Human Development Must Top Economic Policy Agendas
The national policy buzz has suddenly shifted to Bahir Dar – the ever-growing capital of the Amhara Regional State, overseen by the rather popular EPRDFite, Ayalew Gobeze. It is not the rapid growth of the city, which is surrounded by major water bodies, such as Lake Tana and the Blue Nile River, that has led to the shift. Rather, it is the congregation of the ruling EPRDFites for their ninth convention.
Preceded by the eventful assemblies of the four member organisations of the ruling coalition, the general assembly, being held in the historical city, is envisioned to bring the top leadership of the ruling party together, in order to craft the road ahead. Of course, one important personality is missed from this whole scene – the late Meles Zenawi.
If the EPRDFites could name one person that has transformed their resilience significantly, it could be no one other than the late Prime Minister. The transformation that the ruling party has undergone under Meles’ watch was so monumental that its impacts have gone far beyond the Party. With the ruling party having been in power for over 21 years now, its organisational transformation is tightly aligned with the progress and backwards steps that the nation has gone through.
Meles’ shadow was indeed bigger than the Party’s. It extended to the continental and global scene, in which the Party has no face. His role was largely strategic, including articulating the stances of the Party on different global and local issues. The past eight assemblies of the Party benefited a lot from his intellect, articulation and leadership.
It is such a definitive persona that the EPRDFites have missed in their latest assembly – the first since their flagship Growth & Transformation Plan (GTP), came into effect. As if to solidify their stance towards economic development and express their lineage to Meles – their popular chief development theorist – they have anchored their discussion on the developmental achievements and challenges of the last two years.
Of course, this does not mean that they have completely avoided their traditional undertakings of restructuring their organisational units. Staffing their top political bureaus with new, younger faces and retiring the older leadership generation, in line with their succession plan, itself crafted by Meles, is an agenda they seem to pursue with due care. Yet, this part of the game has little to do with policy.
What seems to have a direct impact on policy is the discussion on the GTP. And a large part of it will be based on the latest Annual Progress Report (APR), disclosed by the Ministry of Finance & Economic Development (MoFED).
Predictably, the discussion will dominantly be political. It is also expected to be frank, as any intra-party discussion is. Yet, it has a significant leverage to change the direction of the national economic journey, with the EPRDFites entrusted to rule until 2014/15.
If the discussion is to solely be based on the APR, however, it would certainly lose sight of the global dimension. And, it has every chance to miss the linkage effect that both achievements and failures have with continental and global economic realities.
Eventually, the release of the latest Human Development Report (HDR) by the trusted global organisation, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), could help the EPRDFites to see the linkage of their actions with the global trend. Beyond that, the report could also help them to see where their decisiveness is highly sought.
Both the APR and the HDR show gaps in translating the rapid economic growth that the nation has managed to achieve over the last nine years, into concrete human developments, including; Gross National Income (GNI) per capital, quality health care and quality education. Therein lays the challenge for the convening EPRDFites.
The Human Development Index (HDI), a relatively comprehensive measure of economic development, for Ethiopia, has shown only a marginal increment, 0.004 to be exact, between 2011 and 2012. The 44pc gross increment, or 3.67pc annual rise, that the index has witnessed between 2000 and 2012 also lags behind the official rhetoric of successful inclusive development.
This too would have been bashed out of the neo-liberal political thresher, if it was not supported with the figures included in the latest APR, compiled by the MoFED. A rising student enrolment, stained with high dropout rates and subpar education, as well as an increasing health care provision disfigured by high child and maternal mortality rates, continue to challenge the rapid economic growth of the nation, states the latest APR.
Indeed, the EPRDFites stand at a cross roads. On the one hand is their repeated declaration to sustain the developmental legacy of their late leader. On the other, they are being challenged with an economy that is bearing less fruits, in terms of human development.
Cracking the password for a policy resolution is what is largely expected to come out of their convention. And the public seems to be watching, keenly.
All their efforts in the past were focused on building infrastructure, improving access to social services and establishing systems. This time around, however, the play is all about improving quality.
Sustaining development for a long time, to the level of making the nation a middle-income economy, cannot be attained without enhancing the quality of education, saving dying mothers, improving child care, increasing per capita income and streamlining equity. Largely, these challenges entail quality policy making.
So much as the EPRDFites are entrusted to lead the economy until the next election, in 2015, they have the responsibility of realising such a policy regime. Failing to bring a shift in the policy regime, from one focused on access to one which targets quality, will certainly have a cost for them and for the nation, at large.
It all ought to stem from a political will to grow beyond winning elections. Of course, numbers expressed as access to social services rightly resonate with the electorate. However, they cannot deliver a sustainable political base.
At stake for the EPRDFites is, thus, to bring a change in their policy perspective, which eventually refocuses it towards quality. Instilling the essential political will within the bureaucracy they oversee to realise the reorientation towards service quality will also be important.
It is only then that they could manage to further the economic legacies of their dear leader and bring about lasting change in the country.
Comments
Post a Comment