A Decade of NEPAD - Economic Commission for Africa - uneca

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66 A Decade of NEPAD: Deepening African Private Sector and Civil Society Ownership and Partnership by African governments for CSO and other stakeholder contributions, and, unfortunately, this prerequisite varied considerably across the continent. In countries such as Benin, Botswana, Ghana, South Africa, Malawi, Tunisia, Senegal, and Niger, CSOs were found to have made meaningful contributions. In other states, such as Ethiopia and Egypt, governmental constraints and restrictions impacted active CSO participation in the country’s development processes. In reviewing the NEPAD process and the degree and types of engagement that have been experienced with the African CSO community to date, feedback from OSSA and UNECA stakeholder fora and research reports have indicated that the depth and consistency with which the AU has pursued the establishment of CSO participation in its activities has yet to be replicated within the NEPAD process. And the findings of AGR II illustrate that in most likelihood significant domestic and international donor support and continued capacity building efforts will be required to facilitate enhanced and effective engagement between the Africa civil society community and NEPAD. Yet, AGR II also shows that properly resourced and engaged, the African civil society can play a critically important role in taking NEPAD’s messages to the citizens of the continent and in supporting the implementation of the NEPAD programme. The AGR II findings in respect to the capacity needs of Africa’s CSO community have not gone unnoticed by international donor institutions and multilateral organizations committed to Africa’s development. Thus, it is also of note that since the beginning of the 21 st century there has been a much more concerted effort to strengthen the capacity of African CSOs and to establish wider continental, pan- African, and international CSO networks. Key resource institutions and catalysts in this regard have included the UN Office of the Special Advisor on Africa, the European Commission (particularly through the PROINVEST programme), the Zimbabwe based Africa Capacity Development Foundation, and multilateral initiatives such as the Tanzania based Investment Climate Facility. An analysis of the relationship between NEPAD and the African CSO community today reveals that there is indeed work toward improvement in progress. Although the level of engagement is yet not where either side would like for it to be, both sides would largely agree that the relationship has positively progressed from where it was at the inception of the NEPAD initiative. Furthermore, from a policy standpoint, it is clear to African CSOs that the principles of participatory development have been captured in the NEPAD framework in the focus on Democracy and Political and Economic Governance and in the APRM programme. African leaders also acknowledged in NEPAD’s framework that “the New Partnership for Africa’s Development will be successful only if it is owned by the African peoples – united in their diversity”. In the Framework they have also called on all African’s to mobilise in support of NEPAD: “We are therefore, asking the African peoples to take up the challenge of mobilising in support of the implementation of this initiative by setting up, at all levels structures for organisation, mobilisation and action 83 .” To date, however, despite the lofty aims espoused in the NEPAD framework, the precedent that exists for participatory development on the continent, and the recent efforts to develop a people centred African Union, NEPAD’s leadership has been criticized over much of the past ten years for not adequately engaging with the African CSO community and giving it much of a voice in the implementation of NEPAD. In fact at the inception of NEPAD, because of these feelings and perceptions of exclusion, many within the civil society were very sceptical of the initiative, if not openly antagonistic toward the programme. They asserted that the initiative lacked legitimacy as it was developed in a top down manner, and without significant CSO input. In addition to lamenting the lack of consultation and opportunity to contribute to the development of the NE- PAD framework, others within the CSO community felt strongly that the initiative’s ideological leanings were too pro-business, anti-poor and western in orientation. In the years subsequent to the launch of NEPAD, a number of different focus groups met to assess how best to bridge the initial chasm that existed between NEPAD and the CSO community. 83 The African Union’s New Partnership for Africa’s Development, African Union and United Nations, Africa Section, Department of Public Information, 2007, p. 11
Under the theme “Strengthening Democracy Through NEPAD: The Role of African Civil Society”, on May 26- 27, 2003, seventy representatives of civil society groups in Africa from the southern, eastern, western and central African regions met over two days in Johannesburg, South Africa to discuss questions of how to strengthen democracy through NEPAD. The major themes discussed at the conference included: the consolidation of democracy in Africa over the last decade, the relationship between institutions and governance and civil society’s participation in institutions of governance. Delegates at the conference identified a number of concrete strategies for tackling the challenges confronting civil society in its engagement with the African Peer Review Mechanism. The strategies proposed were aimed at addressing the need to publicise and share research findings, the need to establish civil society ‘nodes’ to improve co-ordination, the need for the establishment of a working group, and the need to establish a Pan African Civil Society. The major task of the working group was to be concerned with the setting of norms and standards for credible democratic governance, with special focus on improving elections and the accountability of public representatives. The working group was to be comprised of two civil society representatives from each of the four African regions participating in the conference. The working group was tasked with sketching the way forward toward the establishment of a Pan African Civil Society Forum on NEPAD and increasing CSO participation within the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM). The Electoral Institute of South Africa (EISA) was requested and agreed to perform a co-ordinating role in the establishment of the Forum. Parallel to the South Africa gathering, on May 28-30, 2003 under the theme, Mobilizing Support for the New Partnership for Africa’s Development: The Role of the Private Sector and Civil Society, a workshop was convened in Accra, Ghana by the U.N.’s Office of the Special Advisor (OSSA). This workshop concluded that the AU provisional Civil Society Working Group was not actively working on NE- PAD at a time when there was a pressing need for clarity on the roles and responsibilities of the AU versus those of NEPAD. There was also an expressed need for a NEPAD CSO focal point to be appointed at the national level. There 5. NEPAD and the African Civil Society Today A Decade of NEPAD was also a belief that there were capacity constraints that needed to be addressed to ensure that the civil society could play a greater role in the NEPAD process. In part, in response to these various findings and critiques, in 2004, the NEPAD Secretariat established the Gender, Civil Society and Parliamentary Affairs Unit to ensure that civil society organizations were more effectively mobilized to participate in the NEPAD implementation process, to engage with African parliamentarians, and to spearhead gender mainstreaming in all NEPAD policies and programmes. In addition to the establishment of a CSO focal point at the NEPAD Secretariat, the commencement of the African Peer Review Mechanism process also significantly helped to accelerate the participation of African CSOs in the NEPAD process. One of the biggest tensions which exists within the African development context is balancing internationally accepted good governance practices with the development policies that take into account the unique challenges and circumstances of the African context. NEPAD addresses this tension through the APRM, an initiative whose purpose it is to facilitate a contextual assessment of each member state’s institutions and governance practices. It seeks to help improve these institutions and each country’s governance practices through shared experiences and the dissemination of best practices. The APRM is not intended to be a governance watchdog but rather to encourage engagement between the government, the private sector and civil society, as well as the engagement of other like-minded African states that are committed to improving their own institutions and governance practices. The scope of the assessment under the APRM includes a comprehensive review of each country’s: 1) political, 2) economic, 3) corporate and 4) socio-developmental institutions, policies and practices. The APRM process is voluntary and non-antagonistic. States must indicate a firm commitment to enhancing their governance practices by submitting to periodic country reviews from their peers. 67
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