Emilly Comfort Maractho<\/p>\n
14 December 2011<\/p>\n
opinion<\/p>\n
That the World Bank has a strategy for Africa seems to surprise many. I get asked, sometimes, “Does Africa have its own strategy?” Of course it does. At least the African Union has a vision of sorts in many areas. When I first got the World Bank strategy for Africa, I quickly read through and decided there was nothing new and put it aside until someone left it on my desk with a note requesting me to say something about it.<\/p>\n
The March 2011 strategy titled Africa’s Future and the World Bank’s Support to It. (www.worldbank.org\/africastrategy) with a 10-year vision has two pillars of competitiveness and employment as well as vulnerability and resilience. It sounds great.<\/p>\n
But why do I think the strategy is old wine in new bottle? By 1989, the World Bank had noted that at the heart of Africa’s development problems was governance. Buying faithfully into it in the early 2000s, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development delved deeply into it and decided to pronounce itself on good governance with much enthusiasm, adding an African touch to it.<\/p>\n
So the Africa Peer Review Mechanism became the most talked about thing among African Leaders. And also a lot of resources went into assessing governance in many countries including Uganda. And there was the vision for agriculture through the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme, proudly known as the “Africa owned and Africa led initiative working to boost agricultural productivity in Africa”, to which many African countries are signatories but rarely commit to implementing its objectives.<\/p>\n
But what exactly are the results of the governance agenda? Is corruption not the major challenge today threatening the very core of democracy and the politics of governance with far-reaching impact on social and economic development? So, how does the World Bank hope that the development challenges will be fixed for Africa in the coming years in order to realise the unprecedented opportunity for transformation and sustained growth they envision?<\/p>\n
Over the years, the World Bank has been Africa’s partner in development, and sometimes we see reports that epitomise the potential of Africa’s transformation except as the years go by, the reality of each potential remains just that- potential. The Bank has dedicatedly supported the governance agenda.<\/p>\n
There is no denying that the strategy does point to some of Africa’s challenges in a candid manner although largely pointing in the direction of governance and leadership. Most of the document paints a correct picture and also gives the impression that very wide consultations were made.<\/p>\n
Some of the strong areas which are positive include strengthening the citizen’s voice using instruments of social accountability while exploiting the potential of ICT to enhance citizen-centered governance as well as building the capacity of African leaders. Issues of infrastructure and regional cooperation as well as institution building also feature strongly.<\/p>\n
On the other side, the World Bank appears to have a lot of optimism and asserts that Africa could be on the brink of an economic take-off, much like China 30 years ago and India 20 years ago.<\/p>\n
Normally, I am an optimistic person, but I am forced to think the World Bank is hiding from the truth even though it acknowledges Africa’s diversity.<\/p>\n
When I think of the generally appalling state of economic infrastructure, both public utilities and public works, and the dismal performance of the agricultural sector, a backbone for most of these economies coupled with the grand corruption and weak institutional capacity, I wonder where that take-off is going to come from.<\/p>\n
Adman Leftwish in Governance, Democracy and Development in the Third World, suggests that from a development point of view, the general but simplistic appeal for governance as a condition of development is virtuous but na\u00efve. I wish I could say Leftwish is wrong, but he appears to be more realistic, and I don’t want to say therefore the Bank is na\u00efve.<\/p>\n
Ms Maractho is a development economist.<\/em><\/p>\nemaractho@ucu.ac.ug<\/em><\/p>\nAllAfrica – All the Time<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\nMore News on allAfrica.com<\/strong><\/legend>\n<\/fieldset>\n<\/p>\n
Emilly Comfort Maractho 14 December 2011 opinion That the World Bank has a strategy for Africa seems to surprise many. I get asked, sometimes, “Does Africa have its own strategy?” Of course it does. At least the African Union has a vision of sorts in many areas. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n
Africa: World Bank Strategy for Africa - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/14\/africa-world-bank-strategy-for-africa\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Africa: World Bank Strategy for Africa - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Emilly Comfort Maractho 14 December 2011 opinion That the World Bank has a strategy for Africa seems to surprise many. I get asked, sometimes, "Does Africa have its own strategy?" Of course it does. At least the African Union has a vision of sorts in many areas.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/img\/static\/publishers\/minibanners\/monitor180.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/14\/africa-world-bank-strategy-for-africa\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/14\/africa-world-bank-strategy-for-africa\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"Africa: World Bank Strategy for Africa\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-12-14T14:58:40+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/14\/africa-world-bank-strategy-for-africa\/\"},\"wordCount\":689,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/14\/africa-world-bank-strategy-for-africa\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/img\/static\/publishers\/minibanners\/monitor180.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/14\/africa-world-bank-strategy-for-africa\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/14\/africa-world-bank-strategy-for-africa\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/14\/africa-world-bank-strategy-for-africa\/\",\"name\":\"Africa: World Bank Strategy for Africa - Ghanamma.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/14\/africa-world-bank-strategy-for-africa\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/14\/africa-world-bank-strategy-for-africa\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/img\/static\/publishers\/minibanners\/monitor180.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-12-14T14:58:40+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/14\/africa-world-bank-strategy-for-africa\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/14\/africa-world-bank-strategy-for-africa\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/img\/static\/publishers\/minibanners\/monitor180.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/img\/static\/publishers\/minibanners\/monitor180.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/\",\"name\":\"Ghanamma.com\",\"description\":\"News In Ghana - Latest Ghana News Headlines\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Africa: World Bank Strategy for Africa - Ghanamma.com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/14\/africa-world-bank-strategy-for-africa\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Africa: World Bank Strategy for Africa - Ghanamma.com","twitter_description":"Emilly Comfort Maractho 14 December 2011 opinion That the World Bank has a strategy for Africa seems to surprise many. I get asked, sometimes, \"Does Africa have its own strategy?\" Of course it does. At least the African Union has a vision of sorts in many areas.","twitter_image":"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/img\/static\/publishers\/minibanners\/monitor180.jpg","twitter_creator":"@ghanamma","twitter_site":"@ghanamma","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/14\/africa-world-bank-strategy-for-africa\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/14\/africa-world-bank-strategy-for-africa\/"},"author":{"name":"","@id":""},"headline":"Africa: World Bank Strategy for Africa","datePublished":"2011-12-14T14:58:40+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/14\/africa-world-bank-strategy-for-africa\/"},"wordCount":689,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/14\/africa-world-bank-strategy-for-africa\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/img\/static\/publishers\/minibanners\/monitor180.jpg","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/14\/africa-world-bank-strategy-for-africa\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/14\/africa-world-bank-strategy-for-africa\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/14\/africa-world-bank-strategy-for-africa\/","name":"Africa: World Bank Strategy for Africa - Ghanamma.com","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/14\/africa-world-bank-strategy-for-africa\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/14\/africa-world-bank-strategy-for-africa\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/img\/static\/publishers\/minibanners\/monitor180.jpg","datePublished":"2011-12-14T14:58:40+00:00","author":{"@id":""},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/14\/africa-world-bank-strategy-for-africa\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/14\/africa-world-bank-strategy-for-africa\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/img\/static\/publishers\/minibanners\/monitor180.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/img\/static\/publishers\/minibanners\/monitor180.jpg"},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/","name":"Ghanamma.com","description":"News In Ghana - Latest Ghana News Headlines","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13561\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"The](\"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/img\/static\/publishers\/minibanners\/monitor180.jpg\" "\\"Visit")
<\/a><\/p>\n