been forged. Among other aspects, there was agreement among forum participants that:
But general agreement on how to achieve good governance has been slower to emerge. Specifically on democracy, for example, "The issue now in Africa is not whether to democratize, but how, how soon and in what form," Mr. Amoako observed at a 1 December 1997 conference on "Democracy, Civil Society and Governance in Africa," also held in Addis Ababa.
During the Africa Governance Forum last July, a lively debate took place on governance and conditionality, the practice whereby donors insist on specific measures in exchange for their aid. Many African participants stressed the importance of African "ownership" of governance programmes. "Our African countries," said OAU Secretary-General Salim Ahmed Salim, "are entitled to determine the application of democratic government on the basis of their socio-cultural values, taking into account their specific realities.... While there are universal values which are the common heritage of humanity, there are no ready-made recipes for democracy and governance. Each society should generate its home-grown modalities for forging ahead in democracy."
In similar terms, Mr. Amoako said at the December conference that governance reforms "cannot be imported wholesale.... To be effective, they must become a 'lived' experience rather than a 'received' experience. Only in this way will the reform process earn sustained commitment and effective political leadership."
National ownership of governance programmes is also a key goal of the Special Initiative. That is one reason why the Initiative's governance component, unlike other international approaches to this issue, focuses less on broad principles than on concrete ways to transform those principles into programmes, policies and actions, based on African countries' own national experiences and on active participation from civil society organizations.
National programmesThe main sessions of the forum were devoted to considering the national programmes and experiences of 14 countries: Botswana, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique, Senegal, South Africa, Swaziland, Togo and Uganda (another 22 African countries sent observers, but did not present reports). Several main themes emerged from the deliberations.
Ghana, Mali, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda placed a particular emphasis on the importance of decentralization and local government institutions, with the aim of bringing state administration closer to the people. South Africa's new constitution, following its transition from apartheid minority rule, provides for three distinct but interdependent spheres of government: national, provincial and local. There are mechanisms for airing differences over policy issues among the three spheres, as well as for building up the capacities of provincial and local government authorities.
Uganda's constitution sharply reduces the power of central government appointees in the districts and gives local councils enhanced legal status and discretionary control over recurrent and development budget funds, with the additional role of facilitating community and private sector involvement in the planning and delivery of services. Uganda's report emphasized that this course was designed to overcome some of the common weaknesses of "decentralization" policies in Africa, which often lead simply to greater penetration by central government power into local affairs or allow a shedding of responsibilities without a commensurate transfer of resources or powers.
Several countries, including Ethiopia and Mozambique, discussed the importance of pursuing electoral and parliamentary reforms, beyond the establishment of multiparty electoral systems, to ensure more extensive and effective political activity among the population. In Mozambique, this process is linked to national reconstruction following a long and debilitating civil war, featuring both expanded social programmes and efforts to instill greater trust and solidarity among the people.
In Ethiopia, which has adopted a federal structure, the political system provides not only for multiparty elections at the national level, but also for local and regional councils "defined on the basis of nationality." There was a consensus among participants, however, that it is critical to ensure that decentralization does not reinforce ethnic divisions.
Constitutional and judicial reforms and the protection of human rights also figured as major concerns in a number of reports, including those of Malawi and Madagascar. Botswana, which has a longer experience with democratic governance than most other African countries, pointed to the constructive use of traditional institutions and practices, such as its own kgotla consultative assemblies, and to the importance of an independent judiciary, competent civil service and autonomous auditor-general's office.
Among other issues, Cameroon, Togo and Mauritius emphasized modernization of public administration, especially for socio-economic management. To achieve sustainable human development, Senegal stressed, the government needs a modern public administration governed by rules of efficiency and productivity, so that it can promote private sector development and provide high-quality services.
During the first African Governance Forum in Addis Ababa, representatives of non-governmental and civil society organizations, as well as countries that could claim successful experience with good governance practices, argued for focusing more specifically on issues of accountability and transparency. Accordingly, the second forum in Accra will feature that theme as the sole agenda item.
UNDP defines accountability as the ability to hold public officials and their representatives to a standard of conduct that is clearly in the public interest. This requires rules of conduct that are transparent, straightforward and broadly accepted in society, as well as administrative and legal processes to discipline or remove officials who do not respect such rules.
Weak accountability mechanisms, Senegal's President Diouf noted at the symposium in Dakar, tend to facilitate corruption and other abuses of office and thereby undermine governance more generally. While arguing that African leaders must shoulder responsibility for corruption in the continent and "take necessary measures against illicit enrichment," he also stressed that corruption is a global phenomenon. Actions that foster and promote corruption, for example by multinational corporations and other entities in the industrialized countries, also must be curbed.
Within the context of the UN Special Initiative on Africa, both UNDP and ECA have been seeking to better target and coordinate their work on governance. UNDP currently devotes 39 per cent of its resources to governance issues, with the bulk going to Africa. It has established a Special Initiative on Governance in Africa, which supports capacity-building for governments and civil society, building on past and ongoing governance efforts. The ECA places particular emphasis on strengthening the organizational, institutional and networking capacity of African NGOs/CSOs; fostering dialogue between governments and CSOs; building CSOs' capacity for conflict prevention, peace-building and the promotion of democratic pluralism; and supporting sub-regional conflict-management centres.
In line with the Special Initiative's emphasis on achieving synergies with other organizations and efforts, these lead agencies of the Initiative's governance component have been seeking a more healthy collaboration and effective coordination with the World Bank, Global Coalition for Africa, OAU, Commonwealth Secretariat and others pursuing governance programmes in Africa.
UNDP, for example, has identified civil service reform and capacity-building assessments as two areas of collaboration with the World Bank. Switzerland has agreed to support the second Africa Governance Forum in Accra, and UNDP is seeking closer partnership with the European Commission's governance programme in Africa. UNDP also has agreed to a request by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to take the lead in coordinating a participatory development and good governance exercise in Mauritania, in preparation for a workshop on effective partnerships for governance slated to take place in Mali in April 1998.
To provide donor institutions with more comprehensive information about existing governance activities in Africa -- and to help African countries better share experiences among themselves -- UNDP is compiling a compendium of governance programmes in the continent. The inventory will begin with the 14 countries that presented reports to the first Africa Governance Forum in Addis Ababa.
**Box 1**
Running like a thread through many of the national reports presented to the July 1997 Africa Governance Forum was the centrality of civil society empowerment. Swaziland's governance programme, for example, aims to facilitate a new constitutional arrangement that incorporates the empowerment of civil society, social integration and the efficient management of public resources. Ghana stressed its commitment to promoting the involvement of civil society in the development process, using participatory and bottom-up approaches; its decentralization policy provides for the devolution of power and resources to local authorities and their communities.
A few weeks before the forum, some 40 non-governmental and civil society organizations (NGOs/CSOs) from around the continent, including women's, grassroots and labour organizations, as well as churches, research institutes and policy advocacy groups, attended a two-day consultation on governance in Addis Ababa. They drafted, debated and approved a statement which stressed that good governance is a process by which "governments and people together" identify shared values, needs and challenges, set priorities and develop programmes to address them. The statement suggested ways to strengthen good governance in Africa, with special emphases on gender equity and partnerships with civil society.
The statement was presented to the governance forum, and several of the NGO and CSO representatives attended and contributed their views. Recognizing the importance of furthering NGO and CSO involvement in such governance discussions, and in implementation of the UN Special Initiative more generally, it was decided that for the second governance forum in Accra, a number of NGOs/CSOs would be invited directly.
Speaking at a November 1996 symposium in Dakar, Senegalese President Abdou Diouf stressed that any governance programme must seek to strength civil society, an "emerging economic and political actor" in Africa. "Its eruption onto the social and political field is a fact which all strategies of good governance must take into account," he said.
One of the most crucial questions, ECA Executive Secretary K.Y. Amoako argued at a December 1997 conference on democracy, civil society and governance, is "whether civil society in Africa is equipped to play the key role in bringing about good governance that is expected." Whatever shortcomings it may currently have, he added, it is nevertheless clear that "civil society is booming in Africa, and is already having an impact on democracy and governance. This positive role needs to be strengthened."
**Box 2**
Greater access to information and improved communication among different sectors of the population are vital for building a culture of peace in Africa, argues the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Within the framework of the UN System-wide Special Initiative on Africa, UNESCO is playing the lead role in a "Communications for Peace-building" project which aims to use various communications media to disseminate relevant information and education. The five-year, $8 mn project, which is expected to be launched this year, will focus initially on a dozen African countries that are in the midst of conflict, are trying to recover from the legacy of recent conflict, or are experiencing serious tensions that may lead to conflict.
For peace to prevail, strategies must be developed to address the causes of conflict, said Ms. Josephine Ouédraogo, Director of the UN Economic Commission for Africa's African Centre for Women, at a 23-25 June 1997 regional consultative meeting in Addis Ababa on the project. Any programme for peace, she added, must include three components: shared economic development, confidence building in the political system, and education for mutual understanding.
Mr. Mamadi Condé, Director of the UNESCO office in Addis Ababa, noted that while his agency was already promoting the role of communications in peace-building, the Special Initiative's innovation was to pursue an integrated approach, drawing on the experiences of a wide range of organizations. Participating in the meeting, for example, were not only UN agencies and the World Bank, but also the Union of National Radio and Television Organizations of Africa, the West African Journalists' Association, and several African media institutes and non-governmental organizations.
UNESCO has observed that while the causes of conflict are numerous -- including economic and social disparities, differences over governance or problems of identity or religion -- these often are exacerbated by insufficient information, education, knowledge of others' cultures, or awareness of basic rights and responsibilities. The Communications for Peace-building project aims to help lessen such shortcomings by strengthening the skills and technical capacities of independent and public-service media institutions, especially in rural communities, to better provide their audiences with news and information related to peace, tolerance, gender equality, good governance and respect for human rights.
Because newspapers and magazines generally have a small and largely urban-based readership, radio is currently the most widespread and useful modern medium for social and political development in Africa. While the project will also target other media, it will place a special emphasis on supporting radio broadcasting. Using participatory approaches, messages and programmes will be produced locally, addressing issues mainly selected and elaborated by media professionals in the project countries.
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