Regional Cancer Centre of Excellence - Resource Mobilization Strategy

Regional Cancer Centre of Excellence -

Resource Mobilization Strategy

The First IGAD Member States Sub-Regional

Resource Mobilization Conference on Regional Cancer Centre of Excellence (RCCE) in IGAD Region

A five year Draft Resource Mobilisation Initiative

Addis Ababa, April 20-21, 2016

Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos, PhD,

Professor of Public Policy, School of Graduate Studies,

College of Business & Economics, AAU,

Abstract

Cancer is a growing problem in the sub-region and a concern for each member state in the IGAD sub-region. A huge gap exists between current knowledge on cancer and action on cancer services. Optimal use of human and financial resources is crucial for the success of cancer services. Implementation of integrated and comprehensive cancer services by RCCE will make a difference in cancer control. Member states can increase cancer prevention through measures. Effective cancer prevention and control programmes must reach a large proportion of the population. Hence, efforts to prevent and control cancer as well as social inequalities related to cancer prevention and care need to be given higher priority by member states and their respective health ministries. Good care and support for cancer patients and improved services in prevention require the integration of cancer care into the existing health service.

The objectives of the resource mobilisation strategy identify the development aims of RCCE to ensure expansion to cover all local needs of prevention and treatment. This resource mobilisation strategy underpins the need for clarity of objectives, popular participation, and broad strategies for financial self-reliance. The linkage between the three areas is visible. Clarity and proper dissemination of objectives leads for effective participation that can further result in profitable fund raising schemes. Any fund raising effort is a business undertaking. Therefore, it should, be managed like business firm or enterprise. This is probably the only area of RCCE work that has similar management to private profit making organisations. In this context, it becomes incumbent on the RCCE to establish a different management set-up for the fund raising project, independent from the regular work. This has two advantages. It allows the business to be managed by professionals and secondly, it cannot contradict the objectives of RCCE.

Key words: cancer, prevention, treatment, RCCE, IGAD, member states,   

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Trade & Monetary Policy Management: Does it have anything to do with Citizens’ Livelihoods in Ethiopia?

Trade & Monetary Policy Management:

Does it have anything to do with Citizens’ Livelihoods in Ethiopia?

Public Lecture - Respublica Literaria XCXIV, MMXV

Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos, PhD

President, Ethiopian Management Professional’s Association

Professor of Public Policy, School of Graduate Studies,

College of Business and Economics, AAU

Abstract

      In its third economic update, the World Bank Group identifies opportunities and challenges to help Ethiopia tap into its significant export potential and further transform its economy - to boost exports. Its recommendations hinge on “More than ‘what’ is being exported; it is the ‘how’ that is hindering exports. In this connection, the lecture raises the issues of why the state is devaluing the currency so dramatically, at an inflated cost to consumers on virtually all imported products – petroleum, wheat, edible oil, fertilizer, beer malt, soft drinks, clothing, etc. The surprise 22% devaluation of the birr on August 31, 2010 and the 5% annual devaluation is recognition that its policy setting had been a factor in inhibiting Ethiopia’s external performance. However, by itself, this move falls short of addressing the problem, which reflects numerous and complex factors. Given the role that the exchange rate peg had played in promoting domestic price stability, such devaluations leave open the question of the strategy to maintain macroeconomic stability, while it seeks to boost export performance. Moreover, it is not out of the question that the devaluation alone might prove to be disappointing in terms of its impact on trade performance.

     In the very short term, due to a “J-curve” response whereby the trade balance initially deteriorates as import costs are driven up while the export response is slow to take effect. In the medium-term, it depends on the response of imports and exports to the lower cost of goods relative to imports. Where products and services (even basic) are almost solely dependent on import, this policy simply aggravates inflation putting the life of poor in danger as there is no bulk for supply (export), there is no enough (basic goods) for domestic consumption. Policies should target on boosting production before resorting to export promotion (and discouraging import). Accordingly, a more comprehensive policy response, sustained over the medium term, is required to redress a situation generated by years of policy settings inimical to good export performance. Progress on the priority areas outlined in the lecture is the key to achieving the transformational goals of the GTP—even if the ambitious growth targets were not met, success on the transformational element would be a great accomplishment.

Key words: exchange rate, trade, devaluation, J-curve, imports and exports

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China & Africa: A Ravenous Dragon’s Unrelenting Push

China & Africa:

A Ravenous Dragon’s Unrelenting Push into the ‘Dark’ Continent

Public Lecture, CXXV, MMXI

Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos, PhD,

Professor of Public Policy, School of Graduate Studies,

College of Business & Economics, AAU

Abstract

     China has shifted from a centrally planned to a market based economy and experienced rapid economic and social development. It has lifted more than 500 million people out of poverty. On December 4 and 5, 2015, South Africa hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping in Johannesburg for the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. Notably, going beyond its tradition of doubling financing to Africa at each of these meeting, China tripled it this time. Sino-African trade has increased rapidly, since 1999. Combined with China’s tolerance of African states’ human right records, this has contributed to Beijing’s highly successful diplomatic scuffle in Africa. Beijing has moved in rapidly with the necessary resources that have so far been the subject of lengthy negotiations with the Bretton Woods funders, many times at the cost of project redundancy.

     What can Africa learn from China? The political economy of Chinese reforms and the shared gains between political elites and the private sector can be partially transplanted to the African context. Rural reforms in China helped accelerate economic take-off through a restructuring of property rights and a boost to both savings rates and output. China has experimented with a degree of decentralization that could yield benefits for many Sub-Saharan African countries. Africa can learn from China’s policies toward autonomous areas and ethnic minorities to stave off conflict and China’s experiences and conduct developmental experiments for poverty alleviation goals. There are four developments in particular that merit attention: a focus on quality and not just price, the push to employ more local talent, greater interest in building local capacities and diversifying risk.

     Today, a more vigorous debate has begun about the nature of African ties with China. Hyperactive Chinese involvement is undoubtedly helping address the infrastructure shortcomings that hold up growth. Meanwhile, in some countries, the flood of Chinese émigrés already far surpasses that of European settlers during colonial times. With Chinese dominance of the African economic and political landscape, powerful forces and trends of unity and disunity, chaos and order mark this moment of globalism. Considering the drive, characteristics and dynamics of the Chinese economic assault, the fundamental question facing African nations is not whether they have options for participating in the process of balanced benefits in the spirit of true globalism; it is indeed how they wish to integrate into the process and at which speed, to be partners and actors.

Key words: Africa, China, trade, infrastructure, diplomacy, human rights
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Stemming Violence against Women, Conflicts, Vulnerability to Diseases and Linkages to HIV/AIDS Prevention, Care and Treatment -- CONCEPTUAL ENQUIRY AND ACTIONABLE RECOMMENDATIONS

      

       Gender and the politics of rights in modern society challenge the masculine structures of the state, market and civil society; it challenges men in modern society to recognise the existence of the patriarchal order and of the manifold ways in which they both dominate women's lives. Indeed there is progress in stemming VAW and conflicts and women’s empowerment but states need promote women's participation in policy formulation and encourage the implementation of CEDAW, Dakar and Beijing Platform for action and recently Solemn AU Declaration on Gender and Development in Africa through various bodies and institutions to ensure food security, environmental protection, end of armed conflict in the region and develop of infrastructure and to promote trade and development of vibrant economy in the region. On the other hand, AIDS is now deadlier than war itself.  In fact, the epidemic has become a full-blown development crisis. Because of the insidious ways it destabilises already fragile and complex geopolitical systems, AIDS has become a key issue for human security in SSA. If current trends are maintained, 70% of people currently HIV-positive in sub-Saharan Africa will die of AIDS in the next 10 years.

   Recommendations zero on implementing the IGAD Gender Policy, broadening partnership, enhance learning and knowledge management, develop national policy and legal frameworks, develop Gender Focused Alternative Conflict Management: Leadership training and mentoring/apprenticeship - leadership gives agency for women, enhance movement for social progress or emancipation and mainstream governance, HIV/AIDS, rights women’s political empowerment initiatives, rights based sustainable livelihoods for women synergised to implement CEDAW. On women: peace, security and public policy; it is recommended to build substantive capacities for political culture development civic education, policy and programme co-ordination; institutional co-ordination; and human capacity development aimed at strengthening the civic engagement which will be linked with human rights groups and official democratic institutions; gender, women’s human security and implementation of UN SCR No. 1325; women entrepreneurship: development of gender responsive budget systems and engendering new aid modalities. The prospects for good governance will ultimately depend on the configuration of political institutions in state and civil society. The key question is therefore whether the endowment of political institutions is conducive to conflict management.

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A Zest of ‘Democratic’ Rendezvous: Pluralistic Choices and Political Trajectories in an Information Technology Infused World

A Zest of ‘Democratic’ Rendezvous:

Pluralistic Choices and Political Trajectories in an Information Technology Infused World

Wisdom is the right use of knowledge

Charles H Spurgeon (1834–1892)

Public Lecture, CXX, MMXI

Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos, PhD,

Professor of Public Policy, School of Graduate Studies,

College of Business & Economics, AAU,

Abstract 

        At least five billion people worldwide will own smartphones, giving every individual with such a phone instant access to the full power of the Internet, every moment of every day. Information is the central theme of several new sciences, which emerged in the 1940s, such as Information Theory and Cybernetics. We stand on the brink of a technological revolution that will fundamentally alter the way we live, work, and relate to one another. In its scale, scope, and complexity, the transformation will be unlike anything humankind has experienced before. Academic research has consistently found that people who consume more news media have a greater probability of being engaged civically and politically. Many studies in this area take social media use as the starting point or independent variable, and therefore cannot rule out that some deeper cause — political interest. Further, social media use is a form of engagement in and of itself, helping to shape public narratives and understanding of public affairs.

    There is always an excess of potential possible in social media-led protest open transition processes. Ideologically fledgling, institutionally weak and economically distressed nations could not be expected to exhibit as wide a variety of elements and forms of articulation as does historically sedimented, robust democracies in highly developed nations. Nevertheless, there is still, within the limits imposed by history, potential for openness of political transition than any single participant’s strategy can actualise. Transition process openness can be analysed at two distinct but closely related levels: political agency and ideology. The lecture asks whether democracy enters protest nations as an external ideology, in sterile abstraction from the immediacies of indigenous traditions, beliefs and values, by parachuting democracy from the West. The West has effectively disenfranchised Arab politics, tending to its vexation with oxygen that is fueling the inferno. It is ethically wrong, but ethics is an alien concept in these failed states and indeed, in any of the systems that claim the moral high ground to change it.

Key words: Social Media, Internet, People’s Uprising, Democracy, ideology, Agency
See full lecture here