Number 6: Sustainable Development Part 2

Contents:

• INTRODUCTION
• AUTHORS
• TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN GHANA
• TOXIC WASTE DUMPING IN ZAMBIA
• SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND THE PRESS IN AFRICA
• THE ROLE OF AFRICAN NGOS IN AFRICA'S SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
• RIOD: THE DESERTIFICATION NETWORK
• CAMPFIRE: ZIMBABWE'S TRADITION OF CARING
• "A HAPPY FAMILY:" THE GREEN ZONE COOPERATIVES
• SoS/E: WORKING TOWARDS FOOD SECURITY
• CLIMATE CHANGE: KENYA'S RESPONSES
• ECOTOURISM: SUICIDE OR DEVELOPMENT?
• THE POOR PARTNERS' ATTITUDES TO TECHNICAL COOPERATION IN AFRICA

THE ROLE OF AFRICAN NGOS IN AFRICA'S SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

by Mamadou Lamine Thiam

Today, Africa is in the grip of an unprecedented crisis, due essentially to the exclusion of people from the search for solutions to their own problems.

The UN Special Session on Africa (1986), which resulted in the creation of the UN Programme for Africa's Economic Recovery and Development (UNPAAERD), demonstrated that the international community has committed itself to helping African people in their struggle against underdevelopment and poverty.

At the same time, the United Nations New Agenda for the Development of Africa in the 1990s (UN-NADAF), which is only half-implemented, does not seem to be of any great help to the continent.

Faced with this situation, African populations are now coming together to take their destiny into their own hands. The proliferation of organisations of peasant and village women with links to NGOs and civil society is a good indication of Africa's ability to rely upon herself, something of which African NGOs are well aware.

There is now new hope since, in political terms, African populations have started wrenching power back from dictators who used to exercise it against them and "in their name." They have finally understood that they could contribute to economic recovery, initially by participating in major decision making. As a matter of fact, the many national conferences which have taken place around the continent are proof of African civil society's demands for involvement in the national decision making process and insistence on actual popular participation.

African NGOs' Role in the Development Process

While in its infancy, the associations' movement confined itself to timely actions based on religious or charitable considerations. Today, NGOs have realized that they should have their own perception of development if they want to fully play their part. That perception requires long-term programmes which can help to solve the problems facing us.

This new mission for NGOs calls for a political stance on issues. The kind of sustainable development we want to create demands that we and our populations become involved in decisions affecting the future of the grassroots communities which we represent. This would make it necessary for us to:

• help promote popular participation as defined by the Arusha Charter, which could well act as a code of conduct for both NGOs and African governments;
• contribute to the introduction of durable peace in order to build our future; and
• help promote equality between social layers and for women, securing a fair share of power for them. The continent's economy should be restructured without delay in order to promote better long-term living conditions for our populations. However, for that to be feasible, several conditions would have to be met:
• there should be greater transparency in public affairs which, in most countries, have been mismanaged, with leaders confusing their own interests with those of the community. As in any democratic country, the population insists on checking on the way national assets are being used;
• popular participation in development should be made more effective, and greater freedom for grassroots initiatives promoted. The population should be involved in any decisions affecting their lives;
• African women should receive more support in their struggle for a social status more in tune with their responsibilities in society and within the family;
• African NGOs should engage in the reproduction and preservation of our natural resources for a more sustainable development through our environment; and
• African NGOs should be involved in informing, mobilizing and organizing civil society into a politically influential group.

In poor countries where technological means and energy resources are limited, each citizen should be relied upon for his or her skills, ambitions, means and priorities. All citizens should be put into a position to use their resources and natural talents on behalf of the continent at large.

Today, Africa needs a strategy which can enable the poor to participate in development. But this would assume the introduction of democratic rules, of peace and of security.

African NGOs' Role for Democracy in Africa

The sudden appearance of local organisations and of a civil society could not have taken place at a better time. This phenomenon is the result of a shift from indifference and fatalism to self-reliance, self-defence and participation.

African NGOs have a major role to play in bringing about such change by throwing their weight behind the population to counterbalance the power of the state, thus ensuring durable peace and a partnership between people and governments. It is in this context that we could consider a development initiative a process of long-term autonomy for Africans.

African NGOs should join grassroots populations in order to enforce popular participation. They should demand the right to participate in political decisions on the future of Africa;this, because sustainable development is a political issue resulting from a set of collective decisions governing the life of each and every one. It is in this connection that one should examine the decisions made by African NGO delegates to FAVDO's (Forum of African Voluntary Development Organizations) General Assembly in Harare on the structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) which have been secretly negotiated between our governments and the World Bank, and which have clearly led to increasing suffering and poverty.

Democracy and human rights are the foundations of sustainable, fair and human development. Therefore, an attempt should be made to set up local development programmes which take into consideration the values, needs, aspirations and culture of local populations.

Finally, strengthening the institutional capacity of grassroots communities would allow these to better participate in the struggle for democracy, the protection of marginalized social groups and in making the population more accountable.

African NGOs and their partners in the North should help and encourage civil society actors to express their aspirations and assert themselves in order to actually participate in all decisions made in their name.

This shows that it is urgent for African NGOs to come to terms with the political nature of development and drop their traditional apolitical stance. No African organization can claim it is not affected by the change occurring in its country. And, the involvement of NGOs in the democratic process should start with NGOs themselves through the fair application of democratic rules in the decision making and concertation processes with grassroots communities.

Clearly, no development policy will succeed without peace. There can be no lasting peace without any equal justice for all citizens, all social groups, all social categories, and all generations of both sexes.

No justice can avoid being biased without being grounded in ethics and a culture of equity. Based on solidarity, communal society should include the resources required for the introduction of a system capable of getting everybody involved and giving individuals the security needed to undertake something.

In view of the above, African NGOs should:

• encourage access by grassroots communities to information materials, communications methods, and popular participation in decision making;
• support grassroots organizations and social groups that are in a position to work out alternative policies and bring about change through collectively defined actions which are culturally acceptable;
• promote a participative democracy that respects peoples' aspirations and existing cultures; and
• reinforce the empowerment of women and impoverished populations and their role in development-related decisions and actions.

Conclusion

African NGOs should now actively contribute to the economic recovery of the continent and to the consolidation of democracy. Therefore, they should, from now on, design long-term programmes with the following global aims:

• to promote popular participation, assistance for popular organizations, the integration of NGOs into civil society, democratization, the protection of human rights, and so on;
• to reinforce the institutional capacity of grassroots communities; and
• to set up a partnership with NGOs in the North, based on solidarity, mutual respect and a fair distribution of tasks.

African NGOs should work towards an empowerment of civil society, giving people the capacity to make decisions and to negotiate. It is in this context that a development initiative can be regarded as a process of autonomy. This will involve giving power to people for greater commitment to participation in survival and development efforts.