That the World Bank has a strategy for Africa seems to surprise many. I asked, sometimes, “Does Africa have its own strategy? Of course it does. At least the African Union has a vision of sorts in many areas. So what can I say about the World Bank strategy for Africa 2011?
When I first got the strategy, I quickly read through and decided there was nothing new and put it aside until someone left it on my desk with a note requesting me to say something about it. So I read it a second time.
The March 2011 strategy titled ‘Africa’s Future and the World Bank’s Support to It’ (visit www.worldbank.org/africastrategy) The ten-year vision has two pillars of competitiveness and employment as well as vulnerability and resilience.

Why do I think that the strategy is old wine in a new bottle? By 1989, the World Bank noted that at the heart of Africa’s development problems was governance. Buying faithfully into it in the early 2000s, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) delved deeply into it and decided to pronounce itself on good governance with gusto, adding an African touch to it. So the Africa Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) became the most talked about thing among African Leaders. And also a lot of resources went into assessing governance in many countries including Uganda.
But what exactly are the results of the governance agenda? Are we not seeing more difficulty in the years of the governance agenda? Is corruption not the most talked about thing today as threatening the very core of democratic and the politics of governance with far-reaching impact on social and economic development? So how does the World Bank hope that these things will be fixed for Africa in the coming years in order to realise the unprecedented opportunity for transformation and sustained growth? The answer again is governance and public sector capacity.
Over the years, the World Bank has been Africa’s partner in development, and sometimes we see reports that epitomise the potential of Africa’s transformation except as the years go by the reality of each potential remains that-potential.
There is no denying though that the strategy does point to some of Africa’s challenges in a candid manner although largely pointing in the direction of governance and leadership, something the Bank through the work of many of its staff have attempted to present over the years . Most of the document paints a correct picture and also gives the impression that very wide consultations were made.
Some of the strong areas which are positive include strengthening the citizen’s voice using instruments of social accountability while exploiting the potential of ICT to enhance citizen-centered governance as well as building the capacity of African leaders. Issues of infrastructure and regional cooperation as well as institution building also feature strongly.
On the other side, the World Bank appears to have a lot of optimism and asserts that Africa could be on the brink of an economic take-off, much like China 30 years ago and India 20 years ago.
Normally, I am an optimistic person, but I am forced to think the World Bank does not know what it is talking about even though it acknowledges Africa’s diversity. However I think of the general state of economic infrastructure, both public utilities and public works, and the dismal performance of the agricultural sector, a backbone for most of these economies coupled with the grand corruption, I wonder where that take-off is going to come from. Adman Leftwish in Governance, Democracy and Development in the Third World suggests that from a development point of view, the general but simplistic appeal for governance as a condition of development is virtuous but naïve. Hopefully this will not be the case.

The writer is a lecturer in the department of development studies.