Priming regional integration in Africa: The vision, the mission and the practice

Priming regional integration in Africa: The vision, the mission and the practice - - - Costantinos, published by ECHOAfrica MAgazine
Today, humankind stands on an extraordinary, and perhaps, seductive sets of dilemma: a global lifestyle and value system in which the 21st century has ushered in unprecedented global wealth; yet, such a lot that is all lavishly squandered, while some African nations are haunted by an oppressive present -- an embodiment of diseases, famine, wars, and devoured natural environment. The interconnectedness of people and good governance locally and its impact on integration were manifested by how seemingly minor incidences can turn into genocides of mind boggling proportions that continue today two decades after Rwanda in DRC, South Sudan, Central African Republic; fracturing the foundations of social accord in distant communities.
According to UNECA, tremendous efforts have been exerted in Africa’s regional integration efforts in key areas. These include efforts towards continental market integration (the Tripartite FTA initiative involving COMESA, EAC and SADC, the AU Summit Decision to fast track a CFTA; the Minimum Integration Program (MIP); the Program for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA); continental financial institutions; the Africa Mining Vision (AMV), the African common position on migration and peace and security). African states have also committed to mainstream regional integration at the national level as a vehicle for pulling off Africa’s regional integration. Developments in key areas across the RECs include free movement of people and right of establishment, but member States should still strive to ensure the fulfillment of their commitments to these supplementary continental positions and instruments on migration and the free movement of people. On the macroeconomic policy convergence arena, Africa is making progress in implementing monetary cooperation programs, highlighted by COMESA’s regional payment system to facilitate intraregional trade
African nations believe that infrastructure is vital to advancing Africa’s integration agenda, supporting economic growth, reducing poverty and achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Africa’s prospects for transformation will be brightened by investments in infrastructure. According to a UNECA report, “The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) with the African Union Commission (AUC) has completed a study on the regional norms and institutional framework to foster the development of the various trans-African highways, which was reviewed by an expert group meeting in September 2011 in Addis Ababa. The meeting proposed an Action Plan, which was adopted by the African Ministers of Transport and subsequently endorsed by the AU Assembly. Many of the new railway development projects under way in Africa are based on the framework of the Union of African Railways, which encourages standard gauge railways. The Yamoussoukro Decision has increased air links among many African countries through operations of major African airlines. Its implementation was boosted by the decision of the third Conference of the African Ministers of Air Transport in 2007 in Addis Ababa to entrust to the African Civil Aviation Commission the role of executing agency.
African nations have also launched initiatives to promote regional cooperation in energy development, trade and capacity building. A baseline for renewable energy database has been developed for the region. MIP is a strategic framework to accelerate programs and activities of the RECs to boost continental integration. It was developed by the AUC with the RECs based on a study by the AUC in 2009. The concept of MIP was adopted by the African ministers in charge of regional integration at their fourth Conference at Yaoundé, Cameroon, in 2009. PIDA, which was adopted by the Heads of State and Government in 2010, contains a framework for meeting infrastructure demand. It has components addressing projected infrastructure gaps and bottlenecks based on supply and demand forecasts, institutional deficiencies and options for identifying, preparing and funding projects.
In line with the Abuja Treaty, the Heads of State and Government of the AU approved the hosting of the African Investment Bank, the African Monetary Fund and the African Central Bank, by Libya, Cameroon and Nigeria, respectively. AMV—a transparent, equitable and optimal exploitation of mineral resources to underpin broad-based sustainable growth and socio-economic development—was adopted by African leaders at the 2009 AU Summit
Nevertheless, much depends on the commitment and ability of states to transform the vision into practice. Developmental state advocates emphasize the stewardship role of the state while liberals and neo-classical economists are concerned with the state’s guiding functions. However, these are not only differences in political theory. At their heart lie different perceptions regarding the relation between knowledge and power. In the modern economic system, guiding often refers to policies and institutions that maintain the economic system and enable it to function effectively. Its underlying philosophy of governance, claiming its capitalist heritage, is that the state should be prevented from doing so, since it can never have enough information to undertake detailed guidance of economic activity. Guiding is restricted to macro processes and the international institutions that determine such policies and processes. These tangential issues raise several questions on Africa integration.

• Does governance of African economic and social integration enter societal processes in Africa as an external ideology, constructing and deploying its concepts in sterile abstraction from the immediacies of indigenous traditions, beliefs and values? Do ideas of integration come into play in total opposition to, or in cooperation with historic national values and sentiments?
• In the struggle over the establishment of new gubernatorial norms and procedures for African economic and social integration, do leading institutions equate the articulation of their ideas and agendas with the production of broad-based concepts, norms and goals, which should govern their integration initiatives?
• Does governance of African economic and social integration signify change in terms of the transformation of the immediate stuff of partisan politics into a new kind of political activity - an activity mediated and guided by objective and critical standards, rules and principles?

The attention for governability of African economic and social integration is based on the concern about abject poverty and the sustainability of integration-based development supported by international financial institutions. If this is to happen, a predictable and transparent framework for policy design and all enabling environment for citizens' participation and private initiative, must exist. The institutional setting and the decision-making process in which this process takes place is essential, together with the norms and values on which they are based. Such integration hence connects the norms, procedures, and institutions that must exist for effective, efficient and open public policies on African economic and social integration.
Unanswered questions of African integration:
In 1991, I was invited to undertake the ALF/GCA study on political transition in Africa. Coming right after the Arusha Declaration on Popular Participation, a landmark contribution to the debate on the role of civil society, I took on the task with enthusiasm and vigor. Three years later, under the auspices of UN and EU, I took a task of two formidable responsibilities. One was to undertake studies to revitalize the role of African civil society in the UN new agenda for African development and to appraise what the future holds for the democratization process in Africa. These launched my engagement with integration talk in Africa in earnest.
Because discussions leading to African futures tend to be one of dejection, the so-called post-Cold War political history of the continent is fast replacing African economics as the morbid art or science not both. Nevertheless, caution, not cynicism, should be the craft as has been amply demonstrated by the recent growth episodes of the continent. While participants in the complex traffic web of African futures could be torn between professional caution and the genuine desire for a better future, repeated attempts to dispel the prevailing gloom of integration by pointing to the bright spots of the current episode of economic growth to check the overall drift towards ‘non-integration’ have not yielded to popular demands.
This raises some fundamental questions. What do we mean by African integration in the first place? Does integration have indigenous roots? Lurking in the background of all these questions is the rather disturbing one: is perhaps all this talk of African integration an academic or a public relations exercise?
Although Africa is lumped as a political community, it is also a continent, where various nationalities who speak over 2000 different languages, enjoy varied cultures, and inhabit their own territories. Africa is also a new continent modeled under the totalitarian rule of white colonialists and military regimes that were handpicked to replace them. They exhibited a degree of coercive power deployed both for intimidating their populace and territorial expansion. Carrying arms became a sign of an all-encompassing martial culture that brewed military discipline coupled with radical ethnic ideology to breed a culture of conformity and uniformity. The stark reality of the new concept of the fragile states also makes this last question less cynical than it would otherwise appear at first sight. African leaders are articulate in stating their integration aims and positions and in promoting them within and through their Governments and their regional institutions.
However, to describe the strategy is problematique for a number of reasons. African States cannot be expected to know all their political objectives and means-ends calculation openly when it comes to issue of integration and one cannot suppose that their formally declared aims and purposes exhaust their ideological and strategic intentions. The way in which they envision the concepts and goals of integration in specific contexts may be at variance with the global “meaning” or “sense” attributed to them. The specific mode of concern about integration may be more processual than revolutionary, more liberal than egalitarian, or more procedural than substantive. Alternatively, it may switch from the liberal code or structural model to the revolutionary code unpredictably - making the task of describing objectives difficult.
The articulation of ideas and ends of integration is not monolithic. It is modulated within the network of domestic and foreign participants - like the goal of securing peace and stability and prevention of balkanization in South Sudan and Central African Republic. However, it also includes discourses and associated objectives designed primarily, though not exclusively, for consumption by a specific public. For these reasons, it is not easy to give an exact account of African integration goals and ultimate political ends pursued by African states. The author has lingering doubts and questions about the status and mission of the dominant regional organizations and at the core of them the African Union, about the nature of the alliance that all point up the need for caution in taking declaratory goals of “African integration” at face value. Nevertheless, one can describe accurately the declared reform goals on the assumption that they are significant, if not exhaustive, indicators of real intentions. This is admittedly a simplifying assumption, but one which provides a point of departure for analyzing an involved and controversial strategy. What does this leave the transition to African integration? Practically nothing but problems to solve: African integration needs to be built virtually from scratch. Politically, its past is more a liability than an asset. In designing the methodology for studies leading to integration and in establishing the analytical foundation, it is important that that we understand the different permutations and trajectories of integration: society-led or state-led integration or a combination of both.
Regional integration is difficult. Eloquent testimony for this is the challenges faced by European integration where Germany is technically driving the process by bailing out the faltering economies. Ultimately, as the UNECA report concludes, “Regional integration initiatives require a large degree of public management and implementation at the national level. Without an absolute commitment at the national level, there can be little progress at the sub-regional level. Doing nothing or too little to implement agreed programs can severely hamper the integration agenda”. Indeed as President Museveni asserted, “Africans today are surviving at the mercy of others. Rationality would have propelled us to use the recovery of our independence to ensure that Africa stands up for the last time. Independence and post-independence African leaders need to bear the historical responsibility for the future tragedies that may befall Africans in the future”.

A Meritocratic State for Africa

The purpose of this think piece emanated from the deep conviction that an African renaissance can only happen with the development of each and every African and the collective skills, aptitudes and visions of our citizens. It is indeed timely and apposite to discourse on the subject of empowered professional self development. The piece hence seeks to explore the changing nature of international debates about empowered self-development and its implications for human empowerment to achieve our declared goals for the next five years and the MDGs.
Do human qualities spur development?
Yes they do; but… On the global arena, a consensus has emerged that a concerted massive action over a sustained period, on the development and utilization of a pool of critical human qualities at all levels and spectrum of society would provide the foundation and engine for gaining a respectable and beneficial place within the process of self-development and self-management. A disciplined, healthy, nourished, and motivated labor force is required to produce and distribute the goods and services needed for sustained human development. Leadership teams that are committed and willing with positive attitude to facilitate the process of opening up greater opportunities for every citizen are needed.
With the groundswell of political consciousness and opportunities for political change that has emerged in Africa, the discourse on cultural democracy can and must take place to ensure its ultimate sustainability. It is also a challenge, because, for a third time in a generation, we are faced with the daunting task of building up new and equitable relationships; and hence the litmus test to our ability to participate in reshaping the future of a nation. It is also an opportunity for Africans to marshal their experience and knowledge to play a constructive role in national development. As the march of meritocracy has now slowed to a crawl in Africa, and, on some fronts, has even turned into a retreat, the real threat to merit-based career development comes not only from within the government and the private sector but from society at large. The biggest risk to our development is the erosion of the competitive principle.
Which world are we living in? Amid the turbulence of the divisions that marked the debate in the Cold War period, which was dominated by the great ideological differences between liberal-capitalism and socialism, and in which the contest was seen to lie in the competing claims of the primacy of civil and political rights on the one hand and economic and social rights on the other. At the heart of the controversy in self development was the role of the market in the organization of economy and the well known critique by Marx that established a better framework for rights in which economic and social rights were ensured to all people, enabling them to live a life of dignity and hence nations analyzed rights in class terms. Leaders hovered uneasily between these opposed views, reluctant to disengage from the rhetoric, which had been invoked extensively in the seventies, but also conscious of the difficulties of establishing political authority, especially in multiethnic societies, and increasingly driven to restrictions of rights. The end of the Cold War changed dramatically the context for the discourse of self-development widely represented as the victory of human right and Western (Mainly American) democracy. The discourse achieved a high salience. The west defined its mission the extension of rights and democracy to other parts of the world... followed by its dominance of Western culture. Soon Coca Cola and Hollywood became the icons of the new ‘cultural revolution’.
On our end, throughout African history, activists have worked in socially broad-based movements to challenge social injustice in oppressive eras, regimes, and faith aristocracies that challenged the very idealism of humanness and human dignity. The ethic that has brought about this change has been manifested in more ways than one; by emancipation-spirituality that inspired widespread grassroots renewal all over the world. The contemporaneous forms of inspirited social-change masterpieces that it brought deserve considerable attention in any discourse of human development, distribution of wealth and well-being; especially when it comes to building robust communities of faith, resilience, and ethics.
Good enough never is - do a little more: No matter how common the task, it should be done uncommonly well. Such a choice is always wise; after all, the path of excellence is never crowded and is a highway that leads to the top. Excellence is not a destination we reach, but is an unending process of constant improvement. What better way to live than by growing better each day? Those who pursue excellence are not in direct competition with others, for they measure themselves against their own accomplishments. The real contest is always between what you’ve done and what you’re capable of doing. You measure yourself against yourself and nobody else." Excellence is deliberate, not an accident that we stumble upon. It is about asking of ourselves more than others do; it is about harbouring thoughts of excellence in our hearts and minds. As long as we aim for a more ideal self, success will naturally follow. Moreover, the good news is excellence is within the grasp of all, for it is merely about doing our best at every moment. It is not about perfection, which is an illusive goal, but about becoming what we are capable of being. Those who stand by the sidelines and watch others succeed, know what is necessary, but are unwilling to devote the time and effort to bettering themselves. So, each of us have to make a decision.
To do the right thing, at the right time, in the right way; to do some things better than they were ever done before; to eliminate errors; to know both sides of the question; to be courteous; to be an example; to work for the love of work; to anticipate requirements; to develop resources; to recognize no impediments; to master circumstances; to act from reason rather than rule; to be satisfied with nothing short of perfection. Those who are successful in their quest for excellence simply do what they do better and do more of it. They go about life always alert for better ways of doing things. Every endeavor they engage in is imprinted with their mark of excellence. They understand that if you do a job quickly, people will forget about it. But if you do it well, people will remember. Founder of IBM, Thomas J. Watson (1874 ~ 1956), in his work the Path to Excellence said that: Care more than others think is wise. Risk more than others think is safe. Dream more than others think is practical. Expect more than others think is possible. Strive more than others think is worthwhile. Do more than others think is necessary. Be more than others think is sufficient.
Greatness is not power, wealth, fame, beauty, or talent. Greatness is not found in possessions, power, position, or prestige. It is discovered in goodness, humility, service, and character. (William Arthur) In other words, it is becoming someone you admire. Not because of egoism, but because of the innate desire to be and do one’s best. This is the single most powerful investment nations can ever make in life - investment in human ability to deal with life and to contribute. People are the instruments of their own performance, and to be effective, they need to recognize the importance of taking time regularly to sharpen the saw. The more proactive you are, the more effectively you can exercise personal leadership and management in your life. The more effective you manage your life, the more renewing activities you can do. The more you seek first to understand, the more effectively you can go for synergetic win-win solutions. The more you improve in any of the habits that lead to independence, the more effective you will be in interdependent situations. Renewal is the process of rejuvenating ones character, demeanor and habits.

The main reason for America's success lies in the organization of its educational system asserts The Economist. “This is something other countries can copy... but they will not find it easy—particularly if they are developing countries that are bent on state-driven modernization. America does not have a central plan for its universities….it does not treat its academics as civil servants. Instead, universities have a wide range of patrons, from state governments to religious bodies, from fee-paying students to generous philanthropists. The academic landscape has been shaped by rich benefactors such as Ezra Cornell, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Johns Hopkins, and John D. Rockefeller”. This is something that can be emulated by our private sector however nascent or underdeveloped.

Meritocratic governments (such as the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, China, and India), South Korea, Ghana, Tunisia, Singapore, Malaysia to name a few) and the corporate world stress talent, formal education, and competence, rather than existing social differences. Meritocracy is now often used to describe a type of society where wealth, income, and social status are assigned through competition, on the assumption that the winners do indeed deserve their resulting advantage. As a result, the word has acquired a connotation of Social Darwinism, used to describe aggressively competitive societies, with large inequality of income and wealth, and sharply contrasted with egalitarian societies. Social Darwinism is a form of contemporary socio-biology is natural selection applied to human social institutions; whose proponents often used the theory to justify social inequality as being meritocratic. Others used it to justify racism and imperialism and at its most extreme, it appears to anticipate eugenics and the race doctrines of the Nazis.
In a plural soiety where power is theoretically in the hands of the elected representatives, meritocratic elements include the use of expert consultants to help formulate policies, and a meritocratic civil service to implement them. The perennial problem in advocating meritocracy is defining exactly what one means by merit. Hence, in devising a meritocratic state for Africa, we need to look at several of the state functions that must as a necessity be accomplished by well-developed teams and change agents. On the political governance arena, it is important that legislators understand their role with mechanisms whereby members of the legislature have sufficient access to research services, libraries, information and technical resources and staff to enable them to make informed decisions and not generally acquiesces to executive demands.
In analyzing the Executive Arm’s ability to perform, the first question is whether there is a civil service, with appointments based on merit that has inter alia minimum entry requirements such as the Indian Civil Service and where large sectors of the population are not automatically guaranteed a job in the public sector, although it is important to tackle the unemployment challenge through a vibrant private sector. This is an important point of departure to evolve a clear system of promotion based on merit, and with checks and balances to ensure that this is implemented. This also enables the state to ensure that specific functions are clearly described, and chains of command clearly delineated and avoid widespread instances of promotion and appointment based on patronage. Equally relevant arena for consideration is the compensation for civil servants i.e., the salary paid to civil servants is similar or even better to that which they could earn in other sectors (to prevent brain drain from the nation and civil service) and are there are benefits and access to government structures that afford significant attractions to join the civil service? Coupled with good remuneration and post-adjustment packages, the existence of alternative employment opportunities for civil servants can render the civil service a preferred profession. The necessity for a publicly acknowledged system of appointment, that encourages most senior positions to be held by career civil servants; has been time and again tested in those developing economies and emerging markets such as the The CIVETS (Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey and South Africa) that have successfully transited out of penury.
Such a system of appointment based on merit will indubitably ensure that budgetary policies and priorities are set correctly. It also provides the incentives for government agencies and state owned businesses to develop more cost efficient ways of doing business and enhances decentralisation of resource generation and allocation. Thus under such a capacitated state, local authorities are able to collect revenue and programme it for human development and human security. It also means that local authorities develop their own budgetary priorities and programmes. The most significant of all is the existence of a favourable environment for private enterprise; with regulations and administrative procedures, which need to be followed, that facilitate private ownership of property. In the arena of participation and communication, it is significant that there is a range of well-developed countervailing intermediary civic organisations such as policy or political and economic think tanks and professional associations that function freely and openly, serving a variety of sectors of the population and can peacefully function as pressure groups, lobbying for specific interests.
The three essential capabilities for human development are for people to lead long and healthy lives, to be knowledgeable and to have access to the resources needed for a decent standard of living. If these basic capabilities are not achieved, many choices are simply not available and many opportunities remain inaccessible. Nevertheless, the realm of human development goes further: essential areas of choice that are highly valued by people, range from political, economic and social opportunities for being creative and productive to enjoying self-respect, empowerment and a sense of belonging to a community.
Thus, the achievement of the goals propounded and enacted in the five year development plans by the African legislatures is in many measures a decision that will launch growth trajectories into a new era of human development (and as much as I refrain to use the phrase – ‘poverty reduction’). Hence, a nation needs a work force with a sense of purpose, work ethic, vision, integrity, direction has to do with creating conditions for the existence of the broadest possible range of dialogue, opinions, and human sentiments to achieve the goals enshrined the vision of African legislature. Developing and maintaining such a work force implies acquiescing to a system of economic and social governance based on rule by ability (merit) rather than by quotas, connections, wealth, race, or other determinants of social position.

Indigenous Peoples of Africa: Prospects for Resilient & Sustainable Livelihoods

Indigenous Peoples of Africa: Prospects for Resilient & Sustainable Livelihoods - Costantinos, Published by EcoAfrica
Africa has been experiencing a major ground swell of social, economic, cultural and political changes. While the movement towards fundamental political change is remarkable, there are certain formidable challenges that will make the transition to a stable, political and pluralist system of governance very difficult. The cultural, historical, political and socioeconomic conditions of this troubled region are not simply too conducive to the emergence of strong political polity. It is indeed within this context in which the legal empowerment of the indigenous peoples has to be recognized.
Across countries and continents, many terms and definitions refer to indigenous peoples. The 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples has not adopted a universal definition. While the prevailing view today is that no formal universal definition is necessary for the recognition of indigenous peoples’ rights, there is in practice a large degree of convergence of views. Indigenous Peoples can be identified in particular geographical areas by the presence in varying degrees of characteristics such as: having close attachment to ancestral territories and to the natural resources in these areas; self-identifying and being identified by others as being members of a distinct cultural group, an indigenous language; or having customary social and political institutions and primarily subsistence-oriented production.
Africa’s indigenous peoples

• Algeria: Amazigh/ Berber;
• Angola: San/Bushmen;
• Botswana: San/Balala, Nama;
• Burkina Faso: Peul, Tuareg;
• Burundi: Batwa;
• Cameroon: Pygmy, Mbororo, Kirdi;
• CAR: Mbororo, Aka/BaAka;
• Chad: Mbororo, Peul;
• DRC: Pygmy;
• Ethiopia: Hamer, Dassenech, Nygagaton and Erbore, Nuer, Afar, Borraan, Oromo, Mursi, Agnwak, Nuer, Gumuz,
• Gabon: Pygmy;
• Kenya: Turkana, Rendille, Borraan, Maasai, Samburu, Ilchamus, Somali, Gabra, Pokotand, Endorois, Ogiek, Sengwer, Yaaku, Waata, El Molo, Boni (Bajuni), Malakote, Wagoshi, Sanya, Kalenjin;
• Mali: Tuareg, Peul;
• Morocco: Amazigh/ Berber;
• Namibia: San, Himba;
• Niger: Peul, Tuareg, Toubou;
• Nigeria: Ijaw, Ogoni, Yoruba, Edo, Igbo, Urhobo, Itsekiri, Isoko, Efik, Ibibio South, Fulani, Hausa, Kanuri, Nupe, Tiv;
• Rep. Congo: Bantu,Pygmy;
• South Africa: San (Xun, Khwe and Khomani), Nama/Khoe;
• Tanzania: Bantu, Cushite, Nilo-Hamite& San;
• Uganda: Batwa, Benet, Karamajong

Characteristics associated with indigenous claims in Africa
Africans founded the Indigenous Peoples of Africa Coordinating Committee (IPACC) in 1997, as one of the main transnational network organizations recognized as a representative of African indigenous peoples in dialogues with governments and bodies such as the UN. IPACC (1977) identifies several key characteristics associated with indigenous claims in Africa:

• political and economic marginalization rooted in colonialism;
• de facto discriminationbased often on the dominance of agricultural peoples in the State system (e.g. lack of access to education and health care by hunters and herders);
• the particularities of culture, identity, economy and territoriality that link hunting and herding peoples to their home environments in deserts and forests (e.g. nomadic, diet, knowledge systems);
• Some indigenous peoples, such as the Sanand Pygmy peoples are physically distinct, which makes them subject to specific forms of discrimination.

In addition to the above-mentioned definition, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) describes indigenous people as nomadic and semi-nomadic pastoralists and hunter/gatherers who live in situations of marginalization and discrimination. While all these definitions capture some key characteristics of indigene populations, they do not fully account for some of the distinct traits of the population. Furthermore, these definitions pose particular problems in the African context where the term is constantly confused with pastoralism. Therefore, the initial task of this study was to set out criteria that will help in identifying the indigenous groups in Africa that the research/study should focus on. Clearly defining indigene populations in the African context will help development stakeholders to identify and document the size, location and grouping of indigenes in Africa and decide when and by reference to what criteria, they should receive differential treatment in Bank projects.
Indigenes Countries

• Pygmy - DRC, Gabon& Republic of Congo
• Mbororo - Central African Republic &Chad
• Peul - Chad, Burkina Faso, Niger& Mali
• Amazigh - Algeria, Morocco (Berber)
• Batwa - Burundi, Uganda Tanzania
• San - Angola, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa

According to the information obtained from IWGIA and confirmed by the ACHPR, around “fifty million indigenous people in twenty one African nations, mostly nomadic and semi-nomadic pastoralists and hunter/gatherers live in situations of marginalization and discrimination. The major groups of indigenous people are the Amazigh/Berber in Northern Africa, the Pygmies in Central Africa, the Peul and the Tuareg in Western Africa, the Bantu in East Africa and the Sanpeople /Bushmen in Southern Africa.
The situation of indigenous peoples in Africa is daunting.
While discrimination of marginalized groups, mal-governance, corruption, impunity, violent conflicts and poverty is in general very high on the African continent, indigenous peoples are specifically among the groups suffering the most. Rural poverty in Africa is increasingly concentrated in indigenous and pastoral communities where they face economic, social, political and cultural marginalization in the societies in which they live, resulting in extreme poverty and vulnerability for a disproportionate number of them. Generally, their socio-economic and human development conditions are significantly worse than other populations. Caused by a number of factors such as dominating development paradigms favoring settled agriculture over other modes of production, establishment of national parks and conservation areas and natural resource extraction etc., this harms them in many ways. Indigenous peoples in Africa are often victims of violent conflicts. Indigenous peoples in Africa have limited access to justice and violations against their rights are often committed with impunity. In sum, indigenous peoples in African suffer from severe neglect, dispossession and human rights violations, and the general trend is that African states wish to assimilate them into dominant cultures and livelihoods.
Only few African countries have so far recognized the existence of indigenous peoples. However, this situation is gradually improving and several central African countries now recognize the existence of indigenous peoples in their countries. For example, Ethiopia’s Constitution provides for representation of every nation and nationality in the upper chamber of law making. Kenya a new constitution has been adopted which provides for considerable decentralization and recognition of historically marginalized groups to which indigenous peoples belong. In Burundi, the constitution provides for special representation of the indigenous Batwa people in the National Assembly and the Senate. Cameroon has a draft law on Marginal Populations. The Central African Republic has as the first country in Africa ratified ILO Convention 169.
Indigenous people’s poor representation in decision-making bodies at both local and national level and has very much limited their participation in decision-making processes. Mainstream populations have always discriminated indigenous peoples and looked down upon as backward peoples. Many stereotypes prevail that describe them as “backward”, “uncivilized” and “primitive, an embarrassment to modern African states. Such negative stereotyping legitimizes discrimination and marginalization of indigenous peoples by institutions of governance and dominant groups. Advances in human thought and action towards global justice and universalization of guarantees for human rights are gathering added momentum with the motive energy contributed by these unprecedented events. The ability of States to strip people of their rights to livelihood security, shrouded behind the thin veneer of non-interference in each other's internal affairs is increasingly becoming a thing of the past. While the dawning of this new era of political pluralism and economic growth is a welcome event, the stewardship, management and administration of social, political, and economic reforms is also marked by uniquely forbidding organizational-strategic issues.
Promoting indigenous peoples’ development
In the wake for Africa's renaissance, African scholars and practitioners must research and promote indigenous peoples’ development by connecting with the people, joining in on their aspirations, complementing their abilities with their resources and assisting to create true partnerships. Africans must commit to a common discipline of empowerment among all people, to a fundamentally new value system based on justice, peace and the integrity of creation. Indeed, it is a system recognizes the rich resources of indigenous peoples’ communities, their cultural and spiritual contributions and protecting the wealth of nature. It will be radically different from the value system on which the present economic and political orders function and which lies behind the current crises of indigenous peoples. We need to collectively define a new understanding of empowerment in which those who have been marginalized by reason of sex, age, economic and political condition, ethnic origin and disability, the homeless, refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants alike take their place at the center of all decisions and actions as equal partners.
Given time, the empowerment approach entailed in this new paradigm, can take root to become significantly enabling to African countries and peoples as they strive to meet their objectives. This requires among, other things, a fundamental paradigm shift in the identification of development challenges and a sustained effort to transform the way in which knowledge is currently constructed, organized and used as a basis for programming.
A new structure can emerge, which provides for a state agency that will administer assemblies, which will administer indigenous people’s lands. The institutional structure augurs on the principles already discussed in the previous section mindful of the following:

• that the structure should be Executive and its accountability should be to the people through a legislative organ, the Parliament;
• that the administration of land and participation of the people generally, and the land users participation matters should be conducted in a transparent manner;
• that land management and land delivery systems provision of professional service as opposed to administrative; institutional checks and balances should be built into the structure and prevented from developing into a monopolistic, bureaucratic entity

Needless to repeat, we can derive these principles directly opinions received from the people who argued that the present management was not close enough and accessible to the majority of the people. It was insensitive to the expectations and interests of the town dwellers; controlled effectively by a handful of administrative mandate to decide on land matters and who often abused their offices for lack of professional ethics and checks and balances. Hence, the recommended management and administrative structure maintains the principle of separation of powers at state level down to the village level. In particular, the Constitution guards the principle of the independence of the judiciary. The most dramatic advance in the history of human thought came about not because of the discovery of new answers for old problems but because of new queries for erstwhile problems. The thesis of this research is based on the need to elevate the discourse on people-driven in institutionalizing social ingenuity to a higher paradigm of institutional mainstreaming instead of trying to find new answers to justify emerging cerebral deprivation of the intellectual or the frustration of the state elite to explain grinding poverty in African rural communities.
Conclusion
The intrinsic difficulty of underpinning the reason for livelihood crisis is that an enormous number of physical, economic, social and political variables, at both national and international levels, influence the interplay between state and civil society, modernity and tradition, self-less nationalism and greed, knowledge based governance and ignorance, courage and fear of the unknown. At the level of civil society, problems manifest themselves in the form of insufficient and inadequate organizations and networks to develop responses to the challenges of vulnerability and its implications. The lack of institutional links between civil society and the public sector regarding livelihood security and obstacles and difficulties experienced by indigenous people in the process of developing adequate responses is a major hurdle we need to address. Furthermore, inadequate awareness concerning development and its implications, lack of a common will to mount a concerted assault from all quarters, and lack of resources has made the crisis even more demanding. Within a life span of something like five decades, African polities have exhibited an enhanced degree of coercive power. This has resulted in a pervasive military ethos through a long and painful process of ideological schooling. Hence, a major obstacle to efforts to install and consolidate systems is the all-powerful and hierarchical bureaucratic structure.
Even under democratically favorable contemporary global conditions, historical, ideological and strategic characteristics internal and external to the sub-Saharan Africa’s economic, social and political transition processes would still exist that make it a costly exercise. Characteristics and problems of this sort can be identified and understood through critical, yet constructive, analysis focused on certain key elements of the reform strategy; in setting the stage for the evolution of new social, political, and economic culture based on peoples priority, knowledge and practice. This has to change.
It is easy to follow the current trend within the interna­tional discourse and advocate community driven institutionalizing social ingenuity as a desirable form of adjustment for tens of millions of Africans; weathering in the storm of climate change; induced by reckless industrial growth and consump­tion. Nor is it difficult to make normative judgments about how states and societies should behave if institutionalizing social innovations in institutionalizing social ingenuity are to be the lead­ing paradigms of humanity. This is in sharp contrast to the accountability of developed nations and at the same time the demeanor of ‘development finance’ institutions in support such migration of social innovations into national and global rules of conduct.
The failed ideologies of the last century have ended, but a new one has risen to take their place. It is the ideology of Development-and it promises a solution to all the world’s ills. Nevertheless, Developmentalism is a dangerous and deadly failure, a dark ideological specter, haunting the world and as deadly as the tired ideologies of the last century, that failed so miserably, (but) it is thriving. Like all ideologies, (it) promises a comprehensive final answer to all of society’s problems, from poverty to violence and despotic rulers. It shares the common ideological characteristic of suggesting there is only one correct answer, and it tolerates little dissent. It deduces this unique answer for everyone from a general theory that purports to apply to everyone, everywhere. There is no need to involve local actors who reap its costs and benefits. It even has its own intelligentsia at the IMF, World Bank& UN (Easterly, 2007:1).
Nevertheless, it is not so easy to conceptualize local sustainable development innovations as working processes, which are balanced against strategy, to determine what makes for real, as opposed to vacu­ously formal, declaratory rhetoric of sustainable development and climate change summits of gov­ernments. This is particularly the case where corporatist states tend to view the relations of their particular SD agenda with their broader governing roles and responsibilities as relatively simple and direct, unproblematically reducing the latter to the former. The ultimate objective of sustainable development is to achieve a balance between human needs and aspirations in sync with the quality of life today and in the future. Common sense would thus exact an urgent need to bring to scale the destructive magnitude of industry, untenable demographic dynamics and frantic misuse of resources into equilibrium on the one hand and the desired outcomes in sustainable livelihoods on the other. The 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Devel­opment or Earth Summit, became one of the most effective means to reinforce the sig­nificance of environmental sustainability and generate global awareness of the environment–development rela­tionship.
The major outcomes of this Earth Summit, in­cluding the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Con­vention on Climate Change, the Rio Declaration and the Agenda 21, 1992, draw attention to the importance of some major dimensions of sustainability in pursuing so­cioeconomic development. Beyond platitudes and empty pledges, global covenants for a sustainable world have borne little fruit. The Rio+20 jamboree manifestly projected the mercerization of well-meaning global survival concerns by over-represented and powerful trans-nationals which, successfully coerced a dramatic barter of the human environment and life on the planet with admirable succinctness and brazen verve. From a policy perspective, therefore, any research should provide the normative and operative analytical treatise, which will enable leaders to identify the institutional gaps and potential opportunities that inhibit or promote the migration of social innovations in sustainable development into institutional praxis. It must draw on case analyses to underpin the technological reform discourse as a means of endogenous common resources management and in-depth restructuring of polity that manages this.
Demands by indigenous peoples’ leaders and rapidly evolving national and international normative frameworks on the rights of indigenous peoples have led to the adoption of specific policies by the World Bank (1991, 2005), the Asian Development Bank (1998, 2009), the Inter-American Development Bank (2006), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (2008) and the African Development Bank (2013-2014). Over the years, these institutions have accumulated extensive experience in dealing with issues related to development and protection of indigene populations. While one must exercise caution because of difference of settings and context, but we can identify and learn certain best practices and lessons from these.

Africa: Strategic Governance & Leadership Challenges & Opportunities

1. Introduction
Leadership within the African context can best be described as quoted in the Chinese book “I Ching, or Chinese Book of Changes”, (1971) “To become a centre of influence holding people together is a grave matter and fraught with great responsibility. It requires greatness of spirit, consistency, and strength. Therefore let him who wishes to gather others about him ask himself whether he is equal to the undertaking...” Leadership has several forms of agency:
1.1. Official power:
The authority to instruct government machinery to carry out instructions is the prime example. Hence, the leadership we expect is above all about responsibility; requiring acceptance of the importance of one's self-coupled with an appreciation of the greater importance of others over oneself. Therefore, leadership entails liability for those who are led - whereby, leadership becomes a discipline in its own right. There is no set of techniques, rules, or series of commandments with which the leader can arm themselves and be assured of success; nonetheless, they must always interrelate, familiarize, change, and transform themselves.
1.2. Supremacy over dialogue:
Our cabinet leaders are expected to develop the capacity, through their statements and actions, including symbolic actions, to shape debate and dialogue. Even when their formal power is limited, they can use their access to the media and stature in society to influence what people talk about. It is vital to recognize that, through either position or personality, they have the power to impact on the world - to change it. This, in fact, is the essence of leadership: the leader is one who does not accept the limitations of a “given” situation or set of circumstances, but uses the opportunity to transform such constraints into new realities, and takes responsibility for the privilege.
1.3. Moral high ground:
An inspiring ‘job description’ of our ministers must be not only the power over discourse but also their ability to shape morality, to determine what is socially acceptable, culturally sound and politically uplifting. Indeed, leadership is more than a job; it is a calling.
1.4. Leaders operate at national and international levels:
The international component may be particularly important here, given our clear continen-tal African identity adopted under Emperor Haile Sellasse. As custodian of African Unity, our leaders are expected to be the role model for social change.
1.5. Leadership for human development and human security:
Political leadership of human development and human security requires intimate knowledge of public policy analysis, formulation, and management and development of strategic plans and implementing them. We can identify four main aspects to this:
• analysis, formulation and management of policy, strategy, process and organisation;
• obtaining policy consensus;
• ensuring that the public service can actually carry out policy, and not see it subverted or undermined;
• ensuring that the policy is implemented with sufficient energy: this implies mechanisms for monitoring and accountability: in addition, we can identify some of the preconditions for effective public policy measures against a major social ill:
o A set of technical and/or policy measures that a state can utilise to tackle effectively the specific social ill, with a package that works in the most basic technical manner.
o Mechanisms to ensure that the technologies and/or policies are adequately utilised, backed by legislation, administrative commitment or other specific forms of sanctioning. There have to be mechanisms for ensuring that institutions function, and political processes for accountability.
o An ethical consensus, which rules that this specific social ill is unacceptable, the policy must be acceptable to the target group and the public;
This is especially important in our continent when the policy imperatives involve trying to change attitudes and behaviour of a national psyche that has rendered the nation eternally dependent on international charity. Thus, our leaders are on the one hand responsible for breaking the boundaries of inward bound wisdom, of “common sense”, of patterns of thinking and behaving, which, over the years, have built themselves into routines, which pacify people to dormancy. On the other hand, they also have to maintain continuity whilst simultaneously promoting change; such is the nature of leadership ambiguity and contradiction that comes as part of the same deal.
2. Leaders oversight is an important part of the policy making process.
Leaders should ensure that the agreed policy is properly implemented and delivered to the tar-get citizens by means of leaders' oversight. As to Pelizzo et al (2006:8), “scholars have generally agreed on the fact that effective oversight is good for the proper functioning of a democratic political system. Effective oversight is beneficial for a political system for, at least, two basic reasons (West and Cooper, 1989): ‘first, because the oversight activity can actually contribute to improving the quality of the policies/programs initiated by the government; second, because as the government policies are ratified by the leadership branch, such policies acquire greater legitimacy’”. Besides their responsibility for the leadership process, leaders have a key function in providing oversight of the government on behalf of the public (Beetham, 2006:127). Through its core oversight function, leaders holds the government to account on behalf of the people, ensuring that government policy and action are both efficient and commensurate with the needs of the public and leaders’ oversight is crucial in checking excesses on the government (Yamamoto, 2007:6).
Studies have underlined that the legislature may adopt several tools to oversee the actions of the executives such as hearings in committees, hearings in the plenary assembly, the creation of inquiry committees, leaders’ questions, question time, the interpellations and the ombudsman (Pelizzo et al., 2006:8; Maffio, 2002 & Pennings, 2000). The key functions of leaders’ oversight can be described as follows. At the core of this function is the protection of liberties of citizens, to detect and prevent abuse, arbitrary behaviour or unconstitutional conduct on the part of the government and public agencies. It detects waste within the machinery of public agencies. Thus, it can improve the efficiency, economy and effectiveness of government operations and hold the government to account in respect of how the taxpayers’ money is used. Ensuring that that policies are actually delivered includes monitoring the achievement of goals set by legislation and to improve the transparency of operations and enhance public trust, which is itself a condition of effective policy delivery.
However, as to Blackburn and Kennon (2003:6) “the government is not the only source of in-put of business for leaders. Much business originates from the opposition. The inspiration for their input is largely found in general public opinion, outside pressures or interest groups, newspapers, radio and television, and in the minds and attitudes of millions of citizens represented in the Com-mons by Members”. Leaders, therefore, finds itself the recipient of a wide range of external pressures and proposals, broadly divided between the governments on the one hand and the outside world - the public on the other. The prerequisite for policy making process is the existence of strong and competent leadership body. No country can have a workable democracy, with adequate avenues for citizens to be heard and without a vibrant and meaningful leadership (Ornstein, 1992:1).
Nonetheless, in almost every nation around the world, there is a gap between leadership powers to hold the executive to account (Power, 2012:16). However, since recent times, optimistic practices have been emerging even in the most criticized Sub-Saharan Africa. Joel Barkan (2009), in a wide-ranging study of leadership development in Africa, suggests that the situation is changing, with leaders evolv¬ing out of their role as rubber stamps for the executive and becoming more effective as watchdogs, policy-makers and representatives. Leaderships has to make effort not only to promote the public participation in the policy making process but also to perform representation functions.
The first and foremost characteristic of a leadership is its intrinsic link to the citizens of the nation or state – representation. In a representative democracy, they act as the eyes, ears and voice of the people (Ornstein, 1992:2). The other dimension to constituency activity consists in ensuring that local experience informs national policy-making. through their interaction with voters, local MPs gain enormous expertise about the impact of policy decisions and legislation at the local level. That direct experience is often far greater that of the civil servants and ministers responsible for drafting and implement¬ing legislation, but is rarely used by leaders in any systematic fashion to shape legislation. Instead, it is most frequently due to the initiative of individual politicians that the experience of citizens is used as a policy resource (Greg Power, 2012:66).
Leaders also need to have means of engaging and influencing the public. Openness and being accessible to the voter and taxpayer is a crucial feature of leaderships. Most leaders have sought to improve their outreach in the basic provision of information, especially through the development of visitors’ centers, open days and events – based on the insight that, in order to interest people in the leaders, there is no substitute for physical access. Because leaders’ outreach will ever physically touch only a small proportion of the population, the key means for informing citizens about public affairs, and a key channel of communication between leaders and public. In their investigative role, the media have always been seen as a ‘watchdog’ against all kinds of abuse. How well they fulfil these functions is vital for the quality of democratic life. Given the tendency for these functions to become distorted, whether by executive partiality in a state-controlled system, or by powerful economic interests in a commercialized one, leaders have key democratic role in setting an appropriate legal framework for the media, to ensure both their independence and their diversity (Beetham, 2006:6).
Another essential function of leaders in the policy making process is entertaining of public petition. Any citizen or group of citizens may prepare and sign a petition to the house on any matter in which the house has jurisdiction to interfere (Blackburn & Kennon, 2003:380). They extend their account by indicating that the petition must be presented to the house by a member. Policy is nothing without budget allocation, hence, it is a component of the policy making process. A law without a budget is simply rhetoric and the budget-making process is as critical as the lawmaking process (Hollister, 2007:7). The budget is the most important economic policy tool of a government and provides a comprehensive statement of the priorities of a nation. As the representative institutions of the people, it falls to national leaderships to ensure that the budget optimally matches a nation’s needs with available resources. Effective leadership participation in the budget process establishes checks and balances that are crucial for transparent and accountable government to ensure efficient delivery of public services (Wehner & Byanyima 2004:9).
Leaders’ 'power of the purse' is a fundamental feature of democracy. The vast majority of democratic constitutions require appropriations and taxation measures to be approved by leaders in order to become effective. For this requirement to be more than constitutional fiction though, leaders must ensure that the revenue and spending measures it authorizes are fiscally sound, match the needs of the population with available resources, and are implemented properly and efficiently”. Its options are to approve or reject the budget, to amend it, or, in a few cases, to substitute the draft tabled by the executive with its own budget. In some countries, the leadership passes separate legislation for appropriations and changes to the tax code; in others, it considers a unified budget bill. The exact form of leadership approval is less important than the fact that it must be comprehensive. Principles of authorization of all public spending & taxation ensures the ‘rule of law’ in public finance (Ibid:1, 30-31).
Thus, leadership capacity here entails conceptualization in global categories that are invested with varying local meanings that are themselves in part actualization of trends in international polilitical (and development) such as witnessed in Singapore and the Tiger Economies.
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Access to Health Wellness Implementation of the Abuja Commitment

Access to Health Wellness Implementation of the Abuja Commitment in Africa
Abstract
Pastoralists and trans-boundary populations are under the grip of an unprecedented crisis, heightened by the inability of states to engage readily in the search for answers to the continent’s human insecurity challenges. Across the continent, these populations live in nations that remain in the throes of famine, poverty & violence and continue to suffer the devastating impact of AIDS and STIs and now Ebola. On a positive note, there is a remarkable success in rolling back HIV/AIDS, since the 2001 Abuja Declaration on HIV/AIDS and ORID. Africa is also at the forefront of the global development agenda today but the challenges for mobile populace remains daunting. Using qualitative data collected from primary and secondary sources, the research has unveiled existing and emerging health challenges that emanate from state fragility, the crises of managing health care and the crises of civic and political leadership in Africa. A state is fragile when the basic functions of the State are no longer performed, they breed widespread internal conflict, revolutionary and ethnic wars, adverse regime change, genocide, politicides, and de facto or de jure loss of state legitimacy. The finding point to the criminal negligence of health care systems in trans-boundary human movements in Africa while simultaneously addressing the need for clear trajectories with strategic entry points to address capacity development needs to stem the tide of pandemics.
Key words: diseases of poverty, human mobility, health systems, state fragility & capacity,
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Unlocking the Entrepreneurial Promise in Africa

Unlocking the Entrepreneurial Promise:
Human Security, Human Capital, Employment and Entrepreneurship Development in Africa
Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos, PhD
Professor of Public Policy, School of Graduate Studies,
College of Business and Economics, AAU
Background notes & transcript of a lecture at the
AU/UN Finance & Economic Ministers Forum, side events
March 29-31, 2015, AU, Addis Ababa

As a region of young people; whose visions of human development and human security are defined by the tenacity to achieve the Compact defined by the Millennium Development Goals, the youth are right to aspire to forms of transformational development in terms of equity, a healthy population, an educated, fully engaged and employed youth with a solid family structure. Nonetheless, the reality is of one of marginalization, demanding radical developmental and demographic reconfiguration. The later breeds despondency, desperation, intolerance and of course belligerence; so much so that political forces in every corner have mobilized the youth for violent ends, often to the detriment of their very own livelihoods.
The unfolding human tragedy, its impact on human security and development are indeed too ghastly to contemplate. Whereas, the challenge simply stated, underpins the need to connect to the energies of the youth, they have instead, for so many years were encouraged to look to outsiders to provide the means and processes of change. They have been discouraged from mobilizing for local actions and for their own development, finding themselves in positions of unequal power, making it very tempting for many in politics to dictate conditions and terms of relationships on them.The purpose here is to propose means that are designed to develop strategies to mobilize nations and civil societies to direct policies and programs to address the compelling and evolving implications of unemployment and human insecurity; so that it does not further reverse human and social capital development in the sub-Region. The need for collective learning about responses and the responsibility to those whose suffering provided the basis for that learning will never be more urgent than it is now. Unfortunately, such lessons, which may be learned through the shocks administered by an uncompromising reality, are rarely translated quickly into personal or organizational memories and the inherent will to change. The reasons for this are sometimes rooted in human inertia, weakness and self-interest. They are equally often the products of a genuine confusion about how to act most effectively in an environment that seems to be growing more complex.
In 1945, the human community proclaimed a bold and revolutionary vision of the future; where the youth will engage collectively as result of the responsible action of politically mature citizens acting in the framework of a free society. As we stand on the watershed of the old and new Millennia, demands for greater democratic space and youth participation in Horn of Africa have increased the accountability of state actors. This tall order would revolutionize approaches to self-directed human development that only a new paradigm shift and commitment to new organizing principles can achieve. Hence, the need to focus on practical strategies for employment based safety nets and employment generation loans that have transformed hitherto underemployed economies into forces of livelihood sustainability and human security.
Human qualities for development
A major contributing factor to the appalling situation is that there is and has been a shallow understanding of and a feeble grip on, the essential components that constitute the required human qualities for development and the intensive and comprehensive nature of their development and utilization processes. As such, important components and commitment required to build and use a quality labor force for accelerating and sustaining growth are not properly addressed in the education, training and productivity programs. Nations have failed to produce and retain the necessary pool of self-confident, healthy, knowledgeable and skilled public and private sectors labor force, which is full of initiatives and resourcefulness with a sense of purpose, work ethics, vision, integrity and direction. Pronouncements have been made regarding employment and career development programs in m ay forums. Yet, like many other policy efforts, these have not yielded the desired results. Human capital flight from the region has reached high proportions leaving behind an ill-prepared labor force. Skills, knowledge and positive work habits continued to be in short supply. School systems are in shambles in most countries. Strong private sector leadership at all levels of society is essential for an effective auguring of quality labor market. It is essential that their efforts should be complemented by the full and active participation of civil society and the state. Leadership involves personal commitment and concrete actions.
Policy and strategic collapse
While the degree of awareness on the challenges has improved over the past few years, the tendency for governments to treat these challenges as yet another routine issue that needs to be tackled through five-year development plans is tantalizing. The fact remains, however, that these challenges will increasingly claim the livelihoods of many families and the economic backbone of many nations; retarding human development to a level where it becomes impossible to reverse the trend in much less time than the development cycles of states. These are further complicated by fear of the unknown, traditional power dynamics, lack of experience or awareness of collective action, poor local leadership and the lack of energy, time and willingness to devote to activities other than subsistence.
An ambitious African youth policy of 2004 zeroes on enabling the youth to play an active role in building a democratic society and good governance, as well as in social and economic development. It further aims to deliver a democratically oriented, knowledgeable and skilled, organized and disciplined enterprising youth generation. Nevertheless, the low levels of opportunities for productive employment only serve to amplify the nation’s penury. This is not without its politico-ethical consequences. It is echoed in the politicization of violent and fearless youth and the mass diasporization that now crowded Western capitals, as a source of skilled human capital. Failure to utilize such a lynchpin factor of production is not acceptable. Radical policy and strategic measures to boast the private sector’s role and capacity need to be launched with vigor to develop the management and functionings of the labor.
Knowledge management and Communities of Practice:
Evidence of sufficient knowledge and information about the business sector is another indicator. Progress in information systems on micro-economic behavior including labor market networks and the specific requirements of technology transfer and adaptation are all preconditions for sound policy and strategy analysis, formulation and management. Planning and policy-making are characterized by on-going dialogue between government and different groups of economic actors and by regular exchange of electronic data and information on specific needs and requirements including the critical area of technology transfer and development. Further, a coherent and coordinated approach of government agencies in their dealings with the business community, flexibility in response to changing circumstances; attention to detail on objectives agreed upon and emphasis on achieving high levels of performance must be developed.
Entrepreneurship development
Entrepreneurs that are expected to employ the vast army of labor and that operate on a small-to intermediate-scale usually exhibit fairly sophisticated organizational skills. Nevertheless, as their businesses grow along the small-to intermediate-scale continuum, they often face constraints such as limited managerial capabilities; difficulties with technology transfer and adaptation; and, as in the case of informal sector micro-entrepreneurs, inadequate or inappropriate public provision of enterprise-level support. If entrepreneurship is to become the vehicle of growth, ‘graduation’ of informal sector micro-enterprises to better endowed establishments and higher levels of value-added and economic diversification is to be achieved, it is clear that the deficit of skills that are necessary to establish a range of capabilities on the managerial side must surmounted (Costantinos, 2004).
An efficient and a development-oriented private sector provide the nourishment, which markets require to grow and function effectively. Markets themselves provide the credit ingredients, which the private sector requires to grow, expand and contribute to development. Thus, there is a reciprocal and mutually productive relationship between the private sector and credit and capital markets. Responsibility for their implementation has been assigned to stakeholders at the national, sub regional and regional levels. Further analysis suggests that we should incorporate the requirements of establishing capital markets and strengthening the private sector in the list of priorities on their macro-economic reform programs. The banking system must be functioning taking care of the money markets. Consequential growth response of the latter should give a boost to capital markets, which in turn provide capital for SHD (Costantinos, 2008).
Human security
Human security, a post-Cold War concept, is a multi-disciplinary understanding of security involving a number of research fields, including development studies, international relations, strategic studies and human rights. While the “HDR originally argued that human security requires attention to both freedoms from fear and from want; divisions have gradually emerged over the proper scope of that protection and over the appropriate mechanisms for responding to these threats. The Freedom from Fear School seeks to limit the practice of human security to protecting individuals from violent conflicts. The Freedom from Want School focuses on the basic idea that violence, poverty, inequality, diseases and environmental degradation are inseparable concepts in addressing the root of human insecurity. Different from Freedom from Fear, it expands the focus beyond violence with emphasis on development and security goals. In reality both should serve as important impetus to global action” (UNDP, 1994).
Conclusion
Indeed, there is no more compelling raison d'être nor a mission-objective so utterly entrenched in the preservation and, even advancement of human-kind, than good governance and leadership that can lead a social league to relate cogently to an epidemic of ignorance and hence under-employment that has spun out of control. With few exceptions, nations have failed to win popular legitimacy - possessing relatively few authentic social organizations that can articulate and aggregate social interests. Civic leadership remain generally non-existent or at best, weak.
Hence, the central hypothesis in entrepreneurship development is that the relative strength of political organizations determines the rules of the political game that are installed. It requires a plural set of political organizations, which promote and protect rules of peaceful political participation and competition. Together, institutions (plural organizations plus rules of accountability) ensure control of the state executive. These create enabling environment for entrepreneurship development

• ingredients of enabling environment for entrepreneurship development: avoidance of bureaucratic barriers and efficient and reliable infrastructure:
• expansion and establishment of intermediary financial institutions: establishment of education and training institutions, healthy business-government relationship, stable political and regulatory climate, development of grassroots entrepreneurship:
• government institutions have been created to serve the large businesses: expansion of the role of civic associations, sound and stable macroeconomic policy framework, and on improving competitiveness and employment opportunities

Countries must develop clear-cut national youth and employment policies that match trained young people to the labor market and financing policies that would ensure production of viable skilled work force. Institutions of higher learning must expand their education and training programs to include soft skill packages – communication skills, teamwork, problem solving, leadership, innovative thinking, etc.
On value for money and accountability in service delivery:
Institution of higher learning must ensure multi-sectoral training in order to produce a multi-skilled labor force. Countries must continue with their programs to decentralize and devolve services, embrace the opportunities brought by ICT as well as maintain capacity building in education and health, and promote mobile services to hard-to-reach communities. Countries must embrace social accountability for service delivery and empower citizens to demand quality services.
On risk protection, inclusion and social cohesion:
Countries of the region and the international community must urgently address the serious problems of human trafficking and piracy, as well as the peculiar situations in fragile states in the region. Member states must develop national and regional policy frameworks on education focusing on science and technology with revised curriculum to address the demands of the labor market. Countries must revive adult literacy, distance learning, early childhood nutrition and education.
On migration, labor mobility and remittances:
Countries must produce what they can absorb and export, while considering the Push-Pull factors in a globalized, technological 21st Century as well as creating jobs and introducing investment incentives for nationals and the Diaspora of the region. Countries must facilitate brain circulation through support of migration that provide exposure/expertise and improve education systems that add value to migrant labor making them competitive in regional and international markets.
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Theories of Governance and New Public Management:

If Max Weber and Woodrow Wilson were to suddenly appear on the landscape of modern public administration, normative theories in hand, it is likely they would be unable to recognize the field. The comprehensive, functionally uniform, hierarchical organizations governed by strong leaders who are democratically responsible and staffed by neutrally competent civil servants who deliver services to citizens (Ostrom, 1973) – to the extent they ever existed – are long gone. They have been replaced by an ‘organizational society’ in which many important services are provided through multi-organizational programs. These programs are essentially “interconnected clusters of firms, governments, and associations which come together within the framework of these programs” (Hjern and Porter, 1981, pp. 212-213).
These implementation structures operate within a notion of governance about which a surprising level of consensus has been reached. There is a pervasive, shared, global perception of governance as a topic far broader than ‘government’; the governance approach is seen as a “new process of governing, or a changed condition of ordered rule; or the new method by which society is governed” (Stoker, 1998, p. 17). Similarly, in the scholarship that has followed the ‘Reinventing Government’ themes of public effectiveness, much has been written of New Public Management practices by which governance theory is put into action (Mathiasen, 1996; Lynn, 1996, 1998; Terry, 1998; Kelly, 1998; Peters and Pierre, 1998).
In this complex, devolved mode of service delivery, the unit of analysis for some students of policy implementation is the network of non-profit organizations, private firms and governments. As Milward and Provan note, in policy arenas such as health, mental health, and welfare, "...joint production and having several degrees of separation between the source and the user of government funds...combine to ensure that hierarchies and markets will not work and that networks are the only alternative for collective action" (2000, p. 243). The purpose here is to attempt to set forth a theoretical framework for the study of welfare policy implementation by synthesizing the related and theoretically consistent concepts of governance, New Public Management, and networks. I then discuss how this framework can be applied to welfare policy implementation. I follow the lead of scholars who have attempted to offer coherence and synthesis to a research field that historically has been dominated by top-down and bottom-up perspectives.
The need to inform implementation scholarship is great. As O’Toole concludes in his review of the literature on multi-organization policy implementation, the field is complex, without much cumulation or convergence. Few well-developed recommendations have been put forward by researchers, and a number of proposals are contradictory…two reasons for the lack of development are analyzed: normative disagreements and the state of the field’s empirical theory. Yet there remain numerous possibilities for increasing the quality of the latter. Efforts in this direction are a necessary condition of further practical advance. (1986, p. 181).
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Ethiopia: Strategic arenas for WTO accession

Strategic arenas for WTO accession: Public Policy Trajectories that lure in the rewards of Globalization to Ethiopian Businesses
Costantinos BT Costantinos, PhD
School of Graduate Studies, College of Business and Economics, AAU, costy@costantinos.net

Introduction - While Ethiopia has recorded significant achievements in GDP growth, it faces predictable armor of trials rife in poor nations with too few mechanism and wherewithal, while also wrestling with the perennial problem of sequencing policy reforms, all subject to doctrinal reins. Given the very slim boundaries for maneuver imposed by abject poverty, deficits and a complex interlace in its political fabric, getting the priorities right are the central issues to be addressed. Using comparative analyses with other African nations that have ac¬ceded to WTO accords, the research delves into impact of WTO accession on businesses and the requisite preparatory basis of a reform pedestal on which the nation can be a winner in this game. Findings of the research undergird eloquent testimony of complexity and uncertainty theories and functioning economic models that Ethiopia can emulate, not only to accede to WTO revised accession regimes, but also to compete successfully in the global arena; underpinning the fact that this can be complex, when reforms are subject to ideological therapy. Hence, managed restructuring of the public sector, establishing institutional capacity for policy analysis, formulation and coordination, regulatory capacity, advancing fiscal sustaina¬bility are gleaned as a panacea for change and transformation. Creating a merit based and metric civil service is a basic requirement for competing in the WTO arena to achieve higher allocative and productive efficiency, augmenting private sector share, improving public sector financial health and PPPs.
Economists have identified theoretically the reason why countries join WTO stating the argument that governments may be in the position to pursue what is known as beggar-thy-neighbor policies and that they will agree to sign international trade agreements as a way of mitigating the incentives to do so (Staiger, 1995). Countries can pursue the beggar-thy-neighbor policies by imposing externalities on their trade partners in the absence of an agreement, and the main mechanism through which a country can do so is through changes in terms-of-trade. These changes are, of course, only possible due to the countries large size or its monopolistic position in the market. The economy of poor nations like Ethiopia is characterized by remoteness (large economic distance from major markets, reliance on a small number of export good, mostly raw materials, weak administrative capacities, large economic and ecological vulnerability, lack of market-oriented institutional infrastructure and political instability often compounded by civil disorder. Given such characteristics, the gains from WTO membership seem to be small if they are assessed only in terms of improved market access for the traditional exports (Ibid). Raw materials mostly enjoy low or zero tariffs in OECD countries and bottlenecks on the exporting nation’s side seem to hamper export expansion more than policy-induced barriers on the demand side. Furthermore, the poor nations are typically not price setters in the world markets of individual raw materials and therefore have not been targets of anti-dumping measures, quantitative restrictions, or other non-tariff barriers to trade.
Nevertheless, there are a number of good reasons for LDCs to join the WTO (Rolf et al., 2000). The attractiveness of WTO is that governments are able to obtain an improved access to markets for their exports. The accession itself will not affect the most favored nation rates of trade partners of the acceding countries. However, the latter will be able to benefit from all commitments made by signatories of the WTO agreements in trade negotiations. By staying outside the WTO, the countries’ trade partners would be in the position to apply discriminatory tariffs against non-members. In addition, non-member countries would have to negotiate border measures with their partners bilaterally or regionally. This may result in exposure to undue negotiating strength of their partners. The multilateral trading system is, therefore, particularly important for small countries which have a limited power to exploit their (small) size to improve their terms of trade. Their impact on terms of trade may be enhanced if terms (and, therefore, world prices) are negotiated on a multilateral level. The beneficial effect of the WTO is also based on enhancing the credibility of government policies.
Governments often face a “credibility gap” in trying to convince foreign and domestic investors, and the rest of the business community about their commitments to particular polices. By framing the countries’ concessions into legal commitments, the WTO membership provides powerful guarantees of governments’ policy directions. Unlike unilateral policy reforms, multilateral commitments are more credible, in particular, because of the strategic interaction between government and private sector, which makes the agreement more attractive. In this setting, governments use international trade agreements to enhance the credibility of their policy choices with respect to the private sector. The ‘credibility gap’ is particularly important and present in the case of many if not most transit and less developed countries. There is also beneficial effect of the membership on domestic policies and institutions involved in the conduct of international trade. Acceding countries are required to put in place a set of norms and institutions, which support liberalization in practice. Countries have been often benefited from reductions of MFN rates even if they remained outside the GATT/WTO. In such situations, the main benefit of joining the WTO would be the certainty of markets, increase transparency, and promote the rule of law, contract enforcement and the evaluation of an independent judicial system.
In principle, nothing would prevent governments from putting in place these norms and regulations on a unilateral basis. The role of the WTO in this process is to facilitate the introduction of effective reforms not only by reinforcing the credibility of the government’s trade policies but also help introduce the policies that are based on best-practices and that must be harmonized (Kiichiro, 2000). WTO is considered to play an important and positive role is its contribution to the predictability, security and transparency of market access and the WTO’s dispute settlement mechanism. The possibility of resolving dispute through the dispute settlement mechanism may appear, in particular to smaller and weaker countries, as one of the most tangible benefits from WTO accession (Mansoob, 1999).
There are very few effective vehicles to resolve international trading dispute outside commercial arbitration, and those that exist can pity small trading nations against big ones. The WTO dispute settlement mechanism provides a uniquely fair, accessible and effective opportunity to each WTO member. WTO membership including the process of accession, leads to sizeable technical assistance in the form of training with respect to the legal framework of the multilateral trading system and its economic underpinnings. Such human capital is indispensable for building up institutional infrastructure, in particular for anchoring private property rights. WTO is institutionally prepared and financially endowed to help poor countries to form human predictability of such benefits, which are by no means guaranteed for outsiders (Langhammer and Lucke, 2000).
WTO membership encourages LDCs to open their domestic markets even if they can take a free rider under “special and differential treatment” for a certain period. Apart from the medium term allocative efficiency gains of import market opening in terms of lowering the implicit tax on exports and stimulating resource reallocation and export diversification, import market opening implies a concrete short term gain. Domestic prices of imports will often fall by more than the experience of sub-Saharan Africa (Yeats, 1999) that countries with high tariff levels also pay higher CIF (Cost Insurance Factor) prices for imports because restrictive tariff regimes are inextricably intertwined with rent seeking activities of traders and domestic procedures(ibid). Finally, the opportunity for acceding countries to shape the further rules and disciplines of the WTO is cited as a benefit. Acceding countries will undoubtedly be interested in participating actively in subsequent multilateral trade negotiations since only through direct negotiations rather than through an oversight from sidelines may they hope of protecting their interests (Kiichiro, 2000).
The fiscal costs of reducing import tariffs may be significant because taxes on international transactions are a major source of government revenue. This may be less of an issue in the early stages of trade liberalization when prohibitive tariffs are lowered and imports increase. In the medium to long run, however, substantial reductions in average tariff rates require a broadening of government’s tax bases. In the meantime, poor nations may need to concentrate on reducing the dispersion of tariff protection across commodity groups in order to eliminate the resulting distortions, while reductions in the average level of protection remain limited by fiscal considerations. A more liberal trade regime encouraged by membership may expose businesses to stronger competition from abroad, often from more advanced developing member states rather than from OECD countries. The result may be a short-term deterioration of the current account since higher imports due to market opening materialize faster than higher exports due to imported market access abroad.
The external vulnerability of countries may thus be aggravated if the time lag between the two effects cannot be shortened. In any case, least developed countries can resort to long adjustment periods as they accede to the WTO (Murshed, 1999). Sovereignty is curtailed and short-term maneuvering in trade related polices is discouraged and restricted, even for developing economies that invoke special and differential treatment. Politician and interest groups who are used to acting selfishly will take the political cost involved in ‘tying their hand’ seriously (Wang and et al., 1998). There are economic costs in terms of the opportunity costs of employing high skilled personnel for the implementation of WTO commitments and active participation in WTO negotiations. Using this particular scarce resource- provided it is available- in Geneva precludes its use at home and in other activities, perhaps including the private sector.
WTO accession - Ethiopia
Ethiopia has been accorded an observer status in the WTO since 1997. Ethiopia’s request for accession was circulated on January 13, 2003. A month later, on February 10, 2003, the WTO General Council established a Working Party under the leadership of N. Mac Milan of the United Kingdom (UK). The Working Party has not, however, met because Ethiopia submitted its Memorandum on its Foreign-Trade Regime (MFTR) to the WTO Secretariat only recently, following approval of the Council of Ministers. The MFTR was prepared by a technical committee whose members were drawn from the various public institutions. Prior to the official request for membership to the WTO, a study was conducted in June 2000 to identify the pros and cons of joining the WTO. The study was under-taken by a committee made up of representatives of government Ministries, civil society, and academics. It analyzed WTO Agreements vis-à-vis the economic policies of the country and came up with a conclusion that the benefits of joining out-weigh the costs and, hence, recommended that Ethiopia join the WTO (Yusuf et al., 2008).
One of the prime objectives of the WTO is to smooth trade flow and improve market access by lowering tariffs as well as non-tariff barriers and by helping with dispute settlements. It is argued that since the establishment of the GATT/WTO international trade has significantly increased (WTO, 1998). However, not everyone share this optimism. Langhamer and Lucke (2000) concluded that the benefits springing from WTO membership in terms of improved market accesses for traditional exports are likely to be limited, given the reliance on a small number of exports goods, weak administrator capacities, large economic vulnerability, lack of market-oriented capacities and political instability. Few empirical studies have been undertaken on the consequences of Ethiopia’s accession to WTO on its economy in general and foreign market access in particular. The Diagnostic Trade Integration Study showed that a 50% reduction of tariff and subsidies by all WTO members might be able to change the welfare of the poor marginally, albeit without an immediate benefit except to signal that its trade regime is bound to the international rules (World Bank, 2003).
Ethiopia has reduced its tariff substantially and “has already undertaken reforms that are consistent with WTO rules and disciplines such as non-discrimination and reduction of qualitative restrictions to less than 2% of imports, which could bring about earlier benefit if it joins the WTO. However, others argue that with many suppliers of an agricultural raw materials to limited international markets, substantial price increases is unlikely to happen, particularly in the short run. Moreover, in light of the frequently recurring drought, it has demonstrated that it could not regularly supply given volume of agricultural goods to the export markets (Keyzer et al., 2000). Pohl Consulting and Associates (2005) in its studies using dynamic CGE model under different scenarios indicated the impact of reducing and /or dismantling technical and non-technical barriers. The main impact of trade liberalization process they found mainly fiscal, stressing that the Ethiopian government will have to rapidly find ways to keep to amounts of tax revenues stable in order to maintain the level of investments that would sustain economic growth. The present research, therefore, focuses on investigating the effect of accession to WTO on its exports using gravity equation.
WTO membership will have wide-ranging social, cultural, and economic impacts, as accession would mean a commitment to open one’s economy to external competition and to benefit from a multilateral trading system. Only firms that can compete effectively can, however, draw tangible benefits from access to new markets. While the benefits to be gained may be diffused and drawn out, the immediate costs of accession will have to, nevertheless, be borne upfront (AACCSA, 2008). Accession to the WTO is necessary but not sufficient in itself to ensure economic well-being and membership in the WTO alone is not a panacea for all development problems facing Ethiopia. Complementary policies such as investment in physical, human and organizational capital, and structural transformation including industrialization are required.
WTO accession negotiations should not be cumbersome to Ethiopia nor should the process be “accelerated”; there should be a reasonably sufficient time for accession preparation and learning. The pace of accession negotiations should be determined by institutional, financial and technical capacities, and any obligations there from should take into account the specific socioeconomic conditions and needs of the nation. Membership in the WTO should be viewed from the perspective of “qualitative integration” of the county into the MTS but not based on an implicit quest for the “universality” of the trading system only (Delelegn, 2005 in Lenchisa, 2013).
The real effective exchange rate index (REER), which is the measure of the prices of the country’s goods relative to the prices of its trading-partner countries, both expressed in domestic currency, is a quantitative indicator to assess the competitiveness of the country’s export sector vis-à-vis the rest of the world. A fall in the value of the REER, indicates a real depreciation of the exchange rate and, thus, the enhanced the competitiveness of the country’s vis-à-vis foreign goods (Ibid).
Conclusions
The impact of WTO membership is dependent on the ability to take advantage of the opportunities offered by trade liberalization and to manage the changes induced by WTO membership. Hence, it is important to understand the economic realities on the ground-including resource endowments, the characteristics of the external sector, and the economic policy environment- in order to assess the impact of WTO membership. If Ethiopia is to participate meaningfully in the WTO dispute settlement system, it will need to continue to increase institutional capacity and coordination of trade policy at multiple levels, from the national to the regional to the global. Ethiopia will need, in particular, to develop its own coordinative mechanisms to include private sector and civil society representatives. Capacity building endeavors generally will be most sustainable if it permeates broadly throughout institutions and societies.
In a review of recent African country experience of the fiscal impact of trade liberalization commissioned for the OECD Development Center, Fukasaku (2003) finds that the overall impact of trade liberalization in SSA is ambiguous and depends on a multiplicity of facts, especially the nature and sequencing of reforms. Examining a database of 22 African countries, he finds that trade liberalization in the last decade has contributed to declines in the ratio of trade tax revenue/total government revenue of more than 20 percent (Mauritius), more than 10 percent (Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal), and more than 5 percent (Cameroon, Tunisia, and Mozambique). In several countries, notably Mauritius and Senegal, domestic indirect taxation and the value added taxes compensated for the fiscal losses, while in most other countries, domestic resource mobilization was somewhat weaker. The author concludes by stressing that reductions in tariff rates in Africa should be compensated by increases in domestic commodity taxes, an effective VAT and the institutionalization of trade-policy-cum-tax reform, particularly in countries with a regional trade agreement. (Ali Zafar, 2005:2)
If Ethiopia is to deploy WTO law to her advantage, it will need to maintain routine on-going procedures for gathering, processing and prioritizing information from foreign embassies, the private sector, and international trade consultants regarding foreign trade barriers. By working more consistently with the private sector, Ethiopian officials can foster the development of reflexes in firms and trade associations to view the WTO as an opportunity to ensure market access, thereby more effectively using the WTO system. For Ethiopia, bilateral or regional approaches to trade agreements cannot substitute for joining the multilateral trading system. In order to balance its rights and obligations in the MTS and fully benefit from the system, Ethiopia should
• improve her capacities to evaluate and link key provisions of the WTO agreements of particular interest to her specific circumstances and assess its impact on livelihoods;
• take into account political realities of domestic constituents and interest groups that can play important roles in terms of both assistance during the accession process and the eventual implementation of commitments and have a realistic expectation of the economic benefits from its membership in the WTO;
• It should demand the maximum period, which could be allowed for the transition period. The transition period will also give it a breathing space to promote its industries with relatively less pressure from the WTO. Therefore, Ethiopia should take all the time it could to put its industries in-order, that is, with greater shock resistance, more productive and competitive, before the elapse of the transition period. In other words, it has to request for maximum transition period possible, carefully study and exploit fully all the provisions available. Hence, the country must specifically make sure that it is in a position to exploit the opportunities rather than pay undue price by joining earlier and unprepared (Ibid, Lenchisa:8).
This has a normative rationale in the creation of well-functioning credit and capital markets (as a magic po¬tion for the prevailing treacherous deregulated sales of company shares and an investor-friendly environment in the economy. The relevance of this is meant to achieve much broader and involve, as a fundamental component, the improvement of microeconomic efficiency. These would in turn entail, competent economic management, efficient public services, sound infrastructure and liberalization and commercializing activities in the role of lending institutions, establishment of sound information systems on micro-economic behavior and markets and trade and investment policy priorities. Strengthening fiscal sustainability requires fiscal rules, transparency requirements, responsibility laws and new institutional arrangements, which are not necessarily mutually exclusive. This in turn is hinged on a broad financial sector reform and adjusting the monetary policy mix, expanding industrial capacity and slashing trade cost.
See the lecture here or https://www.academia.edu/4941345/Strategic_arenas_for_WTO_accession_Public_Policy_Trajectories_that_lure_in_the_rewards_of_Globalization_to_Ethiopian_Businesses