AFRODAD
MID-TERM NARRATIVE REPORT
Jan. – July 2003
INTRODUCTION
Background and Context
Africa‟s debt crises continue to pose serious worries about how it should be resolved. Of the US$ 550
billion outstanding debt in 2000 for less developed countries (LDCs), 80% was public and public
guaranteed debt. Scheduled debt service was more than 181% of export earnings of the countries. It is also
known that for some countries in Africa more than 30% of government budget is paid for debt service as
compared to only 15% for health and education combined, compromising human development.
The persistence of this crisis also continues to make many players in the development arena raise questions
about the real underlying causes of Debt. In the past few years, we see a trend towards major public
acceptance by the creditors (march 2003, IMF Meeting in Washington on the HIPC Review) of the blame
of the causes of the Debt crises due to failed debt relief initiatives such as HIPC and the Poverty Reduction
Strategy Papers (PRSPs). The failure of the IMF-led initiative of the Sovereign Debt Restructuring
Mechanism (SDRM), which did not have any significant impact on Debts in LDCs, has not made any
contribution to the resolution of the Debt crises but has placed the IMF more on the spot for scrutiny of
their failed policies and legitimacy by the international community.
For the Debtor countries, particularly those in Less Developed countries (LDCs), they are still haunted by
the notion that they are the borrowers and that they are under obligation to service the debts except for a
few countries like Zimbabwe and Kenya, which have opted to default their debts for some time now.
There‟s still reluctance on the part of the Debtors to question their unequal nature of their relationship with
these institutions but continue to fall prey of the games of the Creditors who do not seem to have genuine
interest in resolving the Debt crises.
At another level, there is a new realization that Debtors are being pressured to pay their Debts by non-
participating Paris club members to which they also owe huge debts. Under the Paris club arrangement, a
debtor country negotiates for debt rescheduling and Debt relief against the rest of the creditors, a
framework most CSOs view as undemocratic and not transparent. However, for those creditors who are not
part of the Paris Club, also known as non-participating creditors, are making a lot of pressure on Debtor
countries to pay their Debts. Tanzania for instance is being pressured to pay its debt by India and Russia
who are not part of the Paris Club. In addition, there is also mounting pressure to pay intra-Africa Debt –
Debt that Tanzania may owe Zimbabwe or Malawi and vice-versa.
In response to some of these challenges during the first half of the year 2003, AFRODAD remained
committed to ensuring that its work was centered on challenging the neo-liberal development paradigm,
which informs the current power imbalances. In the wake of the ever-increasing challenges of
globalization, the birth of the African Union among other episodes gave some degree of hope in ensuring
that a counter voice is heard but this time much more from a seemingly united front. However, CSOs were
still not convinced that the move from OAU to AU was sufficient to revive regionalism in Africa as one
way by which the relevance of a debt-crisis and poverty-free continent can be established in this
increasingly globalizing world.
There was a great movement among CSOs towards ensuring that their interface with the African Union was
consolidated through the AU-ECOSOC – African Union Economic and Social Council, one of the major
civic society platforms for engaging the African Union. Article 22 of the founding charter of the African
Union defines African civil society as an advisory organ and explicitly invites African civil society through
its various organisations to fully participate in the institutions of the Union, in particular, the ECOSOC.
This has now been extended to participation in various other institutions and committees such as the
African Parliament, The African Court of Justice, the Conference on Security, Stability, Development and
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Cooperation (CSSDCA) and specialized Committees, all of which are required to involve CSOs in their
work.
The creation of the AU-ECOSOC was seen as a strategic entry point for CSO intervention in AU matters
and as a useful platform that should create a basis for social action for CSOs.
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PROGRAMME REPORTS
RESEARCH AND POLICY ANALYIS PROGRAMME
Desk research
1.0. HIPC Review
AFRODAD has done its first article on the review of HIPC and plans to do three more before December
2003.
This helps in monitoring developments of the HIPC initiative. AFRODAD‟s article has already been
presented to electronic newsletters, and posted on the website for wide circulation. AFRODAD has also
established a data file which daily captures global developments pertaining to HIPC in different nations and
will use this to give a quarterly critical review of the process. The later part of the year will reveal more of
what progress on this will be.
2.0. Debt Profiles
The African debt profiles compilation that took almost a year and half are now completed. The profiles
give individual countries‟ internal political, economic and social analysis in respect to the debt trap and
suggest tangible solutions for a sustainable exist. Secondary data drawn from international statistics
books/publications were used to update the profiles. The work is now being used by CSOs and African
governments interested in deepening their understanding of debt issues in Africa. The next phase of this
work will be the collection of primary data in the individual countries through the use of AFRODAD‟s
networks.
3.0. Trade and Debt
Recognizing the fact that the problems of Africa's external trade, debt and resource flows are closely
linked, in January 2003 AFRODAD commissioned a desk research aimed at elaborating in more explicit
way the link between trade and Africa‟s ballooning external debt. This work was completed in June 2003
but still under going editing before publication. This work is very instrumental in Africa‟s fight for fair
trade at the next Sixth Ministerial Meeting of World Trade Organization scheduled for Cancun, Mexico
later this year. The outcome of this work shows clearly that none of the three problems (external trade,
debt and resource flows) can be resolved effectively without substantial progress on the other. This is the
harsh reality confronting African policy makers and their development partners. It sums up the vicious
circle that has to be broken if the continent is to accelerate its recovery and resume steady and sustainable
growth.
4.0. Financing for Development and the Debt question
Following a UN high-level summit in Monterrey, Mexico on Financing for development in March 2002,
AFRODAD commissioned desk research on Financing for Development and the Debt question. The
purpose of this research work was to ensure that African civil society and governments are informed of the
salient issues involved and that they reach consensus on key development issues that they should push for
in their advocacy and lobby at international fora. The work began in December 2002 and was completed in
April 2003, and is now ready for print and electronic publication.
This work focused on the conference in Monterrey as representing new ideas that are being floated in the
areas of aid and debt relief as well as the re-assessment of “aid-and-debt trap” in which the severely
indebted low-income countries (SILICS) find themselves enmeshed. It considered the key outcomes of this
most important international conference to date as well as the New Partnership for Africa‟s Development
(NEPAD). The final article produced on Financing Development and Debt indicates that debt, public and
private finance, trade and poverty are all problems that cross borders. Such global problems require a
global response. A new approach to international development cooperation is emerging which has been
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prompted by the failure of previous debt-aid systems to deliver on their promises. It concludes that far more
rigorous reforms of the global financial system are required, than are presently on the table.
FIELD RESEARCH
5.0. Regional Integration and Debt Crisis in Africa Studies.
The one and half-year research work on the impact of regional integration on the debt crisis in Africa that
began in December 2001 was carried out and is now complete. The studies covered the five sub-regions of
Africa namely; Southern Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, West Africa and North Africa. Research
reports from the five sub-regions have now been edited and currently awaiting publication.
The issue is that the heavy debt burden and continued reliance on countries of the North for hard currency
has been a major impediment to accelerated integration within and across regional groupings in Africa.
There is growing concern over the amount of borrowing indulged in, the servicing of such foreign debt and
the future strain on regional schemes and general sustainable development. Resources transferred abroad
for debt servicing reduce what can be devoted to regional schemes and economic development. Not only is
potential regional integration foregone, but also in many cases previous development achievements are
being eroded. Debt repayments in form of arrears have grown very rapidly giving rise to questions
regarding the credit worthiness of a number of countries. On the other hand, conditionalities associated
with debt repayments and trade has stood in the way of successful African regional groupings‟ intra-trade,
monetary and fiscal policies especially payment mechanisms. Some states are left without trade options but
to trade with the northern creditor at the cost of intra-regional trade.
The research outcomes revealed, among other things that despite the widely documented failures of
regional integration schemes in the past, lack of a breakthrough and even the demise of some regional
integration arrangements, the unfolding of the 21 st century have seen the revival of regional integration in
Africa, although there is still a lot of work to be done.
6.0. Public Guaranteed Private Sector Debt
Public guaranteed private sector debts cover both external and domestic loans that the government
guarantees on behalf of the private sector. Government guarantees such loans and become liable and are
called upon to honour the debt servicing of guaranteed loans to parastatals and companies when these
companies default. This in turn shifts scarce resources from financing development and growth to servicing
of debts.
In addition, the government takes over the foreign exchange risks of all guaranteed loans and usually there
is no proper screening of projects to ensure that they are viable before they are implemented. Some of the
projects financed by guaranteed loans lack capacity to generate sufficient returns or foreign exchange to
meet the debt service obligations.
This quest for government to guarantee loans on behalf of the private sector stems from the widely held
view by the multilateral institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank that the private sector is an
engine for growth and that more resources should be channeled to that sector to stimulate economic growth.
Research work on the impact and contribution of Public Guaranteed Private Sector debt to Africa‟s external
debt were carried out and completed for three countries: Kenya, Zambia and Cameroon. The research work
was carried out concurrently with the studies on Regional Integration and Debt Crisis in Africa.
The following is a summary of the research findings:
Guaranteeing of private sector loans should be limited to those projects, which generate foreign
exchange and sufficient returns to be able to raise resources for poverty reduction. Projects to be
financed through external loans should be screened, appraised and vetted thoroughly to ensure that
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they are viable. The system of guaranteeing private sector loans must be done through established
procedures to ensure transparency, accountability and public awareness.
The current conditions and the sharp economic slowdown in the three countries indicated that
there was need to review the debt sustainability ratios and HIPC eligibility criteria, since most of
these country's debt service burden is a major constraint to their economic growth and poverty
reduction efforts. Fundamental changes such as consideration of a new framework for financing
development to expedite the process of securing debt cancellation and the problem of escalating
domestic debt should be a priority. The Government should set its own debt sustainability
indicators based on local realities. All borrowings should be subjected to analysis to ensure an
optimum structure, composition and that the borrowings are within the set levels and are
sustainable.
The Government should set concessional levels for different types of loans and projects. The
current practice of assessing the concessionality of loans is to use a grant element of 35%.
However, projects in the social sector require loans with a higher grant element, such as loans
from IDA. Thus, the Government should maximise the use of grants rather than relying on loans,
especially in the financing of social sectors such as education and health.
The Government should create an investment confidence climate to attract investors in order to
generate employment and increase Government revenues. More importantly, the Central Bank
should put in place a mechanism of monitoring private sector debt to ensure that it is sustainable.
The Government should increase expertise in the line Ministries and the Ministry of Finance in
appraising projects which may involve a technical, financial, economic, institutional, social and
environmental assessment of whether a project is worth undertaking or not. In addition, this may
involve comparing goals of the project considering whether the design of the project makes it
likely that the goals will be achieved and sustained, and whether the project represents an efficient
use of resources.
If more resources are made available to the private sector, a clear mechanism of monitoring
private sector performance must be developed. Therefore, the Government should reduce its
budget deficit by cutting down on expenditures and widening the tax base. Such measures would
then release more resources to the private sector. These desirable goals should be pursued, but not
allowed to take precedence over the primary objective of economic development and sustainable
development.
AFRODAD plans to hold dialogue seminars in the respective countries in order to disseminate as well as
get feedback from policy-makers, academics and members of the civil society based on the research
findings.
UPCOMING RESEARCH WORK
7.0. Illegitimate Debt Studies
In the third quarter of the year, AFRODAD will commission research on illegitimate debt in Africa. This
research could have been commissioned in the first half of the year, but however a limitation in financial
resources has delayed the take-off of this study. The study aims to establish and document the emblematic
process of illegitimate debt characterizing Africa‟s debt burden. In so doing it seeks to identify foreign debt
contracted for illegitimate means, document and quantify specific cases of illegitimate debt in selected
country case studies and explain the process by which illegitimate debt was contracted through perverse
conditions. Research evidence from this study will feed into the Fair and Transparent Arbitration
Mechanism that AFRODAD is already advocating for at regional and international fora. It will run for
duration of six months from the time of commencement.
8.0. Internal Mechanisms contributing to the debt burden
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Research proposals on Internal Mechanisms have been drafted and submitted to various donors for possible
funding. The study on Internal Mechanisms is to build on AFRODAD‟s previous work on Internal factors
contributing to Africa‟s Debt problems. The study will focus on the key internal debt management
problems that continue to keep Africa in a cycle of debt and underdevelopment. There is a positive
indication that Christian Aid-UK and AFRIDAD will jointly undertake this research work
9.0 Export Credits
Export credits have become the largest source of public financial flows to under-developed countries and
they remain associated with large-scale corruption and mismanagement that have direct bearing on Africa‟s
indebtedness. Projects financed through export credits include mining, power plants, large-scale dams; oil
pipelines, chemical and industrial facilities with weak or no project environmental or social safeguards. In
most cases the productiveness and viability of such projects is non-existent resulting in mounting external
debt for the recipient country. They constitute over 50% of the debt owed to official agencies and are guilt
of fuelling corruption, arms transfer and human rights abuses which all help keep Africa in a debt cycle.
AFRODAD was privileged to participate in an Export Credits and Debt Workshop during March 2003 that
helped define research methodology and lobby activities on this subject matter. The meeting was organized
by Northern Alliance for Sustainability (ANPED), EURODAD and Friend‟s of the Earth in Paris. It was
attended by 16 NGO representatives working on environment and debt campaigns linked to the impact of
Export Credits. The workshop helped strengthen the ties between Northern and Southern NGOs work.
AFRODAD also benefited in getting connected to new funding agencies and has thus begun sourcing funds
accordingly.
COMMUNICATIONS and INFORMATION PROGRAMME
This Sectiont includes activities undertaken from 14 April to 17 July 2003, depicting the period the new
Programme Officer in charge of Communications and Information was recruited.
Activities undertaken
10.0 Media work
During the regional meeting on “PRSPS - a sustainable mechanism for Poverty eradication?” which was
held on 29-30 April 2003 in Harare, the communications dept. under took the following activities:
(a) Television interviews: The television interview for the Coordinator with ZBC News net
discussed the role of AFRODAD in influencing policy change and response on Debt and
Development issues and also gave an insight on the PRSP meeting that AFRODAD was
organizing. The interview was shown on the news on Sunday 27 April, and also the next day
(Monday 28 April). The intended spin-off of this interview was to institutionalize external media
liaison within the organization through the participation of all desks in engaging the media.
Although a lot of media work focused much more on linking with media houses in Zimbabwe,
defeating the whole purpose of being regional, the communications dept. is making efforts to go
establish relationships with media outside Zimbabwe by linking with media houses in many of
the countries were our Affiliates work.
(b) Print media liaison: In a quest to create rapport aimed at increasing visibility of AFRODAD
press statements, the Prog.Officer met the News Editors of 3 local newspapers (Sunday Mail,
Business Tribune and Financial Gazette) to market the institution and create interest in its
advocacy issues. A press statement on the PRSP workshop was subsequently generated on 14
April and sent to the Sunday Mail, Business Tribune, Financial Gazette and the Daily News).
Reporters from the Sunday Mail, ZBC News and Financial Gazette attended the PRSP
Workshop. A news report based on this press statement was published in the Sunday Mail
Business Section on April 27 2003 entitled “IMF, WB to shift policy”.
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11.0 PUBLICATIONS
AFRODAD Brochures: These are intended as a portable publicity and information tools about
AFRODAD during meetings, regional and international trips. 2000 copies were printed and widely
disseminated to key stakeholders and all those interested to know more about AFRODAD. Whenever, any
member of staff travels outside the country, they are mandated to carry some materials including brochures
for wider circulation.
Reality Check on Development Aid: 1,000 copies of the Reality Check was published and distributed at
the Maputo Civil Society Meeting and in the presented to the officials at the 2nd Official AU Summit held
in Maputo, Mozambique in July 2003.
Glossary of Terms on Debt and Development: 2000 Copies of the glossary of terms were printed and are
currently being circulated widely. AFRODAD produced this glossary of terms for use by civic activists,
general citizens, policy makers and donors interested in understanding the key concepts and issues around
the debt problem in Africa. This edition was meant to help de-mystify words that are popularly used in the
field of development and social science in particular and yet still uncaptured in ordinary English
dictionaries. The essence was to strike a balance between academic work and activism in development
work so that most the masses can be empowered through enlightenment to become masters of their own
destiny in development. These terms would also help build the capacity of many civic groups in Africa to
be able to chart their own course in development and not rely entirely on the Western views and initiatives.
AFRODAD poster on FTA: 1,000 copies of a poster on FTA under the theme “Another Debt crises-Free
Africa is Possible”: Demand a Fair and Transparent Arbitration Mechanism on Debt Now! were produced
are being shared with Affiliates and partners abroad.
12.0 Zimbabwe International Book Fair (ZIBF)
AFRODAD in collaboration with ZIMCODD, one of its Affiliates participated at the ZIBF held between
26 – 31st July 2003.AFRODAD was privileged to have the following events: (i) a stand space for
displaying AFRODAD materials/publications and materials (ii) a tent space for an Indaba/Public
Discussion, where Prof. Murapa, Vice Chancellor of Africa University came to give a key not address on
Debt and Trade
The Book Fair was also graced by a solo jazz artist who was invited at the public meeting for some hours to
attract the public to participate in our discussions.
Also, an interview with the Coordinator by the ZBC was done on the materials where displaying and what
the Book Fair meant for us.
AFRODAD had an opportunity to receive several materials and publications from its Affiliate
organizations to display at the Book Fair.
Most importantly, AFRODAD was able to raise ZW$ 341,000 from the sale of its publications to the
public. More orders are still being received through Internet and phone calls.
13.0 Internet and Website Upkeep and Management
A new website was re-launched with new designs and high connectivity with Zol Service provider.
Acquisition and analysis of data on the current website is ongoing. One important feature that has been
placed on the website is a discussion room that should enable AFRODAD and its affiliates to discuss and
place on the bulletin Board their current activities. It is hoped that this should increase traffic to the website
but also enhance AFRODAD „s networking, Research and advocacy efforts.
14.0 Information Dissemination
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Following the completion of the Phase II research, 1000 copies of each country case studies and a synthesis
report were published and widely distributed, electronically, by post, at all meetings attended by
AFRODAD staff (e.g. AU Heads of State meeting, SADC Summit) and intensive distribution is also
expected during the forthcoming Zimbabwe International Book Fair 26-30 July where AFRODAD will be
exhibiting.
The publications are being sent out to many different civil society groups and governments in 52 countries
in Africa, northern NGOs, IFIs and donors. The information being sent out is useful as it outlines clearly
the pros and cons of the PRSP both in terms of macro economic policy contradictions inherent in that
framework as well as the limited participation of CSOs in the whole process.
15.0 Institutional Database
The institutional database has not been done yet due to in-house capacity problems. This database is
important in order to maintain an active and fully functional internal and external database with the aim of
institutionalising AFRODAD‟s capacity to source credible and independent information on Debt and
Development in Africa over the next years. This entails creating a comprehensive cataloguing system for
electronic and hard copy documents that will have a central storage for all software and can be accessible
by all members of staff at any time. AFRODAD plans to undertake this item in the next four months.
An electronic and hard copy database of trip reports has been created, accessible on share.
16.0 Up coming Activities under Information and Communications Programme
Upcoming activities include the objective of increasing visibility and utility of the AFRODAD website as a
marketing tool, and information database for the organization‟s outputs. This will be done by increasing the
public‟s awareness of AFRODAD www as a resource tool, via targeted marketing. Use of multiple
marketing/publicity tools will be done to spread awareness of new www. The PO will insert hyperlinks
from AFRODAD www to like-minded or topical websites to enhance websites utility as a resource center.
The Programme will also set up regular discussion forums for radio and television on ongoing AFRODAD
activities and also carry out regular updates of the new AFRODAD website. AFRODAD intends to also
link its website to that of its Affiliates.
AFRODAD will also be involved in
(a) The 2nd EXPO 2003 to be held from 25 - 27 September 2003 at the Harare Exhibition Park, an
opportunity for AFRODAD to increase its visibility and flagship of its work.
(b) Hold an open day with journalists from all local and regional media (print and electronic) to
introduce them to development issues and AFRODAD‟s work.
(c) Institutionalise media liaison by profiling AFRODAD‟s work in all African countries where
affiliates are operating. Programme to be driven by all AFRODAD staff on external visits, and
alternatively by affiliates. Objective is to create interest in AFRODAD activities on the continent
by foreign media, and establish supportive framework for affiliates to carry out information
dissemination.
17.0 LOBBY AND ADVOCACY PROGRAMME
Following the appointment of the former Lobby and Advocacy Officer to the Coordinator position, most of
the work earmarked for the year was not carried out. However, with the assistance of the Project Associate
for PRSP and Reality of Aid Projects, hired early in February 2003, some activities were carried out.
Efforts to employ an Interim Project associate – Lobby and Advocacy are also underway.
17.1 Activities Carried out
17.2 Lobby and Advocacy Training Workshop
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Activists are always three steps behind the policies that are deepening poverty because they lack an
understanding of the power dynamics involved in a changing environment. Activists tend to focus on
policy research and not on strategies for engagement. To this effect, AFRODAD and MWENGO held a
Joint Skills Workshop organized and held during March 2003.
This meeting recorded overwhelming response from participants, who were drawn from various fields in
civil society. The emphasis of the Workshop was on learning and understanding how to sharpen political
strategies to deal with changing political processes. The workshop also addressed the issue of Constituency
Building – building the grassroots‟ organising ability to engage people to understand and become strong
pressure points. As the participants all had different experiences the workshop aimed to coordinate the
experiences so everyone gained and therefore each person was a participant as well as a resource person.
17.3 Engaging at regional, sub-regional and international Levels
17.3.1 Consultations on FTA
In an attempt to contribute to the policy options for dealing with the structural problem of Debt,
AFRODAD continued to use its research findings from the FTA 2001 study to lobby for the establishment
of a fair and transparent arbitration (FTA) mechanism on Debt, as one of the most sustainable solutions to
dealing with the power imbalances between creditors and debtors in resolving the Debt crisis.
AFRODAD flagged this idea at different fora such as the UN‟s Financing for Development (FfD) process,
the first place at which it received political steam, and also among several civil society groups both in the
North and South. AFRODAD had consultation with the UNECA on the issues.
17.3.2 AFRODAD/UNCTAD Consultative Meeting
In March 2003, AFRODAD had a fruitful consultative meeting with UNCTAD and the following were the
pertinent issues raised:
- UNCTAD asserted that an Independent body should be established that would allow cash-strapped
countries to suspend debt payments legally and without penalty, which would give debtor nations breathing
space to renegotiate loans and prevent a rush to the exits by nervous speculators, which UNCTAD says can
quickly turn a „minor liquidity problem [lack of cash flow] into an insolvency crisis [inability to pay]‟.
UNCTAD added that the Debt of poor countries of the world is simply unsustainable and thus unpayable.
The creditor-proposed debt sustainability analysis (DSA) is not appropriate to deal with the debt crises as
the required thresholds of debt-export ratios are far to high for the debtor countries to achieve. They
reiterated that these debts MUST simply be cancelled.
UNCTAD recommended that debtor countries facing speculative attacks on their currencies should be able
to impose unilateral standstills on capital transactions. A standstill arrangement could give countries time to
renegotiate their debts without having to call in the IMF. If no agreement can be reached with creditors,
then debtor countries should have recourse to an international insolvency court that would be empowered to
impose settlements.
In industrial countries bankruptcy laws force creditors to bear part of the costs of corporate losses.
Ultimately they strengthen the financial system by writing off "bad debts" in an orderly fashion.
The goal of an international insolvency process would be to allow a country in financial difficulties to
declare a payments standstill, obtain fresh working capital, restructure its debts, and plan for economic
recovery without having to run to the IMF for a bailout and undergo painful austerity and structural
adjustment
However, there are very good reasons why neither a standstill mechanism nor an insolvency tribunal should
be established under the IMF. First of all, as UNCTAD points out "the Executive Board of the IMF is not a
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neutral body". Its most powerful members are affected by a tribunal’ s decisions. Secondly, the IMF itself
is a creditor and a potential source of new money. Thus, the more reason why an independent body unduly
influenced by the creditors must be established to redress the concerns of the Debtors.
On the issue of the Sovereign Debt Restructuring Mechanism (SDRM) and whether it is an appropriate
instrument to deal with the Debts of less developed countries, UNCTAD argues that IMF-engineered debt
restructuring initiative pose three big problems:
They protect creditors from bearing the costs of poor lending decisions, putting the burden entirely
on borrowers.
They induce „moral hazard‟: ie lenders are guaranteed repayment so they blithely continue to
make imprudent loans
The funds needed are increasingly large and hard to raise
In order to enhance the capacity of borrowers/debtors, UNCTAD was involved in training government
officials to be able to build their negotiating skills that would enables them to negotiate for debt
rescheduling/cancellation on their own terms. They have also down work to establish credible sources of
information on debt profiling for these countries.
In terms of pushing the idea of the establishment of an independent body to arbitrate on the Debt
UNCTAD‟s efforts have been thwarted by lack of consensus on the issue among other Inter-governmental
organisations. However, it seems to me that UNCTAD does not seen to have a strategy of how to
operationalise this idea except to raise it in high-level meetings. Our proposal to have this mechanism
within the UN poses a challenge to them.
17.4 Reactions to our FTA proposal
1. The major challenge that UNCTAD saw in our proposal, which might create problems for our
proposal not to sell through, is lack of political will among our African leaders. This political will is
key to the success of the proposal and it must be built not only among our own African governments,
but also among the creditors and possibly the international financial institutions themselves. We need
to get at least one or two powerful African leaders to flag the issue at their High-level meetings.
UNCTAD „s position is that mechanisms such as these ones do not matter that much without political
will from the implementers/decision makers.
2. AFRODAD should identify a niche in the NEPAD process to discuss the FTA. It is a potential entry
point that is legitimate, regardless of the major flaws in the NEPAD document. It would be worth
contacting the NEPAD Secretariat in South Africa to see how possible it would be for them to flag the
idea in their own- going consultations with government officials.
3. Also through NEPAD, we can push for the establishment of a Debtor‟s Club or Debtor Cartel, which
should strength the common position of African govts in the negotiations in the Paris Club (Creditors
Club).
4. UNCTAD, like UNECA also recognized the need for AFRODAD to enlist wider support from the
social movements and grassroot orgainisations so that they can exert pressure and influence
government to support the issue. A similar campaign like that of the Jubilee 2000 can be done for the
FTA campaign. The use of AFRODAD Affiliate in reaching out to the wider network at the national
level would be inevitable in this process.
5. Along side technical work being down on FTA and other possible mechanisms for Debt, UNCTAD
advised that analysis on the impact of debt on people must always be conducted in order to keep the
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momentum of the debt cancellation campaigns alive. AFRODAD should campaign materials that
depict the real impact of Debt on human life activities and the general economy.
6. The other observation in the proposal is on the issues of failed policy advice and failed projects
prescribed by donors to recipient countries. Taking such an issue for Arbitration would have very
damaging effects on the relationship between donors and recipients in that each and every donor
would need to give evidence that they were aware that the project was not worth undertaking it but
they still went ahead and advised that it be implemented. According to UNCTAD, this would not be a
good starting point but maybe focus more on the retrieval of stolen wealth back to the countries
involved.
7. Our current work on illegitimate Debt, if taken to the Hague for hearing would not yield any serious
and substantial results BUT would stimulate a lot of political debate around the issue which in a way
should get the African leaders to think about and take the issue seriously.
8. The proposal is too technical and might require that the material be simplified in a way that would
attract the attention of the intended target groups.
AFRODAD also participated in meeting organized by the world council of Churches on during 30 June to
02 July 2003, 03. The meeting was attended by activists from various campaigns and movements devoted
to eradicating the external debt problem of poor countries. The workshop set itself challenging questions on
illegitimate debt and arbitration looking specifically as to whether this was the right time to flag the idea of
FTA when the geo-politics had taken center stag e at the global arena.
18.0 PRSP PROJECT
Beginning February 2002, AFRODAD hired a Project Associate in charge of the PRPS Project. The PRSP
Project, which has been running since November 2001, comes to an end this year 2002 although
AFRODAD will continue to respond to issues related to PRSP based on the materials that have been
produced, in what maybe lossely termed as Phase III of the PRSP Project.
18.1 Studies on PRSPs in Africa
Since their launch by the IMF and World Bank in September 1999, Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers
(PRSPs) have taken center-stage in terms of development policy discourse. Due to the link between the
HIPC debt Relief initiative and the PRSPs it was incumbent upon AFRODAD as a research-advocacy
based organization on debt issues to be involved in the PRSP process. It is in this context that AFRODAD
commissioned studies on the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) in ten countries namely Burkina
Faso, Mauritania, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia, Rwanda, Malawi, Kenya, Ghana and Uganda. Country
case study reports have been produced for each of these countries in two phases.
In 2001, AFRODAD launched Phase I for Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Mozambique, Uganda and Tanzania
on the basis that they were the first African countries to complete the PRSP process. The objectives of the
first phase were to draw up an analysis of the inconsistencies of the PRSPs with the National Development
Plans for the respective countries. Individual country reports and a synthesis report were produced and the
outcome of the study was discussed at an AFRODAD Regional meeting held in Harare in April 2002.
A second research was conducted in 2002 for Zambia, Malawi, Ghana, Kenya and Rwanda, all of which
had adopted but not yet completed the PRSP process, making the total number of studies carried out to ten.
The main synthesis report on the ten countries details the convergences and divergences between the
PRSPs and other development strategies/plans at international, regional and national level. The studies do
analyze the participatory, comprehensiveness and ownership of the PRSPs by Africans as well as bring out
the link between PRSPs and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the New Partnership on Africa‟s
Development (NePAD) and the national Development Plans. The key question being addressed is whether
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it is worthwhile for civil society to continue participating in PRSPs. In the ten country studies undertaken
by AFRODAD, it emerges clearly that civil society was concerned about the shroud of secrecy around the
PRGF and its macroeconomic framework. Case study after case study pointed at the incompatibility
between the Poverty Reduction Growth Facility (PRGF) and PRSP. Quite interestingly, civil society used
its past experiences with SAP policies to telling effect, and went on to recommend alternatives. These
alternatives were largely ignored in the final PRSPs.
Notwithstanding these observations, PRSPs provide a departure from SAP policies in some respects.
PRSPs have protected and focused on social development, ring-fencing expenditures in the social sector, a
development that did not happen under SAPs. In some instances, alternative measures were accepted in the
PRSP, such as the continued protection of cashew nuts in Mozambique, abolition of primary level school
fees in Tanzania and health fees in Uganda. The linking of identified poverty reduction priority areas to the
budget is an added value from PRSPs. CSO participation, despite its shortcomings, was another added
element
In addition to the research studies, the following lobby and advocacy activities have so far been undertaken
in Phase II of the Project:
18.2 Regional workshop
A Regional workshop attended by about 35 participants from AFRODAD affiliates, other CSOs, IFIs,
northern NGOs, donors and governments was held in Harare from 29-30 April 2003.
The meeting agreed that CSOs would continue to engage with PRSPs and continue to fight for better
participation and a better macroeconomic framework that would contribute to poverty reduction. The
meeting also concluded that in spite of the dominance of the Bretton Woods institutions to impose debt
relief initiatives on poor countries of the world, no significant positive changes in development have been
registered; in fact the continent is now worse off than it was in the past decade.
The meeting produced a Synthesis report, which has since been published and is in the process of being
distributed to target and other interested groups.
18.3 High Level meeting
AFRODAD had initially planned to host a High Level meeting that would attract the highest possible level
of government officials (Ministers, Permanent Secretaries and Directors) from the countries‟ of the study in
June 2003 in Harare. This would be on the basis of both the ten countries research and the outcome of the
April Regional Meeting.
The High Level meeting did not take place as planned for two reasons;
(1) The workshop report took longer than expected to complete. By the time it was complete
other events had taken place overshadowing the High Level meeting.
(2) Immediately after the April meeting, AFRODAD sent a request to the United Nations
Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia requesting to
participate and use the AU platform to share its experiences on PRSPs and deliver its
concerns to African governments in the Technical Experts Committee meeting, (this
committee advices the African Ministers of Finance). The UNECA response came very late
but still on a few days notice, AFRODAD was the only NGO present in the Experts/
Technical Group Meeting and African Finance Ministers Meeting and raised the following
issues, which were subsequently adopted in Finance Ministers Draft Declaration:
a) “We welcome the implementation of PRSPs in various participating countries.
We are however concerned that the IMF‟s PRGF facility is an impediment to
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achieving poverty reduction under the PRSPs. It is therefore our proposal that
the PGRF be streamlined into PRSP or be delinked from it all together.”
b) HIPC is inadequate in addressing the debt sustainability question. Many
countries outside HIPC also experience the debt burden arising mainly from
the domestic debt. The domestic debt is however excluded in the
determination of debt sustainability ration. We therefore recommend for the
inclusion of domestic debt in the calculation of debt sustainability ratio.
c) There is also need for the cancellation of the odious debts. They are an
unwarranted burden and we did not derive any benefits from their
investments. This will free a lot of resources for development and reduce the
debt sustainability.
18.4 Policy Engagement/Dialogue Meetings
Five Dialogue meetings with policy makers, Ministers, Permanent Secretaries, Directors and other
high level officials in the Finance and other ministries were not conducted as the research outcomes
were not completed as scheduled. While this should be an on-going process some of the objectives of
the dialogue meetings were however partly achieved through the various platforms in which
AFRODAD was able to engage with various high-level government or donor officials. AFRODAD
considers these meetings an on going process and maintains that it is still important to hold these
dialogue meetings as discussion are more specific, open and benefit individual countries more.
There has been extensive sharing of experiences, information and knowledge under this phase, which
should result in improved policy formulation. Positive responses have also been received from varied
CSOs, Governments of Tanzania, Zambia, Swaziland and the secretary General of Common Market
for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA). Through emails and official correspondence interest has
been much more on our work on PRSPs, Reality of Aid, Public Guaranteed Private Sector Debt and
Fair and Transparent Arbitration Mechanisms.
18.5 PPPR (People Participating in Poverty Reduction) Project
The PPPR project was initially started in 2000 by three Swedish organizations (Church of Sweden,
Diakonia, and Save the Children Sweden). The was initiated out of a desire to work more closely together
with partner organisations in the South on social and economic justice issues, strengthen advocacy
activities and find new more equal forms for relationships between North and South. PRSP was identified
as an important issue for such collaboration with AFRODAD and other southern partners. Its major
objective s were:was to s fall under:
Civil Society organisations are mobilised, empowered and demonstrate enhanced capacity in terms
of information, knowledge and skills for advocacy in relation to Poverty Reduction Strategies.
Stakeholders and partners have developed new and strengthened existing partnerships for an
effective anti-poverty programme, and strategically aligned their work with that of similar
initiatives in the North and South.
Stakeholders and partners have developed information, knowledge and skills for effective
engagement in anti-poverty strategies at multiple levels.
Opportunities have been created for the emergence of joint global/international advocacy
campaigns and agreements on a common agenda for engagement with national governments.
AFRODAD, MWNEGO and EJN participated in this Project, particularly to complete its phase one
process, which involved the integration of the above objectives into the AFRODAD PRSP Project.
18.6 Future activities
AFRODAD will move into phase III of the PRSP Project to continue to engage in PRSP issues and
also complete the outstanding activities such as the Policy dialogue meetings and also launch a study
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specifically on the macroeconomic framework of PRSPs, unpacking and simplifying the framework,
hold workshops and disseminate the outcome of the research. This is expected to increase better
understanding of the issues at hand and consequently increase participation.
19.0 REALITY OF AID PROJECT
19.1 Background and context
The ROA is an on-going project that was started in 1993 to lobby through various debates and the annual
publication of the Reality of Aid book. Although initially low, the participation of the developing countries
has significantly increased over the years. The Southern approach towards the regime of aid has since been
radical in questioning the neo-liberal ideology.
Through what has been termed the Jinja Framework (after Global meeting held in 2000 at Jinja, Uganda)
AFRODAD continues to analyse and validate Reality of Aid through such themes as:
Motivation for Aid, What motivates donors to give aid?
Aid and Debt – why they co-exist and the organic link between them?
Management of Aid resources – Does the institutional capacity to effectively manage aid exist?
Governance and Aid – What are the imperatives of Aid on African Governance?
Poverty Reduction Strategies and Aid – What is the real link?
Does Africa really need aid?
AFRODAD planned various activities to contribute to the on-going debate on the Reality of Aid as follows:
19.2 E-Consultation
A large list serve of various CSOs and individuals was created and an e-discussion was started at the
beginning of April. The objective of the e-discussion is to exchange information and views and also to
stimulate debate around development aid issues at various levels. To kick-start the debate AFRODAD
raised the following issues on the Internet.
a. Aid at National level – i.e. what are the dynamics/technicalities of aid at the different
national levels?
b. The procurement and distribution of Aid in the different countries, the impact of Aid
(both positive and negative)
c. Gender and Youth, in what ways and to what extent do women and youth benefit from
Aid?
d. The African Union and NEPAD – examining the NEPAD/AID axis and offer
perspectives and advice on how to deal with development Aid at the Level of AU through
NEPAD.
All those on the listserve contributed on the raised issues but are also were free to raise any other issues
pertinent in their countries and regions. The contributions will compiled at the End of August and will input
into both the African Edition 2003 and the Global Edition.
The e-consultation were running concurrently with the One day National workshops in different Southern
African countries.
The timeframe for the compilation of both the e-discussion and national workshops had to be extended
from June to August for two reasons;
a. The e-discussion was very slow in kicking off and contributions were not as much as expected.
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b. It was difficult to coordinate the Affiliates‟ diaries with AFRODAD‟s, the responsibility for
organizing the workshops rested almost entirely on the Affiliates who had to organize these on top
of their own activities. Therefore dates took time to coordinate as some of those planned by
AFRODAD fell on periods when affiliates had other things going on therefore AFRODAD had to
fit into the affiliates‟ diaries.
19.3 Reality Check Publication
A Reality Check entitled “Reality Check on Development Aid, TOWARDS A MORE RESPONSIVE AID
REGIME IN THE CONTEXT OF AU AND NEPAD”was produced to coincide with the African Union
Heads of States Summit in Maputo Mozambique in early July 2003. The report assesses the impact of
foreign aid on NEPAD. It forms a basis for lobby work for African governments. It was launched a week
prior to the Summit during a CSO parallel meeting. Some of its output was incorporated into the CSO
Declaration presented to the African Heads of States.
Parts of the Reality Check will also be used to produce the African Edition 2003 and Africa‟s contribution
into the Global Chapter of the Reality of Aid.
19.4 One Day National Workshops
To maximize on the input into the debate, AFRODAD decided to hold one-day national workshops in
Zambia, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. The national workshops are open to various
NGOs, CSOs, donors and the general public.
Through these debates AFRODAD stimulated ideas on how development aid played out at different levels
in these different countries. Members of the national Debt Coalitions were hired to research and present
papers during the workshops on the same issues as on the e-discussion.
19.5 Kenya National Workshop
The Kenya national workshop was held in Nairobi on 6 th June 2003. It was divided into two different
sessions, the morning session, which was attended by invited NGOs and CSOs, donors and the Minister of
Finance and various officials from his ministry. There were about 35 participants in this session.
The afternoon session was an open public forum, which had been advertised in the local press, this was
attended by more than 55 people.
19.6 Zambia
The Zambia national workshop was held in Lusaka and attended by 35 invited participants from various
NGOs, the Ministry of Finance who participated very actively and a Member of Parliament (MP). 4 papers
extensively covering the suggested topics were presented.
The output of the Kenyan and Zambian national workshops was used to contribute to the Reality Check,
which fed into the AU Heads of States meeting in Maputo.
19.7 Mozambique
Although not in the same format, the Reality Check launched at the AU Summit in Maputo did discuss the
issues of development aid. And the two following statements coming out of the Reality Check were
incorporated into the CSO Declaration presented to the HOS in Mozambique.
African CSOs raised the following concerns;
1. The continued imposition and adoption of neo-liberal policies that continue to impoverish the
African people.
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2. The need for African Heads of States and Governments to fight corruption and pursue good
economic governance and make aid more responsive to development needs through the
establishment of a joint CSO –Government Forum to engage donors and development partners”.
20.0 Manila IAC meeting, ROA 2004
20.1 Governance and the Promotion of Rights in International Cooperation and Aid
The Global Reality of Aid International Advisory Council met in Batangas, Philippines from 24-27 June.
This was a global meeting to discuss and advice the Management Committee on the issues taken up for the
2004 Global ROA publication specifically the issue of Aid and Governance, which was discussed in the
context of a research paper done by Kavaljit Singh in which he argues that donors are increasingly
prioritizing governance issues as a condition for giving aid. The difficulty however comes in defining what
constitutes good or bad governance.
The Manila meeting also came up with an Advocacy Calendar, in which it listed all major events in that
ROA could take advantage of, participate in and advance its Lobby work by reaching wider and high level
audiences.
The outcome of the Manila meeting will be used in the different regional reports and also for the global
edition.
20.2 Tanzania
The Tanzania National workshop will be held on 6 and 7 th August 2003.
20.3 Zimbabwe
Efforts are being made to host a national seminar on reality of Aid in collaboration with Youth Alive-
Zimbabwe and its networks.
20.4 East, West, Central, Southern Africa Regional meeting
Following the e-consultation, one day national workshops, Maputo meeting and the West African meeting,
a regional meeting will be held in Harare to consolidate the outputs of these various activities and to
discuss the appropriate way for Africans to engage in development aid and to agree on the important
themes to include in both the Africa Edition 2003 and the Global Edition. This meeting is expected to be
held early September.
Reports will be published and circulated at national, regional and international levels.
For 2003, AFRODAD‟s above mentioned activities and processes will result in the following outputs:
a) A reality check, completed
b) Africa Edition 2003 and
c) A global chapter
21.0 INSTITUTIONAL AND ORGANISATIONAL CAPACITY PROGRAMME
21.1 Institutional and capacity building
At the core of AFRODAD‟s institutional and capacity development programme is to ensure that the
organization is strengthened as a FORUM and NETWORK and as an organization itself.
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21. 2 Joint Programming Efforts
The first half of the year 2003 was a test case for implementation of Joint programming efforts, which were
agreed upon, by AFRODAD and its Affiliates in the Joint Programming Meeting held in November 2003.
The Indaba (electronic discussion forum) for issues which all the affiliates were working or where
interested in undertaking during the course of the year was meant to provide a space for sharing and
strengthening common positions on debt issues was ear earmarked for the first three months of the year but
failed to take off due to slow response from the networks and lack pf capacity in house to manage the
discussion.
To some extent some affiliate organizations were faced with problems of accessibility of Internet and lack
of computers. However, AFRODAD increased the interaction with its affiliates through joint research,
Workshops and Networking.
During March 2003, AFRODAD facilitated the participation of two Affiliate members (Kenya and
Zimbabwe) in the UN ECOSOC-Brettonwoods Institutions (BWIs) Meeting in New York. AFRODAD alos
facilitated participation of ECONDAD, its Nigerian Affiliate to participate in the international conference
on Reality of Aid in Manila held in June 2003 and also participation affiliates from Zimbabwe,
Mozambique, Tanzania, Angola, Uganda, Kenya, Malawi and Zambia in the PRSP Workshop in Harare
(April 2003), African Finance Ministers Meeting in Addis Ababa (July 2003) and Skills Activists Learning
Workshop organized jointly by AFRODAD and MWENGO during March 2003.
An e-mail list of affiliates was created and is now maintained, and information such as specific trip
reports/CSO statements and activity reports are usually sent through this list serve. It also facilitates
AFRODAD receiving information from its Affiliates on a regular basis.
On the whole, the joint programming exercise was too ambitious and was based on several assumptions.
For example it was assumed, aprior that the planning cycles for all Affiliate organizations were
homogenous, organizational capacity were sound and that the notion of Affiliation was clearly understood
having had a fruitful meeting and confirmations of commitments from participants.
21.3 Meeting with West African Affiliate Organisation
AFRODAD is planning to host a three days Joint Programming meeting with its West African regional
affiliates. The first two days will focus specifically on Joint Programming/networking issues while the third
day will be devoted to Reality of Aid, interrogating how Aid is playing out in the Francophone region, the
relations with France and the rest of the world and the impacts and implications of French aid on the
region. The meeting will be held 26-28 August 2003.
This meeting will provide an interesting comparison between the Anglophone and Francophone aid
delivery mechanisms, implications and impacts. Another area of interest that has been added on is the
“Development Aid in post-conflict countries” looking at two case studies Sierra Leone and Cote‟D‟Ivore.
This will complement well the issue of development aid and security after the 11 September events, which
was a major issue of concern during the Manila meeting. The participants expressed deep concern at the
massive shift of development aid for eradicating poverty to the fight against terrorism.
22.4 Institutional Capacity and Strengthening
Efforts to complete AFRODAD registration as an NGO under the new Private Voluntary Organization‟s
Act (PVO) in Zimbabwe are still going on although at a very slow pace. In another light, little efforts are
being made to complete the registration of AFRODAD from being a Trust to a fully-fledged Regional
NGO due to limited human resource capacity.
As much as lobby and advocacy work is important for AFRODAD, institutional collaboration in terms of
maintaining good working relations with intergovernmental organizations and NGOs that have good
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working relationships some bilateral donors has been key to AFRODAD „s work. In the last half of the
year, AFRODAD secured its position in the African Union‟s ECOSOC-CSO Working group, engaged with
policy makers, particularly the African Ministers of Finance during their Annual government and
AFRODAD was also part of the Helsinki Process, a global process facilitated by the government of
Finland, the Tokyo International Conference on Africa‟s Development (TICAD III), an initiative by the
government of Japan, the Commonwealth Finance Ministers Meeting, facilitated by the Commonwealth
Foundation.
AFRODAD also continues to serve on the Interim Facilitating Group (IFG) of the UN financing for
Development (FFD) and still maintains UN accreditation to the Financing for Development process.
23.0 Networking and Coalition building
23.1 Support to Networks
Performing it s role as a Forum and Network, AFRODAD rendered support in form of moral, intellectual
and financial needs to some of our network members., particularly those whose institutional and
organizational capacity was at its lowest. AFRODAD offered institutional support to KENDREN and
Mozambique Debt Relief through joint work on Reality of Aid and Africa Union –CSO interface and
research on PRSP, respectively.
AFRODAD is also in the process of strengthening its collaboration and relationship with ECONDAD in
Nigeria through joint Programming work and National Seminar on Reality of Aid during August 2003.
Due to unavailability of funds, AFRODAD has not been able to facilitate the setting up of a coalition in
Central Africa but efforts to collaborate with some organizations working on Debt and poverty issues in
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are being sought through the commissioning of Research on
illegitimate Debt.
23.2 Affiliate Agreements
Defined as formal collaborative instruments for joint programming work, Affiliate Agreements between
AFRODAD and its affiliates were not drawn for many of the organizations except Kenya Debt Relief
Network. During the last part of the year, through a meeting of Heads of the Debt Coalitions, more Affiliate
Agreements will be signed. Affiliate Agreements are primarily meant the commitment between two or
more parties to execute agreed upon tasks or responsibilities. In this case, AFRODAD has encouraged
many debt coalitions to affiliate themselves to joint programming with the aim of having concerted as
opposed to fragramented of work on Debt, thereby creating a huge force for advocacy.
24.0 Governance
During March 2003, AFRODAD instituted a new Board of Trustees/Directors, which subsequently
approved the Narrative and Financial Reports. The new Board consists of six people /experts drawn from
West, East and Southern Africa: Mr. Opa,. Kapinjimpanga (Chairman) – Zambia, Mr. Neville Gabriel
(Lobby and Advocacy), South Africa, Dr. Adebayo Olukoshi (Research), Senegal, Ms. Wahu Kaara
(Networking and Coalition building), Kenya, Rev.David Ugolor (Finance), Nigeria and Ms. Rebecca Muna
(information and communications), Tanzania. This Board is based on areas of speciality. It is important to
note that Opa and David are the two Board members who have served both in the previous one and the
current Board.
25.0 Engaging with regional, sub-regional and international bodies (SADC, UNECA, AU,ECOWAS
etc) and participation in social fora
25.1. The African Social Forum
The African Social Forum that AFRODAD participated in is steadily becoming known all over the
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continent for its democratic experiences and efforts against neo-liberalism. The 2003 African Social Forum
(ASF), that was held in Addis Abba from the 3rd to the 9th of January, had about 250 participants attending
the occasion that has spawned a variety of localized social forums of labour, women, environmentalists,
community militants, church activists, and youth. AFRODAD took this opportunity to present its proposal
on a Fair and Transparent Arbitration Process as well as share its research outcomes on the Poverty
Reduction Strategies Papers. A lot of views that take the AFRODAD work forward including making it
more significant were solicited in regard to these issues.
25.2 The World Social Forum
AFRODAD also took part in this year‟s World Social Forum (WSF) held in Brazil, Port Alegre. There
were 1286 workshops, 114 seminars, 36 panel debates, 22 testimonies, 10 conferences and four dialogue
and controversy round tables – very often given in the WSF‟s four official languages (Portuguese, Spanish,
French e English).
As an open-forum of individuals and civic groups who want to explore alternatives to the dominant ways
that governments and business deal with money, investment, entrepreneurship, the WSF remains an
inclusive and pluralistic platform. Government officials are not allowed to participate in the forums and
everyone is seen as an individual, not as representatives of organizations.
The greatest challenge for Debt campaigners including AFRODAD in Porto Alegre was to re-strategize and
be forward thinking considering that total debt cancellation has not come as expected. These workshops
were convened with the understanding that Jubilee campaigns took place all around the world in the recent
years. About twenty-four millions signatures have been collected calling for debt cancellation for poorest
countries. A huge pressure was put on creditor countries and international financial institutions. They
responded with “enhancing” the international debt initiative for heavily indebted poor countries (HIPC
initiative) but it appears once again as “too little, too late”. A number of alternatives to the Third World
Debt were been presented and interrogated including AFRODAD‟s Fair and Transparent Arbitration
Mechanism.
25.3 The African Union -Civil Society Engagement Process
25.4 AU Heads of States parallel meeting, Maputo June 2003
AFRODAD participated in the Group of Experts meeting that designed the Economic, Social and Cultural
Council (ECOSOCC) Statues. .
In June 2002, the second OAU-Civil society Conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, decided to establish a
Provisional AU-Civil Society Working Group in order to coordinate and work through the modalities of
African civil society interface with the organs of the AU. The Meeting elected some 20 regional
representatives and the OAU Secretariat nominated three sectoral representatives. AFRODAD was chosen
by the civil society groups in Southern Africa to represent the region in the Provisional AU-Civil Society
Working Group.
The First Meeting of the Provisional Working Group took place in Accra, Ghana during October 2002. The
second Meeting was held in Addis Abba in May 2003 in preparation of the forthcoming Summit of the AU
in July in Maputo.
25.5 Civil Society Pre-Summit Meeting
Prior to the second summit of the African Union, the Mozambique Civil Society groups together with
AFRODAD organized a Civil Society pre-summit meeting of civil society groups who had keen interest in
engaging the African Union to discuss key issues around the summit‟s agenda and the question of NEPAD.
The civil society meeting took place between 26 th June 2003 and 2nd July 2003, in Maputo, Mozambique. A
total of 268 delegates from 43 countries in Africa attended the meeting whose agenda among other things
focused on:
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Ø Issues of Governance, Human Rights and Development
Ø How to combat HIV/AIDS and other opportunistic Diseases in Africa
Ø Food Security
Ø Health and Gender
Ø Discuss concerns with the design, content, implementation of the Africa Union‟s Economic,
Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC) Statues
Ø Discuss concerns with the design, content, implementation and monitoring of NEPAD.
Ø CSOs response to WTO Trade Issues for Cancun
Ø Environmental, Agriculture and Natural Conservation
Ø External Debt and AID
AFRODAD in conjunction with Mozambique Debt Group, its Affiliate in Mozambique hosted two
workshops on Debt and AID; and launched a publication on Reality Check on AID. As a member of the
AU-Civil Society Provisional Working Group, AFRODAD did a presentation on the Africa Union‟s
Economic, Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC) Statues
25.6 AU Summit & Civil Society Participation.
Following the Civil Society Meeting held in Maputo from 26th June to 2 nd July 2003, a group of five
representatives were selected on the basis of sub-regional representation to represent the African civil
society organisations to the Summit of the African Union. AFRODAD was also invited in its capacity as
the Southern Africa AU-CSO Provisional Working Group representative to give technical assistance and
guidance to the team.
The declaration denounced a range of issues, including human and economic right abuses, and named
Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Burundi, Sudan, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the
Congo, Somalia, Nigeria and Western Sahara, as examples.
It also expressed concern about armed conflicts in the continent, the lack of collective and concrete actions
to resolve the land issues in Africa, the HIV/AIDS pandemic and "the ballooning levels of internal and
external debt". The Civil Society Declaration was adopted by the AU Executive Council and backed by the
Organization of the African Trade Unions as representing CSOs concerns. As testimonial to the Declaration
Presentation, the Council of Ministers report to the Heads of states and Government touched some of the
issues that are contained in the Declaration, especially the trade issues.
The Council of Ministers adopted the declaration and reaffirmed their need to stand united in CANCUN,
especially in resisting discussions about the “new issues” scheduled for the sixth ministerial meeting of the
WTO. The “new issues” also known as the Singapore issues include, competition, transparency in
government procurement; and generally rolling back agreements that have exacerbated poverty,
underdevelopment and injustice in Africa. The Foreign Affairs Minister of South Africa, Dr. NC Dlamini
Zuma pointed out the need to address pharmaceutical issues at the WTO as they touch on public health.
The later part of the year will reveal more of what progress on this will be.
25.7 SADC Summit Dar es Salaam Tanzania, 20-22 August 2003
AFRODAD hosted a one day workshop and sent delegation of various CSOs representatives to participate
in the NGO Forum parallel meetings preceding the SADC Summit to be held in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania
20-22 August. Each of the representatives of the CSOs made presentations on how PRSPs relate to their
different areas of work and raise major issues of concern to the incorporated into the Declaration to be
presented to SADC leaders.
The above events took precedence over the planned High Level meeting but they have been and will still be
used to draw attention and to reach a wider targeted and other interested audiences.
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26.0 ORGAINISATIONAL/ADMINISTRATIVE CAPACITY
26.1 Human Resources Base
In the first half of the year, AFRODAD managed to consolidate its human resource base to full
complement with three people joining the team.
With effect from April, a new coordinator (former Lobby and Advocacy officer) was appointed to take over
from the former coordinator who is the founder member of AFRODAD and now serves as a chairman of
the Board. The chairman will continue to provide advisory support to all the staff in the organisation as part
of his transition an will also, like any other Board member represent the organisation in lobby and
advocacy activities where appropriate.
A full time communications officer was hired during the first quarter of the year to manage the
Communications Dept., which did not have adequate personnel for a long time.
Following a review of the Lobby and Advocacy Programme in 2001, it was noted that there was need to
employ extra manpower to reduce on the workload that was in the Dept. Thus, a Project Associate in
charge of PRSP and ROA Projects was employed on a one-year contract.
A Development Worker from Canada was hired to help develop systems and policy procedures for
AFRODAD. It was deemed necessary to hire this Coopernat considering that AFRODAD was a fast
growing organisation with internal systems and polices which were relatively underdeveloped.
Efforts to recruit a new Lobby and Advocacy Programme Officer are underway. Advertisements have been
sent out to many organisations local, regional and international networks and media. The new Lobby and
Advocacy person will be expected to join the AFRODAD team by 1 st November 2003, in the meantime,
an Interim Project Associate will be hired to complete the work load for the year ending.
26.2 Staff Development Programme
In the first half of the year, AFRODAD encouraged members of staff to undertake skills training and
courses, to enhance their work towards achieving the organization‟s objectives. The Coordinator enrolled in
a Leadership and Management for change Course of Oxford University organized by a regional NGO
called Fahamu, South Africa. The Programme Assistant – Research was sponsored to under take a course
pager maker and coral draw to enhance his skills for newsletter design and layouts. He was also sponsored
for a training Workshop on NEPAD at Kanyi College in South Africa.
26.3 Programme Development and Management
As part of AFRODAD‟s goal to strengthening internal systems, a Policy and Procedures Guideline Manual
was developed but is still in drafted form and waits to be taken to the Board for approval by the end of the
month. The document lays down the foundation for the Organization‟s administrative procedures and
expectations to ensure consistency, efficiency and fairness in the workplace.
The guidelines relate to a wide range of issues including recruitment and employment policies,
remuneration, benefits and leave, staff performance and development, standards of conduct, use of
organizational assets and procurement procedures, safety and travel.
The guidelines are being developed with staff consultation to ensure acceptance and adoption by
employees. The guidelines along with procedural forms reflect and institutionalize existing organizational
practices and aim to incorporate best practices approach within the NGO Sector.
AFRODAD recognizes that the creation of the Policy and Procedures Manual is an ongoing process and
must adapt to changing conditions as necessary but in an accountable and transparent fashion. It also aims
at incorporating other areas of operation including project monitoring and evaluation processes.
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Currently a system has been developed to improve the monitoring of individual donor contracts to ensure
commitments are being met, provide timely feedback to project officers where problems may arise and to
encourage further dialogue between project officers and partners.
27.0 Fundraising Efforts
Being a fully donor funded organization, AFRODAD has continued to fundraise for its activities and partly
tried to also raise resources internally by selling publications and paper presentations.
As a long-term strategic goal of financial sustainability, AFRODAD plans to under take a fundraising trip
to London in September 2003, facilitated by CAFOD-UK. The idea was to fundraise for activities for this
year and part of next year.
28.0 Evaluation
As part of the institutional and organizational strengthening process, AFRODAD will continue to have both
internal and external evaluations. An external evaluation is earmarked for the end of this year but the
appropriate dates have not been set yet.
End.
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