It is now over two years since the New Partnership for Africa 's Development (NEPAD) was launched in Abuja, Nigeria and perhaps time to review the progress that this project for supporting development in Africa has made. Stripped to its bare bones, the NEPAD is a "partnership" with the developed world whereby African countries will set up and police standards of good government across the continent--whilst respecting human rights and advancing democracy--in return for increased aid flows, private investment, and a lowering of obstacles to trade by the West. An extra inflow of U.S.$64 billion from the developed world has been touted as the "reward" for following approved policies on governance and economics.

The sad fact is that there has been very little concrete progress, although plenty of meetings, summits, pronouncements, and speeches have marked the NEPAD thus far, the latest being in Kigali last weekend. Why there has been little concrete progress so far is because of the very nature of post-colonial African politics. Most commentaries ignore the reality that power in African politics must be understood as the utilization of patronage and not as the performance of legitimacy drawn from the sovereign will of the people. In other words, in spite of the façade of the modern state, power in most African polities progresses informally, between patron and client along lines of reciprocity. It is intensely personalized and is not exercised on behalf of the public good. Zimbabwe is a good example of this, but most other African countries broadly follow this pattern, including such NEPAD stalwarts such as Nigeria, Gabon, Congo-Brazzaville, etc. Very few countries (Botswana a prime example) have avoided such a state of affairs.

In a traditional patrimonial system, all ruling relationships are personal relationships and the difference between the private and public spheres is non-existent. Under a neo-patrimonial system the separation of the public from the private is recognized (even if in practice only on paper) and is certainly publicly displayed through outward manifestations of the rational-bureaucratic state: a currency, a flag, borders, a "government," and even bureaucratic offices etc. However, in practical terms the private and public spheres are habitually not detached and the outward signs of statehood are often façades hiding the real workings of the system. Consider the fate of Air Zimbabwe and Harrods shopping sprees by Mugabe as a good example; perhaps an extreme example but indicative of a broader trend, which varies across the continent.

* Read the rest of this commentary by clicking on http://www.fpif.org/commentary/2004/0402nepad.html.

* If you'd like to comment on NEPAD, please send your views to editor@pambazuka.org

In the last 5 years Mbeki made a conscious and strenuous effort to put his own stamp on the presidency. He revelled in the now clichéd label of the man who was committed to delivery – the cold exponent of technical detail rather than the warm fuzziness of Nelson Mandela. But the state of the nation address didn’t reveal any new plans for ‘delivery’. In fact most of the speech drew on Mandela’s speech at the opening of the first democratic parliament. The looming election meant that he had to account for the failed promises on delivery epitomised in the targets set out in GEAR became a shooting gallery for critics. Mbeki’s solution was to try and disguise his failure by showing that he was ruling in the spirit of Mandela, that he had Mandela’s approval. It was a cheap trick and a clear sign of failure. It is common knowledge that the two biggest challenges facing South Africa are AIDS and unemployment. In now typical fashion both were only mentioned once. And the context was ominous: “Many of our people are unemployed…The burden of disease impacting on our people, including AIDS, continues to be a matter of serious concern, as do issues that relate to the fact that many of our people, including the youth, lack the education and skills that our country and society need.” Once again Mbeki was careful to place the AIDS pandemic on par with other issues. And of course he offered no analysis of the fact that, despite its projections, GEAR has failed to create jobs.

Six SADC countries are preparing for elections during the course of the year as the region’s democracy and governance once again comes under the spotlight. Although election dates are not yet confirmed in some of the countries, it is almost certain Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa will hold either presidential or parliamentary elections between March and December 2004. Lesotho will have its local government elections in November.

Contents include:
* Factional Intrigues and Alliance Politics : The Case of NARC in
Kenya's 2002 elections, by Shumbana Karume
* Legitimising Electoral Process: The Role of Kenya Domestic Observation
Programme (K-DOP) in Kenya's 2002 Election, by Wole Olaleye
* Elections in Nigeria: Is the Third Time a Charm, by A. Carl Levan,
Titi Pitso, Bodunrin Adebo
* Nigeria: Can the Election Tribunals Satisfactorily Resolve the
Disputes Arising out of the 2003 Elections? By Kaniye S.A.Ebeku
* The Electoral System and Conflict in Mozambique, by Luis de Brito
* Adapting to Electoral System Change: Voters in Lesotho, 2002, by Roddy
Fox and Roger Southall
* Missing Cadres? List Voting and the ANC's Management of its
Parliamentarians in the National Assembly, 1999-2003, by Geoffrey Hawker
Subscribe today - two issues @R160 per annum or R80 per issue. The 2004
issues will appear in June and December. All queries and orders, please email publications@eisa.org.za

Only 14 of the African continent's 53 countries to be featured in a report published by the US's Boston University, which was launched this week in Johannesburg, are considered sufficiently democratic. Last year the first report featured 13 countries, however with the election in Kenya of Mwai Kibaki as president the country finds a place in this year's report. The countries featured are Benin, Botswana, Cape Verde, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, SA, Tanzania, and Zambia.

The 10th anniversary of the genocide has now been officially recognized by the Africa Union, the entity that replaced the Organisation of Africa Unity. The move resulted from an effort initiated by Remembering Rwanda and spearheaded by our colleague Abdul Mohammed of the InterAfrica Group in Addis Ababa. The resolution calls on all member states, African civil society organisations, as well as the United Nations, to take appropriate steps during the 10th anniversary to commemorate and reflect on the genocide.

A community-based support network is hoping to provide material and emotional support to more than 40,000 orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) in Zimbabwe. The network was initiated in November last year by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), in partnership with the Zimbabwe Red Cross Society, Family AIDS Caring Trust Mutare (FACT), and the Centre for Total Transformation (CTT).

Zambian debt relief monitors have raised concerns over alleged irregularities in spending on poverty relief under the donor-supported Highly-Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative. The independent HIPC Tracking and Monitoring External Team, investigating the use of the funds saved under the debt relief programme, identified alleged abuses involving top civil servants in a report released last week.

African leaders now have a new mechanism for monitoring each other's progress towards political and economic reform but can it work? John Kufuor is allowing Ghana to be assessed first. The move launched last weekend in Rwanda is a step towards implementing the economic recovery plan, the New Partnership for Africa's Development, otherwise known as Nepad. Seventeen African leaders have signed up to the peer review mechanism, saying it will improve governance and accountability.

The second trial of former president Frederick Chiluba has been adjourned for two weeks after a request from the state's new prosecution team. President Levy Mwanawasa suspended the chief prosecutor last month after accusations he mishandled the first of the two corruption cases.

A group of opposition parties in Uganda have announced they intend to form a coalition in an attempt to defeat the Movement Party in the 2006 elections. The G7 in Uganda is set to include the Democratic Party, the Uganda People's Congress, the Conservative Party and the Reform Agenda.

Burundi may not hold elections by the end of November as stipulated by the peace accord signed in Arusha, a government official has warned. Foreign Affairs Minister Terence Sinunguruza says conditions necessary for a free and fair poll have not been met by the transitional government.

A global attempt to rescue free trade talks will be put to the test in Africa on Wednesday when some of the world's poorest countries seek common ground with the richest. The meeting at a luxury resort on Kenya's coast aims to help bridge gaps between the United States, Europe and Africa which contributed to 2003's collapse of negotiations to promote free trade, seen as vital to the world economy. African states will tell US and European Union trade chiefs to open markets to goods grown by millions of peasant farmers if they are to win their backing to revive the talks.

Apparently R. Zoellick, the US Trade representative is in the country (South Africa) next week. The US is responsible along with its co-perpetrators, the EU, of the worst form of structural violence on the most vulnerable Africans, the subsistence/peasant/ small /commercial farmers. The US continues to pursue policies of disarm and bomb, where they disarm our tariffs by demanding reductions, and then bomb our countries with cheap subsidized imports. While Africa is afflicted with various natural challenges, the structural manner in which our food sovereignty is compromised is unacceptable and defies common sense. Our leaders need to wake up to the fact that a modicum of food security is required and that we cannot just prostitute all our productive resources to the export market. This fact is NOT suitably captured in NEPAD or any of the other benevolent initiatives that the rich North promotes so that their constituencies can feel good about themselves.

Zoellik's visit is not just coincidental, it comes at a time when South Africa is pursuing a regional trade agreement with the US, soon after the collapse of the WTO Cancun Ministerial and at a time when the inequalities between rich countries and poor countries are greatest. South Africa has only recently woken up to the fact that the rich North does not believe in the entitlement of "South Africa" to a fair trading system and have sold out our Ministry of Trade and Industry by not abiding by commitments and promises made during negotiations (mainly that we would not get a raw deal). The Minister took a bold step when moving away from the position of Friend of the Chair of the WTO in Cancun (a pseudonym of bully's side-kick) and sided with the Group of 21 Countries. This is a far cry from the Ministries active involvement as Friend of the Chair in Seattle and Doha and adequate reasons for this change of heart have not been given.

Yet to critical experts it is apparent that despite all the niceties, we Africans continue to get a raw deal. There is only so much that could be done within the WTO before it would have become apparent that the Ministry even lacks nationalism/Pan Africanism in the trade negotiations (some have argued that this has already occurred). Furthermore, civil society, to my knowledge, has not been adequately consulted on the US - South African Customs Union (SACU) Free Trade Area Agreement. Despite this, principles of negotiations have already been agreed to and phase 2 of negotiations are to commence. If the outcome is anything like the EU-South Africa Free Trade Agreement then we can expect further job losses and market take-overs by foreign firms. However, Zoellick is here to kick start the disaster that is the WTO so that what little policy flexibility we have can be removed! Whatever cannot be achieved at the multilateral WTO level will be relegated to the regional and bilateral levels where US and EU might can be brought to bear at the expense of African food sovereignty, development and well overdue industrialization.

Zoellick of course must come with his bag of tricks. He will probably remind us of how grateful we must be for AGOA and its extension. AGOA like many trinkets that were brought to this shore by the Dutch East India Company, crack upon closer inspection. It allows African firms duty free market access to the US provided that no American firm complains about the loss of its market share. South African pear canners have been dealt a nasty blow by having their supposed benefits under AGOA terminated. So the real message of AGOA is we will give you room to develop but that development can be taken away on a whim (or what essentially amounts to a whim). The US with its typical Orwellian doublespeak says that it will not accord benefits under AGOA to those states that do not meet its human rights and democracy requirements. Their concern does not extend to the Ministers that they force, bully and coerce into making agreements which have not been the subject of consultations or discussions with domestic stakeholders, which is an important part of democracy.

One of the key issues that lead to the failure of Cancun was the European Union, who insisted on the inclusion of the "New Issues" / "Singapore Issues" (Investment, Competition, Trade Facilitation and Transparency in Government Procurement). Developing countries secured an agreement that these issues will only be discussed if there was "explicit consensus" from the members of the WTO. Much like the Dispute Settlement Body in it's opportunistic search for the "ordinary meaning" of words (by window shopping in various dictionaries to get the meaning they want), the Europeans tried to fudge the meaning of explicit consensus in the face of clear opposition to the New Issues by developing countries. The Financial Times, after Cancun, reported that the inclusion of the New Issues was to poke France in the eye for its intransigence on agriculture, and had very little to do with the need for regulation on these issues (South proponents of the New Issues take note!). The US on the other hand does not share an interest in the New Issues simply because they believe that they have most of the elements for corporate domination of the south in the General Agreement on Trade in Services. We can however look forward to the inclusion of the New Issues under the Economic Partnership Agreements that the EU is steamrolling through with other African states.

Zoellik needs to be reminded that his antics are well known, and while he may be on a state visit he is not welcome. We are not interested in a "New Round" at the WTO and we no longer want our ministers sworn at by US trade officials, not given notices of meetings or not even chairs to sit on during WTO meetings when they have to attend sessions for over 10 hours. We have had enough of this US arrogance and we should let its minions know.

* Riaz Tayob BA Llb Llm is a researcher at the Southern and East African Trade Information and Negotiations Institute (SEATINI). The views expressed do not necessarily represent those of SEATINI.

Drawing on examples from around the world - from Africa and Asia to Russia and Latin America - Chua examines how free markets do not spread wealth evenly throughout the whole of these societies. Instead they produce a new class of extremely wealthy plutocrats - individuals as rich as nations. Almost always members of a minority group - Chinese in the Philippines, Croatians in the former Yugoslavia, whites in Latin America, Indians in East Africa, Jews in post-communist Russia - these "market-dominant minorities" have become targets of violent hatred. Adding democracy to this volatile mix unleashes suppressed ethnic hatreds and brings to power ethnonationalist governments that pursue aggressive policies of confiscation and revenge.

IRC currently seeks a Civil Society Development Program Coordinator for its Sudan program. The Civil Society Development Program Coordinator, based in the IRC Sudan’s Khartoum headquarters, with frequent visits to the field, will lead the coordination of a major two-year community mobilization, civic education and civil society capacity building program in 12 locations across Sudan and South Sudan.

The Association of Kenyan Professionals in Atlanta (AKPA) Development Committee's key objective this year is to successfully support one (or more) high impact and actionable projects on Water in Kenya.

Basic education is a prerequisite for economic development, individual health, poverty reduction and democracy, according to a report released this week by the Basic Education Coalition, an umbrella group of 19 private and non-governmental development and relief organisations. Based on the most current data from the World Bank, United Nations and other agencies, the report, Teach a Child, Transform a Nation, illustrates the correlations between education and the benchmarks that determine a country’s growth. The report notes that while education alone is not sufficient to generate development, it is a major factor in the ultimate effectiveness of other country investments.

I do find Pambazuka News and your website very useful. It gives me update information on workshops being held in the Southern African Region, trainings that are very useful to the organisation. Keep up the good work.

About 300 youth delegates are converging in Benoni, far east of Johannesburg, for the Second National Conference on Youth Development at Local Government Level. Youth development workers, municipal youth managers and leaders of the broader youth sector are attending the three-day conference. The conference is part of the bilateral relationship between South Africa and Flanders and is hosted by the National Youth Commission (NYC) and the South African Youth Council (SAYC).