A significant amount of resources has been channelled into Africa since the Millennium Development Goals were adopted in 2001. Between 2000 and 2005 an estimated $97-billion has reached the continent through official development assistance. African governments themselves have set aside various percentages of their budgets for expenditure in priority sectors to effect positive change in the lives of the poor.
Despite these efforts and increased availability of internal resources, the progress made at grassroots level is far from satisfactory, given the challenges African countries face. The majority of African countries will not meet the Millennium Development Goals commitment to halve the number of people living below a dollar a day by 2015. Child mortality rates are increasing, as are maternal mortality rates and HIV infection rates. Rural populations are increasingly excluded from the mainstream economy and their livelihoods are increasingly threatened.
One of the greatest challenges faced by the continent is that most of the resources earmarked for development do not actually reach the grassroots. In a recent four-country study by African Monitor it is evident that expenditure on rural development, agriculture and rural infrastructure is minimal. In the four countries studied — Ghana, Rwanda, Mozambique and Chad — less than 1% is spent on water and sanitation, between 5% and 7% is spent on rural infrastructure and an average of 1% is spent on agriculture. Considering that all these sectors are key for targeting the grassroots (most of whom are poor people living in rural areas), it is clear that African governments are not sufficiently targeting the poor.
The use of funding assistance received from donors presents an equally depressing picture. Evidence from the Development Support Monitor, an African Monitor publication, shows that about 49% of all aid is currently going to debt relief and humanitarian assistance, and only about 2% to agriculture. Donors have not shifted their development support to sectors that will yield long-term beneÂfits for the poor on the continent, but focus on short-term interventions such as humanitarian and emergency assistance.
A second set of challenges for African governments is the absence of well-developed systems for channelling resources to the grassroots. Many African countries — including South Africa, Rwanda and Mozambique — have adopted decentralisation, which means that the responsibility for delivery at grassroots has been transferred to local or district authorities. But mechanisms for decentralisation are weak, as local authorities are not given sufficient power to make budget decisions and they lack the skills and capacity to manage resources properly.
It is encouraging to see that some countries have started putting in place mechanisms for grassroots participation. In Mozambique, the local consultative councils afford an opportunity for local authorities and community members to jointly identify communitiy problems, prioritise them, allocate resources and implement programmes. While there are some problems in running these councils, community members report that they are a step in the right direction.
Africa’s development needs to emphasise the needs of the grassroots. A significant portion of development expenditure should be geared to meeting the needs of the poor, and relevant systems need to be put in place and strengthened. Governments should make a concerted effort to build the capacity of local authorities to make joint decisions with the communities they serve, and deliver on agreed priorities.
At national level, African governments need to make an effort to ensure that their resources are effectively targeting poverty reduction sectors such as agriculture, service delivery and rural development. Structures for aid coordination should also be firmed up, to ensure that donors are managed and coordinated by African governments to target and prioritise the grassroots in their development support.
Africans, and their development partners, need to adopt a new African agenda — to prioritise and target the grassroots in policy, planning, allocations, and delivery. This way, all Africans can benefit from the gains of democracy, economic growth and progress by 2015.
Archbishop Njongo Ndungane is the founder and president of African Monitor