Africans should take responsibility for continent's ills - Festus Mogae

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Africans should take responsibility for continent's ills - Festus Mogae

Addis Ababa, 06 March 2009 (ECA) – Africans need to move beyond blame game and accept responsibility for some of the continent ills, the chairman of the advisory board of the newly created Coalition for Dialogue on Africa (CoDA) and former president of Botswana , Mr. Festus Mogae told a news conference in Addis Ababa today.

“Not everything is the fault of foreigners and foreign interests. Some of the fault is our own and we want to be able to say that,”

Mr. Mogae said.

Outlining the goals of CoDA, he explained that the main difference between CoDA and other existing think tanks in Africa is that

“it is African owned, African led and largely African financed.”

Mr. Mogae said that CoDA would welcome participation from outside the continent, but that the main issues to be addressed would be decided by Africans themselves.

In answer to a question on CoDA's intention to deal with controversial issues, Mr. Mogae said that issues such as election disputes, bad governance, corruption etc. were necessarily controversial, but that the important thing is for Africans to discuss them frankly and openly.

The coalition is a joint venture of the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and has the full support of the African Union Commission (AUC).

The board will determine its own terms of reference, operational modalities, including the various forms of policy dialogue and how to translate agreed outcomes into concrete actions. It will be headquartered at the UNECA in Addis Ababa , Ethiopia . The group seeks to provide a space for African civil societies, media and private sector to have “interactive discussions to bring about a consensus on some of the more controversial and intransigent problems besetting the continent.

CoDA is the successor to two previous African round-table initiatives -- Global Coalition for Africa and the Big Table, forums established in the 1990s to promote dialogue on Africa 's development, following the economic and governance crises the continent faced in the 1980s and 1990s.

The target of the CoDA will be to look at some of the big issues facing the continent, including, the global financial crisis, governance, and African progress or the lack thereof.

He said although CoDA does not have any power to compel policy change, it would have plenty of influence through its independence and willingness to speak openly with courage.

He said CoDA would not duplicate the work of other organizations, but would try to address issues where it has a comparative advantage and can make a big impact.

“We will serve as a platform for interaction between non state actors on different issues,” Mr. Mogae said. “And we will be ready to meet our heads of states with proposals on how to solve some of the issues that will be discussed.”

CoDA is a joint venture of the ECA and African Development Bank. It is supported by the African Union.

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