FUNDED BY:

(IDEA)

WITH COMPLEMENTARY CONTRIBUTION FROM:

EISA, IGD, CPC.

1-APRM : African Peer Review Mechanism

2-AU : African Union

3-AU-PSC : AU-Peace & Security Council

4-BWI’s : Bretton Woods Institutions

5-CPC : Canadian Parliamentary Centre

6-CSO’s : Civil Society Organizations

7-EISA : Electoral Institute of South Africa

8-IDEA : International Institute for Democracy and Electoral

Assistance

9-IGD : Institute for Global Dialogue

10-IMF : International Monetary Fund

11-NEPAD : New Partnership for Africa’s Development

12-NGO’s : None Governmental Organizations

13-OAU : Organization of African Unity

14-PAP : Pan-African Parliament

15-UN-SC : United Nations-Security Council

16-WB : World Bank

The workshop was organized by the International IDEA (Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance), in collaboration with the Canadian Parliamentary Center (CPC), the Institute for Global Dialogue (IGD) and EISA (Electoral Institute of South Africa). The workshop started at 15:15 on first of April 2005, It was officially opened by the chairperson of the committee, the Honorable / Dr. Elhadje Diao Kante , who gave brief address and outlined the workshop program and its objectives .

Dr. A. Hamdook , the Regional Director for Africa , of the International IDEA , welcomed the attendants and introduced the other three resource persons (besides himself).

The Gallagher Estate

Midrand

South Africa

It was attended by the committee members as well as members from other committees such as the committees on human rights, and gender. (List of attendance is attached - Annex 1).

The program included plenary presentations modeled on the three key focus areas of the committee: Cooperation, International Relations and Conflict Resolution, as well as breakout sessions to discuss these themes, (see annex II).

The paper on Democracy started off by putting democracy in perspective. Democracy, it was note, is a complex business, as is currently evident in Afghanistan and Iraq; it is also a non-linear process that cannot be imposed from outside – institutions cannot be transferred as they work differently in different political and institutional environments. There was also the emphasis on the fact that democracy building and conflict management need to be based on extensive dialogue and consensus building with local stakeholders; they also need to be based on a longer-term perspective.

A positive trend across the continent emerging across the continent is the fact that an overwhelming number of countries have and are transforming their regime types from the authoritarian variant to a more pluralistic type. And the establishment of the African Union, and particularly the NEPAD initiative, has focused the minds of political elites on the business of responsible economic and political governance and a new sense of collective responsibility is developing.

In addition, transparent electoral processes and a more inclusive political system in which minorities and previously disadvantaged groups have gained access to elected and appointed offices. The more inclusive the political space becomes, the more the likelihood of sustaining the gains made in democratic governance. The issue of deepening democracy remains a serious concern given the socio-political challenges facing the continent.

It is noteworthy that certain states have thus far shown some remarkable resiliency, such as: Ghana, Benin, Botswana, Namibia, Senegal and South Africa in the face of these challenges. The unevenness in the level and depth of democratic governance across countries may be in part due somewhat, to the intractable nature of democracy challenges in the respective countries. The expectation is that the experience of these countries may provide "demonstration effects" that could provide the forward to other states where the commitment to democratic governance may yet be tenuous and grudging.

The paper summarized the unique features of NEPAD and its APRM for good governance in Africa, as follows:

- The recognition that economic/corporate, political governance, peace and security are necessary preconditions for Africa’s development strategy.

- The pledge by African leaders to be accountable to one another and to their own people;

- The emphasis on Africa’s ownership of the development process;

- The setting up of programmatic agenda and processes that have led to a peer review mechanism for monitoring compliance to the goals and objectives of the initiative; and

- The demonstration of the collective political will of African leaders and their commitment to mutual accountability to each other through NEPAD represents a watershed in Africa’s quest for revitalization and renewal in the 21^st century.

NEPAD is currently seen as a framework for international cooperation and the Pan African Parliament (PAP) could use it to develop contacts and permanent consultations with regional economic communities/organizations; promote the harmonization and integration of sub-regional markets; as well as develop a North-South cooperation model.

NEPAD also offers opportunities for good governance especially the recognition that economic/corporate, political governance, peace and security are necessary preconditions for Africa’s development strategy.

The African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) has emerged as the bedrock of the NEPAD initiative but it is currently faced with a number of challenges. Among them: the establishment of appropriate national structures and the organisation of a participatory process for the APRM; the role of civil society, and problems of broad based consultation are serious issues needs to be addressed; political manipulation of the APRM process and the independence and integrity of the process. These are key challenges that demand the attention of the PAP, particularly this committee especially if Africa wants to project its international relations.

APRM Guiding Principles:

-The ownership and leadership by the participating country are essential factors underpinning the effectiveness of the APRM, also APRM process is designed to be open and participatory.

-In addition the APRM is guided by the principles of transparency, accountability, technical competence, credibility and it should be free of manipulation.

-It should be stressed that the APRM is not to exclude or punish countries, there is no conditionality attached to the mechanism.

Finally, some progress has been achieved in the implementation of the APRM as well as some challenges and lessons learned.

They picked up from the first one by focusing on Multilateralism and global governance as well as the role of the Pan African Parliament (PAP) on setting the African agenda at the international level. The thrust of the presentations was on engaging with and reforming key global institutions: the United Nations; the International Financial Institutions and the World Trade Organisation. There was also an emphasis on South solidarity, particularly in the face of current US unilateralism and its growing powers. They addressed the following issues in depth:

Global Governance: different definitions, generally speaking it is "the collection of governance-related activities, rules, mechanism, formal and informal, existing at a variety of levels in the world today". The states remain the key actors as they create intergovernmental organizations (IGO) international law etc. Other actors are IGOsm nongovernmental organizations, multinational corporations (MNC), whose influence in domestic policy, especially regarding labour, trade, environment, is becoming stronger and it is even feared that this influence is undermining the sovereignty of developing states. IGOs essential to global governance: UN, Bretton Woods institutions and the World Trade Organisation.

Problems with multilateralism-while the ideal type of multilateralism refers to a non-hierarchical form of coordination, in reality it obscure a dominant-subordinate relationship. It has the potential to counter abuse of power, but the USA as the global hegemon has been arranging governance to suit its own interests: e.g. refusal to ratify several international convections, the Bush Doctrine etc.

Primary role of the UN is to ensure global peace and security with the UN Security Council core of the international security system with the authority to authorise the use of force, however its representation of the power configurations of 1945 is outdated and the permanent member’s under-present the majority of the world population. A proposal has been made foe the restructuring of the Security Council involving the redistribution of sates to four regional areas: Africa, Asia, Europe and America.

The most important institutions dealing with international economic relations are the International Monetary Fund, The international Bank of Reconstruction and Development (the World Bank) and the World Trade Organisation. Originally they were established to avoid the policies that exacerbate the Great Depression. The World Bank started off providing funding for large projects-like infrastructure developments. Later its funding shifted to supporting the private sector. Critics suggest that their new role could be regarded as foreign policy instruments of the North and the US in particular. The side effects of the measures introduced by the middle class, cutting back of social services. Their intervention exacerbated the economic difficulties in many of the counties (the Asian crisis1997), A study on the extend to which lending coincides with the trade interests of the primary shareholders found that the US "exert by far the greatest influence on the loan granting process of the IMF and the World Bank".

Pressure for reforming the IFI systems has been building up in recent years with South Africa, Britain and some Nordic counties at the forefront. The following proposals for change have been made: increasing the voting shares of the developing states, increasing the number of executive directors in the Bank’s board.

On reforming the UN, the principal goal is to ensure global peace and security. The Security Council currently forms the core of the international security system with the authority to legitimise the use of force. But its representation of power configurations of 1945 is outdated. The Secretary-General, Kofi Annan’s panel of reform has noted that the Council "has not always been equitable in its actions, nor has it acted consistently or effectively in the face of genocide or other atrocities." The Panel has two proposals:

The UN reform agenda is interesting but complex and Africa’s position is not consistent with the Panel’s proposal. There are a number of African contenders and this brings with it, dangers of a rift with the attendant problem of dividing stronger developing states with more bargaining power from weaker ones. The key challenge therefore is how Africa can navigate this complex dilemma. This is where the Pan African Parliament, particularly the Committee on Cooperation needs to play a lead role.

If the current power configuration at the UN is not representative enough, insignificance of Africa within the Bretton Woods Institutions (BWIs) is disquieting. These institutions are mainly dominated by US. 75 percent of their membership comes from developing states but they have only about 33 percent of the vote, while the US, UK, Germany, Japan and France have 40 percent of the vote; voting rights are based on a quota system which is determined by gross national product, benefiting the rich states; US appoints the president of the World Bank (always an American) and Europe appoints the managing director of the IMF (always a European). Evidence of US dominance and control of key global institutions as its current controversial nominations to both the World Bank and the UN.

The second part of IGD’s set of presentations attempts to explain why and how Africa should position itself in relation to board regional and global debated and processes. Specifically, it tries to map out a strategy for the PAP’s committee on ‘cooperation, International Relations and Conflict Management’ that would enable it assists national governments, sub-regional institutions and continental organizations to influence these processes for the realization of the African agenda. The point of departure is naturally a definition of what constitutes the African agenda? Who defines it and for whom?

The African agenda must be understood and defined in relation to the multiple problems that have faced the continent since independence in early 1960’s and that have conspired to retard its development. Africa’s complex of problems range from externally oriented, dependent and undiversified economies, through poor governance (economic, political and corporate) and related issues of intra and inter African conflicts, unfavorable global economic and political environments, resulting in ever deepening marginalization of Africa in global markets, international financial institutions, international investment and global political decision-making. Most spectacularly, at the turn of the century, Africa’s problems became most marked in a shameful reputation of poor governance, an unsustainable debt burden, low and poorly channeled official development assistance, continuously dwindling shares of global FDI, multiply and varied forms of barriers against its products entering the markets of industrialized countries, lack of infrastructure (national and regional), and a dire need for human capital. This, in spite of Africa’s endowment with some of the world’s most solicited natural resources-including petroleum, diamond and gold, a potentially productive youthful population and yet to be exploited regional markets-that ordinarily should offer huge possibilities for the reversal of the continent’s position of near perennial underdevelopment.

The African agenda pushes for the establishment of the preconditions for development defined in terms of establishing institutions and processes of good governance, including deepening democracy and human rights; and cultivating a culture of peace and security in individual African countries and in the continent more broadly. According to this agenda, it is upon the foundation of good governance, human rights, peace and security that development defined in terms of poverty reduction, infrastructure development, and regional integration, human capital development etc can be realized.

The emphasis here is on:-

-Leveling the play ground for the continent-and this is thought to be achievable if Africa’s partners could address the thorny issue of the continent’s unsustainable debt.

-Influence decisions/policies of multilateral and bilateral institutions of finance, particularly the Bretton Woods Institutions- WB/IMF.

-Securing greater access for African goods into the markets of developed countries (through for example influencing negotiations within global trade regimes-GATT/WTO.

-Securing better and higher official development assistance (ODA) through for example negotiations with bilateral partners, especially the developed countries and through strategically influencing groupings like the G8, the EU.

-Pushing for a greater voice for the continent in multilateral and bilateral institutions of governance such as the UN, the World Bank and the IMF.

The presentation also hinted to some distributing facts concerning the U.S.A foreign contemporary, policy, which referred to as:

"Bush Doctrine", that manifested itself in the following approach:

-Pre –emptive actions to ensure U.S.A internal security .e.g. In Iraq, Afghanistan, which is in-turn, undermine the credibility of the international organizations.

-U.S.A did not ratify many international conventions, such as the convection to establish the International Criminal Court (I.C.C).

-Tendency to formulate & sign bilateral relations (with Kenya, Bahrain) instead of multilateral agreements.

Till mid-sixties U.S.A was participating positively in U.N. activates, but gradually tend to take different route of unilateralism.

The presentations seem to make a strong case for PAP’s engagement in regional and global processes especially within the NEPAD framework. But the key challenge is how such an engagement can potentially advance the African agenda especially in the face of continuing marginalization and the pervasive nature of conflicts on the continent.

Most importantly, the question remains as to whether PAP could have a role in the actualization of the African agenda however defined and irrespective of who has defined it? How for example can PAP influence national, regional and global processes that are capable of facilitating the entrenchment of good governance, democracy and a human rights culture in Africa? What should be the role PAP in promoting peace, security and stability in the continent? Could PAP make any inputs into efforts aimed at reducing poverty and underdevelopment in Africa? And finally, can PAP influence external stakeholders-especially through their national and regional legislatures-to keep their pledges to assist the continent’s development endeavors?

The PAP being an organ of an intergovernmental organization-the African Union, conceived and directed by African heads of states-heads of the overbearing national executives, African parliamentarians need to be conscious of the possible dangers of the transportations of the unbalanced nature of the relationship between national legislative and executives functions that prevail in individual African states into the continental governance structure-particularly as the Pap is only just emerging as a new institution in the midst of existing executive dominated ones. It needs to be understood that, PAP would only get as strong as African national and sub-regional legislatures are.

Importantly therefore, PAP has to think of ways of empowering African national legislatures, to enable them break away from the domination of the executive. This is the only way they would be able to effectively control the African executives and their excesses that have always translated into human rights violations and other forms of bad governance practices. This is in spite of the fact that at the moment, PAP can only play an advisory not an oversight role.

The pervasive nature of conflicts on the continent and the role of the PAP constitute the theme for the last presentation, which started off by defining conflict as (A situation in which two or more parties strive to achieve incompatible goals) therefore its part and parcel of social life. Conflict, by definition, involves:

Actors: Who are the primary and secondary belligerent parties (internal and external)?

Issues: What are the causes of the conflict (root causes and proximate causes)?

Actions: What is their behavior/attitude towards each other (conflict-reducing vs conflict-inducing behavior)?

On what causes conflicts in Africa, the paper noted that during the Cold War, conflict was driven primarily by ideology but in the post-Cold War, there were three issues: Power (e.g. control of state/government); Resources (e.g. distribution of the national wealth); and Social Identity (ethnicity, race, class, gender).

One of the key points of the presentation is the fact that the noble goals of NEPAD cannot be achieved until and unless both intra-state and inter-state conflicts are redressed in the five sub-regions of the continent. This is so because sustainable development requires that resources be invested more in social livelihoods of people rather than in sustaining violent conflicts within and among states (bullets vs bread);

Another key point is the proposition that conflict by itself is not a bad thing and is part and parcel of society. What is important for institutions like the PAP is to help members states put in place mechanisms for managing these conflicts. These mechanisms, like democracy, cannot be imported; they have to develop from within the continent. At the continental level, the AU and its institutions like the PAP should take the lead while at the regional level, regional organizations like SADC and ECOWAS have a key role to play.

While there is a role for Parliaments, to this day, these institutions, whether at the national, regional or continental level, have played very little role in the management of conflict in the continent. The role of these institutions becomes more urgent in the face of two facts:

1) Intra-state conflict tends to be more complex and difficult to manage than inter-state conflicts.

2) The UN has not succeeded to manage conflicts (especially intra-state conflicts) in Africa.

The PAP is particularly well placed to play a key role in conflict management on the continent. The institution can:

There were a number of cross-cutting themes/issues emerged from the presentations, these could be summarized as follows:

Having reflected on the presentations, committee members raised the following issues for discussion/deliberation both at the group level and in the plenary:

On the second day, committee members were divided into three groups –, cooperation, international relations and conflict resolution – reflecting the themes of the previous day. The group deliberated on the presentations of the previous day with the goal of coming up with key practical strategies on how the committee could tackle the various tasks the PAP has set for it. Below are the summaries of the group reports.

Cooperation is at the root of PAP which is a vital organ of the AU. The current context of coop should be carefully understood so that it could be applied at all levels of the PAP

Need to work towards an understanding of in-depth issues that relate to cooperation in Africa as may be necessary from time to time.

Group considered whether or not to tackle these issues or leave it to the group on cooperation. It deliberated on how the PAP can develop relations with national, regional and other parliaments as well as the reform of the UN.

The group’s deliberations focused on three areas of conflict: prevention, management and transformation as well as the issue of resources to finance efforts in the three areas.

The deliberations during the two-day workshop were extremely useful in helping shape the agenda of the Pan-African Parliament Committee on Cooperation international Relations and Conflict Resolution. Members from various parliaments across the continent displayed a high sense of enthusiasm and commitment to the monumental tasks ahead of them.Overall, the workshop was successful, at least, in shaping up an agenda for this committee at a very early stage of the life of the PAP.

Annexes:

Annex 1: List of participants and attendants

Annex 2: Workshop program

Annex 3: The presentations

Annex 4: Group reports