NEWSLETTERS

TAABCO News Vol.4. No.3. 2006

GOOD GOVERNANCE: KEY TO SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND POVERTY REDUCTION

The term “governance” is nothing new. It is as old as human civilization. Needless to mention that, “governance” implies the manner in which decisions are effected (or not effected). Good governance in the broad sense is steadily gaining recognition as the key to socio-economic development. In fact, development has more chance of success in those countries where governments actually invest in raising people’s living standard. The importance of good governance is now well documented. Governance is "good" when there are certain principles that are guaranteed and respected by a country’s leaders, and when these benefit all inhabitants of that country. And, at the same time, when the political leaders show the courage, leadership and the political will it takes to continue to develop good governance.

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INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY’S (ICTS) CONTRIBUTION TO DEVELOPMENT PROCESS.

Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) play a central role in development efforts. Today, the global economy has entered a "digital age" and information has become one of the primary resources for economic development. Hence, the East African Submarine System (EASSy) that includes 23 African countries is determined to build a regional fibre-optic undersea cable with immense benefit to local business. A 9,900 kilometer undersea cable link from Durban in South Africa, to Port Sudan would cut the cost of internet and telephone drastically across the Eastern and Southern Africa region. In deed, currently, efforts deployed by Africa to extend ICT access are bearing fruit, with more and more African states gradually embracing full-scale regulatory reform. The essence of market liberalization and regulatory reforms, among others, are to attract a surge of investment in the ICT sector and exploit the potential of low cost technologies to provide affordable access to ICT.

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PARTNERSHIP, AID DEPENDENCY AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Welcome to the second edition of TAABCO News 2005. The current issues addresses the theme pertaining to 'Partnership, Aid Dependency and Sustainable Development". In the quest for solutions to development problems besetting African continent, the international development partners are increasingly embracing local NGOs as essential for the promotion of democracy and empowering people, thereby leading to more effective local development of services than those currently being delivered by governments. Whilst before African governments were the major recipients of official development aid and other technical support from their development partners and multilateral institutions, today more development aid is being channeled via local NGOs. Indeed, NGOs are perceived by the development partners to work more efficiently and effectively in participatory development and to operate in those areas that are not accessible to governments. Moreover, they are seen have a better insight into the kind of programmes that are needed and desired by the poor. In this regard, NGOs can foster and support grassroots organizations to become resourceful and self-reliant.

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ENHANCING PARTNERSHIPS BETWEEN LOCAL NGOs AND GOVERNMENTS

During the last decade or so, most African development partners have changed their method of channeling financial aid to the African states. Most donors now channel substantial amount of their aid through non-governmental organizations (NGOs). In 1997, donors channeled 2% of their worldwide -- nearly US$ 1 billion -- through NGOs. (These data do not include private funds raised and spent by NGOs). It would be surprising if this percentage were not higher in Africa given the growing reliance by the United States and other major aid donors on NGOs to implement their programmes, especially for relief (World Bank 2000). Today, NGOs in Africa manage more than four times in external aid compared to what it commanded in some two and a half decades ago. This increased shift in aid to NGOs comes at a time when total official development assistance (ODA) to Africa has been shrinking (ECA 2005, World Bank 2005a).

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PUBLICATIONS

Whose right? examining the discourse, context and practice of rights-base approches to development.WHOSE RIGHTS?

Enthusiasm for “rights-based approaches” to development has grown during the past decade, taking on diverse meanings within the policies and actions of development agencies, governments and civil society organizations. The “rise of rights” (Eyben, 2003) has sparked much useful critical reflection about the origins of rights discourses and what they mean in policy and practice. One of the concerns, as with all development fashions, is ‘what is really different?’ Can this emerging focus on rights within the development arena help to bring about real changes in favour of poor and marginalized? How do we know that “rights based development” is not just putting new labels on old wine? Given the experience with other development trends, such as the widespread and often contradictory uses of “participation”, this is a valid concern (Brock and Cornwell, 2004).

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Official aid agencies, whether ‘multilateral’ – like the World Bank – or ‘bilateral’ such as(United States International Development-USAID and Britain’s Overseas DevelopmentAdministration), are financed involuntarily by tax-payers who may have a say though their MPs who question how development assistance is spent etc. It is receiving citizens who have no say to ask, question or direct usage! Official aid also involves the transfer of large sums of money – so large, in fact, that the resources of the voluntary sector look puny and insignificant by comparison. It would thus seem sensible, at the very least, for
the official agencies to be directly accountable to the public - to be ‘transparent’, open
and honest in their dealings.

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Africa is in the closing years of the 20th Century will be remembered for two historic events. One was the rise of the popular movements that led to the end of the colonial empire and the downfall of apartheid; the other, a human catastrophe of immense proportions involving the massacre of nearly a million people in Rwanda. If the one was achieved through the mobilization of the majority for goal of emancipation, the other was fuelled by pressures to comply with an externally defined agenda for social development.

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