Address by Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane: Is Africa on Track? Is South Africa on Track?

Is Africa on Track? Is South Africa on Track?

05 July 2007

Braamfontein, Johannesburg

Address by Archbishop Njongonkulu NdunganeArchbishop of Cape TownFounder & President - African Monitor 

that we may strategise on what needs to be done in the next seven and a half years. I am further delighted that we are hosting this important meeting with our partners in South Africa, namely SANGOCO, Action Aid, and NDA.  I am grateful to them for the effort they have put in making this meeting possible. It is always useful to contextualize the debate on the MDG’s in forums like this.  Why do we talk about the MDG’s?  Why are they important for Africa’s development?

   The MDG’s were developed and adopted by the international community in 2000 as a minimum measure for achieving poverty alleviation and development.   In Africa, they have even more significance because the continent’s development trajectory has been plagued by difficult challenges.   At the midway point to achieving the MDG’s, sub-Saharan Africa is not on track to achieve any of the Goals. Although there have been major gains in several areas and the Goals remain achievable in most African nations, even the best governed countries on the continent have not been able to make sufficient progress in reducing extreme poverty in its many forms. 

 Thus many commentators have more or less concluded that sub-Saharan Africa will not be able to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. It is my strong opinion that we do not have the luxury of saying we cannot meet the MDG’s by 2015.  The MDG’s are not just a planning tool to ensure that we have pro-development policies.  Every single one of the goals is a key benchmark that will determine whether we are creating nations that can take care of their citizens or not.  The failure to meet goals like poverty eradication is literary a matter of life and death for many people in Africa, and the world.  Failure to meet the MDG’s ladies and gentlemen means an acceptance that it is ok for our people to continue dying of hunger, HIV or other preventable diseases.  

 Our approach as a continent should be to recognise that we are lagging behind, but also explore as a matter of urgency what we can do in the next 7 years to ensure that we achieve the MDG’s. The latest update from the UNDP titled Africa and the Millennium Development Goals 2007 indicates that only Algeria, Botswana, Egypt, Libya and Morocco are likely to meet the MDG’s by 2015. 

 The same report highlights the following progress made in the 8 MDG’s:- 

 The first target of MDG 1 is that the proportion of people leaving on less than $1 a day be halved.  Since 1999, the proportion of people living on one dollar a day or less has declined from 45.9 per cent to 41.1 per cent.  However, unless the current pace of reaching the MDG 1 target is doubled, it is unlikely that extreme poverty will be halved by 2015. 

MDG 2 requires that all children have access to primary schooling by 2015.  Some progress has been noted in this area, with enrolments increasing from 57 per cent in 1999 to 70 per cent in 2005.  However a gap of 30 per cent still remains, and the number of school age children is increasing daily.   

MDG 3 requires the elimination of gender disparities in primary school enrolments by 2005, and all levels of schooling by 2015.  However, we know that currently of all the children not in school, the majority of them are girls. 

MDG 4 commits to reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate.  Under-five mortality rates dropped from 185 per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 166 per 1,000 in 2005.  This drop, while positive, hardly makes a dent in the objective of a two-thirds reduction by 2015.  However, the vaccination drive in the continent has been fairly successful, with measles cases and deaths on the sub-continent falling by nearly 75 per cent between 1999 and 2005. On Maternal Health, which is

MDG 5, the odds that a sub-Saharan African woman will die from complications of pregnancy and childbirth during her life are 1 in 16.  This is an outrageously and unacceptably high ratio, considering that the odds come down to 1 in 3,800 for a woman in the developed world. 

Goal 6 commits to halt and reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases.  However, in Africa the number of people dying from AIDS continues to mount, reaching 2 million in 2006. Although prevalence rates have levelled off, the number of new cases, especially among women, as well as the number of people with advanced HIV infection continues to grow.  These numbers are rising faster than treatment services are being scaled up. Furthermore, there is no evidence that the very high rate of new TB cases in sub-Saharan Africa is starting to level off. Environmental sustainability is

MDG 7, and it covered environmental conservation, access to clean drinking water and sanitation, and access to proper housing.  The latest data indicates that only 42 per cent of people in rural areas had access to clean water in 2004.  Access to basic sanitation facilities decrease slightly from 68% in 1990 to 63 % in 2004, which is very far from the target of cutting this proportion in half by 2015. The effects of climate change, which are already being felt, will only make achievement of the MDG’s on the subcontinent more difficult. According to projections, between 75 and 250 million people will be exposed to an increase of water stress and the cost of adaptation to climate change will be 50 billion.

 MDG 8 commits to a global partnership for development, mostly looking at international partnerships through trade and financial systems, debt relief and aid.  As we know, between 2005 and 2006 aid to Africa has stagnated in real terms, although a number of countries benefited from debt relief.  An open, rule-based, predictable, non-discriminatory trading and financial system as stated in Target 13 between Africa and the international community is still a pipe dream.   From the above evidence, it is clear that the picture in the continent is far from satisfactory.  And yet, Africa has seen a number of progressive achievements in the last couple of years that can aid to accelerate the achievement of the MDG’s.   Levels of economic growth have averaged 5% for the last 3 of years.  Many African countries have benefited from debt relief, and aid assistance has increased.  All of this means that financial resources are more readily available now to be used for service delivery and development.  

 Democracy and good governance in the continent has improved substantially, and the number of civil conflicts is decreasing.  Foreign direct investment is increasing in the continent, even though this is concentrated within certain sub-regions. Several countries who have experimented with scaling up are reaping the positive rewards. 

 Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and many other countries have abolished fees for primary schools resulting in dramatic increases in enrolment during the space of a few years.  In 2006 Zambia cancelled fees for basic rural health services and Burundi introduced free medical care for mothers and children. In Niger, hundreds of thousands of people in rural communities greatly improved their livelihoods and reduced their vulnerability to droughts through large-scale reforestation driven by national policy reforms.

  Senegal is on track to achieving the water and sanitation goals through a national investment programme financed with donor support. What more, then can the continent do to accelerate meeting the MDG’s?  Particularly, what can we, as members of civil society do to accelerate the continent’s rate to meet the MDG’s? 

The first step is to Intensify Service Delivery:

Non-governmental organisations in the continent are known for their role in delivering basic services to the poor to complement government efforts.  Faith-based networks have been spear-heading the fight against HIV/AIDS through initiatives such as home-based care, delivering food parcels, or making sure that orphaned children have a home.  Community based organisations have been known to run feeding schemes in schools.  Women’s groups have spear-headed food production for decades. 

 This is but a few examples.  It is important that we, as civil society continue to strengthen the efforts of grassroots organisations to deliver services to our people.  This should include ensuring that smaller NGO’s and CBO’s in the continent belong to networks that will assist them to gain access to financial resources as well as learn new skills to make their work more effective. 

Become involved in policy making processes:

Clearly, some of the greatest work that is contributing towards the achievement of the MDG’s is done by civil society organisations.  It is fitting therefore that such civil society organisations are involved in policy development processes, and in programme planning.  Civil society should take advantage of opportunities to participate in law-making process, so that they can inform and guide governments about what would work on the ground, since they understand the reality at the grassroots. 

In some African countries there are NGO coalitions that ensure that civil society participates in policy making, such as SANGOCO in South Africa. 

Advocate for better use of resources by African governments:

In a current study done by African Monitor, evidence indicates that African governments are spending inadequate amounts of money on development – particularly on grassroots related expenditure.  African Monitor sampled 20 countries to assess the extent to which the Poverty Reduction Strategies prioritized the grassroots in their expenditure.  The evidence showed that African countries are not spending the promised 15% on health; neither are they spending the promised 10% on agriculture.  Furthermore, up to 70% of resources allocated in the development budget were expected to be aid contributions from donor countries.  This means that without donors, African governments would not implement their development programmes.Civil society should begin to be part of the decision making process in budget allocations, so that African governments are prioritising MDG spending even in their own budget resources.   

Monitor deliver of promises:

Furthermore, civil society should take up the role of evaluating and monitoring whether African governments and donor partners are delivering effectively on the ground. 

 The role of monitoring development implementation has become a pertinent aspect of development.  It is important that it is done by non-state actors, who can call governments to account, thus leading to greater relevance, effectiveness and increased accountability. The African Monitor is one of the civil society bodies in the continent that is working with grassroots networks to increase their capacity to monitor delivery on the ground.  It aims to ensure the swift and effective delivery of development promises to Africa by raising key questions from an African perspective:-·   

• Are development promises being kept?·   
• What difference does all this make on the ground?·  
• To what extent do grassroots communities benefit from such development?

Mobilise voices of African CSO’s

The need for solidarity among African civil society organisations cannot be overstated.  In a context where both human and financial resources are limited, it is important that we learn to work together, share skills, platforms and ideas all in the fight against poverty.  Particularly, it is becoming important that the voices of Africans are heard in the international development agenda, so that Africans can determine their own fate.  By saying this, one does not assume that all Africans are homogeneous.  However, in those areas of commonality – such as bringing an end to poverty, we owe it to ourselves and to our children to stand in solidarity.  

One way of doing this is to participate in networks such as FEMNET, GCAP or the Millennium Campaign. Create Solidarity with partners from the North and South:Furthermore, it is equally important for African civil society to stand in solidarity with partners from the other parts of the globe, such as Brazil, India, Scandinavia, Europe and America.  Africa has been fighting injustice in strategic alliances with these partners for decades, and those partnerships must be strengthened more so now in the face of such challenges as global warming, trade injustice and poverty. 

South to south alliances, as well as south to north alliances will help us to achieve our goals faster.  Again, platforms such as the Global Campaign Against Poverty, the One Campaign, and the Mica Challenge are examples of such alliances.  Civil Society can further strengthen those alliances by hosting joint activities at international events such as the G8 summit, meetings of the IMF and World Bank, and meetings of the African Union. 

To conclude ladies and gentlemen, I must stress that we must all be vigilant and committed to the fight against poverty.  Change is created by those who have the vision to see that things can be different, and the passion to act for change.  I hope that all of you are visionary and passionate about ensuring that poverty does indeed become history! May goodwill and peace be with you. Thank you. /ENDS/