Liberian elections. Photo courtesy of United Nations in Liberia
Liberians defied the rains this week and turned out in the thousands to participate in the country’s second election since it emerged from a 14-year civil war in 2003.
This year’s elections are historic for Liberia, as they are the first Liberia-controlled elections. They are being described world over as a test of Liberia’s fragile democracy. The 2005 election was managed by the United Nations.
The Mo Ibrahim Foundation works to encourage good governance and leadership in Africa and to put citizens at the centre of governance. The Foundation considers governance to be the single most important issue affecting development in Africa. In an article in the New Yorker, Mo Ibrahim, the Foundation’s founder and ONE board member, puts the blame for the disparity between the riches of Africa and the poverty of many of its people squarely at the door of Africa’s leaders. He cites “a catastrophic failure of leadership and governance…too many dictators, too many megalomaniacs, too many thieves, who bled this continent for their personal and family interest.” Ibrahim’s message is that Africa needs to take responsibility for itself and that getting rid of bad leaders is an important first step.
Mo Ibrahim is often hailed as a hero in Africa. His mobile-phone company, Celtel, has helped to open up communication across the continent, enabling people – civil society activists included – to access and share information. He is now spending the money he earned to try to change the values of African leaders. Each year, he offers the Ibrahim Prize, which bestows five million dollars on an African leader who is elected to office, promotes democracy, does not steal from the people, and transfers power peacefully. The Prize is intended to reward and perhaps to incentivize good leadership. The prize has previously been won by Festus Mogae of Botswana and Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique. Due to a lack of suitable candidates the prize was not awarded in 2009 and 2010. The 2011 Ibrahim Prize winner is Pedro Verona Pires, former president of Cape Verde. He is credited with steering his country from autocracy to a prosperous democracy and leaving power at the end of his second presidential term. Cape Verde has consistently ranked second on the Ibrahim Index over the past four years.
Please give a warm welcome to Suzane Muhereza, one of our new fall interns. She is working at the ONE office in London and will be assisting the policy team.
People taking control of their own development?
To coincide with its Annual Meetings, the World Bank recently published a report on Open Development, an idea whose time has come. The idea is best captured in the contribution by Rakesh Rajani –- a member of ONE’s Africa Policy Advisory Board and the head of Twaweza -– who explains that “the purpose of development should be not to create and apply expert solutions, but rather to help enrich the conditions in which people can do more of what they already do well. By making it easier to get, compare and share information; learn from each other and from outsiders how they have made things work; search, experiment with and craft solutions; and team up to get things done.” (See also Rakesh Rajani’s inspirational comments at the launch of the Open Government Partnership -– 52 minutes into the video. Or, see a transcript of the talk here.) I explore the concept of Open Development by answering three key questions.
Famines don’t happen in democracies because political leaders have an incentive to ensure that their citizens don’t go hungry; they need their votes. That’s the argument put forward by Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen in his 1981 book on “Poverty and famines.” The current crisis in the Horn of Africa seems to lend weight to Sen’s argument –- and to the argument that famine is a crime -– demonstrating that droughts only turn into famines when they take place against a background of bad politics and governance.
Estimated food security conditions in Somalia, August to September 2011. Source: FEWSNET
It’s clear that trade and investment of natural resources have the potential to lift developing countries out of poverty — but not when it leads to exploitation, armed conflict, crime and corruption. But according to Stephen P. Groff of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), there may be a solution. In a recent op-ed for the Huffington Post, he writes about a new OECD plan that will help ensure that mining in Africa will not fuel conflict.
Read an excerpt from his piece:
“The new OECD guidance clarifies how all involved — from local exporters and mineral processors to the manufacturing and brand-name companies that use these minerals in their products — can identify and better manage risks throughout the supply chain. The guidance is also designed to foster private sector engagement in sustainable sourcing practices that nurture revenue-generating trade in clean minerals, creating a peace dividend while supporting broader development goals.
Transparency and accountability is the name of the game for ONE colleagues in Washington DC this week, with a two-day meeting on opening government followed by a two-day meeting on budget transparency.
Monday and Tuesday saw a meeting of the Open Government Partnership (OGP). The OGP aims to promote transparency, participation and accountability in order to combat corruption, promote prosperity, harness innovation and improve the delivery of services.
Co-chaired by US Secretary of State Clinton and Brazilian Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota, the meeting brought together ministers from 60 countries along with 40 civil society organizations -– including, of course, ONE -– to prepare for the formal launch of the OGP at the UN General Assembly in September 2011 at which countries will announce their action plans for opening government. (This excellent publication on Opening Governments by the Transparency & Accountability Initiative includes some wonderful ideas for country action plans.)
Last Friday, Kenya’s President Mwai Kibaki launched the Kenya Open Data Initiative. Developed under the leadership of Dr. Bitange Ndemo, the permanent secretary of information and communications — with support from Google, the World Bank’s Mapping for Results team, Socrata, Nairobi’s iHub, Ushahidi and others — the Open Data Initiative makes available a large number of data-sets about population, poverty, education, energy, health and water and sanitation.
Screengrab of a water and sanitation map on the Kenya Open Data website
ONE is campaigning to ensure that the Congressional budget does not cut foreign assistance programs like Feed the Future that help people break the cycle of poverty and hunger.
The Horn of Africa is experiencing its worst drought in 60 years. More than 11 million people, mostly nomadic pastoralists and farmers in south-central Somalia, north-eastern Kenya, and south-eastern Ethiopia, are severely lacking access to food.
2011 marks 30 years since the first cases of AIDS were documented. Take a closer look at the specific, achievable goals we must hit by 2015 to make this year the beginning of the end of AIDS.
As aid agencies warn more than 9 million people could be affected by a food crisis in East Africa, world leaders are failing to keep their 2009 promises to tackle the causes of chronic hunger and support farmers in the world's poorest countries.
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People taking control of their own development?
