Our Common Interest: Report of the Commission for Africa

The Africa Commission Report was released March 11 2005 in London, UK. In this report, there is extensive reference to and approval of core processes and programmes that are an essential part of development communication. Though there are a large number of excerpts below, this is not an exhaustive list.

To download the full report as a PDF file, please click here.



For details about the report in languages other than English, please click here.

For information on The Africa Commission's membership, purpose, process and other important background details, please click here.

Excerpts from The Africa Commission Report

*Page numbers refer to the printed document; footnote references have been removed.

Building capacity takes time and commitment. Weak capacity is a matter of poor systems and incentives, poor information, technical inability, untrained staff and lack of money. We recommend that donors make a major investment to improve Africa's capacity...

[page 12]

Improving accountability is the job of African leaders. They can do that by broadening the participation of ordinary people in government processes, in part by strengthening institutions like parliaments, local authorities, trades unions, the justice system and the media. Donors can help with this. They can also help build accountable budgetary processes so that the people of Africa can see how money is raised and where it is going. That kind of transparency can help combat corruption, which African governments must root out. Developed nations can help in this too.

[page 12]

Growth will also require a massive investment in infrastructure to break down the internal barriers that hold Africa back. Donors should fund a doubling of spending on infrastructure - from rural roads and small-scale irrigation to regional highways, railways, larger power projects and Information & Communications Technology (ICT).

[page 13]

In all this we insist on the need for Africa's voice to be heard more clearly. And we underscore that the first responsibility for change and improved governance lies with Africans themselves, in which the rich world has a moral duty - as well as a powerful motive of self-interest - to assist.

[page 20]

Those who ignore culture are doomed to failure in Africa. The outsiders who ran a workshop on AIDS in Angola recently learned that. They came to pass on their knowledge about transmission and prevention. They left having obtained new understandings of cultural practices such as initiation rites, scar-tattooing, blood brother practices, means of breaking the umbilical cord, polygamy and traditional marriage and healing practices. Only then did they come to understand why their education and awareness programmes had not resulted in higher use of condoms or lowered rates of infection. They had not known enough about local cultural norms and values on sexuality.



Those who understand culture can find new ways to succeed. Before civil war plunged Somalia into a condition of warlord-dominated anarchy, order was maintained by the country's traditional courts of tribal elders, the Tol. These made each clan collectively responsible for the actions of its individual members - if one man stole, his whole clan could be fined for it. In most parts of the country the power of the Tol has been abolished by the warlords. But in Somaliland, a place of modest but ordered prosperity, the Tol has not only been retained it has been incorporated into the second chamber of parliament. Few in Somaliland doubt that the continued existence of the old system is a key component in the relative stability there.



Such a hybrid system is not one which a political theorist might have invented given a blank sheet of paper. But it is one, with its odd mix of African and Western systems of governance, that clearly works. The challenge is to harness the cultures of Africa to find such workable hybrids for the rest of the continent. The overall lesson is that outside prescriptions only succeed where they work with the grain of African ways of doing things. They fail where they ignore, or do not understand, the cultural suppositions of the people they seek to address. The international community must make greater efforts to understand the values, norms and allegiances of the cultures of Africa and in their policy-making display a greater flexibility, open-mindedness and humility.



Much in reducing the transmission of HIV and AIDS turns on cultural attitudes.

[page 28]

There is more to governance than how the government conducts itself. It is about the whole realm in which the state operates, including areas like parliament, the judiciary, the media and all the other organisations of society which remain in place when a government changes.

[page 29]

The aim is to foster adoption of good policies and practice by sharing information on what is working, and what is not. Peer pressure produces a strong incentive to act.

[page 29]

The answer to this is, putting mechanisms in place to make sure that the voices of all citizens can actually influence decisions of their governments. To do this requires good economic and financial management systems. But it also means empowering key groups within society.

[page 31]

Likewise with the media. Africa's journalists have a crucial role in holding the government to account and exposing corruption and inefficiency. But at present its journalists are not sufficiently free or professional. They need more training, in both journalistic techniques and professional ethics. African governments can assist media independence by granting commercial licences for radio stations to compete with the state-owned stations from which most Africans get their news. Journalists and editors in other countries could assist here too.

[page 31]

For political leaders to be held accountable, citizens must have proper information about government revenues and budget allocations. Openness makes it more likely that resources will be used efficiently. By contrast a lack of transparency encourages corruption, especially where politicians and officials are members of secret societies, which are common in Africa as in the rest of the world. This lack of openness is a particular problem where income - particularly that derived from oil, minerals and other high-value natural resources - is managed in a way which hides accounts from the public.

[page 31]

So why has there not been more emphasis on prevention? Partly because of the 'CNN factor'. The high profile given to some emergencies by the media puts strong pressure on international politicians to respond to them - and provides political rewards for doing so. By contrast creating unglamorous mechanisms to address Africa's vulnerability to violence may not draw the headlines, but it is far more effective and far cheaper. The international community must invest more in conflict prevention if Africa is to have a chance of development and prosperity.

[page 35]

All lack the power to combat their exclusion...Two of these groups, of course, are not minorities - women and young people. Women may be Africa's primary carers and providers but they are routinely excluded from information, services and decision-making bodies. Young people - under the age of 17 - are now estimated to make up more than 50 per cent of the continent's population, but have no voice in most decisions which affect them.

[page 39]

Effective use of these large new resource flows will require comprehensive strategies for delivery and for monitoring results. To this end, African governments must continue to strengthen governance and ensure the participation of ordinary people and local communities in decisions on development. If the international community matches that by delivering on its promises then an enormous amount will be achieved - both in terms of human fulfilment and in building the base for economic growth.

[page 43]

One of the most significant barriers to investment for Africa is that outsiders tend to perceive Africa as one large risky country - a view driven by the media and a lack of real information. But we are convinced, from the progress that we have seen across the region in recent years, and from what major international businesses have told us, that this view is wrong and outdated. Those who know Africa are more confident about investing. So the facility should address perceptions too.

[page 44]

Decisions on debt relief should be taken in accordance with the same poverty-reduction criteria that are used for making decisions on aid - that is, whether it will be well used to promote both the growth and participation in growth by poor people which together reduces poverty.

[page 56]

Individual voices and grassroots action can make a profound difference. The Jubilee 2000 campaign proved that. It was started by two individuals and ended with a million people on the streets worldwide, demanding that the debt of poor countries be dropped. The governments of the rich world were forced to listen and US$100 billion worth of bilateral debt was written off.

[page 59]

Weak governance has blighted the development of many parts of Africa to date. Weak governance can include bad government policies and an economic and political climate which discourages people from investing. It can also include corruption and bureaucratic systems that are not open to scrutiny and therefore are not answerable to the public. And it includes a lack of accountability and weakness in mechanisms to ensure that people's voices are heard and their rights upheld, such as parliaments, the media and the justice system.

[page 63]

Strengthen information systems - Good information is essential to informed policy making and effective delivery. Donors should provide the additional amount required to help Africa improve systems to collect and analyse statistics, to meet criteria normally regarded as an acceptable minimum (estimated at about an additional US$60 million per year).

[page 64]

The second set of proposals relates to promoting poor people's participation in that growth. In this, particular emphasis should be placed on much stronger opportunities and rights for women...

[page 69]

Proposal: Further, we should not confine our attention to governments. Ordinary people in developed countries can do much to help the people of Africa, and we discuss possibilities in Chapter 10. Above all, they can press their own governments and firms to do much better and sustain their commitments. The whole population - working with its schools, media, and parliamentarians - can deepen its understanding of how its actions affect Africa and what they can do to help. Insisting on trade policies that give far better opportunities to developing countries and understanding (and acting on) the consequences of climate change for Africa are examples of special importance.

[page 87]

Finally, this package is not to be applied in a top-down fashion. Most projects and programmes work when they are designed locally with strong participation, and where they reflect local aspirations - both because local people understand local circumstances better, and because they will be more motivated to help these approaches succeed. That is a lesson of development experience which must be applied ever more strongly. The Commission therefore envisions a development process in which countries and communities chart their own course. The Commission also recognises - and this has strongly influenced our approach - the importance of culture in shaping development goals and instruments. It must also take careful account of basic human rights. Different communities will have different notions of property rights, different dispute-resolution mechanisms, and different manifestations of authority and leadership. But while the development solutions will come largely from African countries and communities, the world and especially the developed countries must take responsibility for helping Africa to fund these actions. The scale of Africa's need is far too great for the continent to provide all the additional funding itself.

[page 89]

Proposal: Broadening participation and strengthening institutions that improve accountability, including parliaments, local authorities, the media, and the justice system...

[page 90]

Even within poor countries, the poorest people are those who are excluded from information, from government services, from full participation in society, politics and the economy and even informal community support systems. All too often the reason for the exclusion is discrimination, for example against women, disabled persons, ethnic or linguistic minorities, or persons with HIV or AIDS. Exclusion makes it especially difficult to escape from poverty; worse still, the disadvantage is transmitted from one generation to the next, as parents are unable to invest in the health, education, or nutrition of their children.

[page 95]

Target 18: In cooperation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies-especially information and communications technologies.

[page 113]

The trouble is that although we all use the same terms, we often do not mean the same thing by them. Ideas of political and economic freedom can be manifested in very different ways and with very different results. It is culture that dictates the differences, which is why culture is so important when it comes to policy making.

[page 115]

We believe that the inattention to culture in the policy-making of many donor countries goes some way to explain the failure of so many development initiatives in Africa over the years.

[page 115]

As well as hearing individual perspectives, we recognise that institutions have cultures too. It is, for example, widely perceived that some international institutions, such as the IMF, World Bank, UN Security Council and even many NGOs in developed countries (some of which are perceived in Africa as arms of the donor governments that fund them), do not adequately give space for African participation and perspectives in their thinking. At the same time, such institutions often betray an arrogance born of their own fixed procedures and structures, which in turn limit their ability to take account of different cultural standpoints.

[page 116]

It also means that people must be given a voice in defining an area's problems, deciding on solutions, and allocating resources to them.

[page 117]

Access to new information technologies, and the mobile phone in particular, is also having a profound cultural impact. This is heightened in communities where any form of communication over distance has meant long journeys, often on foot. Where many Africans never experienced the cultural leap of connectedness through fixed lines, the mobile phone provides a new form of identity. With scarce resources, collective creativity helps people get connected....The growth opportunities associated with new technologies, and the provision of communications infrastructure that is essential to realise them, are covered in Chapter 7. The form and speed of change associated with new technologies is an expression of culture and may defy existing economic models in the way it is driven by personal empowerment.

[page 117]

This ranges from measures to enhance individual participation in decision-making, to education planning, the importance of bilingualism in many contexts, promotion of local-language media including radio and television broadcasting, and technological developments such as African language computer software.

[page 119]

We want culture to become an inherent component of all development strategies - not just in terms of cultural products, but also in defining the terms of the development debate and the actions that follow. Culture becomes a way of working as well as an end in itself.

[page 123]

...action in three specific areas would build on and enhance existing capacity: professional skills and leadership; incentives; and equipment and infrastructure, including Information and Communications Technology (ICT).

[page 130]

E-governance has a particularly powerful role to play in improving administrative efficiency, driving technical innovation and making the governance process more transparent, accountable and open to participation by everyone. Strategic programmes for e-governance have been established recently in countries such as Egypt, Kenya, Senegal, Mozambique and South Africa and there is a wide range of relatively successful African e-governance projects, such as a tax portal in Cameroon. This site contains tax related data and guidance, providing instant information on payment and refund procedures to citizens and businesses, to limit opportunities for corrupt officials to charge for such information.

[page 133]

African e-governance faces two additional barriers: the lack of ICT infrastructure and mass connectivity to the Internet, and under-resourced and unaccountable bureaucracies. A good start could be for a number of African governments to pilot development of e-governance strategies, and then spread good practice developed through them to a second group of countries. The international community should support this work and consolidate and expand e-governance training for African civil servants.

[page 133]

Good intentions are not enough. Mechanisms are needed to make sure that the voices of all citizens are heard; to monitor how governments respond to what they hear; and to enforce the rights of ordinary citizens.

[page 134]

Policies often fail because they are created without a full understanding of the local situation, people or history. As we saw in Chapter 3, Africa's diversity makes this point particularly pertinent. The term 'participation' holds a variety of meanings, but in essence is about people expressing their views and taking part in the decisions that affect their lives. It is common sense that people have a clearer idea of the problems and opportunities affecting their own communities than outsiders do. Although in the past participation has been associated with community development projects, African participation is required broadly, from the project to the national or international level. Creating opportunities for people to be heard can lead to unpredictable and often contradictory messages but has the potential to inform policies, improve accountability and improve service provision.

[page 134]

Participation in decision-making has long been a feature of many African societies. However, African voices often fail to be heard within the development sector, including in international processes. This is partly due to an arrogance that expert outsiders or domestic elites 'know best' and partly due to institutional pressures for quick, consensual and anticipated results.

[page 134]

Within participatory approaches, the more powerful often have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo and the education and influence to ensure that their voices are heard. Meaningful participation is a political phenomenon and requires those who traditionally make decisions to relinquish some of their control and to hear voices they may not agree with or may not usually listen to, including those of women and youth.

[page 134]

African governments and the international community should base policy change on broad participatory research. Participation should occur at all levels and stages of policymaking, including during monitoring and evaluation. Local authorities are a good entry point for democratic debate. Local or regional expertise should be invested in, in preference to bringing-in external experts. Decision makers should allow long timeframes for participation and ensure that the least powerful are able to express themselves. Facilitators should be trained in negotiations and communication, and informed of local gender norms and power relations.

[page 135]

The right to receive information and to the freedom of expression is set out in the African Charter for Human and Peoples' Rights. This must be respected.

[page 136]

The media is an educator and key information source that can help deliver the MDGs, promote transparent governance and, through balanced reporting, help prevent conflicts. The wide benefits from plural media means it acts as a public good in development. Information flows in Africa through a variety of media, including established media such as radio, traditional communication such as song and story-telling, and new technologies including mobile phones. Private media outlets and liberalised airwaves are increasing. For example, Mali now has 30 private newspapers, 147 independent local radio stations, seven state radio stations and one television station. In Uganda, those villages that in 1985 had ten community broadcasting stations have 300 or more now. This rapid expansion has generated some problems, including inadequately trained journalists, poor professional standards and weak self-regulation. Moreover, much of African media remains government owned or controlled. The monopolisation of media by any one group, including the government, undermines media freedom and popular trust, and creates space for distortion and rumour.



African journalists should maintain strong self-regulation and professional ethics in order to allow the media to fulfil its role as a public watchdog and generator of change. In addition, the political environment must be supportive of diverse, plural and free media, with a balance of public service, private, community and local media. AU/NEPAD should encourage African governments to eliminate any current restrictions on mass media, promote competitive frameworks that enable investment in diverse broadcasting infrastructure, and develop transparent and flexible regulatory environments and legal frameworks in co-operation with civil society. They should strengthen their relationship with civil society and independent media institutions.



African media would benefit from a regional or continental media reference point. Although some regional media bodies exist, they are few in number and tend to cover only particular aspects of the media. The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) for example does good work, but is focused primarily on promoting free media. A pan-African approach could increase the scale of funding and ensure co-ordination and a holistic approach to include the various aspects of media.



Recommendation: Independent media institutions, public service broadcasters, civil society and the private sector, with support from governments, should form a consortium of partners, in Africa and outside, to provide funds and expertise to create an African media development facility. Support for this is already evident from some media organisations. The consortium should work with African government ministries, independent institutions and civil society in order to provide long-term support for the strengthening of media capacity and programme-making through supporting regulatory reform, training and the generation of market and audience research.



Donors have tended to see support for the media as an 'add-on' to other development programmes, such as health initiatives. Whilst this is important, the media sector also requires support. We urge donors to increase substantially their funding to African independent media institutions and those governments promoting free media. Communications infrastructure must also be strengthened...



A more effective African media will contribute to informed perceptions of the continent in the rest of the world. Currently much of the media in developed countries offers low and unbalanced coverage of Africa. We challenge the media sector to do more to ensure that audiences in developed countries understand what is happening in Africa, including through monitoring their coverage of Africa and increasing programme co-production with African professionals. The Internet gives people the control to find their own information and is demonstrating a growing appetite for news of Africa in developed countries. African media should be supported to serve audiences outside the continent via the Internet.

[page 136]

Business groups, trades unions and other non-governmental organisations (NGOs) can often speak for a community, especially where individuals can find it difficult to make their voice heard or are unwilling to speak out. The number of these civil society organisations has risen dramatically over the last decade or so, in response to removal of restrictions. In Tanzania, for example, there were over 9,000 registered civic organisations in 1999, compared to 168 in 1990. Civil society organisations are increasingly viewed as credible partners, but may still suffer from weak capacity, poor transparency and lack of accountability, particularly where their work becomes influenced by the agenda of their funders.

[page 138]

And greater access to information about the government's activities strengthens the public's ability to participate in the policy-making process by making their voices heard. This increases the commitment and ownership which citizens feel.

[page 138]

One thing that has emerged from all our considerations on issues of governance and capacity is the importance of good information and communication. In so many areas information can be a valuable driver for change. It is also necessary for monitoring and measuring performance and results. It is the lifeblood of transparent, informed and open societies, able to debate, decide and implement successful reforms, measure their impact and hold their governments to account.

[page 147]

Experience has shown that more aid to the local justice sector, and to reconciliation mechanisms that give a voice to those previously marginalised, is essential.

[page 164]

Making services accountable to communities either through their participation in design and delivery or through politicians is essential to improve the quality of those services and the effectiveness of investments.

[page 173]

Life skills that address issues like HIV and AIDS and challenge gender inequalities in a clear and comprehensive way are vital. Children should learn early about risky behaviours and build assertive communication skills. The younger generation could be provided with a window of opportunity to combat the pandemic and tackle stigma if given the right knowledge that is personalised to make it directly relevant to children's lives.

[page 180]

Broadcasting and other methods of public communications can play a major role in preventing illness as well as increasing demand for health care, such as encouraging young people to seek sexual and reproductive health care. Examples of this include the Zambian Youth Forum that campaigned on reproductive health issues and gained a place on the National AIDS Council, and the expansion in FM radio in Uganda, which has been linked to the falling prevalence of HIV. African governments should enable community involvement to improve health outcomes as well as increase accountability.

[page 182]

The development of health information and management systems is central to increasing accountability to communities. It is key to improving outcomes (managing for development results), but has been distorted by donors' separate monitoring of the various unco-ordinated programmes to combat particular diseases. Furthermore, priorities set by donors and multilateral organisations are not always relevant to local realities. It is essential that initiatives are driven by African priorities. So too is the increasing the capacity to use information technology which can reduce health care costs by 30 to 40 per cent.

[page 185]

In Tanzania, a community participation project that included a focus on managing for results with better information systems has led to a 46 per cent drop in child mortality.

[page 185]

African governments must ensure there is multi-stakeholder participation, drawing in representation from rural and urban sectors, poor people, women and men, different levels and departments of government, civil society and the private
sector.

[page 193]

Special emphasis should be placed on the participation of people living with HIV and AIDS, AIDS widows and orphans, children, older people, men who have sex with men and other vulnerable groups in the design of HIV and AIDS policies and health messages as well as in strategies to reduce stigma. Sport, radio, film and other popular elements of youth culture should be widely used to engage them in the response.

[page 199]

Telecommunication services have become a major driver of growth in many African countries, as a result of deregulation and the telecommunications revolution in OECD countries in recent years. More generally, information and communication technology (ICT) can be a powerful driver of growth: in the United States, ICTs produced an estimated one percentage point increase in annual GDP growth in the late 1990s.

[page 218]

Recommendation: Africa needs an additional US$20 billion a year investment in infrastructure. To support this, developed countries should provide an extra US$10 billion a year up to 2010 and, subject to review, a further increase to US$20
billion a year in the following five years. This should support African regional, national, urban and rural infrastructure priorities - ranging from rural roads and slum upgrading to ICT and the infrastructure needed to support greater integration of Africa's regions and to enable Africa to break into world markets.

[page 226]

Or tackling the digital divide and investing the resources into ICT needed to enable Africa to participate fully in the global knowledge economy - identified as a priority in AU/NEPAD's infrastructure plans. We therefore believe it is important to move towards US$20 billion a year in the medium-term as an important contribution towards these needs.

[page 227]

The need for governments to ensure that the regulatory environment is in place to facilitate private sector investment in ICT was also highlighted. So too was the importance of a co-ordinated, continent-wide approach to ICT that brings together donors, governments and the private sector to enhance Africa's connectivity. Innovative private sector approaches to meeting the infrastructure needs of poor people - such as rural electrification - are one focus of the Growing Sustainable Business Initiative, support for which is proposed in section 7.4.3.

There was overwhelming support during our consultations for increased investment in regional, national, urban and rural infrastructure. At a recent meeting of African Finance Ministers, infrastructure was identified as the top priority for promoting growth. They also underlined the importance of information and communication technology (ICT) for competitiveness and productivity. ICT is transforming the continent. In 2001, Uganda became the first African country to have more mobile phones than fixed lines. The mobile market in the region (excluding South Africa) has grown from under 20,000 users in 1993 to an estimated 18.2 million in 2003. The benefits of ICT are far-reaching - connecting schools to the internet; enabling remote rural communities to get urgent medical advice by phone; giving farmers access to market price information; potentially halving the costs of sending remittances.

[page 228]

Support to The Gambia's education strategy has had successful outcomes across the sector. Through increasing public expenditure on education from 2.6 to 4.3 per cent of GDP, improvements have been made in the accessibility and quality of mainstream and vocational training, in non-formal and early childhood education, and in building management capacity. Applying a participatory approach was key to this success, particularly in addressing gender disparities - girls' gross enrolment more than doubled from 35 to 75 per cent between 1980 and 2000.

[page 299]