Development Dialogue
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development A journal of international development cooperation published liv the Dag Hammarskjöld dialogue Foundation, Uppsala 1995:2 Autonomous Development Funds Editorial Note 1 Autonomous Development Funds: An Introduction 3 The Role of Independent Funds for Social and Economic Development in Africa: An Opening Address Yoweri K. Museveni, President of the Republic of Uganda 1 Some Reflections on the Experience of Foreign Aid William N. Wamalwa 11 Development Assistance: Prospects and Priorities Olav Stokke 21 Reforming Foreign Aid to African Development: A Proposal to Set up Politically Autonomous Development Funds Göran Hydén 34 Autonomous Development Funds in the Philippines Eugenic M. Gonzales 53 The Esquel Foundation of Ecuador Eliana Vera 67 The Luso-American Development Foundation Anne Williams 77 Report of an Expert Consultation on Autonomous Development Funds 87 Amir Habib Jamal: Tributes to His Memory 95 Which Way Africa? 'Which Way Africa?': Reflections on Basil Davidson's The Black Man's Burden Joseph Ki-Zerbo 99 Zaire: From the National Conference to the Federal Republic of the Congo? Ernest Wambu-dia-Wamba 125 Education with Production in South Africa Education with Production: A Successful Concept Finds a New Home 147 The Brigades Movement in Botswana: A Model for Replication? G. K. T. Chiepe 149 The Bertrams Development Brigade Ahmed Moonda 157 Education with Production—Taking Root in South Africa: A Seminar Report, Mmabatho, 1995 Michael Lawrence and Ben Parker 168 Editors: The opinions expressed in the journal are those of Sven Hamrell the authors and do not necessarily reflect the Olle Nordberg views of the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation. Sub-editor: Photo credits: Åsa Nyqvist, page 99; Niclas Wendy Davies Hällstrom, pages 157, 159 and 163. Advisory Editorial Committee: Ahmed Ben Salah Just Faaland Joseph Ki-Zerbo Marc Nerfin Juan Somavia Editorial Office: The Dag Hammarskjöld Centre övre Slottsgatan 2 SE-753 10 Uppsala, Sweden Fax: +46-18-12 20 72 ISSN 0345-2328 Printers: Subscribers are kindly requested to inform the Dag Motala Grafiska AB Hammarskjöld Centre of any changes of address Motala, Sweden or subscription cancellations. Editorial Note This issue of Development Dialogue is in its entirety devoted to different aspects of autono- mous and innovative developments in Africa while also drawing on relevant experiences from other continents. It is divided into three sections: the first outlines and discusses alterna- tive ways of providing development assistance by setting up politically autonomous develop- ment funds; the second section features two deeply thought-provoking contributions by Joseph Ki-Zerbo and Ernest Wamba-dia-Wamba, renowned African historians, dealing with the state and the crisis in Africa and the impasse in which the continent will find itself unless it can escape 'its present dependency, which is almost a perpetuation of the era of slavery'. The third section re-enforces the importance of the concept of 'Education with Production', developed and implemented in Southern Africa over the past 30 years and now attracting in- creasing public interest in the Republic of South Africa. This issue also pays tribute to the memory of Amir Jamal, who spent his life serving the people and the government of his coun- try, Tanzania, and as an indefatigable negotiator for Africa and the South. There is nothing special about the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation devoting a whole issue of Development Dialogue to Africa. The activities of the Foundation were, in fact, largely fo- cused on Africa during the first decade of its existence due not only to the tragic death of Dag Hammarskjöld at Ndola in 1961 but also to the emergence of so many new African states at this time. During the following decades, the Foundation's work programme was broadened to include both Asia and Latin America as well as the world of international organisations but without losing its original focus on Africa. Examples of the Foundation's orientation to- wards Africa are its conferences and seminars on African Refugee Problems, Regional Economic Integration, African Child Care, Education and Training and Alternatives in Edu- cation in African Countries, the Development of Autonomous Capacity in Publishing in Africa, Democracy and the Media in Southern Africa and on the State and the Crisis in Africa and the Search for a 'Second Liberation'. Unlike the cynics in the political and commercial world and in the mainstream media, who, turning towards the lucrative markets in the East, have come to write Africa off as 'a lost cause", we would argue with Joseph Ki-Zerbo that it calls for urgent attention and action as the very survival of the continent is at stake. 'There is no splendid European or American iso- lation, which on its own could conjure up this apocalypse. Even if one closes one's eyes so as not to see, the stench of the charnel houses of Rwanda, Sudan and elsewhere will eventually reach the nostrils, if not the conscience, of every human being.' In his essay, Ki-Zerbo emphasises that Africa urgently needs to develop a new vision of its future against the background of past and present ills: the uncritical adoption of the paradigm of the nation state; the destruction of social and cultural cohesion; the growing bias towards the national centre and the mass exodus from the rural areas to cities that are disintegrating under the strain of unregulated growth. The answer would be the transformation of the African nation states into new institutional arrangements better suited to respond to the realities, interests and values of the people. In this task, a vital part will be played by civil so- ciety—or the Third System as it was called in Marc Nerfin's seminal paper 'Neither Prince nor Merchant: Citizen—An Introduction to the Third System' in Development Dialogue 1987:1. 2 Editorial Note Ernest Wamba-dia-Wamba concentrates the focus in his paper on Zaire on the role and im- portance of the Sovereign National Conference and the hitherto frustrated efforts to build a genuinely participatory democracy in this tragically divided country. Wide-ranging conclu- sions, applicable to the whole African region, can be drawn from this highly relevant essay. In the section on Education with Production, the old question about the most relevant schooling system for Africa is raised again. It is clear that more than three decades of efforts to copy the systems of the North in large-scale mimetic projects have not yielded the results hoped for and that the quality and relevance of the education provided is sometimes lower than it was 30 years ago, i.e. before the erosion of the indigenous languages and the social fabric by a schooling system whose main aim has been 'modernisation' whatever its social and cultural costs. Is it presumptuous to point to an alternative that has been in existence for a number of years in Southern Africa and applies a resource-saving, development-oriented, Africa-based model, starting with the idea that all young people have a role to play in the de- velopment of the continent and with a curriculum which is tested out in Southern Africa and already in place—Education with Production? What role should the countries of the North play in a new African strategy for development and democracy? The answer is certainly not to leave Africa by the wayside as a hopeless bas- ket case and turn to more profitable ventures in other parts of the world. It is rather to devel- op a new kind of relationship, tracing its origins to the early years of development coopera- tion and making it possible for African countries and countries in the North to work together as true partners within a commonly agreed framework. Proposals are made in this issue of Development Dialogue for the establishment of Autonomous Development Funds allowing civil society organisations and governmental bodies in Africa and in the North to cooperate as equals in a trusting relationship freed from corruption and conditionalities. Reflecting on the material presented in this issue of Development Dialogue, it is striking to note how the perspectives and the proposals made relate to the ideas of Another Develop- ment advanced in the 1975 Dag Hammarskjöld Report, What Now. As readers of this journal are well aware, Another Development would be need-oriented, i.e. geared to meeting the material and non-material needs of the world's inhabitants; endogenous, i.e. stemming from the heart of each society; self-reliant; ecologically sound and based on structural transforma- tions so as to realise the conditions of self-management and participation in decision-making by all those affected by it, from the rural or urban community to the world as a whole. It may well be that these ideas, formulated 20 years ago, will meet with a renewed interest in the years to come. Could it even be that we will see, before this decade and this century comes to an end, a sobering up of the international debate? Such a sobering up would then mean that the issues of resource waste, both physical and economic, the perverse concentration on economic goals at the expense of social and cultural goals, and the increasing marginalisation of large groups of people in the South as well as in the North, are reappraised in the interest of promoting Another Development, required in all societies, whether in the North or the South, centrally planned or market-dominated, at a high or low level of productivity'. Autonomous Development Funds An Alternative to Conventional Official Development Assistance One of the most pernicious features of the situation in most African coun- tries today is the distrust of so many people in public authority. Government officers often treat their offices as private fiefs, extorting bribes from mem- bers of the public seeking their services.