"Building robust governance standards and capacity are key to securing the MDGs" by Nicky Oppenheimer
The recent news that Sub-Saharan Africa is likely to fall well short of achieving many of the MDGs comes at a time when the region is delivering its best period of economic growth since the 1970s. With growth, albeit uneven, expected to accelerate in 2008, many policy makers are daring to believe that a platform for sustained economic growth is finally being created that will start to close Africa’s crippling poverty gap.
Rapid growth is critical to making faster progress towards the MDGs. However, this progress can only be sustained, and long lasting regional transformation achieved, when we have successfully addressed the significant governance challenges still facing Africa. Good governance is the bedrock of economic growth and poverty reduction but if we do not match economic gains with strengthened governance standards, we run the risk of another boom and bust cycle, with the fruits of growth enjoyed by the few rather than the many.
The truth is that improving governance systems and tackling corruption are probably the single most important priorities for governments and institutions, if we are to have any realistic chance of achieving the MDGs. Much progress is being made but much more needs to be done.
Good governance is not only essential for political stability and for democracies to thrive, it is also a key requirement for the private sector, the engine room of growth, to invest with confidence for the long-term. Responsibility for improving governance standards lies with a wide range of institutions and organisations and that is why public-private partnerships have been and remain so instrumental to embedding good practice, enabling greater transparency and tackling corruption.
Business is a key stakeholder in the process and you don’t have to look further than Botswana to find an example of what public-private partnerships can deliver. The equal partnership developed between the Government of Botswana and De Beers, known as Debswana, clearly shows the public good that can be achieved when economic growth is combined with strong governance. The Kimberley Process, the development of which De Beers continues to play a leading role, also provides an excellent model for what partnerships can achieve in establishing sustainable frameworks for effective governance.
The key to success is to recognise and harness each partner’s core capabilities. For business, primarily this means assisting with capacity building and skills development, in addition to sharing our experiences of making governance partnerships work. For example, in Sierra Leone and Liberia, we worked in partnership with the UN to assist in establishing Government Diamond Offices, sharing skills and expertise that will enable those governments and their people to benefit from diamond revenues. The extractives industry is in the forefront of many capacity building initiatives and there is considerable potential for sharing these business led approaches with other business sectors.
As policy makers gather in Japan for this year’s G8 summit, continued encouragement and support needs to be given to African governments and institutions to tackle governance challenges. At the same time, greater recognition needs to be given to the role that business can play in helping to build strong and workable governance systems, and more support needs to be provided to broaden and widen business-led capacity building initiatives. The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, Business Action Against Corruption and the World Economic Forum’s Partnership Against Corruption initiatives are three important examples of business-led schemes. By making real and tangible the shared benefits that good governance combined with economic progress can bring, and by working together through partnerships based on mutual respect and trust, we have an unprecedented opportunity to ensure that Africa’s economic growth is not only sustained but also shared by everyone.
Nicky Oppenheimer is Chairman of the De Beers Group
Rapid growth is critical to making faster progress towards the MDGs. However, this progress can only be sustained, and long lasting regional transformation achieved, when we have successfully addressed the significant governance challenges still facing Africa. Good governance is the bedrock of economic growth and poverty reduction but if we do not match economic gains with strengthened governance standards, we run the risk of another boom and bust cycle, with the fruits of growth enjoyed by the few rather than the many.
The truth is that improving governance systems and tackling corruption are probably the single most important priorities for governments and institutions, if we are to have any realistic chance of achieving the MDGs. Much progress is being made but much more needs to be done.
Good governance is not only essential for political stability and for democracies to thrive, it is also a key requirement for the private sector, the engine room of growth, to invest with confidence for the long-term. Responsibility for improving governance standards lies with a wide range of institutions and organisations and that is why public-private partnerships have been and remain so instrumental to embedding good practice, enabling greater transparency and tackling corruption.
Business is a key stakeholder in the process and you don’t have to look further than Botswana to find an example of what public-private partnerships can deliver. The equal partnership developed between the Government of Botswana and De Beers, known as Debswana, clearly shows the public good that can be achieved when economic growth is combined with strong governance. The Kimberley Process, the development of which De Beers continues to play a leading role, also provides an excellent model for what partnerships can achieve in establishing sustainable frameworks for effective governance.
The key to success is to recognise and harness each partner’s core capabilities. For business, primarily this means assisting with capacity building and skills development, in addition to sharing our experiences of making governance partnerships work. For example, in Sierra Leone and Liberia, we worked in partnership with the UN to assist in establishing Government Diamond Offices, sharing skills and expertise that will enable those governments and their people to benefit from diamond revenues. The extractives industry is in the forefront of many capacity building initiatives and there is considerable potential for sharing these business led approaches with other business sectors.
As policy makers gather in Japan for this year’s G8 summit, continued encouragement and support needs to be given to African governments and institutions to tackle governance challenges. At the same time, greater recognition needs to be given to the role that business can play in helping to build strong and workable governance systems, and more support needs to be provided to broaden and widen business-led capacity building initiatives. The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, Business Action Against Corruption and the World Economic Forum’s Partnership Against Corruption initiatives are three important examples of business-led schemes. By making real and tangible the shared benefits that good governance combined with economic progress can bring, and by working together through partnerships based on mutual respect and trust, we have an unprecedented opportunity to ensure that Africa’s economic growth is not only sustained but also shared by everyone.
Nicky Oppenheimer is Chairman of the De Beers Group
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