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2. REGIONAL POVERTY ISSUES AND ANALYSIS

2.1 THE NEW AFRICAN INITIATIVE: THE NEXT STEPS

The recent (and last) meeting of the OAU in Lusaka adopted a merged version of the MAP and OMEGA proposals that had been developed by various African leaders during the last six months. The ambitious plan attempts to lay the basis for a turn-around in Africa's economic fortunes so as to reduce the incidence of poverty on the continent. Readers can access the text of the NAI from a recently established website, specifically devoted to documenting the unfolding discussion around the NAI (see below).

Recipients of the first SARPN newsletter received a copy of the MAP and OMEGA documents вЂ” the first time these documents had generally been viewed outside of a closed circle of advisors to the respective governments.

However, SARPN wants to point out that readers who access the document in the next few weeks should bear in mind that it might be amended in the next few weeks. The five-country steering committee established at the OAU summit to drive the unfolding of the NAI process вЂ” consisting of Algeria, Nigeria, Egypt, Senegal and South Africa вЂ” will meet in the second half of August to discuss possible refinements to the document. However, substantial changes to the version agreed upon at the OAU meeting will not be permitted, SARPN understands. Thereafter, the five-country steering committee will be expanded to a 15-country steering committee вЂ” a process that should be completed by mid-September.

The next major step in unpacking the NAI's implementation and project agenda will take place in early September in Addis Ababa, during a meeting to be facilitated by the Economic Commission for Africa. (Readers of the last newsletter will also have received a copy of the ECA's Compact document, released earlier this year.) The goal of the meeting is to identify projects and programmes that can advance the NAI's agenda. Decisions from the Addis Ababa meeting will then be presented by African representatives to a special UN summit scheduled for mid-September.

Some early pointers to the scope of the NAI are referred to in other articles in this newsletter. Understanding the NAI is of crucial importance to poverty specialists in different sectors in the Southern African region вЂ” the immediate focus of the SARPN's activities.SARPN will, in future months, unpack aspects of the NAI to understand how they impact on poverty in the SADC region.

Linking up: The text of the NAI can be accessed at www.mapstrategy.com.

2.2 PROSPECTS FOR POVERTY AT THE SADC SUMMIT

The forthcoming SADC summit in Malawi needs to be closely watched for signs that it is elevating regional integration and poverty alleviation policy issues into its strategic agenda. The summit starts this week with meetings of senior officials in preparation of the Heads of State meeting next week.

Six months ago, at its last Head of State summit, SADC adopted the recommendations of a thorough review into its institutional functioning and its strategic priorities. One of the report's major conclusions was that SADC needed to develop a more concerted focus on regional integration and poverty reduction and a more explicit common agenda to guide its actions. An estimated 40% of persons living in SADC states are deemed to live in absolute poverty.

The report, which followed inputs from all member states, proposed that one element of SADC's Common Agenda should be the promotion of sustainable and equitable economic growth and socio-economic development. On this basis, all programmes and activities of SADC undertaken in member states should impact on вЂњsustainable socio-economic development including poverty alleviation, reduction and its ultimate eradicationвЂќ.

The report proposed that SADC develop a Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP), with a rolling budget, as the major tool to provide strategic direction to all sectoral activities. In effect, the RISDP would drive more thorough regional integration and development initiatives.

The first iteration of the RISDP was to have been completed by December this year. The Blantyre summit will provide the first public indication of the extent to which SADC has been able to move in this direction.

Dr Prega Ramsamy, the SADC's executive secretary, has indicated that the summit would hear progress reports from the various sectors, including progress made with institutional restructuring. What progress can realistically be expected on this score?

Although reports on activities during the last six months will be presented to the summit by the various sectors, meaningful progress towards the RISDP might take longer to develop than expected.

This is so on the following counts:

The enormity of institutional restructuring. The timeframe for the process, which involves centralisation of functions under a revamped secretariat, away from the present 21 country-based sector desks, is envisaged to take about two years. Progress on the RISDP is also seen as hinging on the setting up of new structures in member states, so-called вЂњnational committeesвЂќ. This has not yet happened in any substantial sense.
The complex juggling of member state interests. Developing the document will involve a delicate set of balancing acts if all member states are to buy into a region-wide, cross-cutting framework. The RISDP is predicated on the assumption that a regional view of development is possible and, furthermore, that it is politically achievable.
SADC itself seems to be indicating that a longer time span will be required. The theme of its next Consultative Conference, entitled вЂњSADC institutional reform for poverty reduction through regional integrationвЂќ, will take place in Botswana in October 2001. Presumably the conference is meant to be a key vehicle for discussing progress on this score.

If the RISDP will not feature prominently, what issues and debates need to be closely scrutinised for their impact on regional poverty? On the basis of Dr Ramsamy's pre-summit briefing, four issues seem critical. They are:

Debates on a Social Charter of Fundamental Rights in SADC. Key provisions of the draft charter revolve around freedom of association and collective bargaining, freedom of movement, equal treatment for men and women and issues around the improvement of working and living conditions.
Debates on the further implementation of an SADC Trade Protocol. This gets to the heart of issues around regional integration. For many, it raises issues of unequal competition with South African products.
Debates on progress with the implementation of an HIV/AIDS Strategic Framework and Programme of Action. The review noted that HIV/AIDS had to be the top priority for SADC. Clearly, little progress towards reducing poverty can be made with prevailing HIV/AIDS rates in SADC countries
Progress on the setting up of national committees in each SADC state. One task of these new structures, which are designed to link government, civil society and business interests, is to facilitate progress towards the RISDP. Progress reports on the setting up of these committees will be submitted to the summit.

Finally, the summit will also need to note the emergence of the New African Initiative and make some preliminary observations on the links between the SADC and the NAI, as vehicles for socio-political and economic development in Africa. Given the newness of the NAI, it might be premature to expect firm decisions in this regard. But the NAI does argue for stronger regional economic groupings and commits itself to building their capacity and ensuring their rationalisation where necessary.

Note: The text of Dr Ramsamy's briefing document (presented at a recent press conference in Gaborone) is available from the SADC. It can also be supplied by SARPN. Please e-mail sarpn@hsrc.ac.za for an electronic copy.

SARPN will be hosting a roundtable discussion on вЂњRestructuring SADC for poverty reduction in Southern Africa: a report-back from the Blantyre summitвЂќ on Friday 17th August in Pretoria at 2pm. The speaker will be Ms Santo Kudjoe, chief director of African Multilateral Affairs in the South African Department of Foreign Affairs.

POVERTY BEST PRACTICES FROM ZAMBIA (1)

2.3 CSPR TAKES UP THE PRSP CHALLENGE IN ZAMBIA

Civil society formations in a number of SADC countries continue to grapple with their participation in the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) process demanded by the Bretton Woods institutions. Many civil society participants have found the process technically demanding and, on a variety of counts, unsatisfactory.

Highly indebted poor countries need to complete the process to qualify for further loans and debt relief. Finalised PRSPs are taken by the World Bank and IMF as a nationally-owned set of poverty alleviation policies, rather than a Washington-imposed set of policies and programmes, as structural adjustment programmes clearly were.

During recent regional scoping visits, SARPN team members have spoken to a number of civil society participants about their experiences in PRSPs. These discussions brought home the enormity of the tasks expected of civil society formations, especially if they are to feel a sense of ownership of the final document. One of their consistent messages was the need to strengthen cross-country debates and sharing of experiences of the trajectory of individual PRSP processes.

Against this background, one highly innovative aspect, worth serious consideration by civil society organs active in PRSPs in SADC states, has been generated by the Civil Society for Poverty Reduction (CSPR) in Zambia. The CSPR, which brings together over 90 organisations active in the local process, recently released a comprehensive document with detailed suggestions on policies and programmes for multi-sectoral poverty relief in Zambia.

The document was released on 18 July, as the Zambian PRSP process entered a critical drafting phase.

The CSPR stresses that the 260-page document is not intended as a "parallel PRSP" but as a "direct contribution to a final document that wants to rightly claim domestic ownership". It points out that its objective in compiling the detailed document has been to "ensure that the voices of the majority of Zambians are heard and taken into account during the PRSP process". The document would also вЂњsignificantly enrichвЂќ the understanding of poverty in the country and вЂњsharply highlightвЂќ priority areas for response in the national document.

The genesis of the CSPR вЂ” and ultimately the production of the document вЂ” lay in a common recognition by civil society participants in the eight PRSP working groups that they could make a higher quality input if they entered into a consultative process with one another. Facilitators were recruited for each thematic area and tasked with writing a situational analysis for each theme. Draft reports were submitted to a national forum in March this year. They were then discussed by workshops attended by a wide range of civil society participants in four of the poorest Zambian provinces. The reports were then integrated into a single document by an experienced report editor.

The chapters in the CSPR report cover the following aspects:

an overview of Zambia's economic and poverty situation
employment and sustainable livelihoods
environmental issues
gender
agriculture and food security
the role of mining in poverty reduction
tourism
health and HIV/AIDS
education, children and youth
governance issues and poverty reduction
the macro-economic framework
provincial perspectives on poverty reduction

The first lesson from the CSPR experience is that civil society formations active in PRSPs have to pool their individual energies and resources under an umbrella body if they are to have maximum impact; the second lesson is that they must be able to reach out to research agencies and sectoral policy specialists who can craft intricate policy proposals in collaboration with the umbrella body; and the third lesson of the CSPR model and its analysis is that poverty is multi-dimensional, cross-cutting, and cannot be reduced to narrow measurements of income.

As Professor Venkatesh Seshamani of the University of Zambia and lead facilitator of the report noted in his presentation at the launch of the report: "The report recognises that while sustained economic growth is central to poverty reduction, it is in itself not sufficient. Even if economic growth reduces income deprivation, it will not automatically reduce non-monetary facets of poverty unless one ensures through conscious policy that the growth is equitable, pro-poor and brings about improved access to facilities for education, health and other basic social and infrastructural amenities."

The limitation of the document lies in the CSPR's continuing exclusion from key higher-level PRSP instruments, namely the technical and drafting committee. Both are crucial elements in driving the Zambian PRSP. The CSPR continues to press for inclusion on these committees, with some apparent sympathy from elements within the Zambian government. At the launch, the Zambian Minister of Finance and Economic Development supported the idea but said he needed "guidance" on how this could be done. The national PRSP co-ordinator must now propose mechanisms for their inclusion.

Until this happens, the CSPR will have to undertake extensive efforts to publicise its report in a way that will influence government. Hopefully key government officials will respect the CSPR document for its detailed policy options, based on extensive evidence.

Although the CSPR has risen to the challenges of participation by producing this document, it will soon face another key challenge common to civil society formations in the region: a tenuous funding lifeline. Formed ten months ago, the CSPR has received funding from a small range of donors. However, these early grants appear to be coming to an end with no certainty of their renewal.

If this funding dried up, it would be a huge blow because civil society in PRSP countries faces another challenge once the Bretton Woods institutions approve each national PRSP вЂ” that of monitoring the implementation of individual PRSP programmes. To do so, bodies like the CSPR will need consistent funding if they are to scrutinise PRSP implementation for its impact on alleviating the plight of those whom it is supposed to impact on вЂ” the poor.

Note: The New African Initiative (NAI) says it will support the Economic Commission for Africa's efforts to establish a PRSP Learning Group amongst African countries grappling with PRSPs, together with the IMF and the World Bank.

Linking up: Persons wishing to contact the CSPR directly should contact Ms Besinati Phiri, the CSPR coordinator, at cspr@zamnet.zm. The telephone number is (260-1) 224546. The full document, and an executive summary, will shortly be posted on the SARPN website, with the permission of the CSPR.

Note also that the SARPN web site carries a number of recent documents from the Malawi Economic Justice Network, the umbrella body of civil society formatiosn active in the Malawi PRSP.

POVERTY BEST PRACTICES FROM ZAMBIA (2)

2.4 SHARING ACCESS TO AND ANALYSIS OF OFFICIALA POVERTY DATA

Zambia, it is sometimes said, has some of the most detailed poverty data sets in Southern Africa. Since 1991 four large, dedicated surveys have monitored rising levels of poverty across a range of social sectors. Today Zambia has the second largest proportion of people living below one dollar a day, behind Mali.

But building on what might be regarded as a comparative statistical advantage in the region, Zambian officials have innovatively redesigned an established programme to ensure that poverty data feeds back into the wider policy-making and policy implementation cycle вЂ” in ways that involve civil society, University of Zambia researchers and officials in key departments across government вЂ” to aim at better policies and to measure their impact on the Zambian poor.

The Poverty Monitoring and Analysis (PMA) is a core component of the Zambian Social Investment Fund (ZAMSIF). ZAMSIF has replaced the Social Recovery Project. The PMA is linked to both the Central Statistical Office and the Ministery of Finance and Economic Development. It is funded by the Zambian Government and the World Bank. The PMA's overall objective is to "strengthen the capacity to provide timely information on poverty and social conditions and facilitate its use in policy making".

More particular goals are to:

streamline the collection of economic and social statistics at household level;
mainstream the analysis of poverty data, including the production of an annual poverty and social indicators monitoring report and an annual poverty review; and
support the functioning of a unit in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, which would be involved in policy formulation, analysis, inter-agency co-ordination and communication, planning, monitoring and evaluation of poverty-related activities.

While these are essentially little different from those of the earlier Social Recovery Project (SRP), the PMA says its new direction draws on lessons learnt from the SRP experience. These were, first, the need to establish a focal point with the mandate to systematically channel synthesised analysis to policy makers; second, that the use of this information, once channeled to policy makers, could be better and, third, that little capacity existed among researchers for data handling, manipulation and analysis of the large data sets. The Social Recovery Project had established a dedicated Study Fund that granted policy researchers funds to access and analyse data on a range of sectoral issues impacting on poverty.

The new programme allocates a much higher priority to the Study Fund as a tool for interaction with poverty researchers and institutions in Zambia. It is seen as a vehicle to strengthen the capacity of Zambian institutions to undertake research and analysis of existing data and also to improve communication among researchers, policy makers, programme implementers and target communities.

Interaction with poverty researchers will be achieved through the long-standing Poverty Assessment Group (PAG) and with the recently established Poverty Studies Centre (PSC) at the University of Zambia. The PAG is acknowledged for its expertise in participatory and qualitative poverty research, which was built while it was housed in the Zambian government. It has now become an independent entity. The PSC, on the other hand, has a greater understanding of quantitative research methods and analysis. These organisations will be closely involved in analysing the data sets, but they will also be expected to train and develop capacity among PMA staff and, crucially, among staff at district levels in Zambia.

This programme is worthy of close consideration, if not emulation, by other statistical agencies in Southern Africa for the ways in which it links government and non-government agencies and specialists in the analysis of data. It has already attracted the attention of agencies in Lesotho and Malawi. It can also help, over time, to improve data collection and statistical analysis in a region where such capacity is widely regarded as being unsatisfactory. Incidentally, the PMA will make all its data available at a nominal rate via a double CD-ROM.

It is worth noting that the SARPN's scoping visits across the region, including South Africa, have revealed much concern by poverty specialists that governments are not doing enough to share poverty data and stimulate informed policy dialogue between government officials and civil society activists and researchers. This Zambian example hopefully goes a long way to bridging that gap.

Linking up: For more information on the programme, readers should contact the PMA manager, Dr Buleti Nsemukila. His e-mail address is buleti@zamsif.org.zm.

2.5 SARPN'S LAND REFORM AND POVERTY CONFERENCE

The Southern African Regional Poverty Network (SARPN) recently hosted a two-day conference on land reform and poverty alleviation at the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) in Pretoria, South Africa. In keeping with the goals of SARPN, the conference was designed to facilitate the sharing of perspectives on land issues in several Southern African countries and to generate debate about how pro-poor policy processes may be incorporated into land reform policy options in the region.

The event was organised in recognition of the importance of land reform for poverty alleviation and a concern about the perceived lack of progress with land reform in the region. This has certainly become clearer with increased attention to land occupations in South Africa and its spread in Zimbabwe. The need to keep land reform, and its linkages with poverty, on the public policy agenda has also been strengthened by the renewed interest by many African leaders and development agencies in revisiting the policy environment within which sustained economic development can take place in Africa.

In order to explore these arguments, invitations were extended to land practitioners from across the region. The participants were identified largely by existing regional land and agricultural networks and NGOs, and through informal co-operation with international NGOs. The conference delegates consisted largely of members of civil society, which meant that civil society perspectives on the land debate in the region were emphasised.

The central session focused on land reform in a regional context, and consisted of a general overview of the status of land reform in the region followed by a series of country studies. These studies outlined the experiences of seven SADC countries, namely Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Swaziland, Malawi, South Africa and Mozambique. These were followed by workshop sessions designed to distil central lessons and policy recommendations for the region. The second day focused more explicitly on micro studies around land reform experiences in a series of roundtable discussions.

Key conference recommendations were:

ISSUE ONE: Policies and Programmes Complementary to Land Reform

The original objectives of land reform (which acknowledge poverty alleviation) need to be emphasised to refocus on the stated intentions of the process. This would facilitate an all-encompassing approach to the different aspects of land reform as well as the targeting of a broader range of beneficiaries, especially the marginalised. This approach includes the explicit factoring in of the impact of HIV/AIDS on the various components of land reform processes.

ISSUE TWO: Policy Processes and Political Dynamics

Land reform policy should be formulated through participation by a wide range of stakeholders, be clearly defined and be firmly legislated and implemented. This would limit the extent to which governments can manipulate the process of implementing people-centred land reforms away from the interests of beneficiaries. Civil society organisations in particular should be vigilant throughout the land reform process.

ISSUE THREE: The Role of Civil Society

NGOs/civil society organisations should embrace a more visible, proactive role that facilitates the articulation of voices from below. This may involve civil society agencies taking on more co-operative relationships with other land sector agencies. NGOs/civil society organisations need to work together on creating frameworks and models for agrarian reform, which they can feed into policy debates with governments.

ISSUE FOUR: State Capacity

The incapacity of the state to deliver land reform must be remedied. The extent of the capacity required for effective implementation must be understood and provided by the state вЂ” or outsourced to other sectors. This is related to a central issue: political ownership of land reform generally lies at the national level and should be devolved to local level political processes to identify sustainable solutions.

Although capacity constraints have been recognised as a reason for the "failure" to attain the targets of land reform programmes, the issue of capacity is not easily defined or understood. An understanding can only be achieved through an honest audit of state capacity in relation to what is required for implementation. Once this is known, appropriate resources can be allocated by the state, private and donor sectors. As indicated above, certain functions such as evaluating land reform projects and providing aftercare to beneficiaries can be outsourced to civil society or the private sector for effective implementation.

SARPN plans to explore how some issues arising from these debates may be carried forward in the months ahead.

Linking up: The full conference proceedings, including the various country studies and the conference report and policy recomendations, can be downloaded at the SARPN website at: http://www.hsrc.ac.za/corporate/conferences/sarpn/index.html.

The Oxfam "landrights" website (www.oxfam.org.uk/landrights) has also generously posted all the country studies, a selection of the roundtable papers and the policy recommendations. For further information on the conference, please contact Dr Scott Drimie at the HSRC at sedrimie@hsrc.ac.za.


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