Speaker Notes

Ms. Gertrude Mongella, Chairperson of the African Parliament and Former Secretary General of the Beijing Conference on Women

Plenary Session 1: Governance, the challenge for our leaders

Introduction

Governance is a leadership driven process be it in the economic, social or political sphere. This notion of leadership was part of the African culture.

• Good Governance, the respect for dignity and human rights are not a new themes in Africa. They are in fact deeply embedded in African history and culture (Example: Bantu philosophy).
• The challenge for the leaders of Africa today, therefore, is how to resuscitate these values and bring the concept of Good Governance closer to the people.

• Leadership is useful in containing the destabilizing elements that leads to conflict.
• But throughout its history and to this very day, Africa has experienced disruptions, both endogenous but many of them exogenous, in the form of wars, diseases, and poverty, which have led to a breakdown of the existing systems of Good Governance.
• Peace, security and the upholding of Human Rights create the necessary environment for good governance.
• Thus, many regions in Africa (South and West) have put the past behind them and are showing how the issues, struggles and conflicts arising from the past can be resolved and lead the way to peace and prosperity.
• At the same time, many of today's conflicts are about resources (Congo, Sudan, etc.). Africa is very rich in resources and in order to have lasting peace and Good Governance, governments and the People have to develop better ways of managing and distributing these resources (Example: Libya).
• Leadership is about containing disruption when they occur. In this respect, the African Union (AU), driving the unity of the African People, has recognized this problem and is trying to help countries resolve their conflicts and manage their resources in a fair and equitable way.

Leadership for Economic and human development

• Another dimension of governance concerns growth and economic empowerment, which can only take place when the conditions and environment are conducive to it - namely a peaceful and safe environment where the respect for the human rights and dignity of the People is being upheld.
• The issue of economic governance is being addressed by the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), which provides for an appropriate institutional framework to lead Africa into prosperity.
• Economic empowerment must also mean the empowerment of women who are all too often ignored in the economic empowerment discourse.
• Management of resources- and the leadership that is required for accountable and transparent management of these resources. Leadership is about better manage of countries resources to bring major benefit to the lives of people.

Leadership for promoting transparency and accountability

At the continental level there are three interrelated opportunity for exerting leadership in promoting transparent and accountable systems. NEPAD as a programme, APRM as a mechanism for monitoring conformity to principles of transparency and accountability and the Pan African Parliament, which gives voice to the people to have their views at higher level.

• The African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) is one process to introduce better accountability into African governments.
• But whilst the APRM is a quiet, monitoring instrument, other oversight bodies such as the Pan-African Parliament speak. CSOs and ordinary people can give their views to the Parliament, and debates are open and public (Example: Fact-finding mission to Darfur).
• These and other oversight bodies would create a properly functioning governance system that would reject leaders who refuse to be accountable and transparent.

Conclusion: How to bring Governance closer to the People?

• What are the reasons why people have lost faith in Good Governance in Africa? Are there role models to emulate? What can we go back to? How can the values of dignity, human rights, accountability, and transparency be resuscitated in African culture?
• People have to be `brought back on board', and the governance programmes have to be owned by the people, rather than imposing a `governance agenda' that bears no relevance to the reality on the ground.
• Too often it is assumed that people don't know anything about Good Governance. That is not true - they are very well aware of their rights, but they have no means to defend them.
• Indeed, people are afraid of the gun. They are powerless and the key challenge today is to empower them to be able to protect their rights.
• Hence, `governance' should not only mean `government', it should mean enabling the People to plan their lives, to exit poverty and to live in dignity.
• Governance should promote inclusiveness and the leadership that gender brings.
• Leadership should be seen at all levels- in our schools, hospitals, community level and should empower.