African Monitor’s Development Support Monitor 2011

African Monitor was established in 2006 as an independent continental body to monitor development funding commitments, funding delivery as well as the impact on grassroots communities. African Monitor also works towards bringing strong additional African voices to the development agenda.

Our vision is of an African continent rapidly achieving its development potential, whose people live in dignity, in a just society where basic needs are met, human rights are upheld, and good governance entrenched.

In the years 2011 – 2015, African Monitor is organizing its work under the theme “Unlocking the African Moment:  A grassroots led agenda.”  This forward-looking action-oriented theme was identified after an extensive review of African Monitor’s work in the last five years since its inception; and upon an in-depth assessment of Africa’s current development trajectory.  There have been many indications of developmental achievements of African countries in the last few years.  For instance there has been good economic performance over the last ten years accompanied by positive social gains. The proportion of people living in extreme poverty in Africa reduced significantly to 51 percent in 2005, compared to a peak of about 58 percent in the late 1990s. The latest economic projections by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) indicate that Africa is set to bounce back significantly over the next few years and catch up with the high growth rates that we experienced prior to the global financial and economic crises. Former South African President, Mbeki recently referred to “an Africa Star rising fast”, arguing that the continent has had a productivity revolution and is entering a new era of hope. These and many other indicators have given a lot of development actors a perception that Africa is on the brink of a major development breakthrough.

African Monitor is concerned that the current discourse about Africa’s moment does not put Africa’s ordinary citizens at the centre of the development agenda. The question we are concerned with is “what will happen to Africa’s grassroots population as Africa rises - will they be left behind and excluded; or will they participate fully in this new era?”

African Monitor’s new strategic focus under the theme “Unlocking the African Moment” seeks to unlock the grassroots potential to be the drivers of African economic rejuvenation.  In the next four years an energetic coalition of development actors in Africa will be mobilized to  promote the expansion of service delivery to include socio-economic services in order to create access to economic opportunities for grassroots communities, thus increasing their ‘capability to function’. 

African Monitor achieves its goals through three strategic activities:-
Policy advocacy targeting African governments and their donor partners:
AM informs and influences policy and programmes within the African continent among key stakeholders such as governments and donors first by popularizing AM’s key message about how to unlock Africa’s moment for grassroots communities; and second by securing commitments from development actors for policy and/or policy change.  A tangible area for policy change has been identified to be the need to provide economic services to grassroots communities, which will increase the capacity of local communities to generate their own livelihoods.  AM works through the Togona and the President to target specific ministries within African governments, offices of the Heads of state, and donor representatives in Africa in its policy work.

Building an evidence base for policy advocacy:
For the advocacy to be credible African Monitor conducts grassroots focused research through the Grassroots Focus Index, Poverty Hearings and other on-going research to inform policy direction and content. Data gathered and new policy positions are published through various organizational outputs, including the Development Support Monitor, country fact sheets, policy briefs and media statements. 

Building and/strengthening a strong constituency base for additional African voices:
AM works with strategic grassroots partners to strengthen its constituency base among grassroots communities in sub-Saharan Africa.  AM will work with two priority constituencies in the next four years, (1) faith communities that will be accessed through a collaboration with IFAPA  and AM’s existing network of grassroots organization; (2)  the African youth constituency to particularly advocate for the implementation of the AU’s Youth Decade Action Plan, which primarily focuses on increasing economic opportunities for youth in Africa – a topic which is directly in line with the “unlocking the African moment” theme.

For more information: info@africanmonitor.org [2].