FOCUS 14
I don’t think that’s the fi nal solution. Actually governments have a responsibility for that. If you look at the UK, for example, and most of the western economies, they’re made up of a combination of both. If you leave the governments alone then you’re going to end up with a huge swathe of people that aren’t properly serviced and don’t have the right facilities.”
Kemp adds, “The role of NGOs has to be making sure that they set that benchmark, they help develop cutting-edge innovations, they help push the boundaries and say, ‘This is how to do it truly effectively,’ but also to use that information and say, ‘If you did this, you could be 30 percent more effective with the same amount of money.’ That relationship between advocacy and doing stuff on the ground works incredibly effectively.”
However, timescale remains a critical factor here, as Anthony Lobo explains. “One of the issues that the governments will have is if you think East Coast Africa, we’re about four, fi ve, six years away from fi rst gas, so actually the wealth coming into the country is somewhere in the distance. In that interim period you may well have elections, changes in government. Therefore, the pressure that the government is under in order to show benefi t today becomes increasingly hard. That’s one of the dilemmas the governments have, that they know that the wealth is coming. They are doing the right things in some instances around getting the right infrastructure in place, working with NGOs, working with IOCs, but unless they show enough happening today, they may no longer be around in two or three years’ time. That sustainability of government is a really important factor here around making this effective.”
Faced with the proposal of joining such a forum, some companies may lack confi dence in a government’s ability to deliver, but Kemp says there is strong evidence to the contrary. “If you look at the number of governments that are transitioning from one government to the next, having free and fair elections in Africa, it’s growing tremendously. I still think there’s a long way to go. If you look at Transparency International’s index, you can see all of those countries starting to creep up quite nicely. You’ve now got countries in Africa that rank above countries in Europe. For example, Ghana is ranked above Italy in terms of Transparency International’s index. That’s an incredible achievement, if you think how far it’s come in such a short space of time. My confi dence is better than it ever has been, but I’d still like to see some of them entering the top 20, rather than the top 70.”
THE ROLE OF NGOS HAS TO BE MAKING SURE THAT THEY SET THAT BENCHMARK, THEY HELP DEVELOP CUTTING-EDGE INNOVATIONS, THEY HELP PUSH THE BOUNDARIES AND SAY, ‘THIS IS HOW TO DO IT TRULY EFFECTIVELY.
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