New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) : a hostage to conditionality?

The paper evaluates the validity of the widespread notion that one of the objectives of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) - to establish democracy continent-wide in Africa - will be undermined by conditionalities attached to donor assistance. Conditionality is said by critics to usurp sovereign power, and thus interferes with governance in•• recipient countries, pre-empting self-determination, local initiative, and self-reliance. This discourse is thus located within the tradition of practical, politically engaged scholarship. Several relevant sub-issues are generated in the paper's primary deliberations: Nepad and conditionality are defined and principles and nature thereof explored; ""democracy"" is located in African politics, its history and current state examined; the effects of structural adjustments programs on African states are explored; the question of state-market relationship in development is considered; IMF and World Bank positions (i.e. policy) on conditionality are assessed; possible alternative forms of political systems pertinent to Nepad are evaluated; and continental democracy paradigm and democratic conditionality paradigms are suggested. I argue that concern about adverse effects of conditionality on democracy is well-founded, but suggest that re-examination and re-construction of conditionality may avert foreseeable harm and produce favourable results.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Department of Political Studies

Year dc:date.issued

2002

Author dc:creator

• Mkhize, Matthews B

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/7398

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/7398