Africa, Civil Society, Development & Aid, Headlines, North America

AFRICA: Civil Society Wants More Space

Marty Logan

MONTREAL, Oct 27 2004 (IPS) - African civil society groups are calling on the continent’s governments to make more room for them at the tables where decisions are made about development.

Civil society has contributed greatly to recent positive changes on the continent and its growing role is reflected in new institutions and processes, but the latter have not lived up to their promises of inclusion, says a report released Tuesday by Partnership Africa Canada (PAC).

Based on consultations, in late 2003 in 12 African and three Canadian cities, with 300 members of African civil society organisations, the report urges governments not to sidestep civil society groups.

”Rather than ignoring civil society – this voice of support, of revitalisation and of collaboration – (to) acknowledge that civil society organisations can be an ideal ‘right arm’ for all questions relating to the inequity in North-South relations,” the PAC report stated.

”African governments also need to pay attention to the criticisms expressed by civil society because they are primarily intended to be constructive and respectful of public alternatives – alternatives rooted in the experience of millions of Africans,” adds the document ‘African Civil Society: Prospects for Raising Awareness on Priority Issues’.

”There’s been some support from the governments or regional institutions, but not enough. They need to strengthen their consultation mechanisms,” says report author Francoise Nduwimana.

Civil society groups ”recognise that governments are accepting to work with them more and more – (concerning, for example) education about peace, tolerance and even management of natural resources. But it’s recent and it’s fragile,” she added in an interview. ”The message (of civil society) is (that governments must) reinforce this partnership, to create mechanisms for collaboration, at the local and regional levels.”

The report describes various moves to institutionalise civil society, starting with the adoption by the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) of the African Charter for Popular Participation in Development and Transformation, in August 1990.

That in turn led to three conferences, in 2000, 2001 and 2004, which resulted in the Economic, Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC), an advisory body to the OAU’s successor, the African Union (AU), which will eventually serve as an official civil society forum.

”The ECOSOCC is the very embodiment of African determination to acknowledge civil society as one of the credible ties between government and the public,” says the report.

Such recognition does sometimes translate ”on the ground,” says Nduwimana. For example, governments fighting the HIV/AIDS pandemic gladly collaborate with civil society groups because they know the organisations are closer to local populations.

”But when the government, for example (comes) with their poverty reduction strategy papers (required by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund) – they don’t want to consult with NGOs and civil society,” according to Nduwimana.

”And when they consult, they arrive with the plan already done. That’s not a consultation,” she adds.

The report does not completely blame leaders for that breakdown, but suggests two broad reasons for failed African states: policies and reforms imposed on governments from outside – in exchange for aid – which do more harm than good; and governments that are neither responsible or democratic.

In the former case, African leaders must accept that civil society criticises only with the aim of bettering society, says Nduwimana.

Yet, under pressure, governments themselves are quick to label civil society groups as ”undemocratic” because they are unelected. ”The question that needs to be raised is whether or not it is acceptable that the legitimacy of civil society is recognised solely when it occupies a terrain vacated by the state and contested when it questions the actions of the government,” says the report.

Conflict is another issue in which governments are reluctant to work with civil society, sometimes because they are involved in the violence, says Nduwimana.

Yet the report from PAC, which has offices in both Ottawa and the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, argues that civil society has made valuable contributions to defusing armed conflict. ”In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), for one, civil society has established the foundations for peace and national reconciliation.”

”The Campagne nationale pour la paix durable en RDC (CNPD) (National Campaign for a Sustainable Peace in DRC) is an initiative to which the current transition process owes a great deal,” it adds.

”The end of hostilities, the withdrawal of foreign troops, the establishment of a national dialogue, the inclusion of women, the relaunching of the democratisation process, national reconstruction and so forth have been the main points highlighted by civil society spokespeople as part of the inter-Congolese dialogue.”

Further successful contributions from civil society will depend on establishing more mechanisms at both local and regional levels, says Nduwimana, such as bodies that can participate in the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).

Established by a handful of African leaders, the plan, among many goals, calls for an average economic growth rate of more than seven percent per year for the next 15 years and conformity with goals set by northern institutions on poverty reduction, education, health and sustainable development.

The PAC report notes, ”Criticism has poured in from all directions, targeting the lack of transparency in the creation and development of NEPAD. In addition to these criticisms about the closed-door approach, other equally credible voices of protest have been raised against the neo-liberal postulate underlying NEPAD.”

While a Peer Review Mechanism that would evaluate countries’ governance has been set up under NEPAD, the role of civil society remains unclear.

”Consequently, it is more necessary than ever to establish a sub-group that, like the NEPAD business group, would ensure a permanent voice for civil society at the NEPAD Secretariat,” argues the report.