Let’s help elect a female World Bank head

Author: Prof Danny Bradlow
Date: 1 March 2012
Publication: Business Day
URL: http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=166279

THE World Bank needs a new president. Historically, he has been selected by the US president. This is unacceptable and must change. In fact, there is agreement that there should be a transparent and merit-based selection process.

That the Europeans and their allies reneged on this commitment when they selected Christine Lagarde as the MD of the International Monetary Fund makes it even more important that the World Bank sets the precedent of how a transparent and merit-based selection process should work. Doing so will require the Brics countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, SA) and the other emerging market members of the Group of 20 to behave more responsibly than they did in the Lagarde case.

What does this mean for SA?

Since 1994, SA has been an eloquent advocate for reforming the governance of the international financial institutions. The selection of the next World Bank president is a good opportunity to win an important victory in this campaign. Our government should work with other African states, our partners in Brics and other sympathetic World Bank member states and with allies in international civil society to ensure that there is an open and merit-based selection process.

The stakes are high. This appointment is about more than just finding a World Bank leader who is a competent non-American. It is about finding a leader with the skills, experience and commitment to make a complex institution more responsive to the evolving needs of all its stakeholders: its debtor and creditor member countries and their citizens — who are the intended beneficiaries of the bank’s operations but who can also be harmed by them. It is about finding a president who will ensure that the bank has the requisite organisational and technical capacities to work with its borrower countries to meet their most urgent challenges — finding growth strategies that reduce poverty, inequality and unemployment within constraints created by climate change and other environmental stresses.

The World Bank’s board understands this appointment is as much about transforming the bank as about reforming its selection process. In April last year, it declared that the next president should have "a proven track record of leadership; experience managing large organisations with international exposure, and a familiarity with the public sector; ability to articulate a clear vision of the bank’s development mission; a firm commitment to and appreciation for multilateral co-operation; and effective and diplomatic communication skills, impartiality and objectivity in the performance of the responsibilities of the position."

The president will also need some other attributes. For example, we know that it is wise for international organisations such as the United Nations to have leaders from middle-sized countries because they do not unduly upset delicate geopolitical balances and they are more likely to understand the concerns of powerful and weak countries.

Based on this list of qualifications, there is an obvious South African candidate — Trevor Manuel ; but he is still building our National Planning Commission. This is perhaps fortunate because it is time to select a woman as the head of the World Bank. A situation in which the leaders of the two most important international financial institutions are headed by women will send a powerful message about the importance of gender equity and the need for all countries to make full use of the skills of all their citizens.

Two African candidates quickly spring to mind — Mamphela Ramphele and Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. Both are well qualified; they have had experience transforming complex institutions under difficult circumstances; and they have had experience working at senior levels in the World Bank. Ramphele has also worked in both big business and small grassroots development projects — the kind of hands-on experience the next president should have.

By leading an effort to appoint one of these two impressive women as the new World Bank president, our government can demonstrate creative leadership in the effort to promote global governance reform. It can also show Africa and our partner states in Brics the benefits that our leading role in international economic affairs can bring to them.

The deadline for nominations for the next president is March 23. What are we waiting for?

• Bradlow is SARChI professor of international development law and African economic relations at the University of Pretoria.

Sata has chance to do better than Rupiah - Hansungule

Author: Ernest Chanda
Date: 1 October 2011
URL: http://postzambia.com/post-read_article.php?articleId=23306

PROFESSOR Michelo Hansungule says immediate past president Rupiah Banda lost the election because he did not listen to the people.

And Prof Hansungule said President Michael Sata has a chance to do better than his predecessor.

Reflecting on Banda's loss in the just-ended presidential election to President Sata, the Pretoria-based law professor said the former head of state chose to be arrogant to everyone.

"One of the biggest lessons from Rupiah Banda's short-lived presidency is the importance, especially to political leaders, of listening to citizens. It is ironical that the outgoing president said during his concession statement that ‘Zambian people had spoken'. Why could he not say this to himself a long time ago? Had he listened to citizens, president Banda would have no problem reclaiming the presidency for the second term," Prof Hansungule said.

"With his self-inflicted loss, president Banda has broken a record in the SADC as the elected head of state to have been in office the shortest period. President Mandela served a full term before he voluntarily exited from office and in any case left his party the African National Congress firmly in office. Political arrogance is what cost President Banda his chance to have a full term."

Prof Hansungule said there were many wrong things Banda did which offended the voters.

He said the people advised him on many wrong decisions he made but he would not listen.

"President Banda would not listen when people told him they did not like his constitution and the way he went about dictating how it should be written; they wanted the London judgment against (late Frederick Chiluba) to be registered and enforced in Zambia.

They wanted an appeal against Chiluba's acquittal from corruption. They did not like his comments alongside the magistrate Jones Chinyama who acquitted Chiluba because they suggested the magistrate's hand was twisted into doing something else on the case than the law dictated," he said.

"They told him they did not like the way his administration was going about abusing the judiciary. They did not like the president's decision to dissolve the Task Force on Corruption.

They told him they did not like his decision to stop tampering with a good law on corruption by public officers. They did not like the way he handled the Dora Siliya-led sale of ZAMTEL and that she suffered no sanction even when she clearly treated the Attorney General's legal advice with contempt."

Prof Hansungule said even when people told Banda to reintroduce the windfall tax on the mines, he did not listen.

He said people wanted Banda to be tough on investors who treated their workers miserably, but he ignored them.

"They did not like the way he handled the take-over of Finance Bank and its hasty sale to the South African Bank a few days before the elections. They told him to avoid abusing public resources for his political gain," Prof Hansungule said.

"They told him he should not abuse the public media to promote only his agenda and completely shut out opponents. They told him to cage his vice-president and minister of justice George Kunda and to be careful with the ‘advice' he gave on the media and governance in general.

People told him to stop rearing ‘dogs' to set out against perceived political opponents through vitreous attacks in the public media. They told him he was wrong paying from public resources for his opinion polls (in fact Rupiah Banda's opinions) which always returned a ‘win' only for him because besides being abuse of public resources, this offended the public trust."

He said even when people told Banda to stop using his wife in MMD errands paid for by the taxpayer, he remained arrogant.
Prof Hansungule said Banda had also abused traditional leaders to the extent that it offended their subjects.

"They told him not to open fire on unarmed youths in Mongu but to dialogue with them on their demands and not to charge their leaders with treason. They even warned him that he cheated on affidavit that both his parents were Zambian by birth and descent," Prof Hansungule said.
"They told him everything a good president would want to hear to improve on his governance but he would have none of it.

They told him to enact into the constitution the 50+1 result for the winner and if he had, we would be going for the next round of election for the presidency. But of course he chose to listen to Kunda. The result is that except probably himself and his cronies, everyone knew that in a free and fair contest, he would lose this or any election."

And Prof Hansugnule said people expected a lot from President Sata because they knew him as an action-oriented person.

"The good thing about President Sata is that we all know him. No Zambian would say ‘Michael who?' Due to his accomplishments, particularly his well-known tag as a hands-on man; his name is household in all Zambia. All he must do, however, is to develop capacity to listen to citizens," said Prof Hansungule.
"I had read about a powerful leader who was so popular and likable across the political spectrum not because he went round giving sweets to his people but because of his ‘power to listen'.

In fact, listening to citizens is the meaning of good governance. Your very good excellently crafted policy may not be good to people. While leading does not mean taking into account every advice from people, it means listening to them. I would rather citizens mislead me and not officials. President Michael Sata has a chance to make a real governance difference."

Lessons from “L’Affaire Lagarde”

Author: Prof Danny Bradlow
Date: Issue 8 August/September 2011
Publication: Heinrich Böll Stiftung G20 Update E-Newsletter
URL: http://www.boell.org/downloads/G20_Update_8_5.pdf

When Dominique Strauss-Kahn became the IMF Managing Director, European leaders acknowledged that the “gentlemen’s agreement” that ensured that the IMF is always led by a European and the Bank by an American was an anachronism and should end.

Soon afterwards they solemnly promised in a G20 summit communiqué that future heads of the IMF and World Bank would be selected through transparent procedures and on the basis of merit.

Of course, that was before the Europeans decided they needed IMF assistance. Unsurprisingly, they concluded that they “needed” another European IMF Managing Director. The result is that the new IMF Managing Director, like all her predecessors, is a European and that her first Deputy, like all his predecessors, is an American. The Europeans’ action substantially undercuts all the hard work that officials from the developing country members of the G20 and activists
from international civil society had done to promote governance reform in the IFIs. This forces us to critically reassess the prospects, and tactics for achieving such reform. This paper attempts such a reassessment. 

• Read the full article in PDF format

Hansungule demands delay of election

Author: Ernest Chanda
Date: 22 August 2011
URL: http://postzambia.com/post-read_article.php?articleId=22738

PROFESSOR Michelo Hansungule has demanded that President Rupiah Banda postpones the elections to allow for serious investigation into the corruption surrounding UPG.

And Prof Hansungule says the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) has discredited itself by harassing sources of information.

Commenting on the continued corruption revelations surrounding Universal Print Group (UPG), a South African company engaged to print ballot papers for this year's general election, the Pretoria University law lecturer said government should not bury its head in the sand and behave as though everything were normal.

Prof Hansungule said the coming general elections were already tainted with what he termed "deep-seated suspicions".

"The elections must be postponed to give time to look into this electoral tender issue. It is a serious allegation. Government has a duty to heed public sentiments about suspected electoral fraud by this Universal Print Group thing," Prof Hansungule said.

"You can't go into an election with such dark clouds hovering around the horizons ready to pounce on the event. Or does it not matter to President Rupiah Banda the conditions under which he is elected to second term? What exactly is behind this hugely embarrassing scandal?"

He said instead of denying that the tender or the company involved might have raised corrupt suspicions, government should have led calls for thorough investigations also into the capacity of the Government Printers to do the job.

Prof Hansungule wondered why the government could not trust Zambians to print the ballot papers when they had done it before through Government Printers.
"Why this type of ‘thinking' after half a century of independence?

And even if the Government Printers had no capacity to do the job, where was government the whole of these years to give it the necessary capacity? Do the right thing and postpone the elections to seriously look into these allegations," he said.
And Prof Hansungule asked the government to stop tutoring the ACC on what it should and shouldn't do.

He said as a creature of statute it was important that the ACC was left to operate freely, particularly during election time.

"The sad picture now is that someone is micromanaging it and this is a shame to the commissioners and officers there! There should be absolutely no perception that government is colluding with senior echelons at the ACC to undermine the mandate of the corruption-busting body," Prof Hansungule said.

"The ACC has discredited itself in harassing important sources of information for their work. Sad as it is, ACC director general Lt Col Godfrey Kayukwa's mishandling of Given Lubinda and Fred M'membe is indicative of the power of the hidden hand micromanaging the corruption buster for his own interests.

Were it not for the hidden hand, there would absolutely be no need for DG Kayukwa to descend into panic and summon the two simultaneously as he rushes to the press to announce the same summon instead of waiting for the summoned to appear or respond to his summon."

He reminded the ACC that public institutions had a duty to inspire confidence in the way they discharged public duties.

"DG Kayukwa referred to ‘procedures' of doing things at ACC. Can I ask him: Is it procedural at ACC to summon someone and then rush to the press to announce the summon? It is gross misbehaviour for the corruption buster to so publicly pander to authorities instead of playing it professionally," he said.

"The Anti-Corruption Commission has a clear mandate to fight corruption in Zambia. In order to assist it do this, Section 5 of the ACC Act invested the Commission with ‘autonomy' wherein it is clearly stated that ‘the Commission shall not be subject to the direction or control of any person or authority'.

I want to underline ‘authority' and say it is crucial to the work of a corruption buster to be in control of itself ignoring all authorities. Why is it that over this issue of the Durban printer engaged to print this year's election ballots, the ACC's statements about there being no corruption suspected in the awarding of the tender so conspicuously echo those of the government and the Electoral Commission of Zambia?"

He wondered why the three institutions should be unanimous in their public statements despite their different roles and mandates.

Prof Hansungule said the ACC could not rush to issue statements denying corruption where it had received information calling for investigation.
He said it was a dismissible offence for ACC officials who acted contrary to their mandate.

"Section 9 of the ACC Act clearly imposes a statutory duty on the ACC to ‘prevent and take necessary measures for the prevention of corruption by public and private bodies. In relation to the ECZ and this Universal Printer thing which I am sure is not universal, what measures did the ACC take to prevent corruption in the awarding of the tender?" he asked.

"The ACC knows as we all do that elections are big time for corruption, what measures did they put in place to prevent tenderpreneurship as required of them by statute? The Act also provides that the ACC should advise public and private bodies ‘on ways and means of preventing corrupt practices'. Can the ACC publish their advice to the ECZ over awarding of tenders for the forthcoming elections?"

Prof Hansungule said Parliament did not empower ACC to refuse and issue announcements such as the one they issued on UPG.

He said that was being political and a clear disrespect of a simple provision of the law.

"What the public expected from the ACC is a statement saying ‘following complaints received and after investigations, this is the outcome', either confirming or rejecting the complaint," said Prof Hansungule.

"Instead of harassing the Given Lubinda's and Post newspapers, summoning them like children and consequently embarrassing them, the ACC should be appreciative of the role institutions like independent media play in doing what the ACC should in fact be doing. Harassing the public for alleging corruption is contravening the very letter and spirit of the ACC."