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Africa: UN-NADAF NGO Statement
Any links to other sites in this file from 1996 are not clickable,
given the difficulty in maintaining up-to-date links in old files.
However, we hope they may still provide leads for your research.
Africa: UN-NADAF NGO Statement
Date Distributed (ymd): 960921
Background Paper Number 5, NGO Forum, UN-NADAF Mid Term
Review, September 13-14, 1996
AFRICAN NGO NETWORKS CAUCUS
Harare, August 1996
STATEMENT
From the African NGO Networks Caucus on the challenges to
African development, the African development vision and the
role of African institutions
From 5-8 August 1996, 25 African networks met in Harare to
discuss their role in asserting the agendas, priorities and
concerns of African civil society organisations (CSOs) in
African and international institutions. The meeting and its
results are a clear indication that civil society
organisations in Africa will no longer accept to be
marginalised; that we have started to organise ourselves in
order to ensure that this does not happen; and that we intend
to assume our responsibilities as committed Africans towards
improving the conditions of all the peoples of our continent.
Against this background, we have made the following
conclusions and commitments.
1. The challenges to African development and the African
development vision
The African continent continues to be marginalised in the new
world order. It remains characterised on the international
scene as a basket case, stricken with unresolvable poverty,
conflict and debt. At the same time, the shaping of
development policy, practice and pace is driven by the
interests of TransNational Corporations and dominated by new
instruments of global governance such as the World Trade
Organisation and the International Financial Institutions.
These are dominated by the North at the expense of Africa's
voice. The international community lacks the moral and
political will to constructively assist Africa with its
dilemmas. It is therefore a matter of grave concern that, in
spite of their best efforts, African institutions have not
adequately played their role in defining an agenda for African
development, in articulating African interests and in
harnessing resources and capacities for action.
At the national level, African governments have excluded
people in the policy and decision making processes. In
particular, women, who are the socio-economic mainstay of the
continent, have been totally marginalised. The exclusion of
the population has blocked the emergence of endogenous
initiatives. This is aggravated by the failure of education
and information systems to nurture positive and creative
thought to address African problems and mobilise local
initiative.
Africa has vast energies and expertise within its civil
society and grassroots people and is endowed with a rich
resource base. To a large extent, these have not been
harnessed because of a crisis of confidence Africans have
themselves about their capabilities. As civil society, we wish
to rebuild that confidence, firstly by restating our vision
for African development in which Africa is able to:
* meet its basic needs in a sustainable and self reliant way
though the optimal use of its abundant human and natural
resources
* engage effectively on the international scene
* determine its own agenda and pace of development with the
participation and to the benefit of its people
2. The importance of the African Regional Institutions and the
state of their relationship with NGOs
It is the view of the African NGO Networks Caucus that strong,
accountable and responsible African institutions (political or
economic) have an important role to play in the resolution of
Africa's current economic, political, social and environmental
crisis. More than ever before, effective leadership of these
institutions is crucial for enhancing Africa's interest in the
globalization process, minimizing its marginalisation and
providing fora for the articulation and promotion of an
African development agenda in juxtaposition to the ones
promoted by outside interests.
There is a widespread scepticism among African citizenry with
regard to the Organisation of African Unity's role to provide
a desirable political and economic vision for Africa. OAU's
achievement in the realm of political liberalisation and
independence needs to be complemented by a new and assertive
role in economic emancipation for Africa. We recognise the
adoption by the OAU Heads of State Summit of the Arusha
Charter for Popular Participation, but observe that the
relations with Africa's civil society organisations are at an
early stage. Only a handful of NGOs have OAU observer status.
While the OAU relates with specific NGOs on sectoral issues,
such as conflict resolution and emergencies, as yet it has no
proper mechanisms for consultation with the African NGOs at
large. Indeed we are concerned by the level of ambivalence
reflected in the OAU resolution referring to NGOs. We commend
the Secretary General's specific effort in peace making as
well as his unreserved willingness to receive NGO proposals on
dialogue and interfacing with the OAU.
The African Development Bank (AfDB) has the potential of
providing leadership for the development of policies aimed at
enhancing local capacities and mobilising local savings as the
principal sources of investment, growth and the equitable
distribution of the wealth thus generated. It could provide a
forum for the nurturing and development of African-based
analysis and ideas on economic policy management, a
responsibility now usurped by the Bretton Woods Institutions.
The AfDB is in the midst of major reform, which it is feared
may lead to a distancing from its initial objective and a
satisfying of interests other than African.
The relationship between the CSOs and the African Development
Bank has been on a stop-go basis, facilitated mainly by the
pressure of Northern NGOs and conditionalities imposed by
Northern donors. Efforts to get the AfDB to develop a
systematic mechanism for information access and dialogue has
been largely unsuccessful, save the invitation of some NGOs to
annual Bank meetings. The AfDB, unlike the World Bank, has no
clear strategies for promoting participation by affected
peoples in Bank projects nor a grievance redress mechanism.
Nevertheless, we believe that there are benefits to be
generated mutually, if an effective interface were to be
developed between the AfDB and the Africa CSOs.
The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) was
established in the spirit of the post-war values of promoting
growth and equity worldwide. Its functions were to provide
crucial technical assistance in policy analysis and
policy-making, provide a platform for the development of
African ideas and initiatives on development and a gateway to
the United Nations body as a whole.
These objectives remain valid, even more so in this age of
globalisation pressures. We are concerned however, that major
reforms within the ECA to salvage its image and define new
roles will put into question its crucial role as an
independent counterweight to the ideas and policies of the
Bretton Woods bodies.
The ECA and NGOs worked very closely in the processes leading
to the Arusha Charter on Popular Participation. These
relations continued in the implementation of the Arusha
Charter. NGOs have also held the African Alternative Framework
for Structural Adjustment Policies (AAFSAP) facilitated by the
ECA in very high regard and held it up as evidence of the
capacity for African input into the debate on economic and
social policy. It is these events that have endeared the ECA
to NGOs and ensured its leadership maintains legitimacy. In
spite of these, the ECA has lacked a systematic mechanism for
consultation with the African NGO collective. However, the
recent reforms and change of leadership are generating major
fears about its future role and the context of a future
relationship with NGOs.
We recall that the OAU and the AfDB were founded on the steam
and enthusiasm of the African peoples in their unity. To
regain their energies, it is necessary for these institutions
to re-establish their links with the African peoples through
their popular organisations, including workers and peasants
organisations, professional organisations, women and youth
movements, and NGOs and their networks. In the view of the
caucus, this analysis is equally applicable to other regional
African institutions.
Caucus Expectations of Future Relationships
With regard to our expectations of future relationships, the
African NGO Networks Caucus agreed that:
a) having seen through the political emancipation of Africa,
the OAU should now focus on Africa's economic emancipation
through promoting platforms for common positions, acting as a
credible mouthpiece for Africa, promoting accountability and
respect for civic and economic rights and by providing
leadership on conflict resolution and peace management. In
respect to this last point, we stress that the OAU can not be
effective in conflict resolution if, on the ground, it is
ineffectual and meaningless in times of peace.
b) the Africa Development Bank should play a key role in
formulating Africa's development agenda and in ensuring that
it is homegrown. It should support and build the capacity of
national and subregional development banks through helping to
mobilise resources, and negotiate long term solutions to
Africa's crippling burden of debt.
c) the Economic Commission for Africa should assist in
providing resources on capacity building to African NGOs,
serve as a channel and a mouthpiece for African civil society
to the United Nations, and relentlessly pursue its mission as
one of the continent's key think tanks on independent
socio-economic policy options for sustainable development.
d) the three institutions should develop ways of enhancing
coordination between them.
4. Caucus commitments for follow up and future action
To contribute to the realisation of the above vision for
African development, the participants of the NGO Networks
Caucus commit themselves:
e) to contribute to redefining development and situate it
within the African context, and to address Africa's
marginalisation with a view to reasserting the voice of the
African continent in the global arena.
f) to mainstream gender in their activities and work to
influence governments to give women their rightful place in
policies and programmes and decision making.
g) to develop mechanisms to make themselves heard and interact
with national governments and regional organisations and
institutions.
h) to take advantage of the human resources resident among
themselves and also increase their capacities to respond to
the challenges identified herein.
I) to lend their full support and collaboration to efforts by
African institutions to promote human sustainable development,
through participatory governance, poverty alleviation,
economic empowerment and conflict management. We consider the
above to be of primary concern to our work, and understand
that this new engagement requires of us democratic,
participatory and transparent approaches in our dealings with
other sectors in civil society, the public at large, and our
institutions and governments.
j) to seek to influence the Institutions' agenda, by providing
information on grassroots views and experiences. To this end,
NGOs will actively seek to widen the scope and give substance
to the observer status accorded to them by the OAU, and ensure
the inclusion of collective NGOs views on the OAU agenda.
k) to develop information access strategies to inform
themselves and the population about the different institutions
through lists of resolutions, calenders of events, current
policy statements and critical analysis and submissions of
resolutions by NGOs.
l) to organise specific lobbying or campaign actions to ensure
ratification of various issues, with particular emphasis on
those relating to the African Charter for Human and People's
rights, and the Arusha Charter on Popular Participation.
m) to promote involvement of civil society by developing a
database of African NGO networks and others and identify
structures that feed into the various bodies.
n) to find innovative ways to mobilise resources locally and
reduce external donor dependency.
It was further resolved:
o) to set up three working groups to work out modalities and
seek ways to interface with the OAU, the AfDB and UNECA.
p) to form a working group which would focus on ways to
overcome communication and capacity constraints for the
purpose of identifying, initiating and coordinating campaigns
and solidarity action around such critical but neglected
issues of interest to Africa as the proposed Multilateral
Agreement on Investment, the debt issue, structural adjustment
and so forth.
Statement endorsed by the undersigned Harare, 8 August 1996
Contact points:
MWENGO Reflection and Development Centre for NGOs in Eastern
and Southern Africa P.O. Box HG817,Highlands, Harare, Zimbabwe
Tel: 263-4-721469 / Fax: 263-4-722363.
IRED Development and Support Service in Eastern and Southern
Africa) P.O. Box CY3, Causeway, Harare, Zimbabwe.
Tel:263-4-796853/Fax: 263-4-722421.
STATEMENT BY THE NGO NETWORKS CAUCUS endorsed by:
Pamela Mhlanga
SOUTHERN AFRICAN HUMAN RIGHTS WORKING GROUP BOTSWANA
Lindiro Kabirigi
PROGRAMME RGIONAL DE FORMATION ET D'CHANGES POUR LE
DVELOPPEMENT (PREFED) BURUNDI
Jacqueline Nkoyok
CONFEDERATION OF ENV. & DEVT NGOS IN CENTRAL AFRICA (CONGAC)
CAMEROUN
Ren Segbenou
INADES-FORMATION COTE D'IVOIRE
Jalal Abdel-Latif
INTER AFRICA GROUP ETHIOPIA
Charles Abugre
THIRD WORLD NETWORK GHANA
Tetteh Hormeku-Ajei
THIRD WORLD NETWORK GHANA
Paul Wangoola
AFRICAN ASSOCIATION FOR LITERACY AND ADULT EDUCATION (AALAE)
KENYA
Edward Alitsi
ENVIRONMENT LIAISON CENTRE INTERNATIONAL (ELCI) KENYA
Oduor Ong'wen
ECONEWS AFRICA KENYA
Andr Zaaiman
GOREE INSTITUTE SENEGAL
Sarah Macharia
THE AFRICAN WOMEN'S DEVELOPMENT & COMMUNICATION NETWORK
(FEMNET) KENYA
Luther Banga
PAN-AFRICAN INSTITUTE FOR DEVELOPMENT EAST & SOUTHERN AFRICA
(PAID/ESA) ZAMBIA
Ezra Mbogori
MWENGO (REFLECTION & DEVELOPMENT CENTRE FOR NGOS IN EASTERN
AND SOUTHERN AFRICA) ZIMBABWE
Canon Burges Carr
INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL OF VOLUNTARY AGENCIES (ICVA) SWITZERLAND
Fridah Mnyale-Manenji
AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT EDUCATION NETWORK (ADEN) ZIMBABWE
Joana Foster
WOMEN IN LAW AND DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA(WILDAF) ZIMBABWE
Tawona Mtshiya
FEDERATION OF AFRICAN MEDIA WOMEN - ZIMBABWE (FAMWZ) ZIMBABWE
Nancy Kachingwe
MWENGO ZIMBABWE
Ngaite Chimbandi
CONSUMERS INTERNATIONAL ZIMBABWE
Rudo Chitiga
IRED (DEVT. INNOVATIONS AND NETWORKS) ZIMBABWE
Opa Kapijimpanga
AFRICAN FORUM ON DEBT & DEVELOPMENT (AFRODAD) ZIMBABWE
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For more information on this set of NGO background papers,
please contact:
Partnership Africa Canada (PAC), 1 Nicholas St., #1200,
Ottawa, ON K1N 787, Canada. Phone: (613) 562-8242; Fax: (613)
532-8334; E-mail: pac@web.apc.org.
************************************************************
This material is being reposted for wider distribution by the
Africa Policy Information Center (APIC), the educational
affiliate of the Washington Office on Africa. APIC's primary
objective is to widen the policy debate in the United States
around African issues and the U.S. role in Africa, by
concentrating on providing accessible policy-relevant
information and analysis usable by a wide range of groups and
individuals.
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