Reporting NEPAD in Africa: Where is the missing story?
Robert Ndlovu
It is important before delving much into the media aspect of this paper to briefly look at what NEPAD is? Who the main actors are and how it was conceived?
The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) is a holistic, comprehensive and integrated strategic framework for the socio-economic development of Africa. The primary objective of NEPAD is to eradicate poverty in Africa and to place African Countries, both individually and collectively, on a path of sustainable growth and development, to thus halt the marginalisation of Africa in the globalisation process.
According to the NEPAD document, the goals of NEPAD are:
1. To achieve and sustain an average gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate of
above 7 per cent per annum for the next 15 years;
1. To ensure that the continent achieves the agreed International Development Goals (IDGs), which are to:
reduce the proportion of people living in extreme poverty by half between 1990 and 2015;
enrol all children of school age in primary schools by 2015;
make progress towards gender equality and empowering women by eliminating gender disparities in the enrolment in primary and secondary education by 2005;
reduce infant and child mortality ratios by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015;
reduce maternal mortality ratios by three-quarters between 1990 and 2015;
provide access for all who need reproductive health services by 2015;
implement national strategies for sustainable development by 2005, so as to reverse the loss of environmental resources by 2015.

The strategy has the following expected outcomes:
Economic growth and development and increased employment; reduction in poverty and inequality; diversification of productive activities, enhanced international competitiveness and increased exports; increased African integration.

The proponents of this initiative, are the State Leaders of South Africa, Nigeria, Senegal and Algeria who also form the Steering Committee. The initiative is a result of various Afro-initiatives like the “Millenium Africa Recovery Programme” of President Thabo Mbeki (South Africa), Obasanjo (Nigeria) and Bouteflika (Algeria) and the “Omega Plan” of President Wade of Senegal who have tried to draw the new processes for African development.

What NEPAD refers to is however not new to Africa as many concepts have come and gone and still left Africa worse off than she was before. What then makes NEPAD a more attractive and a constructive intervention? Was NEPAD better explained and understood by the generality of the citizens and other stakeholders in Africa? How will NEPAD be implemented? What role will the Citizens of Africa play?

All these questions spell out the missing links between NEPAD and the vast communities of Africa who are unwilling recipients who have largely depended on the Western Press to learn more about the programme.

Role of media
It is important to note that for any development initiative to be considered serious, it has to incorporate at least an element of participation by the intended beneficiaries. This is done to ensure that there is a universal acceptance and compliance to the vision, objectives and the general provisions of the overall programme.

With NEPAD one finds that the finer details of NEPAD are not disclosed. How will the programme benefit the poor of the poorest? How will the success of the programme be measured or assessed? The media reports in Africa have mainly been narrative, highlighting what the Western World and the proponents of NEPAD have to say about the programme. Faced with this scenario, People found it difficult to clearly understand what NEPAD was all about. Without any clear cut consensus being arrived at, it is worrying that NEPAD should be given the green light to proceed to implementation stage without subjecting it to a litmus test.

The media has an important role as 'catalysts' in initiating a broad based popular dialogue on NEPAD, facilitate the integration of academics, civil society and other stakeholders into the processes of NEPAD; support and give prominence to lobby and advocacy process to engage the ordinary people and politicians. NEPAD must be unpacked a conducive environment created for greater understanding and contribution from a wider section of the continent. The media need to provide checks and balances that ensure that the processes of policy formulation are made transparent and decentralised to the lowest possible sectors of society.

It has been noted that development theory no longer conforms to simplistic modernist paradigms but to more concrete socio-economic and political factors that take into account such unconscious factors of processes of change, of culture, tradition or the human heart. To this end, the biggest challenge facing the media is to understand the development context into which NEPAD is being initiated. This entails the knowledge of the exact position the people of Africa, civil society, politicians and other stakeholders are in, in relation to the processes of NEPAD.

Unpacking NEPAD
NEPAD seeks to overcome the marginalisation of Africa and to reduce poverty. This is said with the firm belief that;
· Africa has a great potential and wealth
· Poverty in Africa is a result of Colonialism prior to independence and bad governance and corruption after independence.

With the new partnership for African development, the initiative recognies that it is necessary to come up with new reforms which can be itemised as follows;

1. Need to stabilise mechanisms for conflict prevention at Regional and Continental level
2. Promote good governance, human rights, transparency and the participation of civil society at national and local levels.
3. Facilitate the creation of a transparent framework for free markets
4. Stabilising the provision of education, training and health service with a special focus on HIV/AIDS and malaria prevention.
5. Promotion of the role of women by ending gender disparities.
1. Promotion of stable agricultural systems and infrastructure that promote stability within an export oriented processing industry economy.

However all these new initiatives were not built on a solid foundation of a self sustaining revolving fund generated by the African countries themselves but that the whole initiative seems to be bent on trying to attract foreign investment. In other ways, the document can purely be seen as a publicity or marketing document. It has been criticised from different sectors as perpetuating “begging” from outsiders. I has also been criticised for not having a clear strategy to address the current poverty in Africa including the unemployment crisis.

The G7s response that NEPAD provides a “paradigm shift” in development thinking on Africa renders most of those who have not participated in the formulation process unwilling recipients. The fear that have been raised is that NEPAD further perpetuates the 'divide and rule' concept which was successfully used by the west for decades. Those African Leaders who do not subscribe to the provisions of NEPAD, will be left out and the whole concept of 'African Renaissance' lost.

The North has argued that NEPAD is more acceptable than previous plans. It is not surprising that the North would find NEPAD more acceptable than all the other initiatives that Africa has generated. This is mainly a result of the fact that NEPAD largely follows the kinds of conditions that have been demanded by creditor and donor countries before both in terms of governance and economic strategy.

In this light it is very difficult to perceive an equal partnership arising from this initiative. The North still remains a powerful partner having control over the global economy, trade and technology. Africa remains a recipient. It is only through a miracle that the North can accept the conditionalities from below to embrace the new initiatives from Africa.

From the foregoing, it is very important to note that what NEPAD seeks to address, are issues retarding development in Africa although the corrective processes are not put in the right and more sustainable perspective. If it is agreed that the overall thrust of this initiative is development or eradication of poverty, it is important that this process of developing a development programme has to include all the actors in Africa-the people, civil society, media, politicians and all relevant stakeholders.

This means that NEPAD has to be put under spotlight. The speed at which it is being subjected to by its proponents to try and 'fast-track' it for approval has to be halted and the participatory process instituted.

Food for thought for the media
Having discussed to some extent about NEPAD though not comprehensively, it is prudent that we look at the media and how it can fit into the whole process of reporting about NEPAD. A standpoint has to be taken if the media is to come up with a realistic stance that can be understood by all. The first point that we have to agree on is that NEPAD attempts to redress colonial imbalances and reduce poverty in Africa, NEPAD tries to instill a sense of self-reliance and above all eliminate underdevelopment.

If a common understanding is reached, then NEPAD can be subjected to a litmus test. A test that puts the whole document to public scrutiny. The first step will be to understand that development is a process, it can not be caused but can be nurtured just like a biological system. One can not simply work up and become an adult but has to undergo certain biological developments to reach the adult stage. Whilst this biological perspective may be perceived as a simplistic model, it gives more currency to the fact that the stage at which NEPAD is now in relation to the perceived 'beneficiaries', has a lot of biological deficiencies.

In a developmental perspective, the Community Development Resource Association, says that development happens in three distinct phases. The first one is that of dependence. This is a time of great learning and skills acquisition in which the media and other agents of change provide the necessary inputs for great understanding and growth.

The second stage is that of dependence which provides a much more developed picture in the metamorphosis from the first stage. This stage entails self-reliance attained through own experiments and achievements. The final stage is the one of inter-dependence, a stage where the Africa that we have been trying to create realises that full potential can only be achieved through effective collaboration with others.

It is incumbent on the media that they facilitate an environment that will allow the 'Africa” as a whole to learn and acquire new skills of analysis, understanding and above all making informed choices. This entails the provision of correct and precise information which informs decision making and creates opportunities for debate.

The essential aspects to be looked at in this instance will be the origins of NEPAD, who the authors are and what inspired them to develop this programme? How has been the consultative processes? What has been done to minimise the negative effects of NEPAD? Who stands to benefit from this perceived “partnership” between the North and South?. Once the answers to these questions have been answered and a two way communication established, the NEPAD is geared to move on to the second phase. A phase of independence. This is when the media reports should be able to make independent assessments of our period of great learning and establishing the continent as unique and self-reliant bearing in mind that Africa has had interventions for more than four decades which have not take her out of the under-development limbo.

This is an opportunity for the press to engage the politicians and civil society to draw up self-sustaining initiatives that will seek inter-dependence rather than perpetuate 'begging'. Once these positions have been established, it is easy to come up with smart partnerships that emphasise equal partnerships based on sharing the same or more or less the same vision with resources pulled together equally to make the world a better place to live in.

The food for thought for the media is that NEPAD is here to stay and has provided an opportunity for the case of Africa to be heard whether the hearing is partial or full it does not matter. What is important is whether the media is ready? Ready to engage with NEPAD and put the whole case of Africa in a global debate based on facts. Facts arising from a popular dialogue and consensus resolutions from multi-stakeholder meetings.

Conclusion:
I would like to conclude this paper by taking an excerpt from Professor Tandon's paper NEPAD and FDIs: Symmetries and Contradictions:

The sentiment behind NEPAD is noble. It is to put Africa on a self-reliant path to development where Africans themselves own the processes. But, as they say, the road to hell is often paved with good intentions. The intentions notwithstanding, the practical effect of NEPAD would be to surrender the human rights of the people of Africa(their rights to food, water, energy etc) to the whims of volatile and untrustworthy global capital.

It is important to note that there can never be any meaningful development if the basics of policy formulation like participation are ignored. Similarly, there will never be any effective participation if the information disseminated does not provide opportunities for popular dialogue amongst the people of Africa.

This is an abridged version of the paper presented by Robert Ndlovu, at a workshop (Kadoma Conference Centre 24-27 February 2003) organised by SEATINI for the media in Southern Africa. Ndlovu is the Regional Manager of the Zimbabwe Decentralised Cooperation Programme.

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