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Mr.
Dirar is the Director of the OAU Economic Development and Cooperation
Department (EDECO). He has been working with the OAU since 1968
in different countries.
Latter-day
Cassandras and prophets of doom have been waxing positively baleful
over Africa: This continent has variously been described as a "human
and environmental disaster area;" "struggling to keep
up with the nineteenth century;" a continent so mired in political,
economic and social woes as to be incapable of the firm decisive
steps that the road to modernization requires. Numerous fears have
been expressed about the ability of this region to make the necessary
adjustments in order to begin to respond to the demands of the twenty-first
century. In large measure, this doom-saying reflects the legacy
of what has certainly been some of the most grotesque manifestations
of the colonial impulse that the world has seen - tensions between
as well as within states on opposite sides of hastily and thoughtlessly
drawn dividing lines, and political instability.
No
less ruinous in their consequences have been a number of structural
factors inherited by most of these countries - among them, little
scope for horizontal cooperation, since the economies were all geared
to production of raw materials for the benefit of the metropoles
in the industrialised world, and poor or non-existent physical and
institutional infrastructure. All these factors came, in turn, to
be aggravated by a number of natural and other phenomena - prolonged
and massive desertification in certain parts of the continent, famine,
drought and pestilence which, thanks to developments in satellite
technology, made the headlines in the rest of the world, reduced
millions to objects of international charity, and helped reinforce
the image of a continent overwhelmed while other developing regions
moved, albeit at varying rates, along the road to development.
But
for all who would see, Africa is in the process of dictating the
terms of the international headlines with respect to it. The region
is re-mobilizing its internal forces in order to arrest economic
deterioration, promote economic development and strengthen unity
of action. The Treaty establishing the African Economic Community
(AEC) (The Abuja Treaty) came into force in May 1994. "Africa
must cultivate the virtue of self-reliance," states the Preamble
to the Lagos Plan of Action. That Plan had reaffirmed that "the
development of (the) continent is the primary responsibility of
(African) Governments and peoples." In June 1995, OAU Heads
of State endorsed the Cairo Programme of Action for Relaunching
Africa’s Economic and Social Development which identified the
priorities for action. That Programme, which became the basis of
the new United Nations System-Wide Initiative for Africa, constitutes
a framework for intensified cooperation for the OAU and its membership.
It may be too soon to say what practical changes have been wrought
by the Cairo Agenda, but there is one aspect of that document that
encourages expectation: on this occasion African Heads of State
seemed to be driven as much by the enormity of the challenges facing
their countries as by their recognition of the inadequacy of their
responses to those challenges. The cornerstone and centre-piece
of the reinvigorated thrust that the Cairo Agenda represents is
collective self-reliance, and the African regional is unsheathing
its powerful secret weapon in its implementation - the recognition
that in the current international context, there is no other option
available to it.
Africa’s
efforts to institutionalize self-reliance have been of long duration,
if somewhat less than glorious. Three distinct phases can be observed.
The first which began in the early 1960s was that of coordinated
assistance by the few independent countries at the time, to enable
Liberation Movements to acquire the necessary skills and training
in preparation for independence. The second, beginning in 1968 with
the adoption of Resolution 164 (XI), was an attempt by the OAU,
to establish itself as a clearing-house for information on the availability
of and need for cadres in the various member states. The high-point
of this phase was the submission to the OAU Summit in Kampala in
1975 of an Inter-African Convention establishing a Technical Cooperation
Programme, with provision for a Technical Cooperation Fund. The
Convention never received the requisite number of ratifications.
After a quietus of ten years between 1975 and 1986, when the OAU’s
attention was largely absorbed with drought-induced famine and the
continent’s economic crisis, came the third phase. This period
was characterised by intense external involvement in technical cooperation
activity with Arab states, manifested in the development of joint
institutions dedicated to cooperation with African countries, and
the institutionalization of the Afro-Arab Trade Fair which is held
every three years.
Throughout
these phases the OAU has been steadily putting in place elements
of a network of Technical Cooperation institutions which together
constitute a potentially effective mechanism of the delivery of
technical assistance. These include the African Civil Aviation Commission,
the African Education Bureau, the African Regional Centre for Technology
and the Centre for Engineering Design and Technology, all of which
are involved, in varying degrees, in Technical Cooperation. This
potential has been enhanced by the signing of the Abuja Treaty.
Currently the OAU, which houses the Secretariat of the Community,
is finalizing the institutional framework for the operationalization
of the Treaty. An important dimension of this framework will be
the establishment of institutional relations with the African Regional
Economic Communities (REC’s) such as the Economic Commission
for West Africa and the Sahara (ECOWAS), the Southern Africa Development
Conference (SADC) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern
Africa (COMESA), which will be the pillars on which the AEC will
be structured. After appropriate mechanisms of collaboration between
the OAU, and the REC’s have been agreed upon, the new relationship,
when fully developed, will further enhance the opportunities for
cooperation and, in particular, the promotion of TCDC within, as
well as between, these Communities. Thereafter, the region must
proceed to put in place machinery suited to the particular characteristics
of TCDC - capable of serving as a centre for receiving and disseminating
information on capacities and needs, and of facilitating consultation
and coordination among National Focal Points.
There
are several aspects of the current fourth phase of the region’s
effort for the institutionalization of Inter-African technical cooperation
that encourage optimism this time around. In the first place, that
effort is being undertaken in the context of the evolving realities
of the present international environment - the trend towards the
creation of market economies in the region, with the consequent
requirement that economies be structured so as to enable them to
respond swiftly to market forces, the diminution of international
resources available for cooperation and the increase on the calls
for such resources, whose pressures are being exerted with growing
and unprecedented force, and which demand deliberate responses.
In the second place, that effort is being undertaken in global context
where TCDC, as a development ethic, has a higher profile, is more
mature, and is more internationally recognized and supported that
ever before, and the support-system for countries wishing to embrace
the TCDC modality is more solid and extensive than it ever was.
As use of the modality extends throughout the developing world,
and with the spread of information technology, its advantages are
becoming increasingly widely known. Third, as regional integration
extends and deepens in Africa, new and additional opportunities
are presenting themselves for the development and promotion of TCDC.
Fourth, this time around, the OAU’s efforts have gone one significant
practical step further than previous efforts, in that the Organization
is looking at the successful experience of other developing regions
with TCDC - Latin America and the Caribbean and the Pacific. In
concrete terms, it is currently examining the experience of the
Latin American Economic System (SELA), which has been functioning
as a dynamic and effective Focal Point for TCDC in that region.
The OAU is benefitting from the support of a former Deputy Permanent
Secretary of (SELA), who has had first-hand experience with the
development of what is recognized throughout the developing world,
as an excellent example of regional cooperation through TCDC.
According
to statistics relating to the UNDP Fifth Programming Cycle, as of
June 1996, the Special Unit for TCDC was involved in no fewer than
thirty-eight country-specific TCDC activities, covering sectors
that range from simply promoting the TCDC idea, through transfers
of expertise in Trade and Technology to exchange of successful experiences
in Good Governance, in addition to a growing number of inter-regional
projects. But aside from these, it is common knowledge that the
areas adjacent to international borders, particularly in Third World
countries, often have a peculiar dynamic. There, driven by socio-economic
similarities and in many cases by shared culture, communities work
together, pooling energies, sharing experiences and transferring
expertise in meeting shared needs, completely unconscious of the
existence of political borders. In Africa, contrary to what is frequently
peddled by the media, this dynamic is not always negative. Throughout
the vastness of the continent, pockets of cooperation activity thrive
unseen and unrecorded, without direct benefit of established TCDC
facilities or resources. It will certainly be a challenge to the
Regional Focal Point to compile a register of these instances of
cooperation, not only for purposes of record-keeping, but no less
importantly, in order to see how the cooperation being practised
could be deepened or extended through the application of TCDC mechanisms
and resources, or what lessons these cases may contain for other
countries or sub-regions.
Since
TCDC essentially involves a sharing of information and expertise
between two or more countries, TCDC activity often centres around
the needs of a particular country, with which are matched capacities
existing in another. However, TCDC is no less appropriate where
a number of countries share a common need. The Cairo Agenda, adopted
in June 1995, is the loftiest expression of Africa’s priorities
where the region’s economic development thrust is concerned.
One of the areas identified by the Heads of Government in this document
is that of Food Security, a critical issue for Africa since most
of the countries of the region are net importers of food. The Cairo
Agenda considers that an improvement in agricultural performance
is essential to raising nutritional standards, and to achieving
food self-sufficiency. Under this broad rubric the document details
a number of specific areas such as stock-piling of surplus food,
livestock and fisheries, management of water resources, reforestation
etc., where the experience gathered by individual countries of the
various sub-regions could be most helpful to others facing similar
problems. What is more the FAO has been working closely with countries
in Africa in the framework of TCDC where Food Security is concerned,
providing valuable advice and assistance.
In
the related area of health care, which likewise lends itself to
cooperative action, WHO is also giving high priority to assisting
countries put the TCDC modality into effect. Human resources development,
mineral resources and energy, transport and communications, trade,
the environment, additional priority areas identified in the Cairo
Agenda, all lend themselves well to TCDC.
The
establishment of functioning and reliable TCDC machinery in any
region has never been easy, and Africa will certainly not be the
exception; quite the contrary, the particularities of the various
sub-regions will add their own dimensions to the challenges involved.
The first challenges to be faced will undoubtedly be those of ensuring
that there is widespread understanding of what TCDC is, before its
potential can be realized. Thereafter it will be necessary to engage
the full support and overt commitment of the Governments, peoples
and organizations of the continent. While there may be some hopeful
beginnings, more widespread use of TCDC is yet to be realized. National
Focal Points throughout the region will need to be further strengthened
and trained in the proper discharge of their responsibilities, and
internal procedures enhanced for fluid communication between them
and their Governments. The all-important question of financing for
TCDC activities must also be addressed, and in this regard the experience
of other regions, such as Latin America and the Caribbean could
be instructive.
In
general, it would be appropriate, even at this early stage of the
effort to institutionalize TCDC in the OAU Secretariat, to begin
looking beyond the specific sector needs of one or two countries,
on which TCDC usually focuses, in order to apply this mode of cooperation
to issues which more generally affect African countries: external
financing for development, industrialization, social development,
the new rules of international trade to mention but a few. In Latin
America and the Caribbean for example, SELA, with the support of
the Special Unit, has produced a number of interesting studies on
issues such as external debt, the challenges of the new international
trading arrangements, new issues on the trade agenda, such as the
environment and international trade, the relationship between production
and labor legislation etc. - issues on which all states are obliged
to take positions. There is no need to re-invent the wheel where
these and other issues are concerned. A consultation with the Secretariat
of SELA with a view to an exchange of information and experience
and, at a later stage, the conclusion of an Agreement of Cooperation,
seems particularly indicated. To this end, UNDP’s Special Unit
for TCDC is assisting the OAU in playing a catalytic and leading
role in the promotion of TCDC in Africa.
With
the current quickening of the OAU’s momentum for establishing
more effective TCDC machinery, and with collective self-reliance
reinvigorated and enthroned, the Organization stands poised to place
Africa on a course that could hasten the movement of this region
into the mainstream of South-South cooperation, at the same time
significantly helping to advance its economic and social development.
In that light, the challenges outlined above appear less daunting.
This Organization is well-placed to serve the needs of the various
states as they seek to strengthen their mutual cooperation and to
cooperate as a collectivity with other developing regions for the
promotion of their shared interests where TCDC is concerned. Suitably
equipped with dedicated personnel resources and a flexible institutional
machinery, and with the help of the UNDP’s Special Unit for
TCDC, it could provide the leadership and direction which Africa
requires and is entitled to expect of it at this critical juncture
of the region’s history.
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