African Successes

As a Sierra Leonean, I will first of all commend the services of (inter)national bodies in their tireless support to sierra Leone (SL), among which I wish to mention the world bank, DfiD, and EC.
yet my personal opinion has always held one salient view-point, so to spaak, a point without which, the goals of these supporting organisations will hardly be met, if ever.
EDUCATION IS SUCCESS.
The masses as well as those in leading positions stand to be educated.
Firstly, the leaders need to be educated on / made aware of what they were sworn in for. Let them be made aware of the fact that, they stand to derive long-term benefit(s) from their positive/negative contribution(s) to the development of SL; whichever applies.
before the launching of any development projects, let the masses (and of course leaders) be made aware of their role(s) in the development of themselves and the entire society.
Let the cons of individualism as opposed to the pros of collectivism/nationalism be reinforced.
With respect to risks 1-4, 'individualism' prevails over 'nationalism' in SL, and thus impart these risks. To further stress risk 4, resources available that could be developed and utilised by society for the gain of all, is often left to be exploited by a single individual, in form of political compensation.
To conclude, mass education is a pre-requisit in SL.

There I was sitting at my computer early one wintery Johannesburg morning when I got a call from Gordon Coburne from Development Bank of South Africa. "Wouldn't it be great to develop an electronic version of what happens at one of our biennial conferences? A space that allows sharing of resources, a place where Knowledge consumers and knowledge producers can make the connection, where African universities and colleges can model knowledge sharing best practice using social networks to students? A space where there is freedom for everyone to participate, to contribute, to share and benefit in Africa's development?.

Well, it didn't take long before we implemented the bare structure of the KMAfrica.com Knowledgehub portal using a FOSS software platform. The fire was lit. A few came. And others. Then more. Then some got the vibe and actually started to contribute kindling. Connections and networks formed. New sections added. Comments. Tweets. Messages from unexpected places that face similar development problems to Africa. Homologies. The fire grew and could soon be seen from afar. And so the story goes.

The KnowledgeHub portal is steadily growing in visits and membership from all over Africa. Members include a mix of academics, consultants, IK practitioners and development practitioners. We provide an electronic version of what you might find at at conference; registration, Special Interest Groups & streams, formal paper presentations, forums, shared diaries and even a chatroom for ad hoc meetings. Come visit us sometime and find the others http://www.kmafrica.com

And KnowledgeHub pays special attention to story and storytelling techniques for KM - as the African idea of the Oral Tradition suggests, all the world is Story. Power is narrative and narrative is power. So becoming deliberate about the stories we tell has the effect of empowering the teller and inspiring action.

Steve Banhegyi
www.storytelling.co.za

Easr African region is being left behind in this secotr am one person trying to improve on the same thus seeking investment partners

I have read about the project of World Bank to prepare a study focusing on African success stories to promote replication and learn the lessons of projects that work.

While I think that studying success cases is very important and useful, especially regards African-driven successes, I also think that the idea of "replication" has been very harmful in the past and it is still dangerous today, even within Africa. World Bank should be aware of this danger and should avoid to repeat such a mistake.

The idea of replication comes from a traditional and outdated approach to development: there are "good" models that "work" and that we should "discover" and "replicate" (or export) elsewhere. In this traditional approach the local context (history, culture, geography, ...) is not so relevant: what matters is some special successful recipe discovered somewhere. Even in Africa local contexts are extremely diverse and heterogeneous. This approach has largely failed in the last 50 years.

More advanced and updated approaches suggest, on the contrary, to focus on local (embedded) knowledge and human capabilities rather "ready made" and "one-size fit all" models. These successful models can work very well somewhere but not anywhere. Models can be imported but not exported.

People are the real wealth of nations and places: development should be based on their capabilities rather than on special formulas. When the Bank will realize that the development thinking has changed?

Shanta,

For your list of African success stories you may also consider the very successfull small-scale irrigation and watershed component of Ethiopia's Social Rehabilitation and Development Fund. I may send you my powerpoint presentation for your information.

The ICR demonstrated that
· farmer demand for agricultural water control is widespread and strong,
· the CDD rules steered investment to previously neglected communities;
· irrigated agriculture is the households’ gateway to the cash economy and well-being;
· on many upgraded weir schemes, neighboring farmers further expanded command areas that joint investments by ESRDF and the Water User Cooperative had already expanded;
· joint ESRDF/community investments in upstream watershed treatment prompted many individual farmers to invest downstream in developing more terraces, springs and canals;
· ESRDF favored the emergence of six NGOs capable of implementing contracts to design and build hydraulic hardware and develop institutions through a CDD approach;
·
Best regards

Geert

I resally like the idea. Currently I am in the Uk .Most people dont know about Africa, especially the good things. I support the idea 100P.c.

How about Ethiopia's deployment of health staff in every kebele of the country through the health extension program?

What about the KfW funded Sabaki River palaeochannel wellfield near Baricho which enabled a then recently completed but poorly working river intake and waterworks, funded by the World Bank, to be mothballed? The wellfield has been supplying water to Malindi and the Kenya North Mainland, including parts of Mombasa for the last twelve years or so (when the operating authority can keep the pumps working!).

The African skill development bank houses the greatest of the world inspite of several non-acknowledgement of desired respect for our internationally acclaimed daughters and sons.
For Nigerian Oil and Gas sector,we have done so well,highly supported by the Federal Government and the National Assembly through the Nigerian content bill facilitating home grown capacity,monitoring participation and the recent drafting of the Petroleum Industry Bill(PIB).
Efforts has been made through the Petroleum Trust Development Fund in the past to further train Engineering graduates in the scare/industry needed skills sets and presently the highly skilled fabrication related manpower.

There are various levels of progress in Kenya. My experience relates to 3 small villages around Lake Victoria.

At the Government level Ihave seen some very good progress in the last 4 years.
The road are much improved and continue to be improved. New power stations are operating and electricity is now reaching more and more villages. Education is well established but could do with more investment by the Government and the local community. There is a good health care system but the linkage with the village needs to be organised. Agricultural support from Government officials is available but again the linkage with the village could be improved.

I have had the pleasure of working with a number of residents in three villages and they have organised themselves. They have seven areas where they help themselves and their village:
Agriculture: The farmers are trained to farm and to use certified seeds and fertilisers. The benefits have been seen with the increased yields and the enthusiasm for further training and education. The demand for training outstrips the resources.
Water: Deep wells have been sunk for one village and large tanks for rain collection supplied for the other two. This committee is exploring sanitation and other relevant developments. The benefits are in health and time.
Education: In one village the school has been nearly rebuilt. This is highly motivating for the children, teachers and the parents. Moreover, the Government has supplied support in terms of money. In other words success breeds success.
Health: the villages organise health days. The doctors and nurses from the local hospital visit the villagers. The village itself organise these days and supply basic medicine.
Business support: the villagers run a small scale microfinance scheme. They also support women's groups and youth groups. Part of this development is to encourage income generation outside agriculture. The challenge here is how you diffferentiate those customers who can receive support from the the larger microfinance schemes or banks and those who just need a small loan.
Welfare: there is a noticeable improvement in the wealth of the villages but they are still very poor people. The welfare section is to support the poorest of the poor. This can mean food or clothes or just moral support. However, a welfare recipient in 2008 was a farmer in 2009.
Training: the final part of the scheme looks at training. There can never be enough.

This scheme has learnt a lot from Bar Sauri (Millenium Village).

By organising themselves they are improving their lives on a number of fronts. They are also working with Government agencies who seem to perform better if they are dealing with an orgainsed group.

I have not been able to include all the benefits nor the risks with this scheme but the scheme demonstrates the power of the village if it orgnises itself.

Overall, you see good improvements made by the Government, and a number of villages are showing improvement. The challenge is to offer a village development scheme to all villagers. Each village or group of villages need two people to ensure success. One is a CEO who is responsible for organising the development of the village. The CEO also needs to be a training officer. The other person is a training officer (probably agriculture)

Bar Sauri has been a good success story but it needed a great deal of support from outsiders. My villagers have developed their own programme based on Bar Sauri. In both cases good ogranisation and good interface with the Government agencies has brought success. The next step is to further develop a village development programme. On top of this the Government is bringing roads, electricity, health and better schools.

Give each village the opportunity to develop. It will cost at least €50,000 per annum for a village of 1000 people. That is €5 per head. The return would be reduced imports of food and perhaps an export shceme, less health problems, better eduction and most importantly hope and prospects.

Interesting some of the best participants in these schemes are the old guys who have worked in the large towns and cities and who have been sent home to retire at 55. A lot of these guys have so much to offer in terms of experience and knowledge. What is more important they offer their services free of charge.

(a) If possible, please make health and education a stand alone items each, such as below.

VI. Infrastructure - improving efficiency and leveraging the private sector
Improving health outcomes
Improving education outcomes

(b) If quantifiable, please add the following item:

VII. Conflict resolution/Peace initiatives
Successful conflict resolution outcomes or peace initiatives that can be scaled up.

Thank you.

LeDit B Guindo

From Rwandan cultural value and traditionnal practice of "Ubudehe", Rwanda improved community participation, self governance, village planning and poverty reduction. For further information see: www.cdf.gov.rw adn go to Ubudehe.
This community based program lead by Mr KAYIRA Fidele, sociologist, is supported by European Union since 2001. The program won the 2008 United Nations Public Service Award in transparency, Accountability and responsiveness.
Ubudehe programme work at village level, near the people and managed by beneficiaries them self. It has 15000 bank account equal to the number of villages. Those bank accounts are managed and reported by community through Ubudehe village committees.
From 2001, European Union has disbursed 26 millions euros and ready to add 10 millions euros next year.
Come and see.
Fidele KAYIRA, National Manager.

Being a Zambian I'd love to comment on the success of my country. I believe governance is pivotal to any form of development. Zambia has progressed in terms of democracy and gender equality and thus individual rights and prevelledges are being upheld much more, especially since 1991 when we transitioned to multi party democracy. As such, citizens are taking up responsibility to improve their lives. the economy is now libralized(free market). There is a rise in enterpreneurship and credit facilities-financial empowerement.

The government and citizens have declared war on corruption(zero tolerance) and accountability/ transparency is taking root.

International co-orperation has also improved.

In conclusion, Zambia is improving in all areas of its economy to the extent that the system of governance is improving. We are getting to a place of participatory management of our country and our resources.

I encourage the world to come and see how much we are improving our selves.

The first source of energy provider is food with complete quality. In our continent Africa, food availability is a problem and the improvement in crop production and livestocks could be the key to development because many young people don't go to school due to the hunger, infant mortalities encountered are due to malnutrition both for their mothers and for themselves. Innovation and technology application in the field using selected seeds, agroforestry, organic fertilizers and irrigation technologies to provide more yield in the light of hunger eradication. The rational practice will save the environmental conditions and next generations will be provided with safe and viable environment. Not only to provide human beings with food and fiber, this revolution will be economically profitable and living standards will be lifted to a desirable level.

Our goal to attend to this level is actually to empower young people in order to exploit their energy and skills by letting them doing entrepreneurship, developing innovation and creativity. To trust them will be the first step in order to make them responsible of what they do. Thanks.

Dear Shanta:

First of all: great blog!

Second, I'm amazed that Sudan has not been included as Africa's MOST STELLAR economic growth performer and BIGGEST success story.

I can hear a sharp intake of breath, but here's the skinny on why Sudan MUST be included:

STELLAR: As confirmed in the IMF's July 2009 Country Report, Sudan is now officially a middle income country (a status shared only by South Africa and tiny populated Gabon on the continent). That's a huge newsflash - and ultimately an outcome that should be applauded enthusiastically (albeit embarrassing for many development experts given the resources that have been poured into other SSA countries that still remain stuck firmly in low-income status). In other words, Sudan is on its way to ending poverty!! (Sudan's economic growth rate has averaged around 8% for over a decade).

BIGGEST: Sudan's growth success story has profound, positive implications for the rest of Africa. It shows that Africa can make it on a diet of private capital alone; Sudan has turned the book of international development on its’ head. Sudan’s remarkable economic progress – it is now the third largest economy in Sub-Saharan Africa after South Africa and Nigeria – has been achieved in spite of a lack of comprehensive foreign debt forgiveness, US sanctions and virtually non-existent development finance to the Sudanese government from Western donors, the IMF and World Bank.

In sum, Sudan is Africa's biggest success story that, sadly, continues to go unmentioned.

Regards,

Ibrahim Adam

Dear Dr Devarajan,

Thank you very much for such a wonderful idea.

My suggestions: Emphasis in the Private sector

1. More emphasis on successes in the Private sector: those are easier to replicate or easier to build on than goverment lead successes.
2. Intellectual Property Rights (IPR): how conducive is the business environment to innovation and technology transfert ? The Doing Business Better project certainly has valuable information on the issue.
3. Education and Institutions: How the government is doing things great is as important as how it allows private individuals to be creative in the country.

I think it's important to tell positive stories to help people understand that they too can make the difference. To that extent, even if indeed projects cannot be replicated, people can still build on and learn from the successes and even the failures of other people.

It seems to me that public or government lead projects constitute the greatest share of the successes already listed. With all due respect to government action, I strongly believe that Africa will move on only when the private sector will reach some critical size that allows to create opportunities for Africans. To that extent I would suggest that a strong emphasis be put on the private sector. As for the public sector, it would be good to put the emphasis on Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) in particular, institutions and education in general.

Thanks,
Francois P. Kabore
(fk7625a@american.edu)
Department of Economics
American University
Washington DC