A Decade of NEPAD - Economic Commission for Africa - uneca

NEPAD and the African
Civil Society
Globally since the mid-1980s there has been a growing
recognition and appreciation of the importance of societal
participation in all aspects of a country’s plans and
programmes if development is to be achieved.
“Participatory development”, which calls for the involvement
of a wide range of stakeholders at every stage of
policy development from planning to implementation,
monitoring, and evaluation, is based on the premise that
people cooperate and follow the rules set down by the community
only if they are part of their establishment and the
resources to be managed satisfy their needs. 71
In support of the ethos of participatory development a
number of global declarations and instruments have been
promulgated , including the following:
ӹ The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
(ICCPR);
ӹ The International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights (ICESCR);
ӹ The Convention on Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination
Against Women;
ӹ The United Nations Declaration on the Right to
Development
On the continent, the African Charter for Popular Participation
in Development and Transformation, was signed in
Arusha, Tanzania in 1990 at the close of an International
Conference on Popular Participation in the Recovery and
71 Partnership Modalities for Enhancing Good Governance, Economic
Commission for Africa, Development Policy Management Divisions,
2005 p.43
559
CHAPTER
Development Process in Africa. The Charter emphasized
the value of popular participation in policy and development
processes for the consolidation of democracy, good
governance, and sustainable economic growth. 72
During the “era of democratization” in Africa that began
in the late 1980s and accelerated in the 1990s, the political
discourse about participatory development also expanded
to issues of good governance. The focus on improving governance
and service delivery – which continues through
to the present – has led most African nation’s to recognize
that collaboration and community participation in policy
and decision making processes is a critical success factor
for the realization of sustainable development.
As African nations have evolved from one party states to
multiparty democracies, the political conception of good
governance has evolved to include expanded political
participation and representation and the liberalisation of
African politics and the expansion of policy development
framework to include more voices.
While civil society and non-governmental organizations
have a relative long history in “western society” 73 , the
emergence of such institutions in Africa evolved with the
African democratization process and early Africa CSOs
helped facilitate, mobilize, monitor and establish democratic
institutions during the 1980s and 1990s when African
nations first began to engage in multi-party elections.
72 Ibid, pp. 48-49
73 Matheson, G., Defining Civil Society in the Context of the African
Peer Review Mechanism, Electoral Institute of South Africa, 2006, p. 2