street children thrown in jail, but because Africa has more achievements to display than famines to be covered up.
At the same time, development agencies need to present a vision of the Africa they wish to see rather than using images that undercut the very mission they are trying to accomplish. It should be possible for potential donors to respond to images of a functioning Africa that deserves support and not only give in response to those images that inspire pity and condescension.
That morning in Davos, as I listened to Sharon Stone urging other individuals to join her in raising money for bed nets, I couldn't help but notice the rather strained smile on President Mkapa's face. He was in an awkward situation. No doubt on one level he was grateful that someone cared enough about the toll of malaria on his country's children to help raise funds for bed nets there and then. But I also sensed in his demeanor a degree of discomfort—or maybe as an African myself, I was projecting such a sentiment onto him—that he was getting personal help from wealthy individuals to fund a basic intervention that, as a head of state and a proud African, he would want to provide for the Tanzanian people himself.
Indeed, at the end of his speech, President Mkapa had gotten to the heart of the need for Africa's leaders to commit to serving their peoples and to practicing better governance for their peoples' benefit:
Now for our own, let me say: I don't want to be putting the developed countries on the dock. We [Africans] also have a task, we also have a challenge; because we also have a capacityto some extent of funding the war on poverty ourselves: organizing our economies, organizing our revenue collection systems, organizing our own budgeting, being more accountable and transparent. Those we can undertake. A combination of those reforms I think would see a tremendous, truly predictable advance in the war against poverty.
President Mkapa knew what the right actions were. For me, however, the question still remains: If African leaders know what they ought to do, why aren't more of them doing it?
LEADERSHIP
I FIRMLY BELIEVE that unless Africans from
all
levels of society recognize and embrace the challenge of leadership, Africa will not move forward. In chapter 2 I discussed the historical, cultural, and economic roots of the failure of African leadership, and how it neglected to give the African people reason to hope. In this chapter I will examine in more detail what good leadership—and its correlative, good governance—might look like.
Leadership is not simply a matter of filling the top positions in a government, institution, or private business. Nor is it a quality restricted to the ambitious, the elite, the politically gifted, or the highly educated. In fact, leadership can be demonstrated by those who are marginalized and poor as much as by those who have had all the privileges that society has been able to bestow on them. Indeed, not every person in a leadership position is truly a leader.
Many aid and development scholars and practitioners have pointed to Africa's leadership deficit and wondered why it has been so hard to overcome. Some have suggested that the issue of poor governance has been overemphasized as a factor in development failures; in this view, poor countries generally produce poor governance, not vice versa. Some scholars have also pointed to Africa's geography—few navigable rivers, many landlocked nations, debilitating diseases like malaria—as inhibiting economic growth. They also note Africa's climate—many arid and semi-arid regions; tropical forests, with fragile soils; too littleor too much rain—which makes agriculture more difficult than it is in temperate regions.
As a biologist, I agree that the environment underlies all human activities. However, I don't believe that Africa's geography and climate have to be permanent obstacles to its development. Switzerland and Austria are both small and
At the same time, development agencies need to present a vision of the Africa they wish to see rather than using images that undercut the very mission they are trying to accomplish. It should be possible for potential donors to respond to images of a functioning Africa that deserves support and not only give in response to those images that inspire pity and condescension.
That morning in Davos, as I listened to Sharon Stone urging other individuals to join her in raising money for bed nets, I couldn't help but notice the rather strained smile on President Mkapa's face. He was in an awkward situation. No doubt on one level he was grateful that someone cared enough about the toll of malaria on his country's children to help raise funds for bed nets there and then. But I also sensed in his demeanor a degree of discomfort—or maybe as an African myself, I was projecting such a sentiment onto him—that he was getting personal help from wealthy individuals to fund a basic intervention that, as a head of state and a proud African, he would want to provide for the Tanzanian people himself.
Indeed, at the end of his speech, President Mkapa had gotten to the heart of the need for Africa's leaders to commit to serving their peoples and to practicing better governance for their peoples' benefit:
Now for our own, let me say: I don't want to be putting the developed countries on the dock. We [Africans] also have a task, we also have a challenge; because we also have a capacityto some extent of funding the war on poverty ourselves: organizing our economies, organizing our revenue collection systems, organizing our own budgeting, being more accountable and transparent. Those we can undertake. A combination of those reforms I think would see a tremendous, truly predictable advance in the war against poverty.
President Mkapa knew what the right actions were. For me, however, the question still remains: If African leaders know what they ought to do, why aren't more of them doing it?
LEADERSHIP
I FIRMLY BELIEVE that unless Africans from
all
levels of society recognize and embrace the challenge of leadership, Africa will not move forward. In chapter 2 I discussed the historical, cultural, and economic roots of the failure of African leadership, and how it neglected to give the African people reason to hope. In this chapter I will examine in more detail what good leadership—and its correlative, good governance—might look like.
Leadership is not simply a matter of filling the top positions in a government, institution, or private business. Nor is it a quality restricted to the ambitious, the elite, the politically gifted, or the highly educated. In fact, leadership can be demonstrated by those who are marginalized and poor as much as by those who have had all the privileges that society has been able to bestow on them. Indeed, not every person in a leadership position is truly a leader.
Many aid and development scholars and practitioners have pointed to Africa's leadership deficit and wondered why it has been so hard to overcome. Some have suggested that the issue of poor governance has been overemphasized as a factor in development failures; in this view, poor countries generally produce poor governance, not vice versa. Some scholars have also pointed to Africa's geography—few navigable rivers, many landlocked nations, debilitating diseases like malaria—as inhibiting economic growth. They also note Africa's climate—many arid and semi-arid regions; tropical forests, with fragile soils; too littleor too much rain—which makes agriculture more difficult than it is in temperate regions.
As a biologist, I agree that the environment underlies all human activities. However, I don't believe that Africa's geography and climate have to be permanent obstacles to its development. Switzerland and Austria are both small and
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