Opening remarks by President Martti Ahtisaari

Seminar: An African Perspective on Statebuilding

Brussels, 19 February 2009

Ladies and Gentlemen, friends and colleagues,

I would like to warmly welcome you to this seminar on African Perspective on Statebuilding. This gathering offers a unique opportunity for us to reflect on the past and future of statebuilding partnerships and explore an African vision of statebuilding.

I am here in my capacity as founder and chairman of the Crisis Management Initiative, the main organizer of this event in co-operation with the Institute of Security Studies. We have work together to create an interesting programme for today. This seminar has been made possible with funding from the Governments of Belgium, Norway and Finland, for which I am grateful.

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Africa is changing fast. The Index of African Governance of the Kennedy School of Government which is based on 57 indicators, ranging from deaths in war, to literacy and gross domestic product, clearly demonstrates that governance across Africa is improving. Furthermore, economic growth in the past years has been historically high. Increasing interest shown by investors in Africa has helped to globalise Africa - both in reality and in perception. Africa’s success affects the chances of success in a wide range of global endeavours - whether economic, political or environmental.

Africa is also coming together. The creation of the African Union in 2002 and the NEPAD strategic framework in 2001 have been important milestones in progress towards African ownership over statebuilding activities. The AU has brought about a significant improvement in the ability of the commitment to promote stability, anticipate and prevent conflicts, promote and facilitate peace processes, and support post-conflict reconstruction and statebuilding activities.

The creation of sub-regional organizations for economic cooperation and development demonstrates that Africans are increasingly aware that cooperation is necessary to take advantage of changes effected by globalization. These efforts to shape and execute joint visions for governance and prosperity should be encouraged as a means for ownership and inclusive dialogue in statebuilding activities.

Despite all these positive developments, Africa remains fragile with a wide range of causes. We saw this with the outbreak of violence after the elections in Kenya a year ago and with problems in Zimbabwe. The real impact of the global economic slow-down is yet to be discovered.

I look forward to candid discussion in today’s seminar on how in today’s world we can best secure the economic well being of the citizens. I think we are all aware of the different approaches that are applied around the world today. It is important that we recognise that the causes of state fragility, however, are not purely economic.

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Developing Africa into functioning states has become a firm priority of African leaders, African organizations, foreign governments, and multilateral institutions. Yet there is no “one size fits all” road map for African statebuilding. Effective and legitimate states are shaped and sustained by an enduring relationship with the particular society that they govern. When statebuilding strategies prioritize inclusiveness, domestic ownership, flexibility, and strong communication between actors, they best promote state resilience.

Above all, building resilient states requires building resilient societies. Statebuilding actors must seize every opportunity to include actors outside a nation’s formal leadership, especially women, civil society, and local government leaders. External actors should play a supportive and collaborative role while remaining acutely aware that making statebuilding a widely inclusive process is essential to secure local ownership and address the root causes of state fragility. This perspective requires a willingness to adjust to the working style and capabilities of domestic actors without becoming complacent towards corruption and poor leadership.

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I accept and acknowledge that external intervention is a necessary part of statebuilding, but that statebuilding should be fundamentally driven by endogenous actors, beginning at the local and national levels and proceeding with support from regional and continental organizations. However, the international community must recognise that it sometimes contributes to the fragility in Africa. International assistance efforts are still often agency-driven, working in competition and with minimal co-ordination. Moreover, clarity in the relationship between the local and the international actors and how the relationship will change over time is often lacking.

The donors must deliver aid and other forms of statebuilding assistance with a greater awareness of these challenges. The donors should continue supporting African decision making, particularly from pan-African and sub-regional organizations, in how to ensure that external assistance make a positive contribution to African statebuilding and long-term development.

Statebuilding is also very much about making long-term investments and prioritizing them. Unfortunately, the funds available for state-building have sometimes been more supply- than demand-driven. There is current debate among international actors and research groups as to how to identify and prioritize areas for donor assistance. Some organizations and actors have taken note of recent calls for “good enough governance” strategies that avoid laundry lists of reform and overwhelming domestic absorptive capacity. To help prioritize, they have identified what they believe are the most essential functions that states should perform. These lists are intended to help international actors, through dialog and partnership with domestic actors, strategically allocate resources to where they can be best used. However, not all agree with this approach. Statebuilding could also be seen as an exclusively organic, endogenous process where external actors act as facilitators and enablers rather than guides.

Recent discussion, particularly within the OECD framework, about the importance of state-society relations to negotiate social contract is yet another strong step forward. The recognition that enduring states are legitimated by their citizens before the international community suggests the need for humility among donors as to their role in statebuilding processes. The ultimate goal of statebuilding is to develop a national system that protects, sustains, and improves the quality of life within national borders as judged by that country’s citizens.

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Developing and implementing effective methods for monitoring and evaluation of statebuilding activities is essential to make statebuilding a meaningful exercise. Yet the need for better monitoring and evaluation continues to exist more in policy mantra and publications than in actual programs. External actors must recognize that statebuilding is not a new activity, and that they must be more introspective as to why their attempts at statebuilding have failed for decades. There is a need for more frank reflection on current and past motives for intervention and whether those should change in future engagements.

As there is learning required both at the side of donors and other external actors and national governments leading the statebuilding we need meetings like this where donors and African representatives undertake a sort of role reversal, and as we gather to listen and learn how our previous activities have been perceived and have impacted the nations we have claimed to engage as partners. We need to more consciously listen, not as master statebuilders, but as supporters of African self-empowerment.

Predetermined democracy checklists are not conducive to partnerships in any meaningful sense of the word. In perceived crises and fragility, a focus on immediate output and urgency are not most helpful. They easily overlook the causes of fragility that relate to social and economic exclusion. Let us have the courage to accept the recommendations of past evaluations.

Decisions must be made on African terms, but we have an ethical responsibility to encourage decision making from all Africans within a society. It is wrong and ultimately ineffective to engage only with political elite in the interest of rapid action. Without these considerations, our actions risk repeating the national dialogue patterns that contributed to fragility in the first place.

Trust is the vehicle to stability

Trust in government is perhaps the most important ingredient for state legitimacy. Trust requires that citizens are enabled to provide for their own most basic needs. One almost infallible way to promote that trust is to create opportunities for youth employment and entrepreneurship. Popular dissatisfaction and unemployment swell insurgent ranks and the lack of security further hinders development and economic activity.

Trust in government can also be created by giving people the tools to be architects of their own future. From here, we return to the concept of statebuilding itself. Donors should give the money, the advice, and the space for African leaders to step forward and create their own vision for governance. African leaders should give the encouragement and the peer feedback to national leaders who struggle with the internal causes of their states fragility. National leaders should give the political space for local leaders, from powerful and marginalized groups, to shape the national agenda and the evolution of institutions.

And we should all have the trust to communicate openly about our intentions, expectations, and needs. Indeed, encouraging open communication and dialogue between European policy community and African experts, such as this seminar, can make a valuable contribution to the recent governance debates and statebuilding mechanisms that are developing on the international scene.