Speech by Juma Mwapachu, President of the Society for
International Development
'The major source of injustice today is to be found not so
much in a condition of general scarcity as in the fact of diminishing marginal
utility of man as such, in the fact that millions of people find themselves
idle and useless, often in their very prime of youth.' (Rajni Kothari,
1977, Redesigning the Development Strategy)
When we met in Nairobi in June last year the theme of my
Opening Address was the state of interesting times that coincided with our
meeting. First, was the historic general elections that had taken place in
Kenya and which had brought that country back together after the tragic
post-elections violence of 2007. Unfortunately, the results of that violence continue
to haunt Kenya and have taken a traumatic turn for the new national top
leadership as it faces trial in the International Criminal Court here in The
Hague.
Worse, the implications of the trial have become a major
source of fracture in relations between the African Union and the International
Criminal Court (ICC) and, by extension, the UN Security Council on whose
mandate the ICC exercises its jurisdictional authority. Little wonder that
the
Fourth
EU-Africa Summit Declaration of 4th April this year records the
commitment 'to enhance political dialogue on international criminal justice,
including the issue of universal jurisdiction.'
Second, was the trend in the performance of the East African
Community region, the fastest economic growth area in Africa in recent years
but equally with the fastest growing population that exhibits a huge youth
bulge, growing unemployment especially amongst the youth and women, declining
education standards, food insecurity partly driven by climate change factors
and partly because science is yet to be adopted to boost agricultural
productivity and serious cases of a whole set of inequalities, social, economic
and political.
Third, was the growing influence of China in the region
sparking a new wave of international cooperation spearheaded mainly by the
United States and Japan. The lingering question is what role citizens play over
such thrusts and outcomes in international cooperation? Could it be that
emerging resource nationalisms in Africa are probably rooted in sheer
disconnections between the political elite and the citizens? Has democracy and
good governance been hijacked by a few political leaders for their own self-interests?
Fourth, I offered a snapshot of the state of security in the
region, recalling the genocide in Rwanda whose 20 years history was globally
commemorated last week on 7th April. It would now seem that barbaric human
atrocities never seem to end as so well orchestrated by the on-going Syrian
situation.
I had remarked last year that these tragic lessons present
for SID the opportunity to open up spaces for national, regional and global
dialogue and conversations around the collective desire of promoting inclusive
social change and transformations. The aim being to heal wounds and catalyse
new vistas of human tolerance, solidarity, cohesion and shared quests for
common prosperity.
As we meet here today, some of the issues and questions that
I had raised last year still linger on. In fact, some of them, though examined
from the narrow perspective of the East African region, have taken a more
serious posture at the global level. The challenge of inequality stands out
above the rest. Hazel Henderson recently wrote an article titled '
Facing Up To
Inequality: New Approaches Beyond Economism' in which she postulates
as follows:
'Grim recent studies reveal the shocking increase in
inequality globally, both between and within countries. Anti-poverty economic
policies since World War II have done little, except for their notable success
in China.
Worldwide, the share of nations' productivity increases
going to employees is shrinking-while the share to capital owners, financial
firms, corporations and their top executives as mushroomed. Old economic
textbooks remedies for rising inequality still call for more growth. Yet
economic growth is slowing in most mature economies. In still growing China,
India, Brazil and other emerging countries, the growth remedies lead to greater
inequality as well as destroying traditional livelihoods polluting vital common
resources: air, water, forests and bio-diversity.'
The author proceeds to point out that 'structural
unemployment and jobless growth are accelerating inequality.' This
position reminds me of a 1977 book article contribution by the celebrated
Indian social scientist, the late
Rajni Kothari, titled,
'Redesigning the Development Strategy' in which Professor Kothari posits that
'The major source of injustice today is to be found not so much in a condition
of general scarcity as in the fact of diminishing marginal utility of man as
such, in the fact that millions of people find themselves idle and useless,
often in their very prime of youth.'
It is a realistic representation of cruel conditions that
obtain in many countries today. In South Africa, for example, the surge in social
and political tension and instability, interposed by frequent mine workers'
strikes, is not because Nelson Mandela, the architect and symbol of a tolerant
social order and a sense of a possible future of hope for the majority South
Africans, is no more. Rather, it is because two decades after the unshackling
of apartheid, poverty and inequality are now more pronounced and brought into
the open by the democratic environment. Moreover, the wealth divide along
racial lines, minus for a few black billionaires who have benefitted from the
Black Economic Empowerment Programme, has taken a more heightened posture.
Whilst the inequality situation is extreme in South Africa,
it is the pervasive disease that devours most African countries. SID's
State of East Africa Report 2013 has
exposed the depth of inequalities in the East African Community countries,
manifested in heightened levels of joblessness, income inequalities, high
levels of malnutrition, generally poor quality of education and high levels of
illiteracy, minimum power and resources by citizens to hold governments to
account reflective of unequal distribution of opportunity and rewards of
growth.
It may seem like a paradox, but inequality is equally
proving to be a condition of serious gravity in the rich countries as well. In
his magisterial book, '
The Price of
Inequality-How Today's Divided Society Endangers Our Future', Nobel
Laureate, Joseph E. Stigliz argues that 'Unemployment - the inability of the
market to generate jobs for so many citizens-is the worst failure of the
market, the greatest source of inefficiency, and a major cause of inequality'.
Stiglitz visualises social cohesion being transformed into class warfare in
countries like the United States.
Overall, the challenge of inequalities in Africa has cost
some governments to lose political power. I need not go into the causes of the
Arab Spring because I believe that it is now common knowledge that high levels
of unemployment, especially among the youth, coupled with declining wages in
relation to real costs of living, lay at the heart of those citizen- managed
and directed revolutions.
Inevitably, there is now serious concern in many countries that if not quickly
and effectively addressed, inequalities could soon become the main source of
social and political instability in Africa. As Professor Stiglitz cautions in
his book above referred to, 'when the social contract gets broken, social
cohesion quickly erodes.'
The second lingering issue centres on the state of
international cooperation. In many respects the struggle for investment and aid
supremacy in Africa and especially in the East African region continues with
the Chinese still in the forefront though the US is increasingly promoting its
private firms to invest in the power sector. Paradoxically, Chinese investments
remain focused in metals and in supporting transport infrastructure development
with little interest in the mining and oil and gas sectors.
Where traditional international cooperation seems destined
to suffer is in the area of multilateral trade agreements. Emerging Asia,
especially China, India and somewhat the Arab Gulf States, are becoming the
major trading partners of sub-Saharan Africa.
As a result, it would not be strange to see a steady erosion
in interest from SSA countries over the WTO Doha Development Agenda and the
Economic Partnership Agreements. The deemed traditional mutual gains out of
trade between sub-Saharan Africa and the European Union may slowly become
skewed much as countries that trade with the EU in cut flowers and frozen lake
fillet fish may suffer loss in exports returns.
However, there are moves towards exports diversification
that respond to resultant downsides in this trade paradigm. Even then,
sub-Saharan Africa countries would have to seriously assess the broader
negative impact that may take place beyond trade as a result of such shifts in
trading relationships.
In particular, the strong partnership that has been built
between the EU and Africa in the peace and security architecture born out of
the Lisbon Summit Agreements in 2007 may prove to be quite onerous.
'How is the world likely to evolve? I have thought for some
time that if the twentieth century was the era of the block-the economic block,
the military block and the trade block-then the twenty-first century is likely
to be the era of the organic solution. We will need to find new partnerships,
new alliances, and new mechanisms to deal with a whole new range of challenges.
We will need to develop new levers to pull in a wide variety of situations-the
age of the one-size-fits-all solution is, I think, behind us. Should this fill
us with dread? Not at all. In fact, I believe there are reasons to be
optimistic about our ability to create novel solutions to our common problems.'
At a time when global society had settled down to accepting
a new world order after the fall of the Berlin war and the territorial
re-configuration of the Soviet Union and Russia becoming integrated in the G-8,
there are creeping signs of a return to cold war rhetoric and politics.
Russia's military intervention into Ukrainian territory and the annexation of
the Crimean Peninsula in Southern Ukraine ostensibly following a plebiscite in
Crimea supporting unification with Russia has serious implications for global
peace and security.
Coming in the wake of two costly wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan, the United States is unfortunately left weary. The EU has also
gone through three to four years of serious economic stress and turmoil and its
political strength has weakened. Moreover, the global economy, especially of
the advanced economies, is generally experiencing a below par economic growth
with high levels of unemployment and stark inequalities.
It is an environment that is not conducive to supporting
ideal levels of international cooperation.
Juma V.
Mwapachu is President of SID and former Secretary General of the East
African Community (EAC). This was his keynote speech delivered to the Society
for International Development’s Governing Council.
Photo courtesy of NASA
