Archbishop Ndungane's speech at the African Monitor UK Launch

By The Most Reverend Njongonkulu Ndungane, The Archbishop of Cape Town.
Archbishop NdunganeArchbishop Ndungane

Secretary of State, Rt Honourable Hilary Benn,
HE Amb Legwaila J Legwaila,
HE Dr Lindiwe Mabuza,
HE Mr Mohamed Salah Dembri,
Baroness Valerie Amos,
Respectable dignitaries,
Ladies and Gentlemen.

Welcome to the UK launch of the African Monitor.

Launching the African Monitor in the United Kingdom is a critical milestone in the life of the AM. It is a consolidation of the African Monitor’s vision - to let African voices to speak out for effective action on Africa’s development!

It has always been our understanding that for broad based buy-in and support from stakeholders, we needed to reflect both the continental nature of the Monitor, and its international relevance in our actions. To meet this need, we agreed that it would be important to introduce the African Monitor to multiple stakeholders, and launch it in different regions within the African continent, as well as internationally.

On the 3rd of May 2006 we launched in Cape Town, South Africa - where the head-quarters of the African Monitor are located. The launch was a culmination of at least ten months of consultation with all possible interest groups, both within and outside our continent. We have taken this time to ensure that we bring on board the broad spectrum of civil society that will be critical for the success of this intervention. Equally important was to ensure that government bodies all over the world would encourage and co-operate with the work of the Monitor.

Those who were consulted spanned civil society organisations, religious bodies from around the world, the African Union, NEPAD, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, various individual governments in the continent, the diplomatic community, the business community and academia. Government departments and various foreign affairs ministries have also been briefed in detail. It is heartening to note that all of these stakeholders expressed unwavering support for the establishment of this body and the important work that it must carry out. They recognised that there was no existing pan-African network that could provide such a catalyst across the sub-Saharan region.

At the Cape Town launch we had broad representation from African Civil society organisations, business, African Governments and multilateral institutions. The South African Deputy President endorsed the African Monitor on behalf of governments, reflecting on the complementarities between the AM and the African Peer Review Mechanism.

The launch following that was held in Kigali, Rwanda - where we launched jointly with IFAPA - the Interfaith Action for Peace in Africa. The African Monitor and the IFAPA commission embarked on a strategic partnership to unveil these two eminent bodies in Africa, celebrating the fact that religious leaders have decided to work together for the greater good of Africa in peace restoration, and in development.

The intention of this launch was to draw in the broad base of the faith community who were all represented there. The occasion took place on the 19 June 2006, in the presence of faith leaders from all over Africa, including African Traditional Religion, Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, the Baha’i Faith, and Rastafari.

His Excellency, President Paul Kagame of Rwanda also landed his support for the African Monitor. He applauded the collaboration between the different faith communities in Africa, and congratulated religious leaders for the efforts they were making in contributing to Africa’s progress. He also stressed the importance of Independence and credibility for both the African Monitor and IFAPA as they do their work, stating that this would bring back the development agenda into the hands of Africans.

Following this launch, we thought we still needed to find a way to introduce the Monitor officially to two sets of key stakeholders: - The African Diaspora, as well as our International Partners and Friends. Launching the African Monitor here then is informed by this need to officially introduce ourselves, and more importantly to explore opportunities for partnerships. The Centre for African Policy and Peace Strategy (CAPPS) took up the call to assist us to link up with the Diaspora and other partners, with generous support from the City of London, Shell African Network and DFID - AND FOR THIS WE THANK YOU.

I should also mention that DFID (together with other funders) has also assisted the African Monitor with seed funding to set up our Cape Town office. We are now at the stage where we are raising core funding to set up our organisational structure and implement our programme activities. We hope that DFID is still keen to contribute substantially to the work of the Monitor as we work in partnership to pave the future.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is not a mistake that we have chosen the UK for the AM Launch. Firstly, we can safely say that we appreciate and applaud the UK for its international leadership in dealing with issues related to Africa’s development. We all know that 2005 was hailed as the ‘Year for Africa’. It was prioritised by the Commission for Africa Report, the G8 Gleneagles Summit and the World Trade Organisation Doha Round. The UK’s leadership in all those processes was significant. Furthermore, the British government has continued to re-affirm its commitment to African development issues. In its recently launched white paper, the intention to increase the capacity of the grassroots to monitor development in order to increase accountability is stated clearly. This is in line with the mission of the African Monitor, and there are opportunities for partnership and collaboration here.

Secondly, October is Black History Month. This is the time when we all should focus on the historical contribution of black people in history, whose origin is Africa. We should also be considering the future contribution of black people in history, and particularly finding ways to enhance that. This is partly what the African Monitor attempts to do. With the understanding that African’s have a lot to contribute to the development agenda, we are finding ways to increase accountability of those in power, as well as empowering those at the grassroots to participate.

So then, what is the African Monitor?

The African Monitor is an independent continental body set up to act as a catalyst to monitor development funding commitments, delivery and impact on the grassroots, and to bring strong additional African voices to the development agenda.

  • The African Monitor aims to systematically monitor development promises, by looking at the volume of commitments, timeliness, delivery results on the ground, quality of aid, and prioritization. Promises from both African governments and donor governments will be looked at.
  • Then, the Monitor will also look at trade policies and business regulations, in order to analyze how these hinder or enhance the ability of African countries to deliver on development.
  • The AM will engage African governments and support their efforts to meet the MDG’s by 2015, by tracking progress, assisting in integrated policy making and facilitating increased stakeholder participation.
  • Also, the AM will measure the benefits of development programmes in Africa focusing on targeted sectors, in order to draw lessons from local communities about what works and what does not. The intention will be to listen to local voices and channel information through to decision makers at local, national and international level.

The AM will not monitor just simply for the sake of it. It will monitor with the intention to effect change to speed up the rate of delivery and increase the rate of effectiveness. The advocacy strategy of the AM will be spearheaded by a group of high level independent African figures - the Togona. Togona is a word from Mali, which means wisdom. Our ‘house of wisdom’ will be the ambassadors of African Monitor, lending their weight in support of local communities in their development aspirations and experiences.

Besides Monitoring and Advocacy, the African Monitor will perform two other critical functions:-

We will build networks of African voices across key stakeholder groups for stronger promotion of the development agenda at the grassroots. The intention will be to increase the dialogue between the different role players by hosting and participating in multi-stakeholder forums; as well as initiating and participating in processes that create spaces for an interface between 2 or more stakeholders. The AM will endeavour to create opportunities for grassroots participation as well as strengthen grassroots networks to enable such participation.

The AM will also promote grassroots participation by galvanising African Voices to speak for Africa’s development. The chorus from these voices will strengthen the culture of accountability and increase transparency. These voices should complement the call for the kind of governance culture that can support a selfless approach to the utilisation of resources meant for the poor. The AM will also support communities to develop programme monitoring skills as well as to develop the capacity to call for accountability from local authorities.

The African Monitor is currently engaged in several sets of activities that you should look out for. These will benefit the development process greatly, and will give the development community an in-depth understanding of where we are being successful and where we are failing.

  • First is the AM’s 4 country pilot study: We are implementing a 4 country pilot study in Rwanda, Chad, Mozambique and Ghana, that will enable us to building an understanding of the real situation regarding commitments, flow of resources, the development assistance delivery process and its effects on the grassroots. The outcome from this study will be a better understanding of the development assistance delivery process from a pan-African perspective, as well as its impact on the lives of the poor.
  • Second is the Donor Commitments Baseline Matrix; which will map out funding commitments by traditional and emerging donors to Africa. The Matrix will track the extent to which public promises and pledges have been converted to actual commitments; and the rate at which these commitments are translated to actual currency in the bank. The Matrix will be used by the AM as a tracking tool for existing and coming promises.
  • Thirdly, we are looking at producing a similar tool for African Government, which we are calling the African Government Performance Review. Here we will map out promises made by African Governments, particularly in relation to the MDG’s. It will assess the extent to which these promises have been met both in the way they have been translated into policy and programmes, and the way they have been translated to budget allocations.

These products will be launched at a series of advocacy events hosted in Addis Ababa in January 2007. The advocacy will be tied to the meeting of the African Heads of State in Addis. During these events, we will unveil these outputs, and share with key stakeholders the results and lessons learned.

In the work we are doing, we look forward to forming partnerships with key stakeholders who share our vision. Today for instance, we spent the day deliberating with Diaspora leaders present here on how a concrete relationship between the Diaspora and the African Monitor could be formed. We have received a lot of support and encouragement, and are looking at setting up a Diaspora focal point in the UK and the USA.

Also, we are looking forward to exploring a partnership with the Africa Progress Panel, which we believe is a political structure meant to monitor the delivery of aid promises made by G8 leaders to developing nations, especially Africa. The African Monitor on the other hand, is a civil society initiative that has been set up to target African governments as well as the donor governments, to ensure that promises are fulfilled, and implementation is effective.

We hope that with the rest of you as well, we will find a way to share information, and support each other in our work as far as it is possible.

However, in the meantime let us focus on getting you to enjoy this reception, the food and the music.

Thank you for being here.