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AFRICA AND THE G8: Mozambique Civil Society Workshop on NEPAD | |
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TAE/CUSO Project Turning Arms into Ploughshares (TAE) 2 April 2002 | |
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The representatives of 36 national organizations from Cabo Delgado, Zambezia, Manica, Sofala, Tete, Inhambane, Gaza, Maputo and Maputo City attended from 16 to 17 April 2002 a seminar at Kaya Kwanga. The seminar had the following objectives: To share information on New Partnership for Africa Development (NEPAD) amongst the civil society leadership and non-entrepreneurship society. To prepare the leaders of the organization of the civil society to accept and be involved in the challenges that the program will impose, To collect proposals that will assist in drawing up an Action Plan for joint efforts between the civil society and government. The seminar was logistically organized by the Christian Council of Mozambique, through its Project Turning Arms into Ploughshares - TAE and CUSO-Canada, a Canadian NGO which was responsible for technical consultancy and funding of the event, through the funds from the Canada High Commission in Mozambique within the framework of the involvement of that country in the preparation of the meeting of the most rich countries of the world, best known as G-8 which will meet next June. The Mozambican Government which was invited to give its view on the issue was represented by the Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr.Francis Rodrigues who made a through explanation on the steps being made by the Executive toward the implementation of NEPAD as well as the historic-political reasons of the “ establishment “ of the New Partnership for Africa Development. The seminar was equally attended by the Vice-Governor of the Mozambique Bank Dr.Ernesto Gove, accompanied by two senior staff from the Central Bank namely Dr.Clara de Souza, Administrator, and the Director of the Publication Area, Dr.Wazela. The Vice-Governor of the Central Bank spoke about the African Debt its negative impact for the continental development if it's not partially or totally pardoned/negotiated (via HIPC) as well as the alternatives that the Africans may have toward reducing the debt. He dwelt on the impact of the African debt and within the context of the Mozambican debt and stressed that, if the Africans do not manage with NEPAD the negotiation for the collective alleviation of the external debt for the recovery of their economies, the next African generations will be born indebted; or rather, in the next ten years each African will be born with a debt of 25 American dollars. The Mozambican Academic Prof. Dr. Jose Negrao, Director of the Masters Course in Agrarian Development at the Faculty of Agronomy and Forest Engineering of the UEM was very septic (ed. skeptical) on the implementation of NEPAD since it mainly depends on the rich countries possibility in the injection of funds in order to undertake the various initiatives. He recalled the failure decades ago of various African development projects and programs due to the non-fulfillment of promises of funds injection by the rich countries; hence he questioned what is the guarantee that the various initiatives behind NEPAD will be have a financial coverage. Jose Negrão was very critical of the imposing policy by the rich countries towards the poorest countries since, whenever they make a financial injection to support a certain development project, they normally establish some conditions or impose certain rules. He showed some reserves (ed. reservations) on the fact that these countries may not abandon this practice with NEPAD. The criticism of the academic was geared on the policies imposed on the land use which in the last twenty years has reverted in the increase of the” without arable land”, (ed. being) confiscated or given away to multi-nationals by African governments to the detriment of the population living in such land, who most of the time are pushed to less productive land. The academic hence defended that within the framework of the new Initiative for Africa Development, protectionism policies of land ownership, use of land by the farmers and the reduction of conflicts on the land ownership and cooperative agriculture production, indicating his disapproval for the lack of grass-roots representation at highest level of political land governing power. Despite considering that Africa is too big for establishing sustainable and coherent policies and programs due to ethnic-cultural diversities and socio-economic difficulties may indeed make it difficult to achieve a consensus on the key NEPAD aspects. The academic stated that he believed that this is a unique occasion for the Africans to be united with the poor throughout the world in order to pressure for a “ rapid change” of the present international economic system whereby the minority ( the rich ) imposes itself to the majority ( the poor ). He indicated that it is worth (ed. The chance) that the rich “correct the secular injustice, accepting the new model of partnership that favors the development of the poor countries, especially the African ones “ Dr. Ernesto Zucule the seminar moderator presented the main NEPAD document by inviting the representatives of the civil society to be involved and mobilize the target population so that they pay attention in the essential activities that may assist in the strife mainly against poverty, which affects the majority of the Mozambique population. He stressed that NEPAD as an African project does not only depend on the governments but on all Africans above all. Therefore, nothing helps by crossing fingers and criticize the governments; but it is necessary to demonstrate from NEPAD the government mistakes with practical undertakings which will benefit the citizens. On the other hand Eng.Albino Forquilha, TAE National Coordinator, (ed. on the basis of) the TAE working experience, described some steps that may be made by the national NGOs in order to reduce poverty, stressing that all we may accomplish within our capacities and limitations of our citizenship and patriotism fits in NEPAD practice and spirit. I. NEPAD MAIN CRITICAL POINTS: a) AT NATIONAL LEVEL Many national organizations do not know what NEPAD is and they are not even prepared to diffuse NEPAD in order for them to draft action programs to be undertaken. The only seminar conducted in Maputo does not constitute a sufficient forum to diffuse such an essential program as NEPAD. Although the NGOs scope is vast, as there are many areas and population needs which are not covered by the programs and government actions, the fact that the Executive has not yet defined its program limits one way or another the design of plans and programs of the civil society in relation to NEPAD. The government is delaying to diffuse NEPAD leading to the belief, once again that it will ignore the civil society in the process of implementing the New Partnership for African Development, like what PARPA is doing. The executive does not open space so that the national organizations establish direct partnership with different donors most of which state that the way for NGOs to have access to their funds is through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation which only opens doors for government programs. The government should ensure that the country existing laws are fulfilled otherwise it will provoke a lack of culture of obedience toward the law and social norms making the country ungovernable. The government should study effective ways so that the grass root comunities feel truly represented in decision-making bodies at the highest level. The present government model only guarantees that the executive be represented up to the basis and not the contrary. The lack of an open and participatory governance causes that most social sectors are excluded from programs and state governing action since the reports and information that the government representatives take from the base take to the top most of the time do not reflect the reality. The social sectors from the basis are most of the time ignored in the design of programs and big development projects, resulting in the lack of success of some programs and projects. b) AT REGIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL LEVEL There is a lot of skepticism on the implementation of NEPAD because it depends more if not exclusively on external funding. Some rich countries showed the will to assist Africa to overcome the underdevelopment; however, in practical terms, they are so arrogant and ambitious because they wish to continue to dominate the international political scenario - which will do very little or nothing; and if they do, it will always be accompanied with some conditions. Although NEPAD is considered genuinely as an African initiative since it has been conceived and developed by African leaders. The fact is that the majority of the social, business and political sectors of the African countries are not familiar with NEPAD and few assume this initiative as theirs. This may provoke some blockage in the implementation process. The economies of some regional countries are so weak that some countries like ours – Mozambique - will not be able to impose them in order to defend the real development needs of the different socio-economic sectors. Hence, the regional and continental development will continue to be uneven not foreseeing the leveling of the regional and African development differences this century. At regional level, there is a great deal of social and infrastructure imbalance. This is a factor that will negatively affect the drawing of programs of a harmonious development, - maintaining the illegal immigration in the search of employment or security and stability which may provoke political tension amongst the countries. The African mosaic in continental and regional level is so different that the needs and realities of the population are far different from region to region even from country to country conditioning therefore the assumptions for a definition of a sustainable macro and micro structural and economic standard.II. NEPAD MAIN POSITIVE POINTS a) AT NATIONAL LEVEL There is a political will by the Mozambican Executive in cooperating with the civil society for the dissemination of NEPAD and other national projects that may be approved. The Executive agrees that communication with the civil society should be strengthened through a wider influx of information being through seminars and debates or through inter- sector gatherings with the different social and economic sensibilities. The civil society recognizes that it needs to be better organized not only to have one unique voice towards the Executive but also above all to be able to play its role in an effective manner.b) AT INTERNATIONAL AND REGIONAL LEVEL The declaration of mutual will towards working to increase the African population livelihood security and develop democracy and good governance and the promotion of peace and stability for the African people is encouraging for the civil society and governments. The will of the rich to assist the poor to overcome poverty is an opportunity that the Africans should know how to take the maximum advantage of. It is only through the non-interested involvement of the rich countries that the poor countries may overcome the situation that they are facing. The openness of the present African leaderships toward good governance is a key factor for the prevention and management of internal and regional conflicts as well as a commitment to avoid those new war scenarios in Africa. The anxiety of the African people to live in peace and to eradicate with the poverty is an essential assumption in order to implement NEPAD. The political leaderships should know how to match all aspects, scenarios and values that surround the New Partnership for Africa Development.CONCLUSION The seminar, the first of this kind involving national NGOs, was considered positive by all participants due to many reasons amongst which we would like to highlight the following: The volume and the quality of information presented by the speakers amongst them government members, allowed people to become familiar with some aspects of the world, regional and national economic policy, namely: The constraints provoked by the external debt in the economies of the poor countries, The importance of the economy regional integration, The efforts made by the Mozambican Executive towards poverty reduction, And above all, the challenges to be faced by each African country and by the continent in general in order to reduce or eliminate the poverty of the African people.RECOMMENDATIONS The seminar has alerted, for the first time, the need for the civil society to straighten more its organization in order to assist in reducing political tensions which most of the time may end in conflicts. The civil society has learned that it should not continue to criticize the government mistakes, but to fill the gap that is opened by the government hence, showing its importance and role in improving the living conditions of all citizens. However the government in its turn should accelerate reforms in the public administration, make concrete steps to eliminate corruption, be more transparent by the governing acts and involve the civil society in the programming (ed of) all economic development projects. The government and the civil society should regularly exchange information on the country important issues and define national agenda. It is desired that members of the civil society, business and non-business community be part of the Mozambican delegation to the G-8 meeting and the government and the civil society should work together to make this possible. There is a need to disseminate further NEPAD to all Mozambique provinces outside of Maputo. The Canada High Commission in Mozambique should be a spokesperson of the Mozambican civil society concerns presented in this seminar especially on the need to do a wider diffusion of NEPAD in the G-8 meeting. Project Turning Arms into Ploughshares(TAE): taeccm@isl.co.mz and CUSO-Canada, Program in Mozambique: cusomoz@virconn.com | |