United States Department of State (Washington, DC)
Jim Fisher-Thompson, Washington File Staff Writer
30 August 2006
Washington, DC — Democracy is not only the best political and social system devised to date, but it also has economic dividends that developing nations, particularly in Africa, can use for the betterment of their citizens, says Bob LaGamma, a former diplomat who is now director of the Council for a Community of Democracies (CCD).
LaGamma, who in 1997 retired from the U.S. Information Agency (USIA) -- now a part of the State Department -- spoke to the Washington File by phone August 28 about the democracy conference his nongovernmental organization (NGO) is helping to organize in Bamako, Mali, September 3-6.
Leaders of civil society from around Africa will hold a series of meetings, he said, aimed at "strengthening their advocacy networks and developing strategies for advancing political and economic freedom on the continent."
The Council for a Community of Democracies, LaGamma explained, is part of a movement that was launched in Warsaw, Poland, in 2000 by government officials from more than 100 democracies. Its goal, he said, is "to promote, foster and consolidate democracy around the world and increase cooperation among democratic nations using partnerships between governments and civil society."
"We've gotten funding for the Bamako meeting through the National Endowment for Democracy [NED]," the NGO director said, as well as "valuable support from U.S. officials like Under Secretary of State for [Democracy and] Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky."
LaGamma, who last served as the public affairs officer at the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria, South Africa, believes "there's a growing consensus now in Africa that democracy pays. It is a model that is important because it works to improve both political as well as economic conditions, and Africans know this.
"And there are now concrete rewards for being democratic," he said.
The Bush administration's Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), for example, "has been attuned to the needs of countries that have good governance and transparent economies, and made grants accordingly," LaGamma pointed out.
Development "compacts," or agreements, worth more than $2 billion have been signed with a number of developing nations, including four in Africa: Benin, Cape Verde, Ghana and Madagascar. All have made strides toward political and economic reforms aimed at creating an investor-friendly environment, prime criteria for the development program.
The most recent compact with Ghana, worth $547 million, was signed at a ceremony at the State Department August 6. Ghanaian President John Kufuor and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice both attended. Rice, who is also chair of MCC's board of directors, said, "MCC rewards those countries that have demonstrated their commitment to ruling justly, advancing economic freedom and investing in their people." (See related article.)
"Obviously, democracy pays in these places," LaGamma said. "The international donor community in general is increasingly looking at good governance as a major criterion for aid giving. Democracy has become a kind of standard. And those countries who are not democracies but pretend to be are ultimately cheating themselves and their people."
With that in mind, LaGamma said a central theme of the Bamako conference will be the connection between "democracy, development and poverty."
A panel headed by Paul Graham, director of South Africa's leading democracy NGO, IDASA (The Institute for Democracy in South Africa), and Oumar Makalou, a former Malian senior official of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), will explore the subject.
Central to that discussion will be the constraints placed on NGOs in Africa by governments like that in Zimbabwe, which has passed restrictive legislation "banning links between NGOs and outside organizations," LaGamma said.
He added that other topics to be explored at the meeting in Mali will include strengthening the rule of law, press freedom, the role of political parties, improving electoral standards and free enterprise and democracy.
Participants at the Mali conference also will hear from Istvan Gyarmati, director of the International Centre for Democratic Transition in Budapest, Hungary, who will discuss how his center assists democracies in transition.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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