Cyrille Mutombo

Good governance is not a luxury

2007-11-02T12:22:00.000+02:00

In this new post, I am sharing some thoughts about governance, which has become one of the most heated debates in both developing and developed countries. I remember being told about the ‘African tree’ by my parents who had the privilege to spend some years breathing clean air in rural areas. Indeed, during that time they used to gather under trees to discuss about various topics and issues in the village. Through those gatherings some chiefs actually used to consult with their subjects. Some scholars have called this the African democracy.

If I get further back into ancient time, we learn that classical tasks of the state have been making war and ensuring internal order. However, the event of modernism has seen the state mostly performing a role of economic transformation and development achievement though still performing its classical roles.

In present times, there is mounting evidence that success in development depends, to certain extent, on internal structures that a state is made of. Many studies such as the one by the sociologist Peter Evans prove enough that differences in the level of development is much due to the nature of states and the kind of relationships states develop with their societies.

As far as sub-Saharan Africa is concerned, the observation is that conditions of empty democracies easing elite to capture many states, failing and under-resourced bureaucracies, corruption, and many other symptoms still prevail. Yet without state, the other master institution of modern society (markets) cannot function (Evans 1995).

On the other hand, “managing an economy is not an easy task, especially in a context of global imperatives, where a country that deviates from the global norm is meted with punishment by global capital. The task is more difficult in a society like ours [South Africa] with conflicting imperatives. … These competing imperatives pose critical challenges for building one nation that belongs to all South Africans. To a large extent, South Africa’s ability to effectively address these imperatives will be dependent on the ability of the ruling party, the African National Congress… (Edigheji, 2005).

However, this long quote should not be taken for excuse. Instead, Africa should learn that the 3 successful post-war development experiences over the world emphasize the role that state apparatuses have played:

The Marshall plan, which consisted of funding the post war reconstruction of Europe. Great results where achieved by European states such as France.
The East Asian Growth and Development Plan (where US capital inflows helped to generate anti-communist states), and
The European Integration Programme (attempt to promote growth and overcome regional inequalities in Europe).

In the East Asian case for instance, the East Asian miracle, countries did not only receive US aid to prevent communist expansion. Well known as the tigers, states played a vital role by:

Successfully using financial instruments to channel investment decisions in line with national priorities, hence the concept of state-capitalism;
Effectively initiating and presiding industrial transformation, hence the concept developmental state;
Surmounting particularistic interest and securing collective goals, hence the concept embedded autonomy.

In the 1990s, the World Bank initiated a research in more than 200 countries to determine prospects of development based on six sectors:

Voices and Accounatbility, measuring political, civic and human rights;
Political Instability and Violence - measuring the likelihood of violent threats to, or changes in, government, including terrorism;
Government Effectiveness - measuring the competence of the bureaucracy and the quality of public service delivery;
Regulatory Burden - measuring the incidence of market-unfriendly policies;
Rule of Law - measuring the quality of contract enforcement, the police, and the courts, including judiciary independence, and the incidence of crime;
Control of corruption.

All the 6 indicators used by the bank relate to governance, that shows how good governance is determinant for development.

In 2005, the World Bank research was released and its main findings indicate that a realistic improvement in just one of the 6 areas within a country, can result in about 300% increase in the national per capita income over the long the term!
Main conclusions of the World Bank report are that:

Improved governance leads to higher standards of living and poverty alleviation;
Such improvements in governance are realistic;
Measuring governance changes over time: significant improvements are feasible;
Yet the worldwide reality is sobering: limited progress on average;
Demand for rigorously monitoring progress: the power of data.

Hence the Bank to conclude: ‘Yet good governance is not a luxury that only wealthy countries can afford’.

Despite this brief book review one should be aware that I am not an advocate of the World Bank, in fact my empirical study in DRC last year made me side with those still questioning the genuineness of the Bank’s latest policy regarding poverty alleviation, I do respect most of their research findings.

Besides that, the UN Convention against Corruption has just set some institutional arrangements to fight corruption and urges States to appoint bodies to coordinate prevention and enforcement measures (UNDP, April 2006).

All this makes me conclude that the thesis that development’s outcomes in third world depend on the role a state performs is still valid to a certain extent. Thus, good and stable governance, sound macroeconomic policies, pro-poor bureaucracies and service delivery will characterize African countries that are going to make a difference.

Cyrille

Soccer world cup: some lessons to learn

2007-11-02T12:17:00.000+02:00

I am happy to be back to blogging after one month. Before I jump to sharing practical workdays, I would like to share some experiences from the soccer world cup in Germany, as it constitutes a special world of work in its own. Indeed, Germany 2006 has been not only a great time for entertainment but also a learning experience on success, competition, teamwork, passion, etc at both personal and corporate levels.

Over what was happening in the twelve German stadiums, many people were given an opportunity to voice their opinions. Three people attracted my attention by the way they related the world cup event to their careers, life, cultures and opinions: Bill Clinton, Kofi Annan, and the Ivorian president Laurent Bagbo.

For Bagbo, probably sending a political message to French he accuse of over doing in his country’s affairs, Italy has proved to be an established and respectful soccer team in Europ. Maybe in a political message to Bush’ zeal in the fight against terrorism, Clinton said: “sometimes defense is better than offence”.

Our very own African brother, the UN general secretary Kofi Annan probably had one of the most inspiring words for this world cup:

“The World Cup makes us in the UN green with envy. As the pinnacle of the only truly global game, played in every country by every race and religion, it is one of the few phenomena as universal as the United Nations. You could even say it's more universal. FIFA has 207 members; we have only 191. But there are far better reasons to be envious… The United Nations fully relies on this language as it promotes fair play, which is the blueprint to build a better world … the World Cup is an event, which takes place on a level playing field, where every country has a chance to participate on equal terms. Only two commodities matter in this game: talent and teamwork. I wish we had that in the global arena… The World Cup is an event which everybody on the planet loves talking about…. They know who scored and how and in what minute of the game... I wish we had more of that sort of conversation in the world at large…Citizens consumed by the topic of how their country could do better on the Human Development Index, or in reducing the number of carbon emissions or new HIV infections”.

Soccer or sport in general has proved one more time its potential to induce love, peace, forgiveness, and to a certain extent development.

By the time the world is going to watch the first-ever African organized world cup, my wish is to see people being really mobilized to fight corruption, hunger, and unfair trade with the very same spirit and enthusiasm we saw in Germany. Would African people, led by civil society organizations, take a stance and start issuing yellow and red cards to politicians.

For wits WOW 2006 team, should we also learn passion from the players and have the same focus as Italian defenders not to commit the fatal mistake, should we also have that killer instinct of German strikers to always handle our tasks with tact and precision. There is a lot to learn from the career path of a soccer player given that this is the rare careers where workers, I mean players, achieve a lot in their young age and retire so young, mostly in their early thirties! We should not forget that despite their personal skills, soccer players work hard to be part of the national squad (23 players only). They also work had to be part of the fifteen for each game. They even work harder to fit in each game. So far, Wits Interns have good times and I hope all of us will fit in their host organizations or get something for long-term careers.

Cyrille

Development prospects after elections in the DRC

2006-07-31T15:39:00.000+02:00

Last Sunday 30 July 2006 has been historic for Africa as the Demaocratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) held democratic elections after 46 years. Now that Congolese have cast their votes, let’s have a look at what comes next in terms of development.

Independent since June 1960 from Belgium colonialism and despite its vast and diverse mineral resources, the DRC has not done well in terms of development. Part of the reason is that former governments have only promoted elitist enrichment at the expense of impoverished vast majority of Congolese.

Though far from home, I have been following very closely how elections have been prepared and run, hence I share my views here about the prospect of development in the post electoral DRC.

I have a mixed feeling about my country: hope and fear. Hope comes from the fact that these elections constitute an opportunity for longlasting peace and an opportunity for paving the way for reconstruction. Fear comes from the fact that the country is in a total development mess and chaos that even an elected government might just get confused to prioritize its actions and fail to kick start reconstruction. I still do not know which way the country will take, but I wish the best.

Since the Argentinean referee blew the final whistle in Germany with the crowning of Italy as the soccer world champion, my eyes are off screen and that allows me to devote at least an hour analyzing some six (of whom a lady) candidates’ agendas and discourses in the presidential race.

Indeed, despite one's will to track all candidates, you easily get confused as 33 people are contending for the single presidential seat. Had I been a political researcher or analyst, embarking in such an exercise would be a passionate thing.

My personal analysis led me to three observations about predidential in the DRC:

either a good diagnosis of the situation by presidential contenders
or a campaign marred by a demagogic discourse; and lastly
More wish lists than coherent development agendas;

When critically watching and reading news covering the DRC presidential campaign, a well-informed listener learns that most candidates have tailored their discourses to what attendees want to hear (The Voice of America, Radio France International, RadioOkapi, Channelafrica, SABC, the Star, Business Day, Financial Times, etc ).

There is no doubt that most of them have an accurate reading of the illnesses the country has been suffering from for years. Though most of them have been associated to and account for the poor development results achieved in the country, no one dared to provide explanations for that. Lesson to learn: the 'business as usual' argument likely to persit.

Some contenders went far by finger pointing others for being worse than them. Using means at their disposal: food, t-shirts and even money; contenders drew crowds to attend their public addresses. To show how demagogic this has been, most attendees promised not to vote for people they received these things from. “ It is my right to accept whatever I was given since all these things are part of the national wealth these people looted…but my behavior does not give any of them the right to claim my vote”, argued one of them.

Despite the knowledge and awareness candidates displayed, the issue however, is when it comes to how they indent to surmount the very same issues they diagnosed. To treat the chaos the country is in, most candidates enumerated long and long lists of what their intentions for reconstruction are. I don't recall one practically getting to the 'how'.

Despite that and whatever the outcome of these elections and despite its loopholes, I strongly believe that the country would have made a giant step further. I do side along with those who still hope that these elections may give to an elected Congolese government an opportunity to consolidate peace and kick-start reconstruction and development.

The challenge however, would be how well does the next ruling class maneuvers some of the development challenges the country faces: pacifying the great lake region and reconciling national and neighbor countries interests, consolidating peace, revitalizing diplomatic representations, visible presence in international decision-making fora, improving public governance and annihilating corruption, updating, recycling and building a new bureaucracy, demarcating political careers from bureaucratic careers, insulating bureaucratic career from political and ethnical affiliation, paving a way for youth to enter an expert-based bureaucratic career path, ensuring state and governance continuity, designing coherent and sound development policies and programmes.

Data gathering

2006-07-20T10:31:00.000+02:00

Almost two months have gone since I started my internship at Central African Gold (CAG) and the experience is so exciting .

I have been working on different tasks and that keeps me quite busy. One of the things I have been doing is collecting and analyzing information related to social aspects of mining. This is quite fascinating in a mining environment and most important to me is that sustainable growth is part of CAG’s vision.

To get back to data collection, which is something I have been good at for years and I am rarely worried about generating meaningful information. Moreover, being a French speaker gives me easy access to the literature from some French countries where CAG operates.

Despite all these advantages and available resources at CAG for one to fulfill his/her tasks, it happened that I encountered some challenges related to generating information:

Value and accuracy;
Access; and
Timeframe;

Whenever I am given a data-generating task, the first thing I do is to locate and collect information. Time management is very important here because I remember once to found my self spending much time collecting and trying to access information. In the aftermath, I was overwhelmed with data to analyze in such a short period of time. Good for me as I got it right and learned about managing my time at work.

Accessing data and getting valuable information is another good challenge I am learning to deal with. Some data are just useless and can cost one's time. What a nightmare if you spend all your time on that. When you know exactly what is needed you can still avoid that trap.

The another thing is that if you get something approximate to what is required, there is a reason for one to feel upset, especially if your supervisor cares for accuracy and validity. For the first time I got approximate information I was so stressed. In fact, there was not enough available information but I managed to get the best available. Though I was not blamed, I felt anxious about it.

I am quite happy here at CAG because many people have been helping me to get some information that are relevant to my tasks and I am learning to effectively manage the challenges related to data gathering. Analysis is another thing I like, but so far I have not been analyzing much and that is still to come. Nonetheless I feel happy about the feedback for some analysis I have submitted already. It is such a pride when you provide valuable information and I wish to do that as long as I am at CAG.

May Day and the rise of Worker’s political influence

2006-05-02T20:06:00.000+02:00

Yesterday we all joined workers to mark solidarity between workers from all nationalities in the world. For some, the celebration of the worker’s day is a remainder of the exploitation that workers have gone through over in past communist societies. For others, May Day is a reminder to the ruling classes that their days are numbered.

In South Africa, labor talks have been dominated by strikes organized by security guards and bus driver’s unions. Deaths and material damages that accompanied security guards protests raised some voices on the extent of the right to strike workers should be given. DA Tony Leon holds union’s leaders accountable for the losses. On the other hand, the business view is that this simply worsens the situation with a South African labor market not flexible enough to meet the requirements of economic globalization. Thus for businesses, strikes aggravate the situation by causing the economy loose billions.

On the international scene, celebrations of the worker’s day took different forms:

In US, where May 1 is usually a working ( worker’s day there is in September) , concerns to protect the basic rights of immigrants made the working class boycott work and go on the streets to support the National Immigrant Boycott. That was as a way of appreciating the economic, social and cultural contributions of immigrants;
In South Korea workers have been demanding better working conditions;
In DRC, union’s leaders have been sensitizing the working class on a rational vote for the July elections, asking workers to cast their votes only for those concerned with worker’s well being,
In Angola, workers have been demanding an increase of the minimum wage, when in France, after celebrating their success for defeating a government labor policy last month, unions have called for more pressure to make government concede more to their demands;
In Russia unions have been calling to protest against low wages and poverty, when Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki ordered an increase of 12 percent in the minimum wage for non-farm workers and 11 percent for farm workers.

Labor is something that affects our daily lives. Yet, the current pace of global production has seen shrinking work opportunities and increasing exclusion from formal work such as: informalization, casualization, outsourcing etc. Besides that, some other patterns have been developing at the expense of workers and the society at large: retrenchment, poor working conditions, sweatshops, child labor, and child soldiers.

In order to meet promises they made during their electoral campaign , some governments simply decided to give tax holidays and preferential conditions to MNCs and attract FDI. Most of the time, these deals have been made at the expense of workers. As a result, worker’s unions are have been confronted with some challenges that force them to find solutions out of their traditional areas of intervention.

One of those solutions has been the involvement in political activity. Labor parties have emerged as a serious political actor to count with, producing some well-known head of states and governments:

Tony Blair in UK, spreading the trend in European;
Ex Zambian president F Chilluba, not convincing enough to influence worker’s primacy in the African political scene;
Current Brazilian president Lula for Latin America;
Cosatu, member of the tripartite alliance in South Africa.

My view is that, an increased involvement of workers in public affairs may play not only a buffer role to political greed and mismanagement but also a crucial role to make our lands better places for all.

Healthier Africa for African development

2006-04-26T18:03:00.000+02:00

Health is very crucial for development achievements. Indeed, development is a people-achieved action and in the event poor health conditions prevail, development is threatened.

Malaria and HIV-AIDS are the main reasons for health related deaths in the world, reports the World Health Organization. Despite the fact that malaria can be prevented and treated, it kills more than 1 million people in the world and mostly in Africa. The equatorial and tropical zones, with intense rains are the most favorable environments for the vectors of malaria, known as anopheles. These mosquitoes (anopheles) transmit the disease by a simple bite.

Since two years and half that I have been living in South Africa, I never suffered from malaria despite my several trips back home to Kinshasa (DRC). I use to take measure such as preventive pills before and after traveling. My father, a medical doctor, always make sure that I do that. South Africa is not the ideal place to talk of malaria. Most South African regions are malaria free, except some few areas, thus the disease might not be given same amount of attention compared to central Africa where I come from.

In response to the ravages malaria causes to the humanity, some years back, the WHO has launched the global malaria programme, which is responsible for malaria policy and strategy formulation, as well as operations support, capacity development, and coordinated action to fight malaria. Beside that, other UN agencies such as the UNICEF also have their own frameworks to implements strategies and programmes against malaria. All these strategies plan to meet the Millennium Development Goal 6 (MDG), which aims at combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.

Unfortunately, limited use of available research, poor monitoring and evaluation in some regions make any fight against malaria not effective as wished. Since 2001 for instance, the WHO demanded countries to change their strategies and switch to the ‘artemisinin-based combination therapies’ (ACTs), which combines some drugs together and better fight the disease. Despite such a requirement and a huge boost in health aid, many governments have not done better five years later.

Yesterday, the world joined Africa to celebrate its 6th malaria day which focused on how to provide universal access to artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) and call for these treatments to reach those who need them as quickly as possible. http://www.rollbackmalaria.org/amd2006/. We all hope that this issue will be given enough attention at global and national levels, mostly in countries that are most concerned. Otherwise we cannot make development happen!

ARVs or Ubejane: silence from the government and dilemma for patients!

2006-04-24T10:42:00.000+02:00

The effects of the HIV/Aids pandemic are so devastating that institutions, countries and people have to reconsider their behavior. On the last development, Vatican announces that the Catholic Church is about to publish a statement reconsidering its view on condom use http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060423/ts_nm/pope_condoms_dc_1 .

Back to South Africa, the HIV-Aids debate over the past few weeks is mostly dominated by Zuma’s statement on his post sex shower for reducing risks of HIV infection and the microbicide conference in Durban.

The silence from the ministry of Health on Zuma’s declaration has surprised both local and international communities, throwing a mixed sentiment of confusion and interrogations in the public.

Over that realm, masses are subject to a very difficult test of choosing between a proven cure of ARVs and a non-toxic mixture of herbs (ubejane).

Bringing the debate on the media, guests of SABC3 Nikiwe had two contradicting views on interface last Sunday:

ARVs is not accessible to the majority of South Africans, let’s try the last no-toxic recipe from traditional medicine;
Proven cure can’t just be replaced by alternative solution that has not yet been tested to provide same or better results.

Besides the proven non-toxicity of Ubajane, advocates of the first viewpoint back their arguments with some cases of people feeling better. Leaving that aside, they also raise the old debate of western versus African medicine. Their argument: given that the majority of South African consults traditional healers who are now providing a cheaper but efficient solution, why don’t we delve into such an alternative?

I love Africa and home-based solutions, but I think this is too risky. Ubajane’s prescriber says he has no proof that his medication is efficient when associated with ARVs, patients have to choose between the two.

Proving non-toxicity or ability to increase appetite is not enough, information from the Medical University of South Africa says Ubajane does not heal HIV/Aids . However, this is a room for further researches such as the possibility of association of traditional medicine with other western solutions.

This is exactly what a government is supposed to do. Seemingly, the SA health department decides to keep quite. The official from the Department of Health decided to decline the invitation at interface last Sunday on SABC.

On the other hand, western medicine is not left behind. The microbicide
conference in Cape Town is going to expose on advancements made to reduce risks of contamination from HIV/aids.

As a result, despite major achievements that both western and traditional medicine can provide, the HIV/Aids situation in South Africa is likely to get worse as the government decides to entertain confusion!

I am back to blogging!

2006-04-14T19:40:00.000+02:00

My blogging activities on the past two weeks were very uneven and slow. I kept on pondering on how to be blogging as long as technology would allow me. This question came to me when I closely questioned the WOW 2006 team and individual blogging. Most of our blog posts consist of the presentations we listened to. Not bad. That was what we have been most exposed to.

But, I felt like trapped: what am I going to blog about after these presentations will be over?

I allowed my self a moment of thought. During that time, I have been reading some other blogs to get a better grasp of the blogosphere.

Another concern I had was about the theming of the teamblog. I am not against the idea of being guided by a theme, but at certain times I feel like writing pieces of university essays. I like change and I always go green. Having been studying development since my first year at university, when preparing a post for the teamblog, I felt like writing assignments. I have certain stuff that I never dared to post. It looks like writing assignments again and again. That is the very reason, whenever I have to post on the teamblog on the theme of African development; I try my best to link it to news or any other topic. Moreover, I avoid making it as formal as an assignment given that there are so many books, websites, experts, journals, etc that address the topic better than I do. Hold on, I am not underestimating my self. I was a very good student.

Thus, I try to find the right balance between the scientific requirement of the theme and whatever I want to share. I felt encouraged in this approach when I read John T hunger’s blog, comments left in Roy's blog, Kawasaki's, Seth, Microsoft Geek blogger, especially this one.

I learnt a lot from other bloggers and mostly that blogging is a way of socializing, sharing your experiences, making friends (the post on Naked conversations is a good case of socializing through bloggs). That does not exclude purely professional blogs. Where one decides to write on what he knows the best, Kasawasaki is an illustration. There are political blogs, journalists’ blogs, etc. Since life is all about choices, I chose to blog for socializing and build up professionalism in the process.

Memorial days

2006-04-14T18:48:00.000+02:00

When I was still attending high school, History and geography were not among my favorite subjects though I was doing well. Later on, I became quite familiar with memorial dates. However, I never memorized a third of them.

It all started when in 2001 I was the SRC Chairperson in my university, Facultés Catholiques de Kinshasa. One of the innovations my term brought was to run at least twice a month, one conference on an international event or world memorial days. Since then, I have been closely watching events such as world water day, world tree day, world health day, etc.

The month of April for instance, reminds us about some very important world day celebrations:
v The World Health Day: 7th
v The World Parkinson Day, 11th ,
v On the 17th , we celebrate the World Prayers Day, world Peasant Struggles Day as well Hemophilia Day,
v And many others,

For today the 14th, my record shows me no great celebrations. However, some events that coincidently happened in this very same date are worth to be remembered. They are religious, political, and social tragic or joyful events:

v 1191 Consecration of pope Celestin III;
v 1865 American president, Abraham Lincoln, wounded on an attempt of coup. He died on the following day;
v 1907 an earthquake destroys a area within the city of Acapulco in Mexico;
v 1907 François Duvalier, "Papa Doc", self proclaimed president of Haiti and ruled for life,
v 1912 the Titanic hurt an iceberg, few hours later it was tragic, 1 513 dead;
v 1942 birth of Valeri Brumel, an athlete, Olympic champion who won the high jump in 1964 and break the record 6 consecutive times;
v 1945 Canadians soldiers arrive to the city of Arnhem and liberate the Netherlands;
v 1945 Americans bombard Tokyo and the King Palace.
v 1972 South Africa is excluded from the Davis Cup because of Apartheid.
v 1986 the famous French female philosopher, Simone de Beauvoir died;
v 2002 Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is back to power after a failed attempt of coup by de Pedro Carmona;
v 2005, I, Cyrille graduated for my postgraduate diploma in Social welfare at Wits;

Look at how the very same day brings either happiness or catastrophes. That’s life!

Responding to my career expectations

2006-04-01T22:14:00.000+02:00

I carried a worry for the first two weeks of the WOW training (www.pghumanities.wits.ac.za/) since most of the presenters were talking of very informative things but no specific connection with my career expectations. They were all good and I learnt a lot, then I asked my self, how useful is this going to be if I do not get an intern position after the training?

At the beginning of the third week, Jean Power asked us to give an overall assessment of the programme so far. One of the things we asked was that some of us have not yet heard from organizations they were interested in for a career. All we have heard that far was quite good and related to development in a sense. But for people like me, working within a multicultural and multitasks development organization has always been a target. The programme reacted very quickly. Thank you Jean and Lesley. I felt so satisfied when some guests addressed us on behalf of Independent Develop,ment Trust-IDT (www.idt.org.za), CIVICUS (http://www.civicus.org/), Environmental Resources Management-ERM (http://www.erm.com/), and Social Surveys (http://socialsurveys.co.za/).

Having studied development since my undergrad, there is nothing exciting than interacting with people from various backgrounds. The issue however, is that development studies are multidisciplinary, it touches at economics, sociology, almost everything and sometimes you feel lost, immersed, not focused, even confused, that’s the beauty of it.

When some speakers started talking of empowerment, poverty alleviation, policy analysis, people’s participation, etc, it started stirring up my passion and I reach the peak of my joy. The three organizations I named above on are exactly the sort of environment I want to see my self in. Mostly, grown up in a French-speaking environment, cultural diversity is something I always look at for my career choice. By culture diversity I go beyond language environment and I see the richness that combines different origins, backgrounds, knowledge, and lifestyles. Thank you very much to Audrey, Barkers, Lorenzo, Libby, Mpumi, Tshepo, Bangani, Mkise and Gadija.

But, on the other hand, I intend not to work for more than fifteen years; I wont cope with that routine. I do not want to offend potential employers, but I am trying to be true soul. For that reason, I am going to retire and concentrate on my own business, especially the mining one in the DRC. I am going to get some advices from Marius Venter (Open For Business) and Endeavour (http://www.endeavor.org/). Some courses I did with UNISA have already prepared me to that, moreover, my EQ (entrepreneurial intelligence) is high enough. There again, I will work for while and end up in politics. All the knowledge and experience I would have accumulated will be useful to contribute to the development of the DRC. Remember, change is constant, go green from time to time.

Ghadija Vallie: a heart without borders

2006-03-30T17:14:00.000+02:00

The session we had with Ghadija Vallie brought me back to the African wisdom I used to hear from my grandmother, my mother and in some old traditional songs. I felt like drinking at a source of potable water falling from the mountains of my village I visited years ago. Her speech was clean, pure, deep and inspiring true love.

The predominant color on her dress was green, testifying expansion and change, and she said it: change is constant. I love you mummy. The session was among the shortest we had so far but full of wisdom. No PowerPoint slides but simply wise words and advices (please do not misinterpret me, I am not against technology).

In this individualistic society we are living in, with extensive promotion of the ego, the ‘moi’, she came with a revolutionary thought: ‘I am the community, we are the community…an injury to one is an injury to all’.

Whatever the circumstances, I will always ask my self, what is the contribution I make to my community? Key for a valuable contribution: humility, commitment and passion.

She traveled from Cape Town just to share that with us. It was great and comforting, raising hope for the future. Thanks a million to you Ghadija Vallie. I will always remember of you.

A session on Project Management at Constitution Hill

2006-03-27T10:21:00.000+02:00

When I first came to South Africa, two months later I started my courses at Wits in February 2004. As I could not secure a place in one of the Wits student residences, I lived in Hillbrow and I used to catch the Wits bus at Essellen to come to the main campus.

One of the things that attracted my attention was the huge construction within Constitution Hill (http://www./constitutionhill.org.za). Despite my curiosity, I never tried to know what was being built, I simply noticed that it was taking time. I then assumed that it was one of those next highest buildings in the Southern hemisphere or maybe a skyscraper of the African version of the memorial twins in Manhattan.

A year later, I was one of the frequent attendees of some conferences within the Constitution Hill, especially those ran by the Edge Institute (http://www.the-edge.org.za/) and the Sociology of Work Unit (SWOP).

Despite such closeness, I never enquired what was being built nor did I ask why these respectful people from SWOP and the Edge always brought us to those old and dirty buildings, almost threatening our safety. Money constrains I thought. Then, why do we leave Wits were they have offices and halls at their disposal? Anyway, that was not so important to me since those conferences were an opportunity to increase my knowledge on the South African society as well as its crucial social issues.

Thanks to the WOW training as I finally came to discover Constitution Hill as a place of great significance to the history of South Africa.

On the guidance of the gentle tourist guide, Lebo, I realized what this country went through. For several times, I paid visits to Vilakazi Street with the famous Mandela’s and Tutu’s houses and the Victor Piettersen museum in Soweto, but it never had such an impact on me. Anyway, the past belongs to history.

Late after the visit, we had a wonderful presentation on Project Management by Brian Orlin form the JDA (Johannesburg Development Agency (http://www./jda.org.za). In such a short period of time, Brian browsed what he learnt and practiced for years. Though I attended two courses on Project Management; Brian simply impressed me with such an integrative session, covering key areas of the topic. And lastly, I finally discovered what was being built on the site: a commercial centre which both generates income and keeps alive a South African legacy. It made my weekend great. Any single day in the WOW had added value to me.

Cyrille

HIV-AIDS: good policies also require unambiguous political commitment

2006-03-27T10:19:00.000+02:00

Thursday 23rd March, we had a very good presentation on HIV/Aids and the workplace. Christine Rendall demonstrated that she is familiar with the topic. I am not going to repeat what she has said but I have one concern.

My concern, however, is about the connection between policies and political commitment. I think that is the best recipe for the issue of HIV/Aids in South Africa. I learnt form Christine that South Africa has got one of the best policies for HIV/Aids in the world, moreover, that is a view shared by the WHO.

My worries are that, compared to some other developing countries, South Africa does not perform well regarding this HIV/aids issue, hence my question: what is the need for the best policy when the situation on the ground shows terrible gaps?

I am not writing about politicians here, but I am still questioning the efficiency of those policies if they are to be carried by a minister and a president whose views on HIV/Aids simply testify ambiguities.

The political environment is a major determinant of policy success of failure. I do share couple of things on most South African government policies, but I am very skeptical about its commitment to HIV/Aids.

A study by a world renown American economist bureau, Sachs Goldman, which is reported by Samir Ghabi in the French magazine ‘Jeune Afrique l’Intelligent’ of February 2004 (http://www.lintelligent.com/), shows how South Africa may not have the required demographic population to sustain its growth rate by 2050. The Study shows how, both economies of South Africa and Brazil have the same growth rate by 2002, but by 2050, Brazil is likely to be far better and rank 9th world economic power with a GDP 5 times bigger than the one of South Africa. That is sad news not only for South Africa but also for Africa.
With attitudes and statements like "If the scientists . . . say that the virus is part of the variety of things from which people acquire immune deficiency, I have no problem with that. But to say that this is the sole cause and therefore the only response to it is anti-retroviral drugs, [then] we’ll never be able to solve the AIDS problem" (Mbeki in 2000 http://www.gcis.gov.za/media/releases/000910.htm).

Analyzing Mbeki's last State of the Nation address, the Treatment Action Campaign is of the view that Government attitude towards the pandemic has not yet changed (http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/Politics/0,,2-7-12_1661207,00.html).
These views were shared by many political leaders (http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__national/&articleid=263594)..

According to the DA (Democratic Alliance) Tony Leon for instance, HIV/Aids is one of several serious issues Mbeki had glossed over in his speech. Patricia Delille on the other hand said that Government had enough time to improve service and that should not constitute an excuse. In IFP (Inkatha Freedom Party) Mangosuthu Buthelezi’s word, the South African HIV/Aids issue shows a ‘leadership crisis’. As part of the solution, the ACDP (African Christian Democratic Party) Kenneth Meshoe believes that HIV and Aids should be included on government’s priorities agenda alongside poverty and unemployment.

My own view is that, this country has suffered a lot form past racial imbalances. Apartheid is still alive in many and political leaders should face the HIV/Aids challenge and give a chance to next generations for a long and prosperous life.
I am sorry if I recall apartheid here, but I like these wise words: ‘the past belongs to history, but if nothing is done for the HIV/Aids, today is misery and tomorrow is probably a mystery’.

Something must be done on the top political milieu of South Africa. Otherwise, Sachs’ prediction will be proven right. By writing such an article, Sachs Bureau does not expect things to happen as they planned, they simply warned us to take urgent actions.

Cyrille

Workplace and change: the office spouses

2006-03-22T18:32:00.000+02:00

The workplace is an environment that changes at such a fast pace that I feel very lucky to interact with people with practical experience at hands. For a successful entry, emotional quotient is a key element. A couple of weeks before the WOW (world of work) training, I never thought of such a connection. I was quite sure that all the theories I have been exposed to would suffice.

To show how fast the corporate environment is changing, intimate office relationships are getting common currency and one of its fastest growing form is the ‘office spouse’. The phenomenon seems to be more in vogue in developed countries as some researches have already been conducted on it, I hope we going to fill this research gap very soon in our developing countries.

To illustrate this phenomenon, this is a story of a pretty 47 year old columnist working for the financial times. Lucy Kellaway has been through six office spouses, actually six marriages. The first two broke up as she has changed her work and the last four where experienced by her in the two decades she has been working for the Financial Times (FT). The longest marriage Lucy Kellaway had was her sixth, which lasted for nearly five years. Guess what; lastly Lucy had just announced her search for the next husband.

Lucy defines the spouse office as ‘someone you see every day and spend more waking time with than your actual spouse’. Talking on the phenomenon, this is what she writes in her article posted on the FT on Monday 20 March: ‘according to Vault, a US-based career consultancy, 32 percent of workers have an office spouse, and the number is growing fast. Although these surveys are always daft, and the figures suspect, the concept is a real one…’.

Bad or good thing, is something difficult to tell and which I do not want to delve into here. It all depends on one’s personal experience and judgmental background. My first impression on Lucy was that, that is too much instability and might affect her productivity. Yet, after I read more on her bibliography on http://news.ft.com/comment/columnists/lucykellaway , I learnt that Lucy was named columnist of the year at the 2006 British Press Awards. Controversial indeed. If one wants a say on that, Lucy expects comments on www.ft.com/kellaway .

Nonetheless, the point I would like to mention is that, trends in the WOW change every single day and one should be prepared to that and make it work at it best. Make it work for you, for your corporate and mostly for the people you serve, your clientele.

We are living in a world whereby after spending almost one third of a day in bed, some people have to spend more than one third of their day at work. Therefore, make sure that you are not only at work, but also to work. Moreover, make sure that you adapt to any changes you encounter. My university syllabi do not predict the next trend within the work place and I am aware of that. Thank you to all our guest speakers who share with us some tips to help us succeed at work and cope with change. Special thanks to the WOW training staff as well and Good luck to Lucy Kellaway.

South African politicians also do blog

2006-03-20T18:41:00.001+02:00

Last week I was searching on the internet about blogging and I found a blog on last South African local elections http://elections.mg.co.za/. I learnt something from it. It is not only about politics but also the power this blogging technology has to spread information, news, and mostly emotions.

In fact, politicians who blogged as responding to a Mail &Guardian initiative, did not only blog for electoral campaign, but it was time for some to share how they experienced their days and share some of their feelings.

I have also decided to blog not only for marketing purposes but especially for the openness that it allows, for the interactions that come with feedbacks and comments by people visiting my blog.

Indeed, during one of our internship sessions, I personally complained about the practical time I would have for blogging since my favourite activities on internet were emails and internet search. I have to reconsider this. My tour at http://elections.mg.co.za/ showed me how busy politicians managed to blog about their views and plans and that created room for debate. As a result I made my mind and have decided to devote at least 45 minutes to blog whenever I am online.

The Four Cs: Competition, Collaboration, Cooperation+ Clusters.

2006-03-19T22:21:00.000+02:00

Last Friday when I left my room down west campus village around 8:30, I had no clue about what the session with Josie Rowe would look like.

In fact, she spoke of Competition, Cooperation, and Cooperation. Few minutes after I reached the wits club, the day started on a very good note with teaming. I had a formidable balanced team with three interns and three delegates from the Limpompo Local Economic Development project.

The way my team worked, someone from out could not easily differentiate between ‘witsies’ and ‘limpompo workers’, we formed a team and interacted very closely. That remembered me about team work as presented by Peter Arden.

To get back to my Friday, that was a very busy and informative day. I learnt quite a lot from Josie presentation in the afternoon. Before that, I enjoyed the morning session, the talk on competition. I liked Josie’s approach. She tackled it from very different angles: individual, corporate, state and global viewpoints.

Competition is the ‘current rule of the world’ and when Darwin talked of natural selection, he meant exactly the same. That should be understood not only at the individual level, but at the corporate and state levels as well. Thank you Josie because you brought in Collaboration and Cooperation.

We were all given teams where we pulled together our knowledge and experiences to work on the cases we were assigned, I understood the word complimentarity and synergy, that was great.

After the break, Josie came with the fourth C: clusters. The puzzle was complete. It was tough to swallow when she started, then I felt like bored and drowse. I managed not to sleep and focused on clusters. The last work with my team shed more light with the ‘Soweto tourism’.

My team worked on how historical places like the Victor Piettersen, and Villazi street were turned to generate some clusters in Soweto…

Thank you to the delegates from Limpompo, you inspired me about teaming and diversity, thank you Josie for the 4 Cs, tu as été merveilleuse Josie, très énergétique et amicale.

I met green, orange, brown, red, white and blue people!

2006-03-19T21:59:00.000+02:00

Africa faces so many issues to day: HIV-Aids, war, poor governance, etc. Despite that, I strongly believe that one day Africa will efficiently compete with giants and the world will talk of the ‘African miracle’.

Key to such attainment is the understanding of sustainability and corporate citizenship, thank you Paul Kapelus.

When is that day? I think it’s today, and now. Africa needs its sons and daughters to believe in its renaissance. Do you believe in such a think? I do. Let’s unite our ‘heads, hearts, and hands’ (thank you Brad Arden for the triple H) for sure that is going to create a synergy.

The African miracle is around the corner, because I met the six races composing Africa and I want you to meet them as well. I am proud that I am from central Africa, the ‘red’ zone. The bloodshed made me decide to come to the rainbow nation, where I met ‘blue’ people like South Africans, leading example of economic growth in Africa. One of them is Roy, blue skies.

Moi (I) belong to Africa because since I came to the rainbow nation I met ‘white’ people like some west Africans, always challenging me and asking why will it work Cyrille?.

Yes, I belong to Africa, reason why I plan to travel to Egypt and meet some ‘green’ people and get inspired from pyramids that teach change and expansion. Yebo, I belong to Africa, reason why I will be traveling to Mauritius after Egypt and meet some ‘orange’ people, ready to encourage me to always move forward and be positive. In fact before going to Egypt, I met one around, Peter Metcalfe.

Sim (yes), I belong to Africa, reason why I have to meet some ‘brwon’ guys from Djibouti so that they help me gather everything I learnt so far from these six races. I think, I also met some brown people like Tina Thomson and Shameen Naidu in the WOW (World Of Work) training.

Oui (yes), I belong to Africa reason why I live in the rainbow nation where I am likely to meet Egyptians and Mauritian before traveling to their land.

My encounter with these six races make me feel like I am ‘brown’, clustering information about the WOW , tomorrow I will turn to my preferred color, ‘blue’ after I will meet Nigerians as they always urge me to implement what I learn.

Gracias, merci beaucoup, thank you to the speakers at the World of Work training.

Roy, your session was Nice

2006-03-16T21:24:00.000+02:00

Hey Roy, about your two sessions:
I learnt New things, I Interacted with the world of Creativity, and that was Cool, Excellent!
It was niicce, Merci Beaucoup (tks) Roy!

A positive approach to problem solving

2006-03-16T20:44:00.000+02:00

Thanks a lot Peter Metcalfe,
We had a good session with you this afternoon and I really appreciate the discussion we had after your presentation. Many people could say the same things but from very different standpoints.

The thing that will always make me remember of this session is ‘A positive approach to problem solving’. That was fabulous. I personally share Peter’s view that a 10ml glass containing 5ml is not half empty but half full. I felt comforted in my way of approaching life. I also think that this might be helpful when thinking on prospects of development in Africa. We do not need the all continent to share the same approach to see things starting to change; we simply need to act as far as one is concerned. We already have the NEPAD vision even if NEPAD secretariat seems no fully involved in the vision it is supposed to serve.

In the same line, I share Peter’s contention that we rather create growth than alleviate poverty. The issue, however, is that our educational system is set in such a way that there are themes, standard words and concepts to define certain things. As one can read from my profile, one of my areas of interest is ‘Poverty alleviation’. This is a world-known and -used theme. In the US and UK, certain universities are offering postgraduate degrees in ‘Poverty alleviation’ with an impressive curriculum. An institution such as the World Bank has as motto ‘poverty alleviation’.

Nowadays, poverty alleviation tends to be an area of focus for many governments in the South. Just look at national policies, they are all aimed at ‘reducing poverty’. So far about 70 countries in the South are involved in the World Bank-IMF Poverty Reduction Strategy ‘PRS’ and they all design national policies that accommodate such a vision. To day we talk of the Milleniun Development Goals (MDG) with poverty alleviation at the forefront.

By the fact that ‘poverty alleviation’ is in vogue not only in development institutions but also as commonly adopted in the development mainstream and popular language, one can not easily reverse the trend. Moreover, we end up saying the same thing. Peter's argument of ‘let’s create growth and prosperity’ does not seem so different from World Bank strategy of ‘Building the climate for investment, jobs, and sustainable growth’ nor does it differ from the Bank’s argument going that ‘growth is good for the poor’. It all becomes semantic. Maybe I need to engage more with Peter’s strategy and look at the implementation side…anyway, thank you Peter, your presentation was great.

My Profile

2006-03-13T19:32:00.000+02:00

I am a self motivated, hard worker, and bilingual gentleman from the DR Congo. I am passionate of taking up challenges in my life as well as being group motivator or team leader.

I am interested in working in multicultural environments where I can meet and interact with multiskilled people, learn from them and contribute to a better performance of an organization.

My field of interest are: policy analysis, poverty alleviation, global issues, state-society relations, field research, and proposal writing.

I have lastly completed a Masters of Arts degree in Development Studies at Wits. My strongest side as student has been a sense of deep critical analyses, thus, I expect two things from guest lecturers at the world of work training: firstly to prepare me for a smooth entry in the workplace, and secondly to inspire me with some practical tools that can help me translate my knowledge into effective delivery of work.

Cyrille Mutombo

My photo

2006-03-13T19:19:00.000+02:00

Getting into the world of work training

2006-03-10T11:28:00.000+02:00

Friday, March 10, 2006March

Getting into the world of work training

I am quite happy to get into the world of work training, an opened door for a bright future and a successful career!!!

Studying for so many years has been an interesting experience and now time has come for long term practice. I feel stressed and anxious from time to time when I think of it.
Many thanks to the WOW training as this program is going to serve as a bridge connecting me to the workplace. I feel happy about that, I also feel proud about the WOW training and internship staff as well as all guest lecturers.

Life is about moving forward and whenever you find yourself at a crossroad, take up any challenge you face, remember that there are people that made the walk before you, look for them and once you find them, mentors or trainers, step in, find your inspiration and invest your self in what you believe is right.

Just by being accepted to this program, I strongly believe that I am gone for a successful shift for my career expectations. Therefore, I am committed to demonstrate a sense of responsibility, respect and compliance with the program requirements.