The Role of Civil Society in the Implementation of NEPAD
NEPAD Projects Conference
8 October 2007
Johannesburg
Address by Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane
Your Excellencies, Honoured Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen.
I am honored to be part of this fourth National Consultative Forum on the Implementation of NEPAD.
It is a delight for me to realize that South Africa, and the rest of the continent have taken the NEPAD vision and priorities to heart, particularly recognizing their significance in advancing the continents’ development imperatives.
When the NEPAD programme was launched several years ago, it was viewed by many of us as the vehicle that was necessary to accelerate Africa’s economic development. This development was viewed within the context of social development - with the understanding that accelerated economic progress would lead to accelerated poverty eradication, service delivery and improved livelihoods for Africa’s poor. Thus NEPAD undertook this challenge, to come up with a multi-pronged approach that would not only focus on the economy, but also how to affect the lives of Africans for the better.
NEPAD’s sectoral priorities are a good reflection of the need to balance economic imperatives with social development goals. Bridging the Infrastructure gap; Developing Human Resources; Focusing on Agriculture, Science and Technology are all priorities that are likely to bring about multiple benefits from an economic and social development angle.
When this architecture was formed, it was clear that the NEPAD programme could never be implemented successfully if African countries did not embrace it, and integrate it within their own country programmes. This meant that all layers of government in each African country would have to commit to implementing the sectoral priorities locally, and particularly applying them creatively to their local contexts. This also meant commitment in terms of time and expertise for planning and implementation, as well as commitment in terms of resources to the relevant programmes.
I am proud that South African has taken initiative and showed commitment to NEPAD, through these forums of consultation and through specific activities being implemented at different levels.
Now, while the South African government and NEPAD have shown leadership in this regard, it is clear that they alone will not be able to realize this vision without multiple stakeholders playing their distinctive role.
We have heard here today what the role of the private sector is, and why they are important players. We have also heard why effective partnerships are necessary. I have been asked specifically to look at the role of civil society in the implementation of NEPAD in South Africa.
My starting point is to celebrate that there is in fact recognition that civil society is an important role player within the NEPAD agenda. It was not so long ago when as members of civil society we had to struggle to be part of such forums, let alone be taken seriously as important actors.
I do not need to tell you that it was civil society, among others that brought about political change in this country during apartheid. When we were first hit with the devastating effects of HIV, it was civil society organizations – faith-based and otherwise, who took up the challenge to provide home-based care, care and counseling, and delivery of food parcels. Stories of the role of civil society in development are wide spread. They range from implementation to advocacy to monitoring. And the South African government has very progressively endorsed the role of civil society in the delivery of services in several policy documents as well as programmes.
Within this context, I want to highlight three specific roles that I see as particularly important for civil society in the implementation of the NEPAD programme.
First, civil society has always been understood to be effective implementers as I have reflected above. There is no better way of rolling out service delivery, and country wide programmes than to involve people who are already doing work at community level. This implementation can be capacity building at community level in order to transfer the skills that are necessary for people to participate effectively in the economy. In recent years we had started to see this trend take root with the focus on small to medium businesses, and the role of civil society organizations in training semi-literate community members to be small business owners.
In health we have seen the benefits of involving civil society in primary health provision at local level particularly in dealing with infectious diseases. Civil society can be equally engaged in the areas of science and technology, as well as information systems and so on.
However, it is important to highlight two things to do when new innovative programmes are discovered and are being implemented before they are handed over to civil society to implement. They must always be piloted to be sure that they will yield the desired effect in different contexts; and secondly they have the flexibility to be applied differently in local contexts to suite local needs.
The Second role for civil society can be summarized with the term providers of expertise. I have just come from a global health conference hosted by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in Cape Town, where hundreds of scientists are gathered together to talk about solutions to health problems. Many of them came from Africa. They form part of the broad academic sector, and many are renowned specialists, researchers and scientists. Their wealth of knowledge is crucial for progress in our continent, and indeed in South Africa. Teaming up with the academic and research sector is a brilliant way of finding innovative solutions to the problems that we face. And Africa is rich with this wealth of expertise.
Within civil society, academia is not the only sub-sector with a wealth of knowledge. I have been in numerous settings where ordinary members of the community from community based organizations and non-governmental organizations have provided useful insights to the plight of the poor. They have provided creative solutions to policy dilemmas. Their uniqueness is that many of them are part of the poor. They have the lived experience of the grassroots, and they have tried and tested many interventions until they have found those solutions that work. Their knowledge and expertise cannot be ignored.
Lastly, it is my belief that civil society can play an effective role as an independent voice to monitor implementation of these priorities and their effectiveness. When we speak of monitoring, many people become wary because this concept has become associated with negative criticism by by-standers who are not involved in solving the problem. As African Monitor we are changing this perception.
The process of monitoring is a useful process of engagement with all stakeholders, mainly to identify what works and what does not. And particularly to identify hindrances on the journey towards progress. Monitoring is an important tool that informs the implementers of what needs to change, what needs to be accelerated, and what needs to be celebrated. The results from any monitoring process should also be able to encourage dialogue between relevant stakeholders, thus deepening the partnership bond that exists.
Among significant subsectors within civil society, I must highlight faith communities which have a huge potential to assist countries to accelerate development. Faith communities reach their constituency at least once a week, they are the glue that holds many communities together. They have the moral authority and legitimacy to mobilize communities to become catalysts for development. They also have a proven track record of their commitment to development.
In all the areas I have mentioned above highlighting the role of civil society governments, NEPAD would be amiss if they fail to recognize the enormous potential of faith communities and use them effectively to reach their development objectives.
Before I end ladies and gentlemen, I think it is of utmost importance for me to touch on the subject of partnership, even though we had begun to talk about it earlier in the day.
Within the development agenda currently there is a deep realization that effective partnership is the only way that humanity will achieve any significant progress. More than ever, the North has begun to seek opportunities to partner with the South. Africans are looking for effective partnerships within the continent through regional integration. More and more, civil society is seeking for ways of engaging constructively with decision makers with the understanding that we all want the same things.
We need to begin to talk to each other openly, appreciating each others’ roles, expertise and constraints to achieve our common objectives. The core principles of mutual respect and mutual accountability are particularly important in this regard.
Lastly, I cannot stress enough the necessity for us to align all our energies to implement activities that will accelerate the achievement of the MDG’s. All of NEPAD’s sectoral priorities are related to the MDG’s. Focusing on agriculture will improve food production thus contributing to MDG 1 which aims to reduce hunger and half poverty by 2015. For a country like South Africa which suffers from high rates of unemployment, hunger and poverty are a reality for millions. Any joint actions taken to reverse this trend by aligning NEPAD priorities, the MDG’S, and country priorities will be progress in the right direction.
Beyond the issue of alignment, there is also the need to accelerate, and inject a sense of urgency among role players to implement MDG related activities effectively. We have in this year passed the mid-way point to 2015, and evidence shows that we as a continent are far from reaching the MDG’s in many ways. We have just under seven years to turn the tide and make the necessary changes. Civil society can be a great instrument for galvanizing the energy of the population to endorse and garner behind these priorities.
It is my great hope that the progress we have begun to make in consulting with each other and learning, will indeed yield the results we so urgently need in South Africa, and the rest of the continent.
Thank you.