PRESS RELEASE-29 May 2007

Brief Background:

African Monitor hosted a conference in Johannesburg, South Africa, with delegates from a cross-section of stakeholders including international, continental and local civil society, representatives of the faith community, government representatives, and donor representatives.  The workshop  reviewed promises and commitments made by donors and African governments to support development in Africa, presented through the “Baseline Matrix of Development Support Commitments to Africa” – a study recently concluded by African Monitor.   

Since 2005 was internationally proclaimed a ‘Year for Africa’, a plethora of promises have been made by donors and African governments to commit resources, and to fast-track development and growth in the continent. African governments promised to increase budgetary allocations for development spending within their national budgets. Donor countries committed to doubling donor aid by 2010, accelerate debt relief and enable growth and productivity in Africa through trade and investments.  Furthermore, promises were made to accelerate delivery on all the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), such as poverty alleviation, education, health and HIV/AIDS.

2007 marks the half way mark to the deadline for meeting the MDG goals in 2015.   The urgency to deliver on promises to support development in Africa is increasing, particularly because donors and governments are largely off-track in delivering on their commitments.  Overall donor aid has decreased between 2005 and 2006 by 5.1%.  Aid to Africa in particular has remains static with only a 2% real increase since 2005.  For donors to be able to meet their commitment of doubling aid by 2010, their aid contribution would have to increase by an average of 3% every year until 2010.  While slight improvements are being noted in education and health, levels of unemployment in Africa are continuing to rise, and poverty – especially for the rural poor, is intensifying.  Implementing  development promises in Africa is URGENT.  THE TIME TO ACT IS NOW.

Stakeholder Contributions  at the Workshop:

Stakeholders present at the workshop agreed that the Baseline Matrix of Promises and Commitments developed by the African Monitor was an innovative tool of cataloguing promises made to the continent, to enable better monitoring of progress.  Concurring with the intentions of the African Monitor, workshop participants stressed the importance of judging all commitments and delivery by the measure in which they lead to real difference for the grassroots.

Particularly, the forum noted that several of the commitments that are not being met have adverse effects for the poor.  Some of the findings of the Baseline Matrix are reflected below.

·         Donors give very little focus to Agriculture and rural development, two of the areas that would yield the most immediate benefit for the grassroots.

·         While African Governments have prioritised Agricultural expenditure, they have also not met their target of increasing expenditure on Agriculture to 10% of the budget.

·         International trade negotiations have largely been stalled through the collapse of the DOHA round, and the global trading system is largely biased against developing countries, benefiting mostly developed countries.

·         Trade agreements currently taking place bilaterally or multilaterally do not afford adequate policy space for African countries to make independent decisions for the benefit of the grassroots.

·         African governments are overly depended on donor aid.  A gradual exit strategy needs to be put in place to bring the continent out of dependency.

·         Africa is clearly developing new partnerships with emerging donors from within the continent, from Asia and through South to South agreements.

·         There is a strong need for African government leaders to ensure that in these new agreements, the continent is not drawn into further aid dependency – and that they are to the benefit of the grassroots.

·         Climate change is likely to affect the African continent the most, particularly the rural poor who depend on the environment to survive.  Adaptation strategies for the continent need to be urgently funded and implemented with the support of the donors, who are currently causing the greatest damage.

Delegates noted that at the grassroots level, African monitor has a huge potential to foster an accountability framework through promoting stakeholder foras or mechanisms for interface between state and citizens. An important strategy at this level is for African Monitor to build synergies and networks with faith-based organisations and other CSO, which are already doing monitoring work pertaining to grassroots development.  Delegates committed to forming effective partnerships to share information, data and knowledge. Delegates further urged African Monitor to develop a strong advocacy agenda targeting actors at the international, continental and national levels, particularly donors and donor groupings, NEPAD and the AU, as well as national governments.