Agenda for Social Development in the 21st Century

By Mohamed Bali

As we approach the millennium mark, this will be an opportunity for the Somali communities, both in Horn of Africa or around the world, to search for a new approach to a very wide range of questions of fundamental importance to all of us. These questions include the nature of governance and the concept of conflict resolution (including respect for human rights), mechanisms for the transfer of knowledge, systems for providing assistance to war-ravaged communities, regional free trade relationships, the form of higher education, and many others, without repeating the same old mistakes from the past.

Development efforts in the 1970s, the first and last time Somalis devised endogamous 'national' development plans, had given priority to rapid economic growth, but they were unable to prevent widespread poverty, high inflation rates, and to provide full employment. Among their consequences have been the accumulation of wealth, largely provided by foreign development sources, by a small group of people, and the marginalization and exclusion of large sections of the population, the acceleration of the rural exodus, the deterioration of the urban habitat, the ghettoization of the suburbs, the degradation of the natural environment, and, more importantly, the escalation of conflict that was to undo Somalia itself.

Structural adjustment policies attempted during the 1980s, under the guidance of the multilateral organizations, had severely affected social sectors such as education and health and, in some Horn of Africa countries, even had compromised the prospects for sustained economic recovery.In the 1990s, a mosaic and short-term measures of free trade policies at times and excessive state regulations in other, left much confusion and arrested economic smoothing efforts of the populace. An endogemous, indigenous and grass-roots driven approach that combines the aiming for both economic growth and social development should be the major goals in the next decade.

Economic growth should serve the cause of social development and respect and promote human rights, environment, and foster economic competitiveness. For a healthy economic competitiveness to happen, all superstitions surrounding the lawful making and amassing of wealth, by anyone or any group, should be discraded. And state regulations should be kept at minimum and parastatal beauracracies and regulatory agencies should replace enterprising people only to do work that cannot really be done profitably and efficiently by risk-taking men and women. Otherwise, there will be a huge economic and social prices to be paid in terms of corruption, economic mismanagement, social inequality and violence. The preponderance of the social acceptance of smuggling trade, capital flight, and tax evasion are some of the other deleterous effects of excessive regulation.

I believe that action to promote meaningful social development should be taken on six major fronts:

1. Endogenous capacity-building in each and every community.

• Education and training should be given the highest priority and investment in education should be increased so that both urban residents and socially distant and geographically remote populations can have access to knowledge. Intensive and low-cost training courses should be permanently available without regard to age, gender or level of previous studies.
• Education and empowerment of girls and women are key factors in curbing population growth, promoting gender equity and in developing the full potential of women.
• A new role for higher education should be found and encouarged in all communities, incorporating lifelong higher-learning facilities.
• Continuing efforts should be made to promote the transfer of knowledge from abroad and the sharing it amongst communities, particularly in science and technology. Distance learning, through known and basic technologies and with the help of Somali professionals in the diaspora, should be promoted and made accessible to all communities.
• Development, to be really endogemous, should be based on the will of each individual and community and should express their fundamental identities, not those of the rulers, funders and planners. Cultural factors should be throughly investigated, through cultural impact feasibility studies, and understood well and be an integral part of all strategies designed to achieve balanced and sustainable development.

3. Combating socio-economic marginalization and exclusion and promoting full participation in community life. This is a key indicator of sustainable social development -- respect for basic human rights and the forming of democratic attitudes and impulses, and conflict resolution techniques must be promoted from early childhood. Social integration, tolerance, respect and non-violence should be encouraged by all possible means, as should intercultural dialogue and press freedom.

4. Protecting and safeguarding the environment. As a follow-up to Agenda 9, the action plan adopted at the Dar es Salam Summit in 1995, efforts should be redoubled to promote environmental awareness. One extremely important goal is to reduce the debilitating impacts of natural hazards (especially recurrent ones, such as droughts and dust bowls). Research and training on the relationship between Man and Nature in different parts of the Horn of Africa should be carried out in an interdisciplinary framework.

5. Improving communication. To reduce isolation, to foster awareness and participation and to promote social integration, mass communication (private, community and alternative radio, and telecom) must be developed and existing systems should be completely privatized, de-regulated and improved within individual community, as well as between them and disparate regions, through the use of new communication and known information technologies. Regions and districts should draw up overall information policies in these fields appropriate to their own needs and capabilities, but strictly owned by individuals and communities themselves.

6. Establishing "observatories " and "early warning systems" that will be able to detect potential social conflicts and unrest and will be of great importance for monitoring implementation of the international instruments in protecting human rights. National, regional and local communities should work closely with U.N. and USAID agencies, who have recently launched programs - called MOST (Management of Social Transformations) and FEWS (famine early warning system) - to respond to the growing demand from developing countries and societies-in-crisis for assistance in building their capacities in social sciences and in monitoring rapid social change and transition and in complying with international human rights standards.

We must all indeed be vigilant to all aspects of social and economic changes and seek imaginative ways of dealing with any threats that may be posed. I am thinking, for example, of opportunities to promote "eco-jobs" in the field of environmental protection concerning water supply and quality, control of water-borne diseases, the use of fertilizers and other artificial compounds, as well as the development of small-scale rural food transformation industries, fishing cooperatives, cultural tourism, the protection of handicrafts and cultural and intellectual property.

Development, above all, must have a human face. Sustainable social development is only possible by way of tangible, steady and continous improvements in the quality of life: better security, better education, better health, respect for human rights, empowering women, popular democracy based on public and universal education, the rational use of resources through the application of advances in science and technology, and a universal commitment in the part of everyone to the culture of peace and national and international solidarity.