Fisheries contribute at least 10 billion dollars to African economies every year and in Angola and Namibia they are vital economic drivers. Fishermen carry their boat in from the sea in Doring Bay, 350km north of Cape Town. Credit: Patrick Burnett/IPS

By Servaas van den Bosch
WINDHOEK, Jul 19 2013 (IPS)

Southern Africa has to settle in for another round of negotiations after talks on Economic Partnership Agreements failed to produce results in June, bringing countries closer to losing access to the lucrative European Union market.

A high-level visit to the region by EU Trade Commissioner Karel de Gught this week highlighted there are still many differences.

The troublesome trade negotiations between the EU and the Southern African Development Community (SADC)–EPA grouping that includes Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland (BLNS), as well as Angola, Mozambique and South Africa, have stretched five years past their 2008 deadline.

South Africa joined the negotiations two years back and is looking to improve the terms it has under the Trade and Development Cooperation Agreement, especially for agricultural products.

For the BLNS, which import about 80 percent of their trade from the continent’s economic powerhouse and are joined with Pretoria in the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), the entry of South Africa on the scene presents dilemmas, as well as opportunities for further negotiation and regional economic integration.

As the two economic heavyweights – South Africa and the EU – face it off, the smaller countries are stuck in the middle. From Jun. 14 to 21 senior officials talked in Brussels about clinching the long-awaited trade deal, but little progress was made.

“Basically we are where we were last year, nothing has changed in Brussels that would close the deal,” commented Rejoice Karita, senior trade advisor at the Agricultural Trade Forum, a Namibian company representing  the agricultural industry.

An impasse in the trade talks occurred between the EU and South Africa when the former indicated that the South Africans had not offered enough in terms of agricultural market access. The EU had requested market access for 67 tariff lines, but South Africa only conceded on 20 lines and put tariff rate quotas on some of them. According to negotiators, the EU responded that the offer fell short of closing the gaps in market access regulations and they needed to see improvement.

This stalemate jeopardises the discussion on agricultural safeguards, which are extremely important for the smaller economies in the region. Such safeguards allow countries to increase duties or put in place quotas if a sudden surge in imports threatens local agricultural production. The EU will need to see concessions on South African market access to give the green light for agricultural safeguards. But both parties are unwilling to move, with the South Africans keen to protect their dairy industry and processed products such as ham and confectionaries.

According to Karita, the next round of talks in September and October will be crucial. “The two blocs have strong positions and there is little movement forward. From the side of the European Commission new articles are being added to the text. Such negotiation tactics delay the process and eventually Namibia could be the odd one out,” she told IPS.

A major stumbling block is the issue of export taxes. Facing competition from China, the EU is eager to lock in raw materials, but the developing economies of Southern Africa want to be able to impose taxes to divert exports for local value addition and developing of the local economy.

European Union Trade Commissioner Karel de Gught was in Namibia and South Africa this week and said that the matter of export taxes is almost resolved with only industrial export taxes outstanding. Credit: Servaas van den Bosch/IPS

De Gught told IPS during a visit to the Namibian capital, Windhoek, that the matter of export taxes is almost resolved with only industrial export taxes outstanding. But Namibian negotiator Permanent Secretary Dr. Malan Lindeque said the issue cannot be merely ‘brushed aside’.

“Export taxes are a crucial issue for Namibia. We are primarily exporters of raw materials and need to reverse that situation. It’s crucial we move toward more explicit provisions on export taxes that meet our needs,” Lindeque told IPS.

Lindeque lamented an October 2014 deadline Europe imposed on the talks, after which Namibia will lose preferential market access.

“Because of this unfortunate deadline some circumstances cannot be properly accommodated in the talks. Still, we will only sign an agreement that is in our long term interest.”

He also warned that increased access of European agricultural goods into South Africa plays out in the Namibian market through the Southern African Customs Union.

“Already European products are extremely competitors. It is cheaper to import basic foodstuffs from Europe than to produce them locally. It is always an uphill battle for our producers to get their products on the local shelves let alone export them into the region,” he said.

In trying to reassert its grip on Southern Africa, Europe is trying to find the right tone. But the talks remain riddled with paranoia and accusations and the visit of De Gught made it clear that many stumbling blocks remain.

The latest round of talks in June were preceded by a courtesy call to Namibia by the Angel Carro, head of division for Southern Africa in the European External Action Service. The visit backfired somewhat as Carro, who came to extend the hand of friendship, was unceremoniously, and perhaps unfairly, labelled a “euro thug” by commentators when conceding in an interview that aid to Namibia would be reduced on the basis of its growing economy and upper middle-income status. In 2011 the World Bank reclassified Namibia as a middle-income country as its per capita income is 4,700 dollars. World Bank figures show that growth reached 4.9 percent in 2012.

The status of the former colonial masters has been dented in the region since the Eurozone crisis and some of the countries negotiating in the SADC–EPA, most notably Botswana, are faring much better than a couple of the EU member states.

On the other hand, growth in South Africa is stalling, coming in at a modest 2.5 percent last year, half that of Namibia. With a weakening exchange rate and investors shunning the country, because of labour unrest and political uncertainty, South Africa is painfully reminded it is still a deal-taker in the global economy and does not yet set the agenda for the continent.

By Servaas van den Bosch and - -
JOHANNESBURG, Mar 28 2012 (IPS)

South Africa’s membership of the bloc of leading emerging economies and its unique position in Africa heralded the country’s role as a gateway into the African continent. However, trade experts question whether it can live up to this position as investors begin to increasingly look towards other African markets.

Rail networks in Africa remain underdeveloped only 10 percent of transport goes via rail. Here a train crossing the Namib Desert. Credit: Servaas van den Bosch/IPS

And South Africa, as the most developed country in Africa, offers the infrastructure and services to unlock the region’s frontiers, they say.

With the International Monetary Fund forecasting 2012 growth figures averaging around six percent for sub-Saharan Africa – and with countries like Angola raking in GDP growth of almost double that – the continent is touted as the investment destination of the decade.

Africa’s population of just over one billion pales in comparison with Asia’s 3.8 billion, but the African market is largely untapped and most countries find themselves on a firm growth trajectory.

South Africa, therefore, should be the logical first port of call for investors. But regional trade experts gathered at a mid-March forum on South Africa’s Trade Policy, organised by the South African Institute for International Affairs (SAIIA), questioned the gateway concept.

“Yes, South Africa represents the continent in the G20 (bloc of developing nations), but that is not the point,” said Peter Draper, senior research fellow with SAIIA. “If a gateway is supposed to be a transmission belt between global and regional markets and production facilities, the question should be whether South Africa can use its physical and material infrastructure to fulfil a connecting function between Africa and the rest of the world.”

The answer to this question is not an unequivocal yes. “The need to get minerals down from the central African plateau to the ports, using South Africa’s good infrastructure, has boosted it as a transport hub,” said Draper. “But South Africa, geographically speaking, is not optimally located, and some of the traditional advantages are rapidly eroding.”

Places like South Africa’s economic province of Gauteng or its coastal city of Cape Town are no longer necessarily the preferred outposts from which multinationals conquer the continent.

The reason for this is not just because South Africa is relatively far from African markets.

Global player General Electric recently choose Nairobi as its sub-Saharan hub – following companies like Coca Cola, Nestle and Heineken – and it based its decision partly, say trade academics, on South Africa’s unpredictable policy environment.

“It raises the question: to what extent do foreign companies still use South Africa as a conduit into the continent?” said Draper, who said heavily populated centres of West Africa – and not South Africa – will drive future growth on the continent.

According to Dianna Games, chief executive officer of consulting firm Africa @ Work, South Africa used the gateway concept to position itself globally. “But this idea of South Africa as a single gateway into the continent is not necessarily shared by the rest of Africa.

“As foreign investors are disaggregating African regions and countries, South Africa is losing traction on a whole host of issues. This does not mean that other African countries are necessarily in a better position, but the reality is that these markets are moving up, while South Africa is sliding.”

She added that South Africa, situated at a remote tip of the continent, should deploy progressive strategies to keep attracting investment.

“Investors go directly to other African markets, because they can. The South African government is not as worried about the decline of this competitive edge as it should be,” she said.

Games said the South African port of Durban was one of the most expensive in the world. Though, with the rehabilitation of the East and West Coasts of Africa, some of it by resource companies needing to find more convenient export routes, trade patterns were starting to change in the region. In time, it is likely that Durban will be just one more port handling regional trade, rather than the main one.

“Investors are also worried about current government policies, including a decline in economic and press freedom. South Africa is losing its status as an exception in Africa, and is viewed by some to be on a downward trajectory, with some other economies rapidly improving. Meanwhile, the actions of petty bureaucrats have affected the relations between South Africa and other African countries, which generally are not managed well.”

In this vacuum, China and India have long since bolstered bilateral relations with most African countries. And Portuguese-speaking Africa, especially Angola, is Brazil’s well-established gateway into the continent.

“With 240 Australian listed mining companies, among others, and over 800 oil and gas outfits operating in Africa, the gateway concept is declining. Many of these companies operate from their host countries and go direct to the resources as required, rather than setting up headquarters in Africa…We focus heavily on BRICS and not on African countries. But BRICS might fizzle out,” Games said.

“We inherited the role of a gateway, it wasn’t necessarily a policy objective,” commented one South African trade official. “And we are certainly not a gatekeeper, which is the connotation that goes with the idea of a gateway.”

But according to the official, it is not really relevant whether South Africa is losing its gateway status. “We would welcome investments being routed directly to African countries. That way our collective growth trajectory is increasing. It means our policies are working. It means that the continent is growing and becoming more competitive. We need a growing Africa for South Africa’s own future.”

Excerpt:

By Servaas van den Bosch
WINDHOEK, Oct 5 2011 (IPS)

Over 100 years after the attempted extermination of Namibia’s indigenous men, women and children, 20 of the 300 skulls that had been stolen for racial research have finally returned home from Germany.

In a glass case two exhibited skulls are a morbid reminder of the horror of a century ago. Credit: Servaas van den Bosch/IPS

Dressed in traditional wear, with the typical headgear that resembles the horns of cows, which are so important to the Herero people, a Namibian ethnic group, she paces the tarmac of Hosea Kutako International Airport in Windhoek.

A few hundred metres from her, the remains of her ancestors are offloaded from an Airbus A340-300. It is Tuesday morning. Behind her, over 4,000 Herero and Nama people chant war songs, dance, or just wait patiently. Men dressed in military uniform carry banners demanding reparations.

Women shield their eyes against the rising sun, most of them have been here since 2am. When the boxes holding the skulls are removed from the aircraft, suddenly thousands storm the plane to pay their respects.

Although this South Western African country has been independent for 21 years, for many the return of the skulls of their ancestors from their colonial occupiers was the day the country finally closed the colonial chapter of its history.

On Oct. 4, 1904, exactly 107 years ago on Tuesday, the supreme German commander in South-West Africa (Namibia’s pre-independence name) General Lothar von Trotha issued his notorious ‘Extermination Order’ calling for the total destruction of the Herero people following an insurrection against German land grabs earlier that year.

The Herero that survived the military campaign were driven into the ‘Omaheke’, a large desert area bordering Botswana were many died of thirst. They were shot on sight or rounded up in concentration camps with mortality rates of well over 50 percent.

The Nama people, an ethnic group hailing from Namibia’s arid south, faced a similar fate after they too revolted. Bodies of some of the victims were beheaded and the skulls sent to Germany for racial experiments.

The first genocide of modern times saw 15,000 of an estimated 80,000 Herero people left, with another 10,000 living in the diaspora in Botswana till this day. Almost half of the 20,000 Namas died as well. The indigenous communities claim that their decimation lies at the root of their marginalised position today.

The German colonial occupation is still reflected in Namibia’s unequal landownership with white farmers, many of German descent, owning most of the commercial farmland.

After three years of negotiations a Namibian delegation on Monday night left Germany with 20 out of an estimated 300 skulls stored at German universities and research facilities.

The handover in Berlin was marked by the walkout of a German minister of state Cornelia Pieper, whose speech was disrupted by protests. So far, Germany has failed to apologise for the massacre, and it refuses to pay reparations. The Namibian delegation was angered by her departure.

“We are here to receive the skulls of our ancestors,” Hengari Erenfried told IPS, while hoping to catch a glimpse of the precious remains. “These are our grandparents that were brutally killed by the Germans. The Germans definitely have to pay.”

“We want them to acknowledge that they killed our people,” said Katjivikua. “That they desecrated their bodies and cut of their heads. Among those skulls is a four-year old child. That is so painful. The Germans must pay. Why can they pay other tribes that they killed like the Jews? Because they are white?”

The next day, on Wednesday, at a memorial service at Heroes Acre near Windhoek, the crowds have disappeared. A few hundred Herero and Nama men and women have been bussed in to show support, but they are by far outnumbered by the dignitaries and their entourage travelling in shiny black Mercedes and oversized SUVs.

Many Nama and Herero people feel the majority Wambo tribe dominating government does not care about their marginalised position.

Eighteen dull grey boxes sit solemnly on a table, simply marked ‘Herero’. In a glass case two exhibited skulls are a morbid reminder of the horror of a century ago.

“These remains were taken in disgrace after the genocide by the colonial powers as proof of their victory and superiority,” exclaimed Lutheran bishop Zepeniah Kameeta. “With this repatriation, the stage is set for other skulls to return home.”

“The Germans did not just wipe out a population, but they severed the heads of small children and sent them to Germany for experiments. This is a brutal violation of common decency and an affront to our values as Africans,” said Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba in his address.

Government officials, however, shied away from demanding compensation, stressing the good relationship between the two countries. The German ambassador, Egon Kochanke, in turn expressed his ‘deepest regret’, while again failing to formally apologise.

The leaders of the affected ethnic communities on the other hand were merciless in their comment on Germany’s role in the extermination.

“The German government showed no interest in our visit. We hold the opinion that they withhold the truth from us, or that they are shy or afraid,” said Nama chief David Fredericks, who was part of the delegation that went to fetch the skulls from Germany.

“I want to express my deepest and bitter disappointment that the German state still refuses to admit the atrocities against my people. Their government’s failure to take proper responsibility by handing over the skulls themselves is a further renunciation of the human existence of the Nama and Herero people. They still regard us as sub-human beings, souvenirs to be brought back home. We will persist in our demand for restitution.”

Herero paramount chief Alfons Maharero said they were “dismayed and disappointed over the inhospitable treatment that they received in Germany.”

“This humiliating reception leaves much to be desired. We want full compensation for the blood of our forefathers,” added Herero paramount chief Alfons Maharero.

“Today the spirits of our forefathers must rejoice to hear the mother tongue of the African soil. After their skulls were dissected, emptied of their brains and turned around, boiled in pots and scraped clean, to prove a racist and fascist ideology that held that the black man was inferior.

“After they were treated like chimpanzees in a laboratory. Today we bring them home with tears in our eyes,” Maharero said.  

Excerpt:

By Servaas van den Bosch
WINDHOEK, Oct 4 2011 (IPS)

Botswana and Namibia are set to lose preferential access to the European Union, which wants African, Caribbean and Pacific countries to sign controversial free trade agreements within two years or face potential loss of market access to the 27-member EU bloc.

Namibia is looking to diversify its beef exports to countries in the global South in order to lessen its dependency on the lucrative EU market. Credit: Servaas van den Bosch/IPS

After almost a decade of negotiations on EPAs between ACP countries and the EU, Brussels has finally set an ultimatum for the talks: a total of 18 out of 36 countries that have not yet concluded or implemented an EPA now have till Jan. 1, 2014 to do so.

While the announcement is not entirely surprising, it is the first time the EU – so far careful not to be seen bullying countries into a grade deal – has put a clear deadline to the talks.

“This move from the EU was anticipated for a long time,” Namibian independent trade expert Wallie Roux told IPS. Namibia has been notably reluctant to sign an EPA, in the process casting the former colonial masters in Africa into an unfavourable light.

“The EU eventually played their last ace in a desperate attempt to conclude their ill-constructed EPA negotiations within a certain timeframe,” said Roux.

The decision comes at a time when upper-middle income countries Botswana and Namibia face the loss of duty free access to the EU under a proposal that sees them removed from the EU’s Generalised System of Preferences (GSP).

“This could be a pincer movement to lock in those ACP countries that are still unsure about their future trade arrangements with the EU, or ringleaders like Namibia that dared to challenge the EU,” added Roux. “It is also interesting to note that the deadlines for both proposals coincide.”

The European Commission (EC) proposal that countries sign the EPAs within two years, to be sanctioned by the EU council, was made on Sep. 30 and quietly put out before the weekend. Officially the commission is limiting the lifespan of Market Access Regulation 1528/2007, which granted the parties an extension to preferential access after a Dec. 31, 2007 deadline saw most EPAs unconcluded.

The proposal means that countries that do not sign up face consequences varying from reverting to the EU’s GSP to losing all duty free and quota free access to the high-yield EU market, depending on the wealth of the ACP member.

The EPAs were necessitated by a World Trade Organization (WTO) decree that preferential trade agreements between countries must be reciprocal. In order to get tariff breaks from the EU, ACP countries would have to open their markets as well, although not to the same extent. The EPAs have been unpopular. African countries in particular feel they expose their markets to unfair competition and limit their economic policy-making space.

“The Regulation was a bridging solution for the countries that had negotiated Economic Partnership Agreements but not yet signed and ratified,” the EC said in a press release on Friday.

“Four years of application has provided enough breathing space for ratification or further negotiation. It is therefore time to bring the process to a close, by amending the Regulation and concluding Economic Partnership Agreement negotiations,” the EU said.

Burundi, the Comoros, Haiti, Lesotho, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia are Least Developed Countries and will be the only countries around the world that can benefit from duty- and quota-free access to the EU under the Everything But Arms scheme if they do not sign up to an EPA.

“Seven are low-income or lower middle income countries (Cameroon, Fiji, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Swaziland, Zimbabwe) that could benefit from the Generalised System of Preferences regime, a less advantageous, but still generous, unilateral scheme in place for all developing countries.”

In a commentary released on Friday, Isabelle Ramdoo and San Bilal of the European Centre for Development Policy Management note that while the deadline might seem reasonable at face value, many countries still seek clarity on contentious provisions in the proposed trade deal. Also many countries are in the midst of regional economic integration processes and are not ready to sign preferential agreements with third parties.

“Like in 2007, expect a bumpy ride in the coming months: some countries might be pressured to sign, ratify and implement the EPA that might not fulfil their ambitions and interests in terms of content, timing and geographical configuration by fear of market disruption, in particular if they risk losing preferential access to the EU,” said Ramdoo and Bilal. “Others might simply walk out. If no common position can be found at the regional level, the EPAs could seriously disrupt any regional integration effort.”

Researcher Paul Kruger from the Trade Law Centre of Southern Africa predicted a particularly “tricky” situation for the (Southern African Development Community) SADC-EPA configuration.

“The EPAs are too substantial to implement entirely before 2014. I expect the Europeans to at least want the EPAs ratified by the parliaments of the ACP countries in order to be WTO compatible, but the SADC-EPA is being completely renegotiated.

“The position of South Africa, that did not sign an interim EPA, is also instrumental in this. What if the South Africans say: ‘We don’t want to negotiate an EPA in 18 months’? This would mean a split in the configuration. Countries like Namibia would have to decide to continue siding with South Africa and lose market access or to join Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland, which have signed on to the agreement,” Kruger said.

“There is still time to conclude the negotiations. However, this would require real effort, especially from the side of the EU. That is if they are serious about resolving the contentious issues, around development and regional integration, all of which are questionable at this stage,” said Roux.

In doing so the EU could encounter some newfound resolve from the ACP states.

“I see this as a last gasp to restore the EU’s dwindling leverage in the ACP, especially in Africa,” said Roux

On the other hand the alternative to EU markets, through South-South trade, might be overestimated currently, argued Kruger.

“There is potential in the emerging markets, but there are no trade agreements in place. No African country is even negotiating a trade agreement with China.

“Countries like Namibia have realised that breaking into emerging markets with their grapes or beef is not easy because of the competition… The EU is still the major trade partner for countries in Southern Africa and countries have too many vested interests in the Duty Free and Quota Free Access into the EU to just walk out of the negotiations now.”

Excerpt:

By Servaas van den Bosch
WINDHOEK, Sep 29 2011 (IPS)

Climate change is increasingly playing a role in North-South trade, as carbon emissions are being used as an excuse to protect markets, with poorer countries likely to lose out.

Seventy percent of Namibians depend on agriculture. Credit: Servaas van den Bosch/IPS

It is unlikely that the Kyoto Protocol, whose binding emission cuts for developed nations are set to lapse in 2012, will be extended.

The absence of a legally binding agreement and especially a proper enforcement mechanism for such an agreement will lead to a surge in trade disputes and heightened protectionism, predicted experts at a Sept. 27 trade meeting in Windhoek.

The meeting, organised by the Agricultural Trade Forum and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung foundation, a private non-profit German organisation that promotes democracy, social justice, and peaceful international understanding, looked at the impact of climate change on trade, especially in Southern Africa.

“Climate change will damage infrastructure and cause an increase in weather variability, which in turn impacts on primary sectors like mining and agriculture. Greenhouse gas emission caps could furthermore affect the transport sector,” explained Laudika Kandjinga from Integrated Environmental Consultants Namibia (IECN).

“These difficulties on the supply side mean that prices, especially food prices, are likely to rise. Transport cost would go up and there would be significant rehabilitation costs for infrastructure. This affects trade flows.”

These are gloomy prospects for Namibia, a country where 70 percent of the population depends on agriculture and whose foreign revenue is largely earned through the export of raw materials.

But on a global scale climate change could see tariff walls, which were painstakingly broken down over the past decades, being resurrected, thereby affecting market access for the South.

“The climate change debate is increasingly framed as a competition debate,” noted Peter Draper of the South African Institute of International Affairs. “Take the strict carbon legislation in the European Union and some states in the United States. This results in companies relocating the more pollution-intensive part of their production to countries with less stringent legislation, like China.

“Not only does this make the problem worse, because emissions are moved from a controlled to an unregulated environment, it also causes job losses. In response to this leakage the U.S. and EU are trying to level the playing field by instituting border carbon adjustments, which are essentially tariffs.”

Already, said Draper, the U.S. is reluctant to sign any climate package that does not cater for border carbon adjustment.

“For China and India this poses a huge problem…these ‘adjustments’ could easily be used to slap across the board taxes on their products.”

In the transport sector, the drive for greener, more efficient ships will also come with a price tag attached.

“The rising cost structure of ships, together with generally higher energy prices, might lead importers to cut their supply chain. Shortening of supply chains by developed markets could be a problem for countries like South Africa that are far from markets,” said Draper.

On the other hand, countries worldwide are positioning themselves to grab a piece of the growing renewable technology market and have not shied away from old-fashioned protectionism in the process.

“We will see an increase of disputes on tariffs and subsidies for renewable technology,” commented Draper.

“Recently Japan took the Canadian state of Ontario to the World Trade Organization because of discrimination against foreign suppliers of renewable energy. A similar case played out between the U.S. and China.

“The struggle over carbon emissions and renewable energy markets feeds into climate change protectionism. As long as the Doha round of trade talks (which would have reduced subsidies for developed countries’ agricultural industries, thus allowing developing countries to export) stays comatose, you are likely to see these disputes escalating.”

Border carbon adjustment could also affect Southern Africa, especially energy-intensive sectors like metal processing, chemicals and mining.

“Because 94 percent of South Africa’s energy comes from coal plants, products from sectors that use a lot of dirty energy will likely fall under some border carbon adjustment regime,” said Draper.

Countries in this region that rely heavily on agriculture could face scrutiny from importers on the carbon-intensity of their production methods and be negatively affected by the green labels that retailers increasingly use to bar imports.

Asked about whether climate change will bring opportunities for industry, Draper seemed pessimistic.

“There might be some opportunities to benefit from developed countries moving their production, but this could be negated by border carbon adjustments. It’s hard to see the silver lining, quite frankly.

“There is also a possibility South Africa will relocate industry and energy generation to neighbouring countries to cut its emissions. Or locate electricity plants closer to coal reserves in another country, to minimise transport pollution. This could create income and jobs in these countries and promote regional economic integration,” Draper said.

But independent economist Klaus Schade thinks such a development could be frustrated by rising transport costs “which would in turn argue against lengthening supply chains by locating industry outside of South Africa.” He thinks small countries need to play the green energy card more pro- actively.

“For instance by being carbon neutral in the tourism sector, which might appeal to visitors. Think of solar water heaters for lodges and electric vehicles for game drives,” Schade said.

Also much more research and development is needed in the agricultural sector to introduce breeds and varieties that can withstand extreme weather conditions. Other opportunities would arise from adopting a low-carbon development path, said the experts.

Climate change will also affect agricultural production systems and food security and lead to ecosystem changes in Namibia, said IECN’s Dr. Justine Braby.

She stressed that countries in the region mainly focus on adapting to climate change, rather than mitigating greenhouse gasses, of which they produce little. But this does not mean that green technology is irrelevant for Southern Africa.

“Namibia with its long coastline and many days of sunshine is excellently positioned to reap the benefits of wind and solar energy,” Braby said.

However, some think that Namibia is not ready for this.

“We are not ready for renewable energy,” countered the ruling South West Africa People’s Organization member of parliament, Ben Amathila. “We need to make laws that are futuristic in order to exploit wind and solar technology, but decision makers have far too little knowledge of these issues.”

Excerpt:

By Servaas van den Bosch
WINDHOEK, Sep 15 2011 (IPS)

European Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht made a pit-stop in Windhoek to appease concerns over a troublesome economic partnership agreement (EPA) ahead of the Africa-European Union summit in South Africa.

European Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht. Credit: Servaas van den Bosch/IPS

Namibia, with exports to the EU totaling 1.16 billion euros (2.2 billion dollars), is an insignificant player in trade between the European bloc and the rest of the world. However, for years the country has refused to accede to a trade agreement with the Europeans arguing that an EPA would erode its economic policy and would give the EU an unfair advantage in trade.

The EPAs were necessitated by a World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling that decreed preferential trade agreements between the EU and the 78 poor countries in the African, Caribbean and Pacific group should be reciprocal. This means these countries have to open their markets to the EU in return for preferential market access to Europe, though the liberalisation does not have to be equal.

The negotiations have stretched out for almost a decade and have been extremely troublesome as countries like Namibia hold out for a better deal. While a challenge at the WTO for non-compliance is unlikely at this point, Europe is keen to close the deal. The scramble for resources in Africa has intensified with China and India being the EU’s main competitors.

“We have taken stock of the EPA negotiations and cleared up some important misunderstandings that could have been a hindrance to signing,” De Gucht said late on Tuesday after meeting with Pohamba.

He said the concerns that countries in the (Southern African Development Community) SADC-EPA negotiating configuration share will be discussed openly in the negotiations for a full EPA.

In July 2009 the EU signed an interim EPA (IEPA) with Botswana, Mozambique, Lesotho and Swaziland, while Namibia and South Africa refused to sign and Angola is mainly an observer in the talks. The IEPA threatened to cause a schism in the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) until the EU agreed to move the talks up to an all-inclusive agreement for the region.

In this spirit, De Gucht reiterated Europe would push back negotiations on new generation issues. “We will not force countries to negotiate on services or competition issues, such as Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs),” he said.

On the touchy subject of geographic indicators, De Gucht announced that these “will be discussed together.” Geographic indicators restrict countries exporting products linked to a certain geographical area in the EU. For instance, the brand name Champagne can only be used for sparkling wine that comes from the Champagne region in France.

The issue is mainly of concern to South Africa, which wants to increase market access for its agricultural products above and beyond the existing preferential Trade and Cooperation Development Agreement (TDCA) it has with the EU.

De Gucht was confident that outstanding issues, such as preferential access for Namibia’s fisheries products that are sourced beyond the internationally accepted 12 nautical mile territorial zone and the ambivalent status of its canning industry, could be solved. The same would apply for other remaining tariff issues.

“We want to conclude these talks. We want to sign,” said Namibia’s Minister of Fisheries Bernhardt Esau. “There is an understanding that we can resolve the remaining issues as soon as possible.”

De Gucht denied that a renegotiation of the EU’s Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) would put pressure on the talks. If Namibia does not sign the EPA it will fall back on the GSP. However, the new GSP, which will come into effect in 2013, would likely exclude middle-income countries like Namibia.

“The GSP does not make much sense for countries like Namibia as it only allows preferential access for 65 percent of products. Under the current Duty Free and Quota Free (DFQF) regime, as well as under the EPA, Namibia would have much broader access,” De Gucht said.

Currently the EU is Namibia’s biggest trade partner outside the region and it is unlikely the large emerging economies will give the region the same favourable terms that Europe does.

However, it is unlikely Namibia will sign the EPA unless its main trade partner, South Africa, accedes to an EPA.

If South Africa signs the EPA it will be under stricter conditions compared to what the EU can offer the smaller peripheral states. But concerns remain. South Africa has little to lose and can opt to continue trading under the TDCA.

If Namibia continues to refuse to sign an EPA and loses market access under the GSP, it would have to trade with the EU under general WTO rules. However, the EU, through the SACU customs area, would have access to Namibian markets under the TDCA, said independent Namibian trade expert Wallie Roux.

“In terms of international trade, this does not make sense at all. It would be the EU versus Namibia. The net result would thus be to succumb to a signature of an un-concluded EPA in order to have some agreement with the EU, while in the meantime being subjected to EU preferential access to our own domestic market,” Roux said.

Excerpt:

By Servaas van den Bosch
CAPE TOWN, Sep 9 2011 (IPS)

Southern Africa has moved forward with regional economic integration, but challenges remain, say trade experts.

Few fisheries products reach landlocked countries in the region because of infrastructure development and trade barriers. Credit: Servaas van den Bosch/IPS

These figures were presented on Friday at the annual conference of the Trade Law Centre of Southern Africa (Tralac), a high profile meeting of trade experts from Africa and beyond in Cape Town.

But challenges remain in the political bloc, which from a trade perspective is characterised by lengthy negotiations and complicated trade rules. “There remain a number of countries such as Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar and the Seychelles that are not participating for a variety of reasons,” said Petros Shayanowako, a researcher at the Trades Centre in Zimbabwe.

“And then there are countries like Malawi, Tanzani and Zimbabwe that have sought derogation of the FTA mainly to protect their agricultural markets,” said Shayanowako. Derogation means that states delay the implementation of a trade agreement until they are ready.

Within SADC the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), consisting of South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland, is a relatively developed and prosperous nucleus of mostly upper middle-income countries. But even the oldest customs union in the world struggles with some fundamental problems, say researchers.

“There is a lack of common industrial development, common policies and there is little intra-SACU trade,” said Reginald Selelo, the Foreign Direct Investment specialist at the USAID (United States Agency for International Development) Southern Africa Trade Hub.

The development of regional industrial policies has eluded the customs union. This is at a time when the customs union faces several critical negotiations. It is in negotiations with the European Union (EU) over a set of problematic Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) while continuing to develop an existing agreement with the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) comprising Liechtenstein, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland.

At home SACU is supposed to be the driver behind the envisaged SADC customs union and the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA), which connect the FTAs of SADC, the Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the East African Community (EAC). The TFTA, the first phase of which should be launched in three years time, will span 27 countries and close to 600 million consumers.

But little is coming out of SACU these days, with major decision-maker South Africa putting the brakes on the development of regional industrial policies. “Without the active support of member states, the SACU Secretariat in Windhoek, Namibia is powerless. It is no more than a post office box,” said one agricultural trade expert.

“In order to achieve sustainable, equitable and balanced growth, SACU has to fast-track its regional industrial policy, trade facilitation, review of its revenue sharing formula, the establishment of common institutions and building a framework for unified trade negotiations with third party,” Selelo analysed.

But that is just part of the solution to building a stronger SACU that in turn can truly function as the cornerstone of a common market in SADC – however unlikely that prospect is at the moment – or the TFTA.

“SACU must also seriously consider the inclusion of a deeper integration agenda into the work programme it has set itself,” says Selelo.

Furthermore, it should develop a clear guideline on the accession of new members. Because of its relative wealth, a number of peripheral states are keen to join the customs union, not necessarily attributing to its stability. This problem will become more acute as markets between SACU and the rest of SADC and the continent are freed up.

Most important is that SACU starts to develop within itself instead of economic powerhouse South Africa using the other members to legitimate the concept of an external tariff to the rest of the world and propping up their budgets in return.

“SACU now has to identify and build cross-border value chains,” Selelo said. “Secondly, it needs to focus more on new generation issues like services. These are not prioritised at the moment, but trade partners globally want to engage on this.

“Looking at the wider region, SADC will need to make haste with its planned infrastructure development, opening countries up for increased trade,” he said.

“There is also an urgent need for monitoring and compliance mechanisms including those relating to non-tariff barriers,” Selelo said. “And SADC needs to expedite the implementation of its finance and investment protocol to improve investment inflows into and across the region.”

Excerpt:

By Servaas van den Bosch
CAPE TOWN , Sep 8 2011 (IPS)

While globally trade agreements are more and more about linking production chains between countries and continents, Africa remains locked in a struggle to overcome the colonial legacy of fragmentation, trade experts say.

Chief Economist of the World Trade Organization Patrick Low says preferential trade agreements are less about tariffs. Credit: Servaas van den Bosch/IPS

Speaking on Thursday at the two-day Trade Law Centre of Southern Africa’s (Tralac) annual conference in Cape Town, Low said preferential trade agreements (PTAs) are less and less about tariffs and increasingly deal with ‘deep integration’, or linking production networks.

Low referred to the WTO’s World Trade Report 2010 that shows that 87 percent of trade conducted under PTAs enjoys a preferential margin of just two percent. And only 16 percent of world trade is subject to preferences.

“It’s no longer just about opening markets, but about subtle ways to create a competitive environment for your industry. By engaging in such deep PTAs, trade within production networks has gone up by eight percent,” said Low.

However, this does not apply to Africa.

“Africa does not fit into this pattern. Rather than accommodating production networks, it is locked in a struggle to overcome the colonial legacy of fragmentation. PTAs in Africa are therefore rather shallow and do not necessary lead to deeper integration,” observed Low.

An analysis of global trends in PTAs shows they increasingly facilitate the removal of obstacles to cross-border production. They are highly private sector-driven, with a buy-in from government and with domestic regulation supporting regional developments. They also often go further than what the WTO prescribes for free trade.

In Africa, said trade law expert and Tralac associate Gerhard Erasmus, PTAs are motivated by post- colonial politics and characterised by a top-down government-led approach. Africa also pursues a linear model of trying to move from Free Trade Areas (FTAs) to a customs union and ultimately a common market. This is not always realistic and results in ‘messy’ FTAs without the proper monitoring and enforcement of rules.

For instance, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) is in name a FTA, but it continues to suffer from numerable trade barriers.

“A truck driver shipping goods from South Africa to the Democratic Republic of Congo will be, for instance, held up at a border by obstinate officials citing improper documentation and be forced to abandon the truck.

“Upon returning to the border post, after months of unsuccessfully trying to seek redress through the courts, the truck will be gone and so will the merchandise,” Erasmus said of the daily challenges private sector players face.

Development of services, such as a cost-effective transport sector, is largely avoided in the extensive trade talks African countries have engaged in over the past decade. Yet without them, trade suffers.

“For example 40 percent of Rwanda’s export income is gobbled up by transportation costs,” said Erasmus.

“Africa continues to be preoccupied with trade in goods, rather than embracing a deeper regional integration agenda like elsewhere in the developing world. Talks are mostly state-driven with both the private sector and civil society occupying a peripheral place. The private sector should be engaged to boost deeper integration,” said Tralac Director Trudi Hartzenberg.

Services are essential to boost the production sector or networks, even when they deal with goods, said the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Hildegunn Nordhas. He said that services were needed to grow industry and businesses. The development of services can open markets or boost productivity.

“The cut-flower trade in Kenya only started flourishing when more tourists flocked to Kenya, thereby establishing regular air connections that could then be used to export flowers.

“Or take the proliferation of the telecom sector in Africa. Where you previously had to drive to a farm in the rural areas to see if they had produce, you can now call the farmer on his cell phone,” Nordhas said.

To continue to ignore the development of the service industry in trade agreements on the continent will do Africa no favours in the long run, Nordhas said.

“The relative gap between developed and developing countries that invest in services and Africa will grow and we will fall behind. So actually the development of services is a priority.”  

Excerpt:

By Servaas van den Bosch
WINDHOEK, Sep 1 2011 (IPS)

It is not certain that an African free trade area will further regional integration or deepen the existing inequality between countries.

A cavalier attitude has seen South African businesses and services spreading across the continent. Credit: Servaas van den Bosch/IPS

The tripartite area, which will connect the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the East African Community (EAC), will span 26 African countries with over 578 million consumers and a combined gross domestic product of 853 billion dollars.

Negotiations were launched this year in June in South Africa and leaders want the first phase of the Cape to Cairo free market to be a reality within 36 months. This phase deals with trade in goods and focuses on tariff liberalisation, infrastructure development, non-tariff barriers, movement of business people and rules of origin.

“The timeline is probably a bit unrealistic, seeing that the negotiating mandate is driven by member states of the different RECs,” says Ndiitah Robiati from the Agricultural Trade Forum in Windhoek. She refers to the slow progress made on economic integration in SADC and COMESA, where member states have not implemented agreements on tariff liberalisation.

Officially the tripartite FTA is the panacea for overlapping membership of different RECs and an important step in the implementation of the 1991 Abuja Treaty that calls for an African Monetary Union by 2023. But a single currency bloc, or even a customs union, could be the last thing on the mind of South Africa, which is dead set on making the tripartite FTA a reality.

“South Africa has the industrial base, but they face the problem of getting their goods and people into the continent, especially into the large markets of East Africa, where its footprint is limited,” comments Paul Kruger, researcher at the Trade Law Centre of Southern Africa (TRALAC).

Economists point out that big countries like South Africa and Egypt stand to benefit most from the tripartite FTA. “In the short term the bulk of the countries will not benefit in terms of increased trade between member states, our research has shown. The dominant role players will benefit because they are better positioned,” says TRALAC researcher Taku Fundira.

“In Southern Africa only South Africa and Mozambique will benefit. In the case of South Africa, this is because of the advanced state of its economy and its existing industrial base, which gives it an edge over other countries. Mozambique is still growing and is putting the right policies in place to attract investments. Both countries will benefit from liberalisation in the agricultural sectors as they are large sugar producers.”

But trade experts warn that the cumbersome economic integration process in SADC, with an envisaged customs union being pushed back and countries failing to implement the provisions of a 2008 FTA, raises doubts about the tripartite area.

“No doubt there are challenges,” says Fundira. “The smaller problems manifesting themselves in the RECs could be multiplied in the tripartite FTA. But states have also learned from experience. Rules of origin, for instance, should not be an obstacle but a facilitator of trade.”

Rules of origin are a way to protect products and industry sectors. Countries use them to exclude third parties from preferential trade agreements. An example would be preventing a Chinese product, repackaged in South Africa, finding its way into the European Union (EU) under South Africa and the EU’s Trade and Development Cooperation agreement (TDCA).

Similarly countries listing products as sensitive should not hinder the process, says Fundira. “The definition of ‘sensitive’ currently is quite broad. As most countries in the region produce the same things, listing a few tariff lines as sensitive immediately restricts trade. Then the process becomes meaningless. We can see that this issue is approached more cautiously in the FTA negotiations.”

It is still unclear how the ambitions of the tripartite FTA will be reconciled with those of the RECs. EAC and COMESA are customs unions, while SADC announced two weeks ago it still intends to establish a customs and monetary union.

“It will be interesting to see how a SADC customs union will converge into the tripartite FTA,” notes Kruger. “The current situation in COMESA, which has a customs union without a common external tariff, indicates it will be impossible for SADC to realise its ambition of a customs union.”

This might be fine with South Africa, which already has a headache from its membership of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU). Through the SACU South Africa pays revenue to the union’s four other members. It is money that disappears in the budgets of these countries, instead on being spent on infrastructural development that would enable South Africa to widen its markets.

“South Africa is shifting its efforts from deeper economic integration to liberalising markets. Technically speaking it probably could do without entities like SACU,” notes Robiati.

What some commentators describe as a new South African imperialism, others deem a more realistic alternative to the haughty ideals of economic unity so far pursued.

“South Africa has not allowed itself to be held back by trade barriers. When you are in Dar es Salaam you can eat in the same Spur restaurant as you would in Johannesburg,” says Robiati. “You can phone with MTN and take your money out of a Standard Bank ATM. South African companies have taken the risks and it has paid off.”

In short, South Africa has an economic vision. “Outside South Africa there are no industrial policies in place. How can countries sign up to trade agreements when they essentially do not know what they want?” Robiati asks.

Excerpt:

By Servaas van den Bosch
WINDHOEK, Aug 31 2011 (IPS)

Weariness surrounds the negotiations on an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) regulating trade access between Southern Africa and the European Union (EU).

The status of Namibia's fishing industry and the country's 200 nautical miles Economic Exclusive Zone remains a sticking point with the EU. Credit: Servaas van den Bosch/IPS

“Support from the side of the EU has dissipated. There is markedly less interest from Brussels this year to push the process. The EU is frustrated by the little progress made and currently focuses more on Asian countries,” observed Paul Kruger, a researcher at the Trade Law Centre for Southern Africa in Cape Town, South Africa.

For the past decade the EU has been putting in place EPAs with the 79-member strong African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of states to meet the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) demand for reciprocity in world trade.

Last year countries decided to leave a divisive interim EPA (IEPA) behind and focus on concluding a full trade deal instead. But in doing so, the parties are renegotiating the IEPA article by article, while also bringing new concerns to the table – a time-consuming exercise.

A final agreement will prescribe reciprocal liberalisation of tariff lines and continued duty and quota free (DFQF) access to Europe’s high-yield markets. Annexes to the EPA text will outline different schedules for various countries, reflecting their wide-ranging stages of development.

South Africa, whose preferential trade is covered by a separate Trade Development and Cooperation Agreement (TDCA), is using the EPA talks to get even better access for their products.

The TDCA, when fully implemented in 2012, will open 86 percent of South Africa’s market to the EU. Conversely, the EU will liberalise 94 percent of its market for products from South Africa.

“In order to get additional advantage from signing up to an EPA, the South Africans are looking at securing better access for agricultural products from the region, but the EU has had difficulty in convincing its member states to agree to this,” Kruger said.

“South Africa sent a list of proposals regarding tariffs lines and market access for agricultural products. The EU took five months to respond and now the parties will have to discuss the offer on the table,” said Ndiitah Robiati, director of the Agricultural Trade Forum in Windhoek, Namibia.

South Africa’s increased dominance in the talks once again puts a break on the negotiating process. Botswana, Mozambique, Lesotho and Swaziland have signed the IEPA and are ready to move forward. Angola is a mere observer in the talks and though Namibia previously refused to sign, the country has indicated that most of its concerns have been met.

“There are a number of ongoing unresolved issues in the EPAs, but Namibia’s particular concerns seem largely addressed,” said Robiati.

The debate now largely focuses on technicalities, such as Namibia’s 200 nautical miles Economic Exclusive Zone (EEZ) – a zone beyond and adjacent to the territorial sea of a coastal state.

“Normally this zone is just 12 nautical miles wide and the EU wants to understand the implication of Namibia’s territorial claim for trade,” said Robiati.

Major policy space concerns, such as the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) clause, that automatically extends preferential trade agreements between SADC and third parties to the EU, seem to have been toned down. “Namibia is now merely committed to consult the EU on this on a case by case basis,” Robiati said.

But while the Europeans can afford to be accommodating to the smaller Southern African Customs Union (SACU) states, in South Africa it finds an industrialised trade partner.

“There is no way Brussels will grant South Africa the same access as the others,” said Namibian independent trade analyst Wallie Roux.

The different approach towards South Africa causes friction in SACU. “Differences between the EU’s stricter approach to South Africa and the other SACU members are a sticking point, exactly because all these states are in one customs union,” said Roux.

So the same incongruence that existed under the TDCA will continue under the EPA.

“The process of integrating the tariff lines of the TDCA in the EPA is almost complete, there are 10 or so tariff lines outstanding,” said Roux. “There are also other trade obstacles flowing from this definition of parties, like cumulation issues.”

“Cumulation relates to BLNS (Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland) countries using South African products as a basis or component for their own exports to the EU. This is currently not allowed. It’s basically a backdoor the EU wants to keep closed to prevent South Africa from channeling their products through the BLNS.

“It raises the question why the EU can act as a homogenous bloc, while countries in the SACU are approached on different levels,” Roux explained.

Another major headache is geographic indicators, which refers to the branding of products by their geographical origin, such as “Champagne”. In the EU Champagne can only be used for sparkling wine that comes from the Champagne region of France.

“South Africa has now said it will abide by WTO rules regarding geographic indicators, arguing that what the EU proposes is not yet law,” explained Roux. The WTO rules regarding geographic indicates are looser that the EU’s.

Other outstanding issues include the position of South Africa on infant industry protection and export taxes which, according to Robiati, are slowly being solved.

All in all 2011 seems a continuation of the ambiguity surrounding the EPA while players rapidly lose interest.

Roux said: “It seems the EU is expanding the negotiation agenda, instead of solving the existing problems.”

“Ultimately Southern African countries risk losing their DFQF access. It’s a concern that even the countries that signed an IEPA are not implementing it. Possibly the EU is delaying the process so they can have more leverage, since in the end it all comes down to WTO compatibility,” said Kruger noting that meanwhile the private sector is holding its breath. “Sectors like the tobacco industry really don’t want their markets cut off.”

“A mini-waiver has been given, which will buy states some more time to conclude the negotiations,” said Robiati. “This gives some breathing room, but all it takes is one non-ACP country, like Panama or Indonesia, to make noise at the WTO.”  

Excerpt:

A successful entrepreneurial programme in the north of Namibia that infuses farming practices with gender-responsive environmentalism may serve as a model for other countries on the African continent.

Victoria Mulunga is a participant in the CES programme in Namibia. Women take an interest in topics like conservation farming and drip irrigation. Credit: Servaas van den Bosch/IPS

“Rural women in Africa are burdened with providing for the household. They are the farmers, working the fields, cooking and trying to make a modest cash income on the side,” says Marie Johansson, the chief executive officer of Creative Entrepreneur Solutions (CES) in Ondangwa, Northern Namibia, in southern Africa.

“You see a woman, sitting at a service station selling bread and it seems like a nice way to make an income. But poverty profiles show that she gets up at three in the morning to prepare the dough, then she makes breakfast, then she bakes the bread, then she works in the field for a couple of hours, before walking the 10 kilometres to the service station.

“There she sells bread all day long, maybe making an overall profit of five Namibian dollars (0.75 U.S. dollars). After that, of course, it’s back home to cook, clean and prepare for the next day, all the way up ‘til bedtime at midnight.”

For women already locked into a harsh existence, floods, droughts and higher temperatures are unwelcome guests that affect harvests and their ability to provide.

Says Johansson: “Men do mostly not have this vicious cycle of working and sleeping, so they tend to pay less attention when land issues are discussed in climate change adaptation workshops. But the women will say that the first thing they want to do is to secure the household staple food production, no matter what.

“A woman tends to take an interest in topics like conservation farming and drip irrigation because for her it is vital to get as much food from her land as possible. ‘How do I plan my farm with these floods?’ ‘Should I maybe diversify into rice production?’ These are the questions they face.”

With a handful of other women Johansson started Creative Entrepreneur Solutions in 2007. She helped poor women in the townships to strengthen their small informal enterprises, or start new ones.

In 2009 the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) approached CES to roll out a community- based adaptation programme in 20 communities in five Namibian provinces. The programme has been extremely successful.

“Our approach works because it is a bottom-up approach. If the donors walk out tomorrow, it will still work. Most donor-funded or government-initiated programmes fail because they don’t ask the people what they want and create no sense of ownership.”

Instead, CES started self-help groups modelled on initiatives in India. Communities organise themselves in cooperatives to tackle climate change issues, or build up savings for business ventures.

“Our approach is twofold,” explains Johansson. “Yes, we want to improve food security, but if there is an opportunity to create an enterprise at the same time, why not? We are interested in helping aspiring entrepreneurs to put their ideas into practice.”

So, the women engage in conservation tilling and improved irrigation methods for their dry-land crops and, in the process, start to farm differently.

Namibian women are trying out new farming techniques to generate bigger yields. credit : Servaas van den Bosch/ IPS

“Women now grow different plants that are better suited to different climatic conditions or have more market applications, or they switch to aquaculture. Climate change also brings possibilities. The recent floods have really opened people’s eyes to fish farming and they are now establishing ponds and dams. They also have started using energy-efficient stoves and they practise water harvesting.”

Can programmes like this have a spill-over effect into the Southern African region? “I would think so,” argues Martha Mwandingi, the Namibian head of energy and environment for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Mwandingi oversees several large programmes relating to climate change adaptation, biodiversity and ecosystem management, including the project run by CES.

“Countries can adapt projects and tailor them to their own circumstances. Or ideas can be used straightaway, such as the climate change information toolkits that we developed for communities.”

“Climate change impacts most heavily on women because of the multiple roles they play in a household, from farmer to provider to being the managers of the country’s national resources,” says Mwandingi.

“Climate change compounds the burden of women because of the perpetuation of discriminatory gender-specific roles. All over the world global warming affects people, but especially the most vulnerable. Women belong to that group.”

Mwandingi thinks more research is needed on the involvement of women in the climate change decision-making process. “There might be a gap there. I would love to see some studies on this. How many women sit on Namibia’s National Climate Change Committee, for instance? Or how many women are part of the delegations to the climate talks and the subsidiary technical committees?

“On the other hand, looking at Namibia, we have some powerful women in this field. The ministers of environment and finance – two vital departments – are both female, as are many directors of government agencies or significant research institutes.

“But it deserves a closer look. How are women for instance involved in the various climate change science centres across the Southern African region? And how does that involvement affect the decisions about the type of data to gather and what models to draw up?”

Mwandingi proposes that the Global Gender and Climate Alliance established at the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali in 2007 should be revisited on a regional level. According to its website, the alliance “works to ensure that climate change policies, decision-making, and initiatives at the global, regional, and national levels are gender responsive”.

By Servaas van den Bosch
WINDHOEK, Jul 1 2011 (IPS)

African trade with India and China flourished over the past decade but, with unemployment rising and industrialisation failing to take hold, cracks are appearing in Africa’s much-vaunted “Look East” doctrine. Meanwhile, from across the Atlantic, Brazil is making inroads into the continent.

Could relations with the Latin American powerhouse present a more viable alternative to the East in Africa’s South-South relations?

In June a newspaper photo of former Namibian president Sam Nujoma must have raised some eyebrows at breakfast tables across the country. A grinning 82-year old stared up from front pages, intimately flanked by a pair of equally jubilant but scarcely clad Samba dancers.

The former president’s chirpy mood was – at least in part – explained by the Brazilian oil and gas exploration company High Resolution Technology (HRT) hosting a prestigious launch party in the Namibian capital, where the photo was taken.

HRT will be drilling for the black gold off the Namibian coast and expressed confidence that the southwest African nation will soon join the ranks of oil producers.

As remarkable as its 400 million dollar investment is the commitment to the continent’s wellbeing that Brazilian investors express.

In Namibia, Brazil was instrumental in setting up a navy equipped with Brazilian ships and, on the country’s northern border, stores stock Brazilian furniture to service the Portuguese-speaking Angolan market.

HRT Chief Executive Officer Marcio Rocha Mello at the launch praised the country’s stable economy and accommodating legal framework. He also committed one Namibian dollar (0,15 U.S. dollar) per barrel to the preservation of marine reserves.

While perhaps a hollow offer as so far no oil has been found, it’s also a gesture few of the Chinese state-owned firms presently rummaging through the continent for resources would care to match.

And, in a nutshell, it perhaps signifies the different approach the Brazilians are thought to take to investment which, in contrast to China’s no-strings-attached policy, is often accompanied by social programmes or aid.

Of course Namibia is not the only African country targeted by Brazil. Brasilia has historically looked towards Lusophone Africa.

In Mozambique, for instance, diversified Brazilian mining company Vale in May opened a 1.7 billion dollars coal plant, the largest once-off investment the southeast African country has ever seen. In two years the world’s second largest miner will export 11 million tons of coal annually from the Moatizi mine.

At a recent mining conference the company announced it would continue to invest in Africa a total of 12 billion dollars over the next five years.

This is not an isolated event. Some 500 Brazilian companies are active in over 30 African countries. Writing in a recent paper, researcher Gerhard Seibert from the Lisbon University Centre for African Studies says Angola alone hosts more than a 100 Brazilian companies.

Some giants with long-standing interests in Africa are oil company Petrobras, active in Angola since 1979 and now present in virtually every oil-producing country, and construction company Norberto Odebrecht that in the early 1980s started operations in Angola, using the country as a gateway into the continent.

Many companies are supported by extensive credit lines from the state-owned Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES).

While Brazil’s relationship with Africa precedes the recent upsurge in Chinese involvement by decades, President “Lula” da Silva revived Brazil’s interest in the continent, in step with the objectives of the India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) forum.

During his 12 official visits he doubled the number of Brazilian embassies in Africa and boosted trade from three billion dollars in 2000 to 26 billion dollars in 2008.

“Politically and historically the context of Brazil’s engagement in Africa has changed considerably,” notes Seibert about the “Lula years”.

Adds Sanusha Naidu, senior researcher at the Human Sciences Research Council, a statutory body in South Africa: “Companies have used Brazil’s diplomatic efforts as a springboard to deploy their African activities, especially in the countries with which they have an affinity based on the Lusophone heritage.”

Brazil’s trade with the continent stood at 20 billion dollars in 2010. This is still dwarfed by China’s 107 billion dollars’ worth of trade with Africa, but is not much lower than that of the other emerging market giant India, which stands at 32 billion dollars.

Impressive figures, especially when taking into account the billions of dollars in aid that Brazil poured into Africa during the same time. Still, critics argue Brazil simply doesn’t have the muscle to match China’s African footprint.

“The argument often is that Brazil and, to an extent, India lack the support of the state which in China is the champion of foreign investment,” is Naidu’s analysis. “But you do have an extensive private sector in Brazil that for decades has nurtured its global contacts. The private sector should be the motor of promoting Africa as an investment destination.”

While there is a trade agreement between the Southern African Customs Union and Mercosur (Latin America’s Southern Common Market), observers say this is not used optimally.

Researchers of the Trade Law Centre of South Africa (TRALAC) point out in their analysis of the trade agreement between the two blocs, aptly titled “Shall we Samba?” obvious possibilities for trade, especially in the agricultural sector.

“Of interest, as well, is Brazil’s focus on renewable energy, especially biofuels,” adds Naidu. “Its focus on innovation and research and its willingness to transfer skills make it an attractive partner.”

“Now the question is how will Brazil move into the greater available space in Africa. So far Lula’s successor, President Dilma Rousseff, seems to have adopted his policies and is moving along the same trajectory.”

Excerpt:

By Servaas van den Bosch
WINDHOEK, Jun 29 2011 (IPS)

In one of the most sparsely populated countries on the planet, people travel up to 200 kilometres in the simmering heat to see a nurse or get basic medication.

Registered nurse George du Plessis takes a patient's blood pressure in the mobile clinic. Credit: Servaas van den Bosch/IPS

Most people who fall ill on a Namibian farm wait out their illness. They rather risk developing a chronic condition than making the arduous trip to a far away clinic in the forty degree Celsius heat. And even if they go, they most likely will have to wait for a long time before a medical officer sees them. In addition, the chances of them being sent home with an over-the-counter painkiller is high.

To fill this gap in primary healthcare provision Dutch non-governmental organisation PharmAccess, together with the health ministry and the private sector have started a mobile clinic in one of the most remote regions of Namibia, in rural Otjozondjupa.

The project called Mister Sister has converted trucks into mobile clinics, receives medicine, vaccines and consumables from the health ministry, and funding from a growing complement of corporate sponsors.

“Mister Sister addresses an extremely important and often not recognised problem,” remarked professor Rich Feeley from Boston University and advisor to the project at the project’s launch in mid-June. “Even when the costs are free, getting to the healthcare facilities is a problem.”

In June the first Mister Sister mobile clinic commenced its month-long route along farms in the rural Otjozondjupa Region some 100 kilometres (km) from the capital Windhoek. Ultimately the service will operate three mobile clinics with a budget of 230,000 dollars each per year.

The average distance to a clinic in Namibia is 69km, to a doctor 99km, hospitals are approximately 107km away and for a dentist one travels 170km. But these are averages. In a country roughly the size of Pakistan, but with only two million inhabitants, having to travel 200km to access healthcare is no exception.

Though classified as an upper middle-income country by the World Bank, Namibia has the world’s highest income inequality on record and only 15 percent of its people have medical health insurance.

“Private insurers will only service the insured. We wanted to put in place a system that delivered unified care. Farm workers and their dependants have free access to our healthcare, while for teachers or police officers at roadblocks we can claim the treatment from their insurance companies,” said Ingrid de Beer, Namibian general manager of PharmAccess in Namibia.

She adds that the system is unique in the way it brings public and private players together. De Beer: “It doesn’t make sense to have a private and a public system servicing the same population. Instead PharmAccess runs the service, with contributions in kind from the government and monetary input from the employers.”

“We in the private sector have a habit of criticising a (health) system that doesn’t work,” commented Derek Wright, president of the Agricultural Employers Union, which promotes the initiative among its members. “But in the agricultural sector we have learnt that it is better to find a solution. It’s important to invest in the health of our employees and their dependants.”

While the clinics are free for workers, farmers along the route have to pay a 700-dollar annual participation fee, regardless of the size of the staff complement or its dependents. So far 27 commercial farmers have signed up.

Sakkie Coetzee, chief executive officer of the Namibia Agricultural Union thinks it is a good deal for the farmers.

“There are a lot of advantages. The clinics save the farmer time and will undoubtedly increase productivity on the farms. It makes sense for farmers to pay the contribution. By taking healthcare provision in their own hands they will save money in the end.”

Another benefit of the public-private partnership is that red tape is reduced to a minimum, said Feeley.

“In this setup its easier to replace a starter motor, without first having to obtain three quotes. Or when the blood pressure pump breaks, the supply lines are probably infinitely shorter.”

“It is also an unique opportunity to put in place evidence-based management, learning from the project as we go along and implementing these lessons here and elsewhere,” he added.

“It’s a very good initiative because access to healthcare in these areas is a big, big challenge for the rural population, especially farm workers. We give them good treatment, the best actually,” George du Plessis, who heads the mobile clinic’s team, told IPS.

The teams consist of a registered nurse, an enrolled nurse and a driver. Du Plessis and his colleague see about thirty patients every day.

“Many patients suffer from neglected chronic conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure,” he explained. “With an elevated blood pressure it is easy to get a stroke, yet the condition can be treated easily and on our next visit we simply bring three months worth of drugs so that the patient doesn’t have to go to hospital to renew the prescription.”

De Beer estimates that such ‘medical backlogs’ constitute a part of the clinic’s early work. But by enrolling these patients on an automated system, listing their conditions and starting treatment later cost to the healthcare system and the agricultural sector can be avoided.

“Other conditions that we encounter are back pains and headaches from working in the fields all day long in the burning sun and respiratory problems in kids, such as coughing and sneezing,” continued Du Plessis, whose lapel insignia identifies him as an experienced nurse, qualified in delivering babies, treating psychiatric patients and offering community health care.

“Many children also are behind with their immunisations, which is a big problem. The initial vaccinations at birth in the hospital are not followed up because of the long distances.”

Du Plessis says the clinic also plays an important role in voluntary HIV/AIDS counselling, as well as family planning. “Sometimes a single mother has six kids and can hardly cope. Employers, therefore, encourage women workers to make use of family planning to prevent unwanted pregnancies.”

It’s a far cry from the days when government officials handed out condoms and Panadol on their visits to rural areas.

“We sit down with the patients and take as much as thirty minutes to talk about their problems. The farm workers respect you for that. They really appreciate the service,” Du Plessis said.

Excerpt:

A radical rethink of current energy policy can cut South Africa’s greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent in 2050 compared to 1990 levels. More than that – after an initial spike in investment – South Africans four decades down the line would pay 23 billion dollars per year less for their electricity compared to business as usual.

Windmills in South Africa's Western Cape. Credit: Credit: Kalle Pihlajasaari/Wikicommons

Reducing South Africa’s present reliance on coal and oil at the same time as focusing on energy efficiency could see the country use less energy in 2050 than it does now, even as population and the economy grow.

This scenario is presented in a report titled “The Advanced Energy [R]evolution: a Sustainable Energy Outlook for South Africa”, presented on May 25 in Johannesburg by the European Renewable Energy Council (EREC) and Greenpeace.

A sustainable energy future for Africa   Sven Teske, Greenpeace’s global director for renewable energy, foresees a bottom-up electrification of rural Africa, where many people still live disconnected from a national grid. “Areas close to the grid will be serviced a combination of concentrated solar power, wind power, bioenergy and geothermal energy sources, as well as medium and small hydropower schemes.”

More outlying areas would be powered by a combination of solar photovoltaic cells and electricity generated by biomass, backed up by small hydro schemes. Local cooperatives could work together to establish and distribute electricity, electrifying large areas by connecting such mini-grids.

The report also presents a less ambitious scenario where fossil fuels still make up a sizeable portion of the energy mix, but the region could still cut its emissions in half by using energy more efficiently.

A vital component will be legislated standards for efficiency, says Teske: “We have unfortunately seen that campaigns to change behavior have little effect. The problem in South Africa and the region is that there are no technical efficiency standards for buildings, appliances, power plants and vehicles.”

For example, there is no regulation that says standard standby power consumption of a household appliance should not exceed one watt.

Putting it into practice

In the Namib desert, 150 kilometres from the nearest town, a small community already practices to a large extent what the researchers are preaching. “We use about four kw/h of electricity a day, for groups of 40 learners and an average of 15 litres of water per person per day,” says Viktoria Keding, director of the Namib Desert Environmental Education Trust (NADEET). In comparison, South African households consume 35 kw/h a day, while on average, each South African goes through 50 litres of water.

The centre, established in 2003, is powered entirely by solar and wind energy, including its fridges, freezers and overhead projector. A small petrol generator runs as a back-up a few hours a month. “What we use in water and electricity in a day, others use in a few hours,” says Keding. And if NADEET cooked on an electric stove instead of using solar cookers, its carbon footprint would jump 23-fold she adds.

Keding says most people lack the motivation to accept the principle of using less energy. “Yet a lot of these things are easy and just amount to sustainable living. You have to be of the mindset that resources are valuable. If water is gold to you will buy a low-use shower head. Apart from education, technology is the main problem. A lot of people want to make these changes, but they just don’t have access to the technology.”

Long-term cost of renewables lower

Teske says it is a myth that wind and solar energy are more expensive then fossil fuel sources. “Renewables have gained a reputation as expensive in the past two decades, but this is no longer true. Solar costs for instance have gone down by over 50 percent in the last four years. This drop will continue. Similarly wind power is cheaper than new coal power plants.”

According to the report, current problems around transmission can be overcome by using decentralised grids and more efficient power stations.

Africa, says Teske, is in the fortunate position that it can adopt the latest technology without having had to make the enormous costs of its development. “Africa can leapfrog into new technology, it doesn’t have to repeat the same investments pioneers like Germany, Denmark and Spain made.”   According to the EREC/Greenpeace report, an aggressive renewable energy policy, shifting 80 percent of investments to renewables, would require a 404 billion dollar investment. For South Africa alone, would require an additional 5.2 billion dollars of spending each year; but the projected savings would amount to 6.6 billion dollars.

But investors need security and economies of scale. “A wind park of several thousand megawatts is a good business case,” argues Teske.

“But long-term policies are needed to build up such a local renewable energy sector. The reason that there is hardly any investment in renewable in Africa is not the lack of high feed-in tariffs for renewables, but the lack of a clear policy framework. Investors want to know if they will have access to the electricity grid? Do they have long-term access to the market? Can they close solid power-purchase agreements with operators?”

“It is not the availability of the resource, but the public policies that will either expand or constrain renewable energy development over the coming decades,” said Ramon Pichs, another of the IPCC report’s authors.

“Developing countries have an important stake in this future – this is where most of the 1.4 billion people without access to electricity live, yet also where some of the best conditions exist for renewable energy deployment.”

By Servaas van den Bosch
WINDHOEK, May 23 2011 (IPS)

Inaction marked the Extraordinary Summit of Southern African Development Community heads of state in Windhoek this weekend, despite an agenda covering Zimbabwe elections, political deadlock in Madagascar, the suspension of the regional court and allegations of corruption within SADC itself.

Swift and decisive action was to be found only in the arrest and removal – at gunpoint – of activists distributing flyers demanding SADC act on its own resolutions on Zimbabwe.

“We were busy distributing our press statements with demands on SADC to fully implement its Livingstone Troika resolutions, including fully preparing Zimbabwe for democratic elections,” Dewa Mavhinga told IPS, “when Zimbabwe security agents and armed Namibian police pounced on us – confiscating our reports and statements and cameras before force-marching us from the SADC Summit venue at gunpoint.”

Mavhinga is the regional coordinator of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, which along with other groups was in Windhoek to demand that SADC take firm action in light of the Mar. 31 statement issued in Livingstone, Zambia by the Troika – SADC’s designated mediator for Zimbabwe, South African President Jacob Zuma, the chair of SADC’s politics, defence and security chair, Zambian President Rupiah Banda, and Mozambican President Armando Guebuza.

If the arrest of Mavhinga – as well as lawyers Lloyd Kuveya and Irene Petras, journalist Jealousy Mawarire and others- illustrated the urgency of the Troika’s call for “an immediate end of [sic] violence, intimidation, hate speech, harassment, and any other form of action that contradicts the letter and spirit of GPA [the Global Political Agreement]” which established Zimbabwe’s uneasy government of national unity, the Extraordinary Summit contented itself with postponing discussion of Zimbabwe to a later date.

Before the meeting, SADC Executive Secretary Tomaz Salomão had hinted it was unlikely that heads of states would discuss the issue of Zimbabwe in the absence of Zuma, who opted to remain in South Africa where his party was completing its local election campaign.

Activist Macdonald Lewanika was nonetheless “cautiously pleased” with SADC’s handling of the matter. “SADC should play a key role in the next elections in Zimbabwe by virtue of their signature to the GPA, and also by virtue of the fact that it is clear that Zimbabwe alone lacks the necessary tools and ingredients to sure a free and fair credible poll.”

SADC Tribunal

Zimbabwe was also prominent in another order of business: the suspension of the SADC Tribunal. Following the Tribunal’s referral of a ruling against Zimbabwe for the expropriation of land from farmers to SADC leaders for action, heads of state declined to force Zimbabwe to act, instead suspending the regional court in August 2010, pending a review of its functions.

In a brief communiqué issued late on Friday, the Summit said it had mandated justice ministers to prepare to amend the terms of reference of the Tribunal, submitting a final report to SADC’s August 2012 summit. The completed review supported the Tribunal’s competence to handle the Zimbabwe expropriations, but justice ministers are believed to have recommended amendments that will insulate member states from cases brought against them by their citizens, possibly by transforming the Tribunal into a court arbitrating disputes only among states.

Asked whether the ministers’ recommendations would be made public, Salomão told journalists neither the media nor SADC citizens really needed to know what was in the report.

The immediate effect of this is that other significant cases – in which diamond companies are claiming compensation against the governments of Zimbabwe, Lesotho and South Africa – cannot move forward.

“It is clear that SADC leaders have no respect for their own regional court or international legal norms and feel that they can violate the Tribunal’s independence, the rule of law and the right of southern Africans to access justice with total impunity,” said Nicole Fritz, director of the Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC), in a statement, “Instead of sanctioning Zimbabwe, our leaders have imposed legal sanctions on all of us – preventing us from seeking legitimate legal redress at a regional level.”

Madagascar power-sharing

SADC is also wrestling with mapping a route back to constitutional rule for Madagascar. The Indian Ocean island was suspended from SADC after a coup in December 2009 brought Andry Rajoelina to power; the regional body has hosted a series of meetings to mediate between parties.

A roadmap for a transitional government had been submitted to Madagascar’s major political actors by SADC’s mediator, the former Mozambican president, Joaquim Chissano. The plan, which would have recognised Rajoelina as head of state until new elections were held, and entitled him to name a prime minister to run the country during a transitional period has been accepted by the three parties already close to him, but rejected by those aligned with three influential former presidents.

Rajoelina had spoken with several SADC leaders, including Angolan President Eduardo dos Santos, South Africa’s President Zuma, and the meeting’s host, Namibian President Pohamba, and expressed confidence that the roadmap would be adopted, adding that, “whatever the decision of the SADC Summit, we continue to organise elections in order that these can take place after November”.

The summit however resolved only that there is still a “need for an all-inclusive political process towards finding a lasting solution of the challenges facing the country”, and scheduled another meeting to this end will be held in Gaborone in the near future.

This will have been welcomed by the opposition as an opportunity to press its demand that Rajoelina step down six months before any elections are held.

Corruption allegations

The summit also considered allegations of rampant corruption in the SADC Secretariat based in Gaborone, Botswana. The Namibian weekly newspaper Windhoek Observer revealed that SADC personnel have called on the present SADC Chair, Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba, to conduct an audit of the Secretariat.

The paper quoted an anonymous source within SADC as saying, “We want an investigation because this has become an institution of money laundering. They create illegal contracts, they are always traveling abroad, there is no transparency and accountability and they lie to the Council [of Ministers].”

The allegations of widespread misuse of donor money and funds from member states, with a top management that has grown “addicted to lavish spending”, will have been uncomfortable reading for both Southern African ministers and representatives of the European Union, which provides important financial support to SADC.

Pohamba confirmed he had been made aware of the accusations in April, said the Council of Ministers “would look into the matter”. The Observer claimed that the Council had already been presented with a report detailing graft within the Secretariat, but has yet to act.

Stalled progress on mediating political deadlock in two member states, the muzzling of the regional court, and silence over the arrest members on the summits very doorstep: the outcomes seem a long way from SADC’s lofty ideals. If regional integration on the basis of freedom, social justice, peace and security is to be achieved, the coming months will require principled and decisive leadership.

*Stanley Kwenda in Harare and Lovasoa Rabary-Rakotondravony in Antananarivo contributed to this report. This story, originally posted May 22 was updated May 23 to add additional detail.

Excerpt:

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) faces several awkward problems at the Extraordinary Summit of Heads of State scheduled for May 20-21.

Zimbabwean war veterans hold a make-shift sign directing people to plots on a seized farm. Credit: Fidelis Zvomuya/IPS

Mediating between parties in Zimbabwe over a workable plan for elections and power-sharing in Madagascar may be the headlines, but long-delayed action on the decisions of the SADC Tribunal could also have long-lasting consequences for human rights and the rule of law in the region.

Since 2008, the SADC Tribunal has handed down a series of decisions on cases of expropriation of farmers in Zimbabwe; over 3,000 mostly white commercial farmers were thrown off their land beginning in 2000, according to the Zimbabwe government, in order to redistribute their land to landless people.

While the rulings all were in favour of the evicted farmers, Zimbawe flatly refused to recognise the court’s authority to order compensation for the land seized. The Tribunal referred the matter to the SADC heads of state for a decision.

Unable to face the political consequences of ejecting or suspending Zimbabwe from the regional bloc, SADC leaders instead suspended the Tribunal at their August 2010 summit, pending a “review” of its functions.

Lawyer Norman Tjombe, who argued some of the cases in question said, “The report was rather positive on the Tribunal, supporting its rulings on Zimbabwe and recommending strengthening of its functions. It made Zimbabwe very angry.”

The first indications that the recommendations were not exactly what SADC was hoping for came as the SADC Council of Ministers met to consider the review in Swakopmund, Namibia from Apr. 11-15. The Namibian chairing the review, Minister of Justice Pendukeni Ivula-Ithana, opened the meeting saying : “[It] is us, the people of SADC who can own our instruments as they address our identified concerns and are compatible with our national legal systems.”

She went on: “This Tribunal is ours and we have received the advice contained in the final report of the consultant. Ours is to take out of it what we deem appropriate and suggest to the Presidents and Heads of States for their decision.”

The evicted Zimbabwean farmers are not the only ones waiting on SADC leaders’ next move. Lesotho, South Africa and Zimbabwe face a R4 billion (570 million dollar) claim from South African-based mining group Swissbourgh for expropriation of its minerals rights to pave the way for the Lesotho Water Highlands Project in 1991.

According to Josias van Zyl, Managing Director of Swissbourgh, the three countries conspired to suspend the SADC Tribunal last August, just a week before the case was supposed to be heard.

Swissbourgh filed an application with the Tribunal challenging SADC leaders’ legal authority to suspend its operations. Tjombe lodged a similar application on Mar. 28, arguing the SADC Summit’s August decision “does not in law have the effect of suspending [the tribunal’s] operations and function”.

“So far we have heard nothing from the court , not a peep,” said Tjombe.

The delays already mean one of the plaintiffs will never see the end of his struggle to regain his land; Campbell died in early April.

Van Zyl told IPS that Swissbourgh has threatened to sue SADC in Gaborone, Botswana (where it is headquartered) as well as individual states in their own countries should “they strip SADC of its Tribunal, or continue to interfere with our right to access to justice”.

“The comments of the Namibian Justice Minister seem to indicate a move in that direction,” he said.

Swissbourgh asserts in a May 13 letter to the heads of state, that is aware that the outcome of the Swakopmund deliberation was a proposal that the Tribunal’s scope of action be amended to allow only inter-state disputes, ruling out access for individuals to the regional court.

Swissbourgh says that any weakening of the Tribunal would be “in bad faith” and a “violation of international law generally and various international human rights instruments”.

But Norman Tjombe is sceptical of the pressure the litigants can exercise on the leaders.

“They will just ignore the report and likely postpone a decision,” he said. “It’s a sad day for the rule of law.

“The widespread practice in member states of ignoring court rulings, or replacing critical judges with ones favourable to the regime is now repeated on a SADC level. The establishment of the SADC Tribunal as a liberal and accessible court was a leap forward. Now the court is in danger of being strangled and killed.”

By Servaas van den Bosch
WINDHOEK, May 12 2011 (IPS)

A new film explores the real complexities of relationships for young people in Namibia, and the effects of gender inequality and culture on the choices people make about their sexual lives.

"Sex and Chocolate" delivers messages about sexual health in the context of real pressures on young people. Credit: Rachel Coomer/LAC/IPS

The plot of “Sex and Chocolate”, a movie produced by the Legal Assistance Centre (LAC) and youth organisation Ombetja Yehinga Organisation (OYO), aims to capture the intricacies of young people’s sexual networks.

“Relationships in the 21st century are not easy, they are complex,” the LAC’s Yolandi Engelbrecht told an audience of 75 or so University of Namibia students at the launch of the movie on May 11. “The choices we make in our relationships have consequences. What if you are just a 21-year old student faced with Lucy’s problem? Do you have the courage to walk away?”

The dilemmas faced by the protagonists in Sex and Chocolate are very real. The impact of risky behaviour, including multiple concurrent partners and failure to use condoms, is reflected in the 2010 Sentinel Survey finding that HIV is again on the increase in Namibia, after years of steady decline. The country’s prevalence rate is now 18.8 percent, up from 17.8 percent in 2008.

HIV is not the only risk. Last year alone, 1,493 high school learners dropped out of school because of pregnancy.

“The story in the film is something that happens in everyday life. Girls love someone, who doesn’t love them back and they give up everything,” says El-Juanita Philander who plays Lucy. “It is important that young people make the right decision. There are always two choices in life.”

While a lot of effort has gone into raising awareness around HIV and AIDS in Namibia and elsewhere, NGOs are realising they haven’t penetrated the core of the issue.

“We talk a lot about HIV/AIDS, but we find it difficult to talk about the dynamics in relationships,” says the movie’s director, Philippe Talavera, who also runs the youth organisation, OYO.

“Often we focus on issues like HIV or sexual violence. We don’t ask the question what is the essence of a relationship, what is the point of being together?” adds producer Dianne Hubbard, head of the LAC’s Gender Research and Advocacy Project.

Namibian women frequently accept cheating by their male partners, and feel unable to insist on condom use in order to preserve their relationships says Hubbard.

“Particularly women still need to learn that they don’t have value just as the partner of a guy. We want to fight against that idea. A relationship should be a place where two people that are comfortable with themselves meet because they want to be together.”

Examining gender roles

The film tries to deconstruct prevailing ideas on masculinity in Namibian society by juxtaposing the attitudes of David and his best friend Peter.

“There is this idea that a man must be a player, but Peter who is faithful to his girlfriend Candy is a very masculine type. With this, we want challenge the myths surrounding masculinity,” says Talavera.

“The story is also about communication. Lucy envies the bond that Peter and Candy have, which is about more than sex. She would like to have a relationship like that with David, but she never tells him, she doesn’t communicate.”

“You bring me chocolate,” murmurs Lucy to herself at one point in the film. “Why can’t our relationship be about more than sex and chocolate? Why can’t you make me happy, David?”

Rather than trying to drive home message of safer sex, the film focuses on the underlying dynamics of peer pressure, friendship, support networks, assertiveness and the right priorities.

The film drew mixed reactions – roughly along gender lines – at its premiere. While the men in the audience sometimes sympathised with the player David, the women applauded Lucy for choosing to leave him.

“So many of the issues this society is faced with boil down to a lack of gender equality and mutual respect,” explains Hubbard. “It gets boring to talk about domestic violence: let’s talk the underlying issue, the relationship. We also feel that drama is much better way to convey the message.”

According to Hubbard and Talavera, the gap between knowledge about HIV and actual behavioral change remains huge in Namibia.

“And we are not getting any closer to closing that gap,” says Hubbard. “If an educated guy like David, with access to free condoms, doesn’t use them, we have to ask ourselves what is the next step [in stopping HIV]?

“So the film is about more than just deciding whether or not to date a particular guy. It’s about how social norms and culture can affect the decisions we make. Can a young girl who is socialised to be submissive find the assertiveness to say no in a relationship? Are informal sexual networks the new polygamy in Namibia?”

These are questions the cast struggled with while making the movie. The actor who plays David, for example,is Himba, a culture in which polygamy is widespread. He might personally support Lucy’s right to walk away from the relationship, but his cultural background says something else.

“It led to a lot of discussion on these practices. And it’s a real issue in society. Young men ask themselves, ‘If my father had four wives, why should I satisfy myself with one?” says Hubbard.

“It is an interesting issue that is still debated heavily in society, all the way up to parliament.”

The movie has two endings. In the first, Lucy leaves David before any harm is done. In the other – shot in  sombre black and white – she stays with him and grows increasingly depressed, fails her final exams and worries constantly about her health status.

Sex and Chocolate is part of a package called Think Twice. The second movie Teddy Bear Love, which deals with relationship issue in a high school will be released in June.

Excerpt:

By Servaas van den Bosch
WINDHOEK, Apr 21 2011 (IPS)

With regional wheels rolling to put in place the envisaged grand tripartite free trade area (FTA), questions have arisen about whether it would be viable and increase competitiveness.

l-r: Tarah Shaanika (NCCI), Paulina Elago (Trade Mark East Africa) and Paul Kalenga, trade policy advisor, SADC Secretariat. Credit: Servaas van den Bosch/IPS

“Trade between the region and China, for instance, shot up with 500 percent in the past few years, but intra-regional trade is still proportionally low, despite all the efforts around a Southern African Development Community (SADC) FTA,” he said.

Experts from different countries in the envisaged tripartite FTA gathered on Apr. 20 in the Namibian capital to discuss the readiness of smaller nations in the region to engage in the scheme.

The alliance would unite three existing regional economic communities (RECs): SADC, the East African Community (EAC) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA). The FTA would encompass 26 countries and 521 million consumers.

But doubt was discernable on the benefits of the grand FTA and whether it will automatically lead to economic growth.

“Our policy makers have not asked the question: is this viable for our region? The FTA should be about more than removing tariffs, it should build competitiveness,” mooted Kalenga.

“Efforts are mostly geared towards removing tariff barriers, but how can the tripartite FTA be designed in a way that removes remaining non-tariff barriers?”

“In the negotiations, officials have a tendency to list everything that a country produces as ‘sensitive’. These products are then excluded”, meaning that whole sectors are not part of the free trade regime, explained Kalenga.

“Today SADC doesn’t even trade in wheat flour on a preferential basis because the member states cannot agree on the rules of origin. A tripartite FTA based on that methodology is not going to be meaningful.

“Countries should not be allowed to simply exclude whole sectors from a FTA. They should justify exclusions on the basis of development policies. But this is a sensitive issue. When we spoke to Zambian farmers about removing agricultural tariff barriers, we almost got thrown out of the room.”

According to Kalenga the answer lies in designing the FTA in a way that stimulates trade creation through specialisation; benefitting from comparative advantages; and increasing efficiency and productivity. “Look at Botswana that has specialised in services, including medical services and finance. Namibia could also specialise and use the port of Walvis Bay to establish itself as a transport hub.”

So far a clear vision beyond mere tariff liberalisation seems lacking in the region.

“What we lack in most countries are clear industrial policies on which to base our vision of regional economic integration,” said Tarah Shaanika, chief executive officer of the Namibian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NCCI).

“Instead of listing sensitive products, we should build on success stories like Namibia Breweries that exports its beers all over the continent. There is also too much emphasis on the manufacturing sector while growth in services is huge. We should strategically develop the services sector.”

“Intra-regional trade has gone up from seven billion dollars in 2002 to 27 billion dollars in 2007,” noted Paulina Elago, Tanzania country director for Trade Mark East Africa.

“But are we developing sectors from a strategic point of view?” she asked, taking the port of Walvis Bay and its transport corridors as an example. “Are such initiatives embedded in the national development agenda? Is the infrastructure at the port of a standard that could back up the ambition of being a transport hub?

“Similarly, countries should look at services in a much more strategic way. Services are important, but there is no guarantee the FTA will make these sectors suddenly work. We should look at services that truly add value in the African context, such as transport, energy, logistics and banking.”

Elago added that, “readiness to engage with the opportunities the tripartite FTA offers has to do with many factors, including understanding the business environment in the different countries. Exporters need first-hand information about export destinations.”

Commenting on the haste with which the tripartite FTA is being pushed through – with a planned mid- 2011 meeting expected to lay down the blueprint for the bloc – Elago said: “Often we get excited about these FTAs and set unrealistic timelines.

“SADC right now does not work because we designed rules of origin that we cannot adhere to. It’s very important that the analytic work for this FTA is done properly.”

Namibian economic analyst Klaus Schade argued that many growth objectives could be achieved without the FTA. “Look at the example of Namibia Breweries. They achieved their market presence without bilateral trade agreements.”

“It’s not true that we will only achieve growth with free trade agreements or customs unions. It is very much up to the private sector to come up with initiatives and also look at countries outside the proposed grand FTA,” Schade added.

“To develop Namibia as a transport hub we do not need South Sudan or Djibouti. Maybe we should rather focus on providing a feeder service for West Africa, or develop the maintenance facilities at the Walvis Bay port.”

Elago has the last word: “The tripartite FTA will not solve everything, but it might encourage policy measures at the broader level.”

Excerpt:

By Servaas van den Bosch
WINDHOEK, Mar 28 2011 (IPS)

A new revenue sharing formula in the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) could boost development but has met with resistance from the governments of poorer states in the sub-region that are interested in “just getting the money”.

Swaziland's autocratic King Mswati III, photographed at SACU's centenary in Windhoek in 2010, has come under attack for being a spendthrift. Credit: Servaas van den Bosch/IPS

The South African government’s treasury department wants a revision of the formula.

Smaller member states Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland (BLNS) argue that SACU’s common external tariff (CET) gives South Africa an instrument to protect its own industry, while the level playing field in the union makes it hard for the peripheral countries to build their own industrial bases and compete with their much larger neighbour’s products and services.

For this they deserve to be compensated, they argue.

At the Mar. 25 heads of state meeting in Pretoria “a lot of time was spent on working out the formulation of a new mechanism, but nothing definite was decided on”, says researcher Paul Kruger of the Trade Law Centre of Southern Africa (TRALAC) near Cape Town, South Africa.

SACU stated in a communiqué after the meeting that, “the summit reiterated that the review of the revenue sharing arrangement is critical, particularly in the context of the volatility of customs revenues. The summit directed that this work be pursued and concluded urgently in line with the equitable and development objectives embedded in the SACU Agreement”.

In an article last week Catherine Grant, senior researcher at the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA), and a colleague warned against an “unrealistic’’ perception of the balance of power in SACU.

“South Africa feels that it cannot be expected to receive less than that its due,” Grant tells IPS. “In the BLNS countries there is a shocking lack of understanding of the realities. The South African treasury is frustrated over having to hand over so much money, without really having control over it.

“Most notable is the case of Swaziland where there is little fiscal discipline and the budget is controlled by the (autocratic) royal family. We have seen the same frustration in the EPA negotiations, where South Africa seemed to have very little control over what other SACU members signed on to,” she adds.

“South Africa should top up the revenues for reasons of political stability and economic policy but the formula shouldn’t just focus on trade. It should rather stimulate development.”

But, “it will be very difficult to get countries on board. Previous changes in the revenue sharing formula were triggered by significant political events, such as independence struggles and the end of apartheid.

“The current revision is mainly inspired by the recession and a couple of years of experience with the current revenue formula, which South Africa now wants to renegotiate. Such changes are not significant enough to drive the process,” explains Grant.

A leaked February draft report on the proposed changes to the formula caused an outcry in the BLNS, being pitted heavily in favour of South Africa. Countries are still studying the report with a final decision expected in Apr. 2011.

One of the options on the table is to increase the development component of the pool with funds, for instance, going to regional infrastructure projects instead of state coffers. “It is doubtful that countries like Swaziland and Lesotho will be keen on that,” opines Kruger. “For them, it is more important than anything else to get the money.”

Grant foresees lengthy negotiations: “I don’t think that the report will fly. It can serve as a catalyst for discussions but the suggestions of the consultants are not anywhere near what the BLNS countries can sign up to.”

Kruger comments that, “aiming for April for finalisation of the issue of the revenue sharing formula indicates SACU wants it resolved as soon as possible. It will be very difficult to continue with other items before the issue is solved.”

These other issues include SACU’s common industrial policy, the trade facilitation programme focused on relaxing border procedures, external trade agreements and common institutions like the SACU tariff board and tribunal. There has been little movement on any of these since 2002. In their Mar. 25 statement the heads of state merely ‘‘noted’’ that work on these areas was ‘‘ongoing’’.

“There seems to be no real impetus behind any of these other issues, especially on the side of the BLNS,” says Grant. “Negotiating trade agreements with the EU and India has proved lengthy, while only South Africa has ratified the agreement with (South America’s) Mercosur.”

Excerpt:

North-central Namibia is experiencing the heaviest floods ever recorded, but unlike in previous years, the area is fully prepared.

Flood levels in the Cuvelai basin in north-central Namibia are eight centimetres higher than in the 2009 flood season, setting a new record for the area where about one million people – half of Namibia’s population – live.

Every year Efundja – the Oshiwambo name for the annual floods coming from Angola – fills the shanas (floodplains) in the northern regions. The arrival of the flood is much anticipated as it brings fish, restores grazing capacity and ensures water reserves for the dry months ahead. But in recent years floods have become heavier and more frequent, generally doing more damage than good.

Infrastructure destroyed

“It’s going to be bad,” predicts Guido van Langenhove., Director of Hydrology in the Department of Water in Windhoek. “There have been good rains up in the catchment area in Angola over the past few days. This water will reach us in two weeks time. If, in the meantime it keeps raining in the Namibian part of the catchment, the inundations will get much worse.”

The daily warnings that the hydrology people in Windhoek send out show an overall increase of water levels across the region. “[There were] more good rains in [the] Omusati and Ohangwena regions. The flooding situation in the Cuvelai area in Namibia has got worse than in 2009,”

“Roads and bridges have been washed away and some areas are heavily flooded. Our offices are inundated; you need gumboots to get in,” says Andreas Shilomboleni from the Climate Change Adaptation project in Outapi, close to the Angolan border. “Areas near the main oshana’s communities are isolated and millet fields owned by subsistence farmers are severely affected.”

“It’s very bad,” says Leonard Hango, hydrologist and support officer for the Iishana sub-basin. Hango is based in Oshakati, the largest population centre in northern Namibia. “The Oshakati town council put up an embankment, but the wall broke down and the water has flooded the locations.

“So far 1,200 people have lost their homes and are accommodated in two temporary camps,” Hango told IPS. “Schools are closed for grades 1 to 10, because as the river gets higher, the small kids cannot cross any more. Apart from the highway, all the roads leading to Oshakati are washed away.”

And worse may be yet to come. “The water is not likely to go down very fast,” he adds. “If the next wave of water comes from Angola, without the current water levels dropping significantly, it will be a disaster.”

“The water is in my house,” says Miina Iipinge, who lives in a small settlement half an hour’s drive from the northern town of Tsandi.

Her kraal, a collection of huts surrounded by a traditional matted fence, lies near an oshana and is inundated.

“There is so much water in the village. We are cut off from the rest of the world because the roads are flooded. Most schools are closed. We are not working because the fields are flooded. The crops are just standing in the water,” she added.

“We have to see what happens with rains in the next months but if it doesn’t get better I expect a small harvest for this year.”

Improved preparedness

Despite the looming disaster the region is much better prepared than during the 2009 floods that saw over 21,000 people displaced, say experts. “A lot has happened since then,” comments van Langenhove. “We have 18 weather stations in the oshanas that send us real time information about water levels through satellite or the cellular phone network. We also use satellite images from NASA to assess flooding and rainfall in the catchment areas.”

Since the last floods, government and donors have embarked on a programme to make major roads flood-resistant. “Roads have been strengthened with concrete slabs. Special stone has been used so that even if the water runs over the bridge, it doesn’t get washed away. Bridges have been heightened and infrastructure reinforced with gabions,” explains van Langenhove.

“We have made culverts under the main roads so the water can flow under them and the roads don’t get washed away. This is the only reason the main highway in the north is still navigable,” says Shilomboleni. It means that although much infrastructure has been damaged, people can still travel along the highways – unlike in 2009 when large areas had to be supplied by helicopter.

By Servaas van den Bosch
WINDHOEK, Mar 24 2011 (IPS)

The IBSA Dialogue Forum, a South-South alliance of India, Brazil and South Africa, could be better suited to the needs of Southern Africa for South-South cooperation than the BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) loose alliance of emerging economies. But Southern Africa will have to beef up its markets to truly benefit.

Developmental challenges keep Southern African markets small, which impinges on the region's ability to benefit from IBSA. Credit: Servaas van den Bosch/IPS

So far New Delhi has been deaf to Beijing’s arguments. According to the Indian press, India prefers to have a forum of its own, without interference from dominant neighbour China.

South African President Jacob Zuma also told the South African parliament on Mar. 17 that Pretoria values its IBSA membership both “for enhancing our trilateral partnership with India and Brazil” and as “an important pillar for strengthening the muscle of the South in global affairs”.

He added that, “we believe that the IBSA will get a better balance, and become even stronger, with South Africa now as a member of the BRICS, more especially since the mandates of BRICS and IBSA complement each other. It is important to note also that IBSA and BRICS provide a link with the African continent for the two groupings, and strengthen our position as a gateway to Africa.

“The groupings offer a big lucrative market for our goods and services and lots of opportunities to implement our Industrial Policy Action Plan and the New Growth Path framework,” he concluded.

However, South African trade analyst Dot Keet argues that, “IBSA is a more appropriate platform for South Africa and the region than BRICS. It is a more substantive partnership with a real focus on each other. The question now, of course, will be whether BRICS will conflict, contradict or complement IBSA.”

Sanusha Naidu, research director of communication network Fahamu’s “emerging powers in Africa” programme, agrees: “In many ways there is uncertainty about what members can get out of BRICS and what the alliance means in the context of wider cooperation.

“IBSA, on the other hand, has a clear identity. The trilateral alliance has been around longer and can probably achieve more of its goals than BRICS. IBSA also espouses a very broad set of principles that the members hold in common.

“Looking at IBSA summits there is a broad level of engagement, whether on political issues like the conflict in Libya or global governance issues. There is common consensus on many issues, like the process of regional integration in the respective regions; piracy in trade; and governance reform of multilateral institutions. IBSA also has a shared vision of democratisation,” Naidu notes.

At a Mar. 7-8 meeting of IBSA foreign ministers in the Indian capital, the bloc showed fresh resolve in deepening collaboration. A statement after the meeting read, “in this rapidly changing global order, the ministers underscored the increased strategic importance of IBSA as a forum of developing country democracies from three different continents based on shared values”.

The statement said that these shared values “play a critical role for further strengthening and fostering South-South cooperation and safeguarding and advancing the interests of the South, particularly the reform of global governance”.

IBSA, a direct result of the common stance developing countries took in the World Trade Organisation’s Doha Round of trade negotiations, is also firmly rooted within the states themselves, while BRICS is a construction of Western investment banks.

“IBSA has a personality of its own. It brings together three separate continents, three democracies. BRIC is a conception devised by Goldman Sachs that we are trying to put life into,” Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said a few months back.

Because of this, trade analysts argue that IBSA compares well with other platforms in the Global South that cooperate on concrete topics, such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation that, among others, works on energy issues; and the Macau Forum that promotes trade between Portuguese-speaking countries and China.

During the ministers’ meeting in New Delhi, the staggering range of issues under discussion included a reiteration of commitment to “an open, transparent and rule-based international trading regime” and “called for an early conclusion of the Doha Development Round with a balanced outcome which ensures the development needs of the developing countries, especially least developed countries”.

How much IBSA will mean for Southern Africa as a region depends on whether it can successfully diversify the heavily EU-reliant trade agenda, contend analysts. “IBSA served its purpose in establishing trade agreements between the region and India and Brazil,” declares Namibian independent trade analyst Wallie Roux.

“A preferential trade agreement between India and the Southern African Customs Union is in the making and an agreement with the South American Mercosur (Southern Common Market) has been in place for a while.

“However, these agreements could be one-sided as we essentially do not have the capacity to service the Brazilian and Indian markets with exports,” says Roux, adding that the Southern African Development Community still struggles with getting its internal market to function.

On the import side, traders in the region also feel the limitations of their small economies. “At the moment I get all my cloth from wholesalers in South Africa,” says Namibian textile merchant Navin Morar. “Sure, I can get it directly from India, but they will insist on a minimum of several thousand metres in perhaps 12 different colours. How am I going to sell that in this small economy?”

“We should do more market research on which products would be really relevant in our South-South trade,” opines Roux. “Often our perception on this is completely wrong. Who wants Namibian beef in India, which is largely vegetarian? On the other hand, there is a huge potential in Indian generic medicines to replace expensive imports from the EU and the U.S..”

Excerpt:

By Servaas van den Bosch
WINDHOEK, Mar 16 2011 (IPS)

Thousands of people and livestock in the Caprivi Strip have had to be evacuated as annual floodwaters rise in the Zambezi. However, loss of life has been kept to a minimum as informal warning systems prove to be effective.

File photo of flooded Caprivi village. Credit: Flythefish/Wikicommons

The narrow strip of land, barely 30 kilometres wide borders Angola, Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe. It is traversed by the Zambezi and some of its major tributaries, the Kwando, the Chobe and the Linyanti.

“The Zambezi is stable at around 6.37 metres and the water levels don’t seem to be worsening for the moment,” said chief hydrologist Guido van Langenhove of the Department of Water Affairs in Windhoek.

However, in the latest flood bulletin, the hydrologist also noted there were “very good rains in the very upper parts of the catchment in Angola” which could mean even higher water levels in several weeks’ time.

Large areas in the Linyanti and Kabbe constituencies, near the Botswana and Zambian borders are already under water. “The rainy season is supposed to last several more weeks, so it is possible that it rains again upstream in Zambia. In that case we can expect more flooding, but at least we will know it weeks in advance,” said Van Langenhove.

Early warning system helping communities

Local authorities have devised an early warning system that is one of the best functioning in the region. The system relies on informal communication of water levels from country to country by email or telephone.

“We have definitely seen an improvement in the speed with which disaster management teams respond. Earlier we would have to mobilise helicopters to airlift people and there was no provision for camps,” says Van Langenhove.

“Because we now can give a warning three weeks before the flood arrives, evacuation points are being prepared on time. Authorities know which people and how many people need to be evacuated, there are enough tents and there is sufficient supply of clean drinking water. Schools get sufficient warning to alert their learners.”

Japhet Iitenge Director of Disaster Risk Management in the Office of the Prime Minister, says, “Together with the forecast of the meteorological office, the warning system that the hydrologists have put in place really enables us to prepare for the floods.

“Our preparation started already at the end of last season, with drawing up and revising disaster plans. When we receive the warning that the floods are coming we start implementing them. With the system we are definitely better prepared than before and are able to move people to other villages and temporary camps where they still till the floods subside.”

Casualties limited

Raphael Mbala, chair of the Caprivi Regional Council, said that in recent days the water has again risen with several centimeters, but casualties so far seem minimal. “I only know of one fisherman who drowned in one of the villages, otherwise there have been no fatalities.”

As the councilor from Kabbe, the most affected constituency, he has overseen the evacuation of an important part of the Region. “All the people and livestock have been evacuated to higher ground. Some villagers will relocate permanently, but most will return to their homes.”

They could face a long wait. “Sometimes the people can only return to turn homesteads in August,” said Mbala.

He says that the evacuation procedures have been helped by the early warning systems. “This year for instance we have been successful in moving schools. With the actual school premises being flooded, we have relocated learners and classes continue on higher ground. In my constituency we have relocated four out of six school so far.”

For Kabbe alone this means that 720 learners had to be relocated.

The residents of the area are becoming more and more accustomed to the annual floods that disrupt normal life for months.

“When I was growing up, floods like this were something that occurred every ten or twenty years,” says Mbala who is now 63. “Situations like the one we have now happened in 1961, 1968, 1978 and then in 2003. Since 2003, however, we have had large floods every single year.”

Mbala blames the increasing frequency of heavy floods on climatic changes affecting the basin. “The situation is too much for the government to cope with. We get help from U.N. agencies and the Red Cross, but we still need more blankets, mosquito nets and tents. There is water enough, since we are now basically surrounded by it, but we need more purification tablets to make it safe for consumption.”

Excerpt:

By Servaas van den Bosch
WINDHOEK, Mar 11 2011 (IPS)

Postwar Angola is keen to expand irrigation for much-needed development, Namibia is prioritising clean drinking water and sanitation, while Botswana wants to preserve the integrity of the world-renowned Okavango Delta for tourism.

All three depend on an equitable share of quality water from the Okavango River, the fourth largest in Africa, running 1,600 kilometres from Angola to its inland delta in Botswana.

In other parts of the world, conflicting interests like these, against a backdrop of uncertainty due to climate change, have led several observers to predict water wars might lead to water wars. But the three countries are putting in place a cross-border plan to manage the river.

A trans-boundary diagnostic analysis of the basin led to a strategic action plan which encompasses national priorities. To this end National Action Plans (NAPs) are currently being formulated in the three countries.

“The realisation has dawned that issues in the basin are much larger than just the river that runs through it,” says Steve Johnson head of the USAID funded Southern African Regional Program (SAREP) that facilitates the NAPs.

“The topics range from trans-boundary management to biodiversity aspects, to water supply and sanitation, livelihoods, flood preparedness and HIV/AIDS,” he said.

“Livelihood strategies are critical and we have to look at diversifying economic opportunities, such as promoting tourism where realistic. It’s a challenging process, a balancing act to find equilibrium between the different needs of the three countries,” says Ebenizãrio Chonguiça, executive secretary the Permanent Okavango River Basin Water Commission (OKACOM) that coordinates the trans-boundary river management.

“Angola is pursuing a much needed development agenda after the war, where other countries are perhaps looking at building on the existing benefits” says USAID regional environmental program manager Steve Horn. “The challenge is to establish a constructive dialogue within a science-based decision framework.”

Of the 15 river basins in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) OKACOM is a pioneer in establishing a common understanding on sharing benefits. Rather than being a top-down institution, it evolved from informal cooperation between the countries into a commission with more authority.

“What use of the river constitutes the best return on investment?” asks Chonguiça. “Is it agriculture? Is it tourism? How do we convert the river’s capital into improving living conditions for the people?

“Feasibility studies based on the best available technology have to answer these questions. Whatever the national needs are, water supply and sanitation and ecosystem integrity have to be leading in this quest.”

There will be trade-offs in this process, says Johnson. “If a country wants to start projects that might negatively impact downstream there should be some kind of compensating mechanism.”

A unique process of community consultation underlies planning. Consultants went into villages and asked the people to tell them what the river meant for their daily lives. “It became clear that water supply and sanitation and early warning systems for floods were the most important issues for communities. Especially with the flood-prone character of the basin,” says Johnson.

The people living along the banks of the Okavango River in Angola, Namibia and Botswana are among the poorest in all three countries.

“People have been living in the river basins for millennia. But as areas become more populated the opportunity for them and their livestock to move to higher ground is limited. This leads to conflicts between humans, between livestock and humans and between livestock and the abundant wildlife in the area.”

Part of the trans-boundary decision-making process will be a dynamic decision support system that accurately supplies data on conditions of the basin at any given point in the season.

Johnson: “Good data needs to be available to correctly evaluate the resource that the river offers. This system, consisting of a number of databases, would recommend a course of action to SADC on projects that countries want to start. This of course, without duplicating efforts that are already in place.”

As an example he points to Namibian hydrologists that have secured access to NASA satellite images which they use to warn the region about impending floods.

Towards the end of March, according to Laura Namene of the Namibian Department of Water Affairs, the three countries will meet in Maun, Botswana, to harmonise the national priorities in an overall strategic plan for the basin.

“The point is to develop a common understanding of the conditions in the basin as a whole,” says Chonguiça.

Excerpt:

By Servaas van den Bosch
WINDHOEK, Mar 11 2011 (IPS)

Despite regional initiatives that even include the eventual possibility of a ‘‘Cape- to-Cairo’’ free trade area, protectionist impulses have caused non-tariff barriers to spring up across Southern Africa.

SADC trade ministers lining up for a photo opportunity after the Mar 4, 2011 meeting. Namibian trade minister Hage Geingob is pointing to the ground. Credit: Servaas van den Bosch/IPS

However, there has been little progress in shaping the predominantly political alliance into an economic bloc and non-tariff barriers have become a serious concern. A SADC FTA has theoretically been in place since 2008, but hasn’t brought the free movement of people and goods it was meant to.

“We work successfully with governments to remove non-tariff barriers, for instance at border posts — only to see them being put up again six months down the line,” lamented Gilbert Boois, manager of projects and funding at the Walvis Bay Corridor Group.

The group promotes trade between landlocked countries in the region and the Atlantic Ocean port of Walvis Bay in Namibia.

Zambian trade consultant John Kasanga cites countless examples of non-tariff barriers across the region: “Zambia protects its sugar industry from cheaper imports from Zimbabwe by demanding that all imported sugar be fortified with vitamin A.

“Zimbabwe, in turn, has blocked Zambian strawberries by stipulating that any shipment of this fragile fresh produce must be at least a massive one ton.”

All over the region countries are moving to protect sensitive industries, like the dairy sector, by banning imports from neighbours. Trucks can spend weeks at border posts to comply with costly and time-consuming customs procedures. And many countries are behind in harmonisation of regional standards.

“Some members of the SADC FTA are not coming forward and don’t participate in the (SADC trade) protocol. They are not working towards regional integration,” director of international trade in the Namibian ministry of trade and industry Annascy Mwanyangapo summed up.

The problems led to an indefinite postponement of the SADC customs union initially scheduled for 2010.

“A ministerial taskforce is looking into the issue of the (SADC) customs union and will make a recommendation on the way forward before the end of 2011,” was the elusive answer of SADC’s executive secretary, Tomás Salomão, when asked about the fate of the customs union.

“We cannot continue to pay lip-service to these things,” commented SADC council chairperson and Namibian trade minister Hage Geingob after the Mar 4 meeting, adding that he is ‘‘worried’’ about ‘‘the slow pace of implementation’’ within SADC.

“Business people and citizens should move freely throughout the region. We cannot keep talking about jobs being taken by other Africans. Rather, we should see such movement as ‘brain circulation’,” argued Geingob.

Meanwhile, the main building block of the coveted SADC customs union, SACU, is crumbling as South Africa remains embroiled in a fierce battle over customs and excise revenue with its smaller neighbours Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland (BLNS).

At its heart, the disagreement signals a wider rift between, on the one hand, Pretoria’s quest for market expansion and, on the other, the development objectives of its much poorer cousins in SACU.

Enlarging SACU now would only deepen this divide, say observers, casting doubt on SACU’s role as a cornerstone for a SADC customs union.

“States will have to decide. Are they going to join a South Africa-dominated customs union or are they going their own way?” asked Geingob with regard to SACU’s future role. “Right now we are talking about the modalities, what is working and what is not.”

“Using the principle of variable geometry, countries could join a customs union whenever they are ready,” offered Salomão. “Maybe we start from scratch, or maybe a SADC customs union should start with the SACU-Five and later on countries can join one by one.”

Slow as progress is on a SADC customs union, a sense of urgency surrounds the establishment of a tripartite free trade area (FTA) between SADC and two other major regional economic communities (RECs) – the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the East African Community (EAC).

At stake is a tripartite FTA that includes 26 countries, 527 million consumers and a combined gross domestic product of 624 billion dollars. The FTA would represent over half of the continent’s wealth and population. “If this FTA is in place we’ll have a free trade area from Cape to Cairo,’’ enthused Geingob.

Countries will likely reach an agreement on a tripartite FTA during a mid- 2011 summit in South Africa.

The trade ministers present in Windhoek saw ‘‘no contradiction’’ between working towards for a SADC customs union and expanding the free trade area, but the hurry in establishing the pan-African FTA is no coincidence.

While it needs SACU’s common external tariff (CET) to protect its automotive and electronics industries, a wider SADC customs union is an unnecessary burden on Pretoria’s treasury.

The pan-African FTA, on the other hand, would ease market access for South African goods and services and solidify its position as a gateway to the continent through South-South alliances like IBSA (India-Brazil-South Africa) and BRICSA (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa).

“The tripartite FTA has moved to the front of the agenda,” says an international trade negotiator who prefers not to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue.

“It doesn’t mean the SADC customs union is completely off the cards, but the South Africans will not join if there is nothing in it for them.”

Excerpt:

By Servaas van den Bosch
WINDHOEK, Feb 22 2011 (IPS)

A schism about the division of revenues in the world’s oldest customs union threatens to derail the process of regional economic integration in Southern Africa.

SACU heads of state cutting the cake at the union's centenary celebration in 2010. Credit: Servaas van den Bosch/IPS

In some cases this drop is significant. In the SACU-commissioned study the Australian Centre for International Economics proposes a drop in revenue for Swaziland from nine to three percent of the pool by 2019.

Botswana in the same period would go from 17 to a paltry 6.7 percent, while Namibia’s share declines from 15 to nine percent. Only Lesotho would see a marginal increase from 8.5 to nine percent.

South Africa, which presently receives less than 50 percent, would receive 72 percent of the pool.

While it is unlikely that the proposal will be accepted in its current form, it is a welcome stick for Pretoria. South Africa has long lamented the pressure the current system puts on its treasury while the BLNS states use their share to fill their coffers.

In the case of Swaziland, the mighty Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) has openly condemned the use of SACU revenue for “extravagant activities such as the purchase of luxury cars for the king’s birthday”, referring to the ruling autocrat Mswati III.

The South Africans want the money used for development while the BLNS argue it is a rightful compensation for allowing the sub-region’s behemoth to usurp their economic policy space.

“South Africa’s insistence on putting the money towards development projects might very well be interpreted as another drive to access markets for South African industry,” says Sanusha Naidu, research director of communication network Fahamu’s emerging powers in Africa programme.

“South Africa needs to take care it respects the sovereignty of the other members in the discussion that takes place.”

This is a major concern in the region where South Africa’s dominance is increasingly frowned upon. It could harm the fragile process of regional integration in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). States Naidu: “SADC wants to have a fully fledged customs union by 2016. That means that SACU, as a building block for such a customs union, needs to sort out its issues.”

The current tiff between the SACU members has a much wider impact, she argues. “It is not just about revenue sharing. The outcome of this process will affect how other SADC countries structure tariffs or introduce trade barriers.”

On the other hand, as Roman Grynberg of the Botswana Institute of Development Policy Analysis recently pointed out in an opinion piece in the South African press, it is very unlikely that SACU would agree to let additional members benefit from the current revenue-sharing arrangement.

In that sense successful reform of SACU would be a prerequisite for building it into a larger SADC customs union.

“The showdown in SACU has been a long time coming,” according to Paul Kruger, researcher with the independent Trade Law Centre of Southern Africa (TRALAC), based near Cape Town, South Africa. “Integration in the region will depend on the outcome of this process but South African policymakers have come to see SACU – with its common negotiating mechanisms – as an irritation.”

This has consequences for the regional integration agenda: “South Africa is getting less and less interested in a SADC customs union. The other countries favour the idea because of the transfers they currently see in SACU but South Africa knows that, in a customs union, it is at the short end.”

Instead, South Africa is eyeing a tripartite free trade area (FTA) between SADC, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the East African Community (EAC), argues Kruger.

This would give Pretoria the benefits of liberalised trade without the headache of administering a customs union. Says Kruger: “South Africa has discovered a customs union is not necessary to access the benefits of liberalisation and lowering tariff barriers.”

Moreover, South Africa’s foreign policy agenda has shifted since the formation of the India, Brazil, South Africa (IBSA) tripartite grouping and the invitation to South Africa to join the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) formation. It is keen to project itself as “the gateway to Africa” within these international partnerships.

Whether SACU can formulate a common outlook is unsure. “Namibia and South Africa seem to be playing a subtle game geared towards structural change in SACU,” remarks South African trade expert Dot Keet. “Botswana is restructuring its economy entirely differently, while Swaziland and Lesotho are almost completely dependent on a combination of SACU revenue and foreign aid.

“It is possible that reform of the revenue stream will lead to a development fund, controlled for instance by the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA). However, countries would need to be ensured proper representation on the board of such a fund for it to work,” she adds.

But the problems in SACU might run too deep.

Grynberg warned that other SADC countries are weary of South Africa controlling almost all of the production benefits in SACU. Because of the customs union, SACU members have no means of protecting their industries from competition by South African products.

It is a point that was recently made by Namibian deputy finance minister Calle Schlettwein, chairperson of the workgroup tasked with SACU reform, when he said that South Africa’s dominance prohibits other countries from developing.

In the past, SACU revenue compensated for that. Abandoning this arrangement would cause polarisation, said Schlettwein, which could culminate in the trade barriers Naidu warns of.

Excerpt:

By Servaas van den Bosch
WINDHOEK, Feb 16 2011 (IPS)

A universal Basic Income Grant (BIG) would create laziness and dependence among Namibia’s poor, say politicians. A daring pilot project set out to prove that this untrue. IPS spoke to one of the beneficiaries of the BIG.

An income grant enabled Bertha Hamases to find a job. Credit: Servaas van den Bosch/IPS

Here evicted farm workers gathered in misery. For Hamases, a single mom with four kids aged between 9 and 16, life looked hopeless. Until a coalition of civil society organisations picked Otjivero for a privately-funded pilot project to show that a universal basic income grant can make all the difference.

Q: Can you describe your life before the BIG? A: I came to Otjivero eight years ago. Before that I had been living on a farm, but I fell out with my boyfriend and I had to leave.

So I took my four children and settled in the village. Life was hard, we were suffering. The kids would go to school, but I didn’t have money for the school fees. Because they were hungry the children couldn’t concentrate on their homework and it showed in their studies. The school would keep asking for money.

Once a month I would travel to Windhoek and beg money from relatives. With that I would buy a little food for my children. We lived in a small one-room ‘kambashu’, an iron corrugated shack. I would do nothing all day, maybe visit some neighbours and see what they could spare for me.

Life in the settlement as a whole was tough. Every second day people arrived after being chased away from the neighbouring farms. There was crime because people didn’t have money to buy food. Poaching from the farms was a big problem. There was prostitution, violence against women and a lot of alcoholism. The small settlement had something like five or six shebeens, informal bars.”

Q: In 2008 the BIG project started, how did that change your living conditions? A: Because there were five of us, the four children and I, all of a sudden we received 500 Namibian dollars ($68 U.S.) a month.

For two months I still remained in Otjivero, saving up money. Then I used the BIG money to travel to Windhoek. There, again with the money from BIG, I placed an advertisement in the newspaper offering my services as a domestic worker. After two days I got offered a job.

I now earn N$1000 a month plus housing and food. During the week I stay in Windhoek to work and twice a month I go home to Otjivero. The BIG didn’t stop because I worked elsewhere. That’s to show that the grant can create opportunities. Everyone that originally qualified still receives the money. Although after the pilot ended the grant was lowered to 80 dollars ($11 U.S.)

So the N$1400 (just under 200 U.S. dollars) per month I get now makes it possible to pay school fees and buy uniforms. My eldest goes to school in Windhoek and the other three are at a hostel with their school in Witvlei, which is a small town near Otjivero. The fees are N$200 per child per year and N$130 per term for the hostel.

The beautiful thing is that last year they all passed.I can also pay the bills at the clinic, so the nurses don’t have to confiscate my clinic card anymore. I also use the money to buy shoes, clothes and other goods in Windhoek and then sell them in Otjivero on the weekends. My profit is usually around N$400 ($54). Sometimes I buy wholesale groceries and also sell them, or I recycle bottles that I buy from the little children and sell in Windhoek.

I have extended the one room shack into a house with three rooms and God willing I will soon start a soup kitchen for the elderly and orphans.

Q: What has changed in Otjivero itself? A: The children all buy school uniforms and parents pay the school fees. People buy food and purchase TVs, dvd-players and stoves. Many have extended their houses. Where there few shops before, now there are 10-12 little shops.

The place is much cleaner because people don’t mind cleaning when they are fed and not hungry. Crime has stopped totally, while alcoholism and the beating of women has become much less. There was prostitution because women were hungry, but that has stopped completely.

The only problem is that we have become an attractive place to migrate to. Even people from Windhoek are coming because they think there is money in Otjivero. The population has grown from 1,200 to 2,000 people, which means we have to share the wealth.

Q: The President has said the grant will make people lazy, what do you think of that? A: It’s not true. The president says that people will not work when they get a grant. Well, I didn’t use to work before the BIG, but now I am working.

I used the money to advertise myself and found work. Other ladies in Otjivero also gave me money to place an advertisement in the newspaper for them and now they also work.

I am really proud that I receive the Big Income Grant and it should be continued in the whole country, so we can stop poverty in Namibia. So that others can taste what we have tasted.

Excerpt:

A universal income grant in Namibia would alleviate poverty in one of the most unequal societies on earth, say campaigners. Free handouts only lead to laziness, responds an unwilling government.

Supporters say an income grant lays a strong foundation for economic empowerment, responsibility and ownership. Credit: Servaas van den Bosch/IPS

In Otjivero, a small settlement some 100 kilometres outside the Namibian capital, a coalition of civil society groups moved to settle the argument: a pilot project demonstrating the Basic Income Grant (BIG) has made a real difference.

With private funding, all inhabitants of the dusty village – over 900 people under 60 – were registered to receive 100 Namibian dollars – $13 U.S. – per month for a period of two years. The thought behind the universal grant is that a minimum income gives people the opportunity to escape the poverty trap.

And poor Otjivero was a trap. Situated at a crossing of roads, the settlement had attracted a steady flow of evictees from surrounding white-owned farms since independence in 1990. Unemployment, crime, alcoholism and prostitution were rife. Parents had no money for school fees and the sick were often unable to pay modest fees at the clinic.

The results of the pilot have been eye-opening. “Malnutrition has dropped from 42 percent to 10 percent,” explained Lutheran bishop Zephania Kameeta, chair of the BIG Coalition.

This remark was ill-received in a country that has topped the list of most unequal societies for many years. When the leadership of the National Union of Namibian Workers (NUNW) last year toed the ruling party line and withdrew from the BIG Coalition, it was called back by its members, signaling broad support for the income grant.

A conference on “Social Justice and the Responsibility of the State”, organised in Windhoek from Feb. 10-11, maintained pressure on the government to implement the measure.

“I sit on the corner of the street every day waiting for someone to come and ask me to clean their yard,” said Bongie /Cuïnatja.

“Namibia is a rich country, but I am scared to have a child here if I don’t know how to feed her. People cannot eat democracy, they cannot feed on independence.”

A guaranteed monthly income would allow /Cuïnatja, now locked in a daily struggle for survival, to buy basic necessities and maybe start a small business.

Immanuel Kadhila, an entrepreneur, testified that he saw the BIG as a way to make money.

“As soon as we heard of the initiative, my cousin and I went to Otjivero and opened a small grocery shop. Yes, we were being opportunists, but [goods in] the shop sold so well that it was empty most of the time. This shows it’s not true that people will simply spend their money on alcohol. If a BIG is introduced elsewhere it will create employment, because people will open shops,” he said.

“The income grant I get every month makes it possible to pay school fees and buy uniforms. All my children passed last year,” says Otjivero resident Bertha Hamases.

“I can also pay the bill at the clinic so the nurses don’t confiscate my clinic card any more. With money from the grant I advertised in the newspaper and found a job. With the money from the job I buy shoes and clothes and make another profit selling them. I have managed to extend the one room shack the five of us lived in into a 3 room house,” the 32-year-old mother of four told IPS.

“The BIG is an efficient and fair measure to establish a just society,” said Kameeta. Referring to the two decades since independence he added: “Peace is not the absence of war. War ended in 1990, but how can a person with no house and sleeping in a riverbed have peace? Rejecting the discussion on what has become an international movement is making yourself poor.”

It’s unlikely a universal grant will be on the government’s budget later this month. But proponents say there are ways to finance a BIG if the political will was there. “The money from the mines and tourism should directly benefit the people, it should be transferred into their bank accounts. This money will stay here, circulate and make us more competitive,” said Kameeta.

“We cannot just nationalise the mines, or grab the land to finance such a system,” cautioned Trade Minister Hage Geingob. Geingob is a fervent supporter of the BIG despite the prevailing scepticism in government. “But we can ask where the private sector in all this is? Can’t the mines contribute to a fund that gives grants to the needy?”

“If you know I am hungry today then feed me today,” said another activist, lamenting the slow pace of decision-making.

“You don’t go debate my hunger in parliament for five years, or insist on experiments with ‘randomised control’ groups. You cannot gamble with someone’s life like that. Where are the ‘randomised control groups’ when it comes to black economic empowerment deals?”

By Servaas van den Bosch
WINDHOEK, Feb 11 2011 (IPS)

Long years of armed conflict have obstructed development in the areas on either side of the Angola-Namibia border. Now a 45 million dollar infrastructure upgrade is set to improve access to clean drinking water and decent sanitation for one million people.

Drawing water from the Calueque Canal - infrastructure upgrade will improve access for rural comunities in Angola and Namibia. Credit: Servaas van den Bosch/IPS

“For many years, the area around the Calueque dam in Angola was the theatre of wars between governments and various guerilla movements,” says the Kunene Transboundary Water Supply Project (KTWSP)  co-chair, Dr Kuiri Tjipangandjara of Namibia Water Corporation, Namwater.

“It’s unique to set up such a project in a post-conflict zone, and extremely challenging. Even more so because this project is the only one of its kind in the region, so we don’t have a model to refer to.”

The system runs from the Calueque Dam in Southern Angola to the northern Namibian business hub of Oshakati and then back up into Angola again, all the way to the town of Ondjiva.

“Under the Portuguese occupation, holes of 50 by 60 metres were dug to capture floodwater. These so-called chimpacas are still the main water source for the population,” says Thomas Kellner, technical advisor of GIZ (German International Cooperation), which will help local engineers with the overhaul.

But these pools are far from safe.

“Cattle drink from the chimpacas, but 25 metres further you see people washing themselves and doing their laundry, while at the other side people are drawing water for drinking. The water typically has a brown-reddish colour, but several months after the rainy season it will turn green, because it is filled with algae.”

This part of Angola has no piped water, no treatment plants and no sewage systems. While the levels of water-borne diseases are not well-documented, experts stress that child mortality is far above the African average.

In the area’s few towns, the situation is not much better, says Kellner. “A person with a borehole will make water his business. He drives around in a bowser and sells it for as much as $20 per cubic metre.”

In some areas the local authorities exploit well fields – a collection of boreholes – from which they pump water into public tanks.

But many of the boreholes are old and dilapidated. Angola has embarked on a programme called ‘Water for Everyone’, that will see the rehabilitation of 524 boreholes in Cunene province and the drilling of 600 new ones.

In Namibia the water from Calueque runs through an open canal for 150 kilometres from the Angolan border to Oshakati, where it is treated and pumped through a network to all major communities between Oshakati and Oshikango border post. The canal is the only fresh water supply for over 700,000 people and is often damaged by floods and illegal off-take.

Many people along the canal use the water for household purposes or to irrigate their fields,” explains water management expert Andreas Shilomboleni who runs a Global Environmental Facility -funded project that helps farmers in the area adapt to climate change.

“But currently the canal is open. That means that the further from the source you get, the higher the amount of total dissolved solids, basically meaning the water becomes dirtier.”

The course followed by the two-metre wide, concrete-lined ditch is not ideal.

“In Namibia the canal is not perpendicular to the flow of the water in the rainy season. Flood waters cause damage to the canal resulting in maintenance issues,” says Shilomboleni. The canal rapidly fills with sediment as floodwaters cross it.”

Along the length of the canal, people have also grown accustomed to illegally drawing water for domestic use and for irrigation.

These are among the many challenges the KTWSP will have to take into consideration when embarking on a complete overhaul of water infrastructure in the border area.

The project will see substantial repairs to infrastructure at the dam and the pipeline, upgrading of the power supply to the motors that pump the water southwards and refurbishing of the pumps itself. Extra pipelines will be built to supply Ondjiva with fresh water and new power lines have to erected over many hundreds of kilometres to feed new pump installations.

“About 300,000 people in Southern Angola will now for the first time have access to safe and clean drinking water,” says Kellner.

A final step will be replacing the open canal in Namibia with a pipeline. A feasibility study into this project – which Kellner estimates will cost more than 100 million dollars – will likely commence later this year. 

Excerpt:

A decade after heavy floods wrecked havoc in Southern Africa, the region is better prepared to monitor and respond to seasonal flooding. This is thanks as much to the growing strength of transboundary institutions as it is to technical improvements.

Water levels during this year’s flood season in Southern Africa will likely top the disastrous floods of 2000.

In that year the Mozambican capital Maputo flooded while the banks of the Limpopo burst and some 45,000 people had to be rescued. The floods were compounded by water-borne diseases and a tropical cyclone. Authorities across the region were criticised for failing to anticipate which areas would be worst affected as well as for a slow and inadequate response to the crisis, which cost 800 lives.

Basin-wide warning system

One response to the 2000 disasters was to strengthen the warning systems along the region’s numerous river basins.

“The idea of HYCOS was that all stations transmit in real-time to the same database that could be used to predict floods,” says Guido van Langenhove, Namibia’s chief hydrologist. But while some countries like Namibia and South Africa have set up parts of such a system themselves, HYCOS seems to have become a white – wet – elephant.

According to the South African Department of Water Affairs (DWAF) 108 of the planned 128 stations – each costing $10,000 – were installed. But only one in five is presently transmitting reliable readings.

“There are no operational stations north of Namibia,” says van Langenhove; yet according to DWAF, Angola and Zambia should between them have 17 automated monitoring stations.

“It was a waste of money,” van Langenhove asserts. “A lot of electronic equipment was dumped, but there was no capacity-building or training of technicians. The stations worked sometimes for a week, sometimes for a year. When they broke down there was no one to repair them. Or they started malfunctioning and give the wrong readings. Namibia had nine stations but none of them worked; we had to fix them ourselves.”

He estimates the project cost $4 million. The project’s donor, the Government of the Netherlands, pulled out. The SADC-HYCOS office in Pretoria was dismantled and the project is currently on hold.

Water management without borders

“HYCOS is not operating optimally,” says Phera Ramoeli, chief engineer of the Southern African Development Community’s Water Division. “Some stations were affected by the floods and the information might be inadequate. The project was also delayed because we had to change database systems after one system from the UK became redundant.”

The future of HYCOS is uncertain, but countries seem to be jointly monitoring flooding across the region well, based on the growing quality of their human resources.

Far upstream on the Zambezi, Zambian water officials measure the level of the mighty river and phone the results through to the capital, Lusaka. From here the data is emailed to water departments in other countries.

“This gives us a two week heads up,” says van Langenhove. “We started it after 2008 when large parts of northern Namibia were flooded without any warning.”

On the Kavango River, Namibian hydrologists do the same for their Batswana colleagues working in the Okavango Delta. All across the region, similar ad hoc systems are in place. “It’s a bit informal, but it works,” says van Langenhove.

The system testifies to the relations that have been built up between colleagues and maintained in part thanks to the river basin organisations (RBOs) that have been built up all over the region in the past decade, says Ramoeli.

“Cooperation between countries has been improving. Ten years ago, river basin organisations were few and far between. Now we have basins like ORASECOM and OKACOM where river use protocols have been agreed on by the different states.”

River basin organisations

ORASECOM – the Orange-Senqu River Commission – and OKACOM – the Permanent Okavango Basin Water Commission – are two of the best-established RBOs, each facilitating information-sharing on a regional level among other functions.

“Experts from different countries conduct joint studies that lead to a better understanding of the basin as a whole. Even when there is no formal basin organisation, we see that hydrologists share information via email. So there has been some remarkable development,” says Ramoeli.

“In the past ten years, RBOs have gotten a much better understanding of what actually happens in the basins,” says Peter Pyke, chief engineer at DWAF, who is closely involved with ORASECOM. The Orange River, which flows from the Lesotho Highlands to the Atlantic Ocean on the South African-Namibian border, is one of the rivers that is currently flooding.

Floods are here to stay, says Pyke. “At the moment information from upstream is typically unreliable. If there is a flood coming down it’s hard to get a handle on what is actually happening. There are [too] few gauge stations and a flood can easily develop in between.

“It is not enough just to know how much rain fell upstream. Nor can you open the sluice gates on the speculation that a flood is coming. What if it doesn’t come? Then there is no water for the dry season.”

According to Pyke, South Africa has developed water resource management models that it shares with other basins in the region. “These models allow you to predict what is happening in the basin.”

These predictions would help authorities to plan in the case of impending floods.

“Because of our arid environment we will never entirely eliminate floods. Water authorities in the region will always have to find a balance between keeping the dams as full as possible for the dry season and letting water run through.

“Effective flood control would keep the dams as empty as possible. But that’s not an option as by the end of the flood we need a full dam. So we have to manage the flows carefully, using the different dams to flatten water peaks and avoid them building up into massive floods.”

By Servaas van den Bosch
WINDHOEK, Jan 31 2011 (IPS)

South Africa landed a coveted membership with the Brazil, Russia, India and China bloc (BRIC) by marketing itself as a gateway to Africa but analysts doubt whether this development holds real benefits for poor countries on the rest of the continent.

South African retail chain logos on a mall in Windhoek, Namibia. Credit: Servaas van den Bosch/IPS

Analysts have raised questions whether even the epithet “emerging power” is justified. With a nominal gross domestic product (GDP) of 286 billion dollars, South Africa is dwarfed by Brazil (two trillion dollars), India (two trillion dollars), Russia (1.6 trillion dollars) and (China (5.5 trillion dollars).

Population-wise, South Africa’s 50 million seems insignificant beside China’s 1.3 billion people and India’s 1.2 billion. In terms of growth rates, Africa’s powerhouse recorded a meagre three percent last year, in contrast to China’s 10.5 percent.

Much has been made of South Africa’s position as a gateway to the Southern African Development Community (SADC), boasting over 250 million consumers, and the African market as a whole, projected to grow to two billion people over the next two decades.

In late January South Africa’s trade and industry minister Rob Davies defended the membership along these lines at the World Economic Forum in Davos: “The African continent is the next great economic story. We are quite small but, when we look at the African continent as a whole, the numbers start to add up.”

The membership would also reflect a geopolitical move by China to build a Southern axis and add weight to the reform of multilateral institutions such as the United Nations Security Council, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to reflect the increasing importance of emerging powers.

But what can BRICS bring to the region outside South Africa, most of which remains locked in least developed country (LDC) status? Very little — even in the best-case scenario, trade critics told IPS.

“At this stage it seems to be a political rather than an economic move,” says independent trade analyst Wallie Roux from Namibia, which currently chairs SADC. “BRIC is the vehicle for global economic recovery and as such it puts South Africa in the spotlight, but I do not expect it will mean anything for other African countries in the short to medium term.”

In the worst-case scenario, BRICS will further frustrate the problematic process of regional integration in SADC and Africa, say analysts.

“There is a constant obsession in the region to connect with the global economy and sign up to a neoliberal ‘free trade’ agenda,” comments South African trade analyst Michelle Pressend. “It reflects the linear approach that SADC has taken to regional integration. South African BRICS membership, with its emphasis on access to the regional market, exemplifies this.

“But most SADC countries are one-resource economies with very small industrial bases. South Africa believes in the rules of liberalised trade, such as lowering tariffs and loosening capital control regulations. BRIC itself has not always necessarily traded by these rules and rather focuses on building their own economies first.”

Pressend concludes that the ascension of South Africa to BRIC could propel a further drive to market access (this time from the other members of the bloc), which is not necessarily in the interest of countries that have yet to build industrial bases. It may result in them remaining commodity export dependent economies.

Sanusha Naidu, research director of communication network Fahamu’s “emerging powers in Africa” programme, has a similar view.

“What most people fail to realise is that by joining BRIC, South Africa offers a strategic partnership for investors from these countries. These investors do not necessarily have the savvy to do business on the continent, nor do they want to take all the risks associated with it. Linking up with South African capital can provide the commercial spin they are looking for.”

Through such alliances BRICS would facilitate a further flow of South African capital into Africa. Says Naidu: “It will enlarge the footprint of South African corporations in the region and further embed the trade and investment agenda of South African capital.

“Standard Bank’s one billion dollars private equity deal with the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China is an example of this. Partnering with BRIC investors enables South African capital to further exploit the region.”

This could add to existing diplomatic tensions, given South Africa’s contentious hegemonic status in the region, says South African trade analyst Dot Keet.

“South Africa positions itself strongly as a gateway into Africa and a facilitator of trade. The region does not necessarily identify with this position. Countries currently pursue a dual agenda of benefiting from South Africa’s power and countering it, often resulting in inconsistent trade policies,” Keet adds.

“South Africa has pushed itself into BRIC by bargaining on behalf of a 250 million consumer market in SADC but many of the 53 African countries do not recognise South Africa as their leader,” says Dr Siphamandla Zondi, director of the South African think tank the Institute for Global Dialogue.

He thinks BRICS will benefit the region only marginally: “There will be a larger diversity in investments and BRICS also offers large consumer markets for African small industry. Finally it might bring in significant tourism streams from countries other than the U.S. or Western Europe. But all in all the benefits for BRICS will be more extensive than for the African countries.”

Excerpt:

By Servaas van den Bosch
WINDHOEK, Jan 20 2011 (IPS)

As South Africa declares a national disaster due to flooding, other countries in the region hold their breath while water levels continue to rise.

The Zambezi at the border where Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabawe meet: basin-wide cooperation can help to avoid flood-related damage. Credit: Brian McMorrow/Wikicommons

With dozens dead and damages exceeding $50 million across eight of its nine provinces, South Africa is experiencing its heaviest floods in years. The Orange River, which runs 2,300 kilometres from Lesotho east to the Atlantic Ocean at the Namibian-South African border, has reached its highest level in decades.

“The floods are earlier than previous years,” says Maria Amakali, Namibia’s Director of Water Resource Management who sits on the the Orange-Senqu River Commission. “Irrigation schemes on the border are flooded, lodges are under water and some small communities are flooded to the point they don’t have drinking water, because the water treatment plants are submerged.”

The Zambezi

“The water in the Zambezi is much higher than is normal for this time of year,” Guido van Langenhove told IPS. “This morning we measured three metres at Katima Mulilo, normally it should be half that.” The Zambezi is considered to be flooding when the water level breaks through the 6-metre mark.

Van Langenhove, Director of Hydrology in Namibia’s Ministry of Agriculture, warns that floodwater from heavy December downpours in upstream Angola are gradually making their way down Southern Africa’s largest river, traversing six countries.

“The Zambezi usually reaches its peak around March or April, but there are signs that flooding will occur earlier, depending on the rain in the coming months.”

Flooding of the mighty Zambezi has caused havoc in the basin in the past, notably in 2000, 2001 and 2007.

Water authorities in the region have strengthened early warning systems to head off disasters that leave people like Hamaundu destitute.

“We get readings from six stations in the Zambezi and its tributaries, that allow us to predict the water levels two weeks in advance,” says Van Langenhove about the area where four countries share a common border along the Zambezi.

“In addition we get satellite images from NASA that allow us to monitor the rainfall and flooding situation.”

He is keeping a close eye on another part of Namibia, the Cuvelai Basin in the central north, which experienced severe floods in 2008 and 2009. An area inhabited by a million people – or half the country’s population – was inundated. Heavy damage occurred to crops and livestock, while many people drowned.

“Since then we have put up 18 measuring stations in the Oshanas (floodplains) that send us automatic messages on the water levels,” explains Van Langenhove.

This year the dreaded ‘Efundja’ (flood) from Angola has yet to come. “We are monitoring the situation by satellite, but so far the rains in that part of Angola have not developed as normal.”

Yet an absence of the annual flood is by no means a blessing for the arid area, the hydrologist said. “It brings fish and people depend on it to fill up their dams for the dry season.”

The Limpopo

In Mozambique, where the Limpopo River reaches the Indian Ocean, officials are preparing for the flooding season. “We have some inundation in some areas,” says Sergio Sitoe of the Limpopo Water Course Commission. “We are not really experiencing floods as such, but if rain continues to fall heavily we will have floods.”

According to Sitoe, on Jan. 16 and 17 alone stations recorded 100 mm of rain. Some people living in the basin have started moving to safer ground after warnings that 7,000 people could be affected if the river reaches the expected two metres above alert levels.

“The impact of floods is always negative,” says Sitoe. “Especially for the communities living along the river and using the banks and the lower areas for agriculture. Crops are lost and hunger is on the increase. Communities depend on food aid by humanitarian organisations.”

Crops have already been submerged in parts of the Limpopo Basin.

Sitoe adds that teams from Mozambique’s Disaster Management Institution INGC are already on the ground to assist and warn communities. A special task force of the Limpopo Commission meets before and during the rainy season to discuss the exchange of hydrological information, while member states also put individual contingency plans in place.

But early systems are not always working the way they should. “The systems are not always reliable. Some HYCOS (Hydrological Cycle Observing Systems) stations are still working, but most of the time it is difficult to get the information when you need it,” says Sitoe, explaining that the problem is compounded by flaky internet connections.

*Brian Moonga in Lusaka and Johannes Myburgh in Maputo contributed to this report.

Excerpt:

By Servaas van den Bosch
WINDHOEK, Nov 5 2010 (IPS)

While a trade deal between the European Union and Southern African countries is close it will not be concluded before the end of this year. In the meantime, South Africa remains in pursuit of an ambitious regional integration agenda.

(l-r) South African trade minister Dr Rob Davies and Namibian trade minister Hage Geingob at a briefing after the bilateral meeting on Nov 4. Credit: Servaas van den Bosch/IPS

“Even for the EU, time is not so much the issue anymore,” added South African trade minister Dr Rob Davies. “They are more interested in investing in a strong relationship.”

The ministers spoke after a bilateral meeting between South Africa and Namibia’s heads of state on Nov 4 in Windhoek. At the meeting, South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma voiced confidence in “a speedy resolution” of all outstanding issues in the cumbersome negotiations.

“Following our recent interaction with the European Union, we are convinced like never before that disagreements with the EU have been narrowed and we are on the verge of finalising an agreement that recognises our developmental challenges while at the same time creating opportunities for mutual benefit,” said Zuma.

Despite pressure from Brussels Namibia refused to sign an interim trade deal, arguing that the forced opening of the Namibian market to more competitive EU companies would severely curtail its future economic growth.

Although Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland signed an interim EPA, South Africa backed Namibia in holding out for a better deal.

“South Africa stood by Namibia in the EPA negotiations,” Geingob pointed out. “As a result we have turned the negotiations for this interim EPA around and can instead look forward to negotiating a full EPA with the European Union.”

Davies added: “We decided to participate in the EPA process even though South Africa already has the TDCA (Trade, Development and Cooperation Agreement) with the EU. We feel the EPA is very important.

“In our estimation the EPA, as it was originally tabled, would have done enormous damage to the development of the region. The final EPA will include more than the interim agreement but it is important not to overload the agenda now by adding a new set of obligations. It is time to move ahead with this agreement,” said Davies.

Meanwhile South Africa is pursuing the economic integration of African states as “an organic process evolving from regional economic communities that will logically fuse into a single gigantic economy in line with the dictates of the Abuja Treaty”, in Zuma’s words.

The 1991 Abuja Treaty is a “roadmap” to an African economic community.

This is the third time this year that Zuma visited neighbouring Namibia, which holds the chairpersonship of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and is home to the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) Secretariat.

The visits are aimed at speeding up the process of regional integration. South Africa wants to use SACU as a building block for the mooted tripartite free trade area spanning 26 countries and 578 million people.

“We should spare no effort in increasing the momentum of integration between SADC, COMESA (Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa) and EAC (East African Community),” Zuma declared.

“This tripartite economic project holds real prospects for contributing to continental efforts aimed at increasing intra-African trade.”

Davies added that, “amidst continued depressed economic conditions, Africa is emerging as the next economic success story. Individually African countries do not have the size to compete in the global arena but as a group we can. This is why we have to promote regional integration,” he added.

A June 2010 report by the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), “Lions on the move”, stated that Africa’s collective gross domestic product of 1.6 trillion dollars equals that of Brazil and Russia. MGI is the research arm of McKinsey and Company, a management consultancy firm that advises companies.

Increased macro-economic stability and political reforms, combined with the commodities boom and the emergence of a middle class, convinced the report’s writers that the economic momentum is here to stay.

The South Africans see reform of SACU as instrumental to regional integration. Tshwane (formerly Pretoria) wants to change the customs union from a pool of revenue for the BLNS countries (Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland) to a development fund.

Davies reiterated this stance in Windhoek: “We must turn SACU into a tool of development promotion. SACU could be instrumental in creating infrastructural projects and adding beneficiation to the mineral and agricultural sectors.

“We have to ask the question how the smaller economies can benefit from the large South African economy on their borders and vice versa. We need to create a value chain between the countries.

“When the duties were dropped in SACU it did not make a difference to the balance of trade between South Africa and the rest. So, what we really need in SACU is to produce more goods and services,” concluded Davies.

At the bilateral meeting, South Africa announced its intention to be part of the trans-Kalahari railway line that will connect the Mmamabula coalfield in Botswana and South Africa’s Waterberg coalfield with the port of Walvis Bay.

Davies explained: “Transport routes are becoming more significant all over the continent. It is important to progress with the development of a transport corridor programme.”

Namibia and South Africa also strengthened their cooperation on transfrontier conservation areas, industrial standards, air services, green energy projects and development of the Kudu gas field in Namibia.

The countries will also work together on adding value to minerals. Davies singled out titanium: “A ton of titanium dioxide sand, mined in South Africa, will maybe fetch a couple of thousand dollars, but if we can turns this into titanium alloy the revenue jumps to over 100,000 dollars per ton.”

Excerpt:

By Servaas van den Bosch
CAPE TOWN, Sep 21 2010 (IPS)

The beleaguered Southern African Customs Union (SACU) has to face up to serious challenges at its upcoming heads of state meeting in October, including the divergent interests of its member states and the lack of coordinated industrial policies in the union.

Fishing boats in Cape Town harbour, South Africa, with Table Mountain as backdrop. Credit: Servaas van den Bosch/IPS

High-level intervention could assist in pushing through the structural changes that the customs union has embarked on. “One of the key challenges in SACU is lack of leadership on how it can be a platform for deeper regional integration,” stated Trudi Hartzenberg, director of the Trade Law Centre of Southern Africa (Tralac). The non-profit Tralac provides capacity-building support to governments.

The economic partnership agreement (EPA) negotiations with the European Union (EU) brought the underlying dissonances in the sub-regional organisation to the fore.

A key difference among the member states, of which the current discussion on revenue sharing is a symptom, is the divergent views on the roles of the customs union.

“The labour union movement in South Africa takes exception to South Africa making transfers to countries with a higher GDP (gross domestic product) per capita, such as Botswana,” commented economist Colin McCarthy from Stellenbosch University near Cape Town, South Africa.

Pretoria is said to be getting fed up with functioning as “the regional ATM”, or automatic teller machine, especially in the case of Swaziland where revenues flow straight into the coffers of the autocratic royal rulers. Last year South Africa contributed 98 percent of the revenue pool while taking out only 22.5 percent.

“Where the BLNS states need the revenue to complement their narrow tax bases, South Africa sees import tariffs as an instrument of industrial policy,” McCarthy spelled out the fundamental difference.

“Article 38 of the SACU Agreement requires member states to develop such industrial policies geared towards a more equal distribution of economic activity in the region. But this cannot happen through thumb sucking and crystal ball gazing. There is a need for policies and guidelines on which national SACU institutions can base recommendations.”

In South Africa, industrial policy is hotly debated and politically “sensitive”, as evidenced by the mid-September 2010 release of an economic policy paper, putting forward views on industrial development, by the most powerful trade union federation in the country called the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu).

“The region will certainly not be unaffected by what comes out of this discussion, but how often are the BLNS states consulted? I expect a number approaching zero,” opined McCarthy.

He pointed out that after eight years SACU still does not have a tariff board or other institutions such as a tribunal. “In the BLNS states I do not detect any seriousness around this, while in Pretoria senior government officials are against a tariff board. The question arises whether South Africa really would be willing to sacrifice its policy space to such institutions?”

“The space for cosily muddling through in SACU will become smaller as developments around us take place,” remarked Tralac associate professor Gerhard Erasmus. “The EPA negotiations were a traumatic exercise which taxed the relationship between the members. They served as a sober reminder of what it takes to be part of a new world.”

This seems borne out by SACU’s lack of progress in closing preferential trade agreements (PTAs) — not just with EU but with virtually every major trade partner. A new PTA with Mercosur, the largest trading bloc in South America, was signed in 2008 but analysts argue the agreement is not as beneficial as it could have been, as exhibited by a reluctance in the BLNS to ratify the pact.

A PTA with China is equally problematic. “The Chinese feel that South Africa backtracked on an agreement, not appreciating that it is, domestically speaking, politically impossible right now,” noted South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) research associate Catherine Grant. The non- governmental SAIIA conducts international relations research.

“SACU countries also have different levels of engagement with China, such as Swaziland that does not recognize the one-China policy (due to trade relations with Taiwan). China also elicits a lot of concern from the labour and manufacturing sectors.”

A PTA with the U.S. proved a bridge too far even though the U.S. and SACU signed a trade, investment and development cooperation agreement (TIDCA) in 2008. However, during meetings at the U.S. embassy in Pretoria it is apparently often bemoaned that SACU won’t engage on the TIDCA.

A trade deal with India has been under negotiation for years but is met by a lack of enthusiasm from the private sector.

“The trade agreement with India illustrates the difficulties of SACU operating as a coherent bloc,” commented trade expert Mike Humphrey.

“South Africa uses the high common external tariff to protect its markets. It makes it hard for a country like Swaziland to import primary industry manufacturing goods, such as fertilizer from India. This has led to very fraught negotiations where the Indians were thrown out of the room and we spent hours and hours fighting among ourselves.”

It indicates all is still not well within SACU, with South Africa not engaging the other members in its industrial development plans and the BLNS not putting forward any industrial policy vision.

Even internal border controls, as several experts pointed out, are more arduous than 10 years back, indicating increased use of non-tariff barriers among the member states. “There is a danger that South Africa is retreating in a laager, protecting borders and keeping up competition,” argued Humphrey. Too often, he said, the debate in South Africa “is about SACU, rather than with SACU”.

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By Servaas van den Bosch
CAPE TOWN, Sep 20 2010 (IPS)

With African countries’ trade remaining inordinately dependent on natural resources exports, their economies could benefit from liberalisation of trade in services but only as long as proper domestic regulatory frameworks are put in place, some trade experts argue.

Horse mackerel being prepared for export in the Southern African country Namibia's port of Walvis Bay. Credit: Servaas van den Bosch/IPS

The continent’s dependency on these markets became apparent when demand plummeted in the wake of the financial crisis, putting an end to the 2003-2008 commodities boom, explained Sean Woolfrey, researcher at the Trade Law Centre of Southern Africa (Tralac), at Tralac’s annual meeting on Sep 16-17 in Cape Town, South Africa.

The non-profit Tralac provides capacity-building support to governments and other entities.

Angola’s oil fields, Zambia’s copper belt and Botswana’s diamond mines, among others, have created dangerously one-sided development paths, trade experts noted at the conference.

“Significant policy space is available when it comes to natural resources,” remarked Woolfrey. “But increasingly this space is being constrained by preferential trade agreements.”

As example he mentioned the economic partnership agreements (EPAs) that the EU is currently negotiating with the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states.

Namibia, experiencing a uranium rush, vehemently opposes limitations on export taxes in the EPA. The EU uses tariff escalations to prevent local processing, particularly in mining and forestry, hindering African countries when it comes to value addition. Woolfrey warned that, “this can lead to tit- for-tat trade policies that in the end are not always conducive”.

He pointed out that the rise of economic giants like China and India, hungry for natural resources, could benefit exporters “not because they are somehow more benevolent trade partners, but because the emergence of South-South trade in natural resources means more competition, which is good for suppliers”.

Competitiveness can be enhanced by the liberalisation of trade in services but this would also present a good opportunity to improve domestic regulatory frameworks, opined Tralac executive director Trudi Hartzenberg.

Her position contradicts that of African governments and civil society organisations that have strongly resisted the EU’s insistence in the troublesome EPA negotiations that African countries liberalise their markets for services companies from Europe.

It would be unfair, opponents have argued with some success, to expect companies from developing economies in the region to compete on an equal level with European services companies.

“It would for instance give German operators access to the Namibian market, but on the other hand it is very unlikely that Telecom Namibia Ltd will go to Germany to take over Deutsche Telekom,” said Namibia’s deputy finance minister Calle Schlettwein last year.

Most Southern Africa countries, apart from Botswana, favour postponement of services negotiations in the EPA talks. The EU is grudgingly giving in to this position.

But Hartzenberg’s opinion is that, in the absence of a services development agenda, consumers pay the price for expensive service delivery by South African companies and “inefficient” state-owned companies.

“The risks of liberalisation are overstated,” she told IPS. “South African firms in the services sector have established commercial presence in telecommunications, financial and other services in most Southern African countries already without any liberalisation having taken place.

“Such services are hard to keep out because they often involve foreign direct investment and most countries will bend over backwards to get that.”

Therefore it is timely to open the discussion on services, Hartzenberg argued.

“Even in least developed countries, services contribute an increasing share of economic activity in terms of employment. Services are also very important for the manufacturing sector. It is not possible to be competitive in manufacturing if we do not have competitive services inputs.

“We need only to take a look at bank and telecommunications charges in our part of the world to see that these high costs and, in some cases, poor quality of services are not only hampering business development but have very negative effects on consumers and households.”

Trade expert Mike Humphrey added that, “liberalisation does not mean that there is no control. There can be clear restrictions; it is not a blank cheque”.

Hartzenberg conceded that whether countries should open their services sectors to the EU specifically is a valid question. “If the EU is being given a first mover’s advantage, it may be an idea to look at which European services providers are competitive and opening up only for those that are most efficient.”

Discussing liberalisation in the context of the EPA, according to the Tralac chief, can also give impetus to much needed domestic regulatory reform to promote efficient, more competitive services providers.

The battle over services has only just begun as the powers that be have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo.

“When looking at the banking sector in South Africa there are really four firms that dominate the market and they do not necessarily want new competition,” said Hartzenberg.

“The same goes for telecommunications. In many countries in the region, fixed-line service providers are still owned by governments. They do not want competition to erode their income.”

Governments should be asking themselves whether these services companies are of benefit to the economy, said Hartzenberg. They should also ask: “Would the entry of Deutsche Telekom into Namibia improve service and lower prices? Would it be an efficient services provider?

“Whether a Namibian is working for a Namibian company or for a German- owned company should not make a difference, provided that the domestic regulatory framework is robust enough.”

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