Let me on behalf of the Secretary General of the OAU, Dr. Salim Ahmed Salim, join the ECA in welcoming you to Addis Ababa and particularly to the Headquarter of the Organisation of African Unity. 

We at the OAU has been always been ready to associate with workshops, such as this one on Democracy and Poverty.  And we are often very much encouraged by the participation of people like you as this is a testimony to the fact that there are many of us out there who are prepared and committed to engage in the debate to discuss on the issues on democracy and poverty.  The ongoing debate is not easy and for us in the OAU we understand that there will. I think that the perspective that we have taken at the OAU is that there is a imperative need at the continental level to continue to support the process of democratisation in Africa.  Because this is the expression and the trend that we see on the ground.  And it is in this context that in 1990 when the African head of states and government adapted the landmark declaration on the fundamental changes of the continent decided that time had come when Africa must move to further democratisation of the continent.  In their view to allow the people to express their opinion and participate fully in the process of development was an aspect that shouldn’t reach the African continent in its efforts to move towards socio-economic developments and to address the issues of poverty.  But three years later after 1990 the same heads of state and government discovered that democracy was not possible on the continent if the issue of conflict was not addressed.  And therefore the prevalence of conflict on the continent,  they thought, paused a major treat to democracy on the continent and therefore impeded efforts towards socio-economic developments and to the whole aspect of addressing poverty.  This is why they established in 1993 the mechanism for conflict prevention, management and resolution within the OAU.  Such a mechanism was meant to address the key issues of conflict prevention within the context of preventive diplomacy.  I think the decision of our leaders to establish the mechanism was more --- by their idea that the continent has suffered so much from conflicts and that no single factor on the continent had impacted on our effort for socio-economic development than the prevalence of conflict. And therefore to build democracy on the continent one had to address the issue of conflict and it is so in excess even though it is not so much explicit in the final declaration it is so en excess of democracy, poverty and conflict.  But then we reversed the order and decided first to address to prevalence of conflict.  And the thinking was that in a situation of peace and stability democracy would flourish and development would gain route but in a situation of perpetual conflict democracy would suffer and development would be undermined.  In fact in making this decision they were also referring to the famous landmark deceleration of 1990 on the namely the African Charter for Popular Participation in Development that they had adapted in 1990 a months before they had adapted the 1990 declaration of Fundamental Change.  In that Charter they scaled out the need to walk towards democracy, the role of the people, the role of the organisations, the role of the youths, the role of women in promoting democracy for development.  If you take the three documents together, namely the 1990 Charter for African Popular Participation in Development, the 1990 declaration of Fundamental Changes, the 1993 declaration to establish the mechanisms for conflict prevention, management and resolution within the OAU, you have three or four policy instrument in which the heads of states and governments of this continent have provided guidelines on how to address issue of democracy and poverty in the continent.  But for us on the ground, we have noticed four trends. 

Since 1990 we have participated in no less than 60 elections in Africa.  And what we noticed was that elections by themselves did not mean democracy.  And we was particularly  intrigued by the man I knew some of these elections was being conducted.  And we saw that in order to achieve true democracy then we need to strengthen democratic institution and particularly to educate our people on their right and the process of election.  One significant aspect we noticed was that, if we read most of our reports we would say that elections were free and fare and often we have been questioned on what bases the elections were free and fare.  In most cases in which we observed elections we noticed the preparatory stage for the electro-process was totally inadequate, yet we had to accept that democracy in that sense of beginning of democratic principles and the use of democratic process on the continent we have met with some success.  So the 60 selections that we observed in the continent would point to us that democracy is gaining root on the continent.  However, there are a number of issues that we need to address in respect to these elections. 

First is the manner in which the voting takes places.  Given the problems of infrastructure and education often less that 20% actually participate in election and in looking at the whole issue of democracy the question is does the number of people who actually participate in elections in order to walk towards democracy matter?  If 10% of the people beside in the direction of 90% are not involved in the voting or election process does that justify political participation?  If vote is translated into a commodity and if some few people with resources can actually by votes do we call that democracy?  And if some people in power force others to vote in the direction they want to vote, do we call that democracy?  We are saying that while we have gain experiences in the democratic principles and in perusing the process of democracy on the continent we still have to learn more and we still to put our house in order in some of this aspects so that we can move much more rapidly in the direction of democracy on the continent.  But all these efforts at the continental, at sub-regional and national levels have been made more complicated by the prevalence of conflicts.  And so to us where conflicts exist democracy cannot flourish and where democracy and popular participation cannot flourish the people are not involved in their own development and cannot, therefore, address the issue of poverty.  So there is that link and that is what we are now working on.   

The second prospective is to work on the post-conflict reconstruction and development.  We have noticed a trend on the continent that even after we are able to resolve conflicts where the institutions of democracy are not strong, where economic management of the resources of that particular countries are not put in place the chances for relapse are very high and therefore to avoid a relapse a post-conflict reconstruction program must follow immediately after the signing of some of these agreements.  The experience of Sierra Leone in the first relapse and possibly in the second relapse explained to the extent which week institution of democracy, poor economic development and poverty has interrupted to bring a situation of conflict in a particular country.  And this is something that we hope seminars like yours would address. 

Most of these countries emerging from conflicts have completely destroyed the infrastructure for development but above all such conflicts have impacted very negatively on the social capital of such countries resulting in the refugees, displacement and so many things. Now if we are not able to move quickly into reintegration and development during the post-conflict period the chances of addressing poverty and therefore of building democracy are very slim and again you have high chances for relapse. 

A final example of possible relapse as efforts towards reconstruction and addressing poverty and strengthening democratic institutions fail is really Somalia.  We have a state has failed and democracy has disappeared and poverty is on the increase and the people are not organised.  For us the issue has been really on entry point that who do you actually work with to promote democracy in Somalia, to address issues of poverty and, therefore, to also address the overall issue of conflict in Somalia where a state has collapsed? 

These experience on the continent has made us go through a difficult moment and while the OAU has specific responsibilities we have on our part been working very closely with the countries of the region to be able to address that issue.  And so one of the elements that is in built in the mechanism particularly on the peace building and post-conflict reconstruction is the reliance of sub-regional organisations to help in the process of building good governance, promoting democracy, insuring respects for human rights and addressing together the issue of poverty.  But the trend we noticed on the continent also is that some of the sub-regional organisations are so week on the ground because of the conflicts that they are involved in and they are not able to address what they are supposed to do, the case of EGAD and Somalia are very clear.  And the issue is what then do we do to strengthen the sub-regional organisation to work with the OAU, to work with the NGO, to be able to address the problem that arise. 

Mr. Chairman I though I should throw these ideas out and since we will be here to participate with you and perhaps answer questions that may come from the floor. 

Once again let me welcome you to Addis Ababa the headquarters of OAU, and let me thank also the organisers of this workshop for inventing us to participate with you in this workshop.
 

I thank you.

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