One of the strongest homegrown voices for African development, the African Monitor, will soon be lobbying the plight of the continent's people, the poor in particular, in the corridors of power all over the world.
African Monitor will press for urgent and effective implementation of commitments to Africa in ways that deliver tangible development at grassroots level.
This African civil society voice, described as the missing 'fourth piece of the jigsaw', alongside existing stakeholders of donor governments and institutions, their African counterparts, and donor-based NGOs and civil society, is to be launched in Cape Town on 3 May 2006.
The launch will be a product of ten months of consultation, consolidation and project design. The launch will be preceded by a broad stakeholder workshop on 2 May to test and finalise proposals. Further rollouts will be held in Kigali, Accra, London for the African Diaspora and Addis Ababa.
With the Most Reverend Njongonkulu Ndungane, Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, as one of the key drivers, African Monitor will raise its voice to ask the powerful and influential if their promises of development are being kept, if such promises are making any difference at grassroots level and if the African marginalised masses are experiencing any real development.
House of Wisdom
Unique to this lobby group will be a Togona, or 'House of Wisdom,' of prominent independent eminent persons from Africa and elsewhere that will harness both local and Diaspora communities to enable change through advocacy locally and internationally. The advocacy will be supported by monitoring - quantitative and qualitative - that would be working as a catalyst with existing research and networks, where possible.
African Monitor will further underline the link between macro input and micro output, raise expectations and awareness, improve accountability, motivate and empower grassroots communities to engage in policies and programmes that affect them directly. It aims to strengthen the bridge between Africa and donor communities.
It will focus on particular areas at a local level in order to bring tangible improvements in programme delivery, with the intervention of the Togona being an effective tool for improving provision on the ground, and developing the ability of local communities to engage with their governments and with donors to achieve more effective programme delivery.
Archbishop Ndungane says the African Monitor came after a realisation to maintain the development agenda set in 2005 through the "Year of Africa", prioritised by the Commission for Africa Report, the G8 Gleneagles Summit, and with the UN Special Summit and WTO Doha Round having a focus on development.
Maintaining Momentum
This according to Archbishop Ndungane was underpinned by Africa's own efforts through the commitments of the Organisation of African Union (subsequently the African Union) to sustainable development through the Nepad initiative and Peer Review Mechanism, as well as the Millennium Development Goals, as determined by the Johannesburg World Summit.
He said it was realised it would be vital to maintain that momentum to ensure promises on all sides would be implemented swiftly and effectively, in ways that make a real difference to real people.
"We saw that Africa's grassroots voices, currently marginalised and fragmented, could be harnessed to pursue these ends, and that faith communities, the most extensive civil society bodies on the continent, could provide the backbone of networks to bring these voices into the public arena.
"End-user accounts of experiences of programme delivery would help hold both donors and recipient governments to their word, and enable them to achieve their objectives on the ground. We further realised this would be a means of better engaging the priorities and perspectives that are the targets of these policies in their formulation and delivery, which would also enhance their effectiveness and sustainability," according to Archbishop Ndungane.
He said extensive consultations within Africa and beyond, among faith communities and wider civil society, NGOs, governments and international agencies, think tanks, academia, and the private sector showed overwhelming support in principle, with the recognition that there was no existing pan-African network that can provide such a catalyst across the sub-Saharan region, and taking a perspective across aid, trade, development and financial flows.
"African Monitor aims to be a 'constructive friend' to all stakeholders, and in particular to help those who have made promises, to be able to deliver them well," he said.
For all inquiries contact: Namhla Mniki , Projects Manager, The African Monitor
Email: Namhla@africanmonitor.org.za