Mennonite
Central
Committee

Un-Blurring the Vision: An Assessment of the New Partnership for Africa's Development by South African Churches From South African Churches

(via Neville Gabriel)

The complete document is a very large file with several graphics (22 pages). You can get an electronic copy or photocopy from Ms Thabitha Chepape at the SACBC Justice & Peace Department, tel. + 27 (0)12 323 6458, tchepape@sacbc.org.za . The document will be published in hard copy for further distribution in the coming weeks.

During a press conference at the South African Council of Churches yesterday, the South African churches issued an assessment of NEPAD as a discussion document. Copied below is a list of the contents and a summary of the document: South African Churches Release NEPAD Assessment UN-BLURRING THE VISION:An Assessment of the New Partnership for Africa's Development by South African Churches

Contents

Summary 1. Introduction 2. What is NEPAD? 3. Our Motivation for Assessing NEPAD 4. Signs of the Times 4.1. Conditionality from Below 4.2. Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers 4.3. An African Negotiating Bloc 4.4. Ending Wars & Building Solidarity 4.5. Free Market Fundamentalism 4.6. Transparency & Democracy 4.7. Perceptions of Africa 4.8. Africa on the Global Political Agenda 4.9. Immediate Action on Poverty 4.10. Power Imbalances 4.11. Privatisation 4.12. Reparations 5. Which Wedding Garments to Wear for the New Partnership? 5.1. Africa-Owned Conditionality? 5.2. Beyond Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers? 5.3. A New African Bloc? 5.4. Ending Africa's Wars 5.5. The Free Market & Africa's Recovery 5.6. Democratic Participation? 5.7. Changing Perceptions of Africa 5.8. Africa on the Global Agenda 5.9. Poverty is a Secondary Focus 5.10. Redistributing Power? 5.11. The Lure of Privatisation 5.12. What About Reparations? 6. That We May Have Life 6.1. Mustard Seeds 6.2. Building on Unstable Ground 6.3. Restoring Our Vision 6.4. Dealers in the Temple 7. Diversion & Selectivity: The G7 Response to NEPAD 7.1. Corruption as an Obstacle to Africa's Development 8. Conclusion Appendix: The Millennium Development Goals

Summary

Africa's social, economic, and political relations urgently need to be transformed through a focused and determined international effort if Africa is to be lifted out of the poverty trap. The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) presents itself as a visionary and dynamic initiative by a core group of new generation African leaders to reconstruct and develop the continent.

Blurred Vision

But NEPAD's vision is blurred by fixing its sights on increased global integration and rapid private sector growth as the answer to overcoming poverty, and by its failure to engage with Africa's people to transform the continent. The remarkable political will generated by NEPAD must be focused into a participatory transformation of Africa through direct, immediate, and decisive action to overcome the causes of Africa's impoverishment.

The Role of the Church

The church is committed to engaging with Africa's legitimate political leaders in the interests of the common good of Africa's development. We are called by God, together with all people of faith and good will, to restore our collective vision for 'a new heaven and a new earth' no less than we are called to bring individual or personal healing and peace. The church continues the mission of Christ at the service of humanity and the earth when we engage with NEPAD to 'bring the good news to the afflicted, proclaim liberty to captives, sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim a year of favour from the Lord'.

Proclaiming Good News

The general issues addressed by NEPAD are not entirely new but NEPAD does contain several promising aspects that could give renewed hope and life to Africa's people. NEPAD can strengthen accountability and effective collaboration between African governments in a way that has not happened before. This can build peace and stability and holds out the possibility to develop an authentic development model that is appropriate to Africa's needs rather than simply adopting inappropriately imposed conditions that damage African communities. NEPAD puts Africa's development firmly on the global agenda and generates a new confidence in Africa that corrects perceptions of Africa as a doomed continent.

People, Poverty, & the Prophetic Mission of the Church

NEPAD contains some problematic elements that have proven to be ineffective in building peaceful, just, and caring societies in Africa. Its economic strategy is discredited by the harsh impact on the poor in African countries that have already adopted similar policies. It pretends to be unaware of the severe negative social impact that rapid privatisation of basic and social services has on impoverished communities in Africa. It fails to address the underlying power relations that constrain Africa's development. It does not provide a decisive mechanism to repair the persistent damage done to individuals, families, whole societies, and environments in Africa's history. Most of all, NEPAD has neglected Africa's people both in the process of its construction and in its primary focus. If NEPAD does not focus on Africa's people first, it can result in an increasingly divided Africa at the continental and national levels.

NEPAD must focus primarily on immediate poverty eradication interventions that will deliver direct benefits to the poor rather than it current focus on a long-term and indirect development strategy. Meaningful debt cancellation for Africa must be prioritised as a pre-condition for Africa's sustainable development, so that budget support can be provided for public investment in social services such as health care and education and the provision of water and electricity. NEPAD must also propose decisive structural changes to the current international financial and trade systems, including proposals such as an international currency transaction tax and special protection for vulnerable African industries.

The Pastoral Mission of the Church

The church must participate with energy and commitment in Africa's reconstruction and development. We therefore engage with NEPAD in a spirit of mutual responsibility and commitment to building a better world for Africa's people. Our first task is to promote broad-based popular dialogue on NEPAD. NEPAD's structures should equally be directed to this purpose. Faithful to continuing the mission of Christ, the church must also continue to raise the collective public conscience about the ethical choices that lie at the heart of the current global financial, trade, and political systems in which NEPAD proposes Africa should participate more actively.

The G7 Response to NEPAD

In the same way that African countries are willing to undertake a path of self-criticism and renewal, G7 leaders must make a firm commitment to support Africa according to the priorities and plans that are set through participatory and democratic processes in African countries. Ending the scourge of corruption cannot be seen as the responsibility of Africa exclusively because corruption is a global problem that could be worsened by increased foreign trade and private investment in Africa. A G7 over-emphasis on the "cost-free" elements of NEPAD such as peace-building and governance issues and on private sector development alone, without a corresponding commitment to support Africa's reconstruction and development in additional material budget-support terms, reinforces the distrust that makes many believe that African development based on the hope of a new partnership with rich countries is not viable.

Un-blurring the Vision

While NEPAD's analysis of the problems that confront Africa is accurate and its end goal of an African continent free from war and poverty expresses the deep-felt hope of all Africans and people of good will, the economic path it chooses is bound to fail this mission.

NEPAD's vision is blurred by setting its sights on the hope that greater global integration will save Africa. Yet NEPAD's vision can be restored if Africa's leaders enter into a new partnership with their people. The vision of a new Africa dawning in the 21st century is too precious to be lost because we failed to see that Africa's children, men, and women are its greatest treasure.

Acquired through

Neville Gabriel Justice & Peace Department Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference (SACBC) 140 Visagie Street PO Box 941 PRETORIA 0001 South Africa Tel. +27 (0)12 323 6458 Fax. +27 (0)12 326 6218 Mobile. +27 (0)83 449 3934 E-mail: www.sacbc.org.za