JOHANNESBURG, 17 January 2011 (IRIN): South Africa will launch its own development aid agency in 2011 in a move likely to boost the country’s status as an emerging economic power and champion of the African continent.
The South African Development Partnership Agency is expected to become operational before mid-2011 and will work with other donor agencies to coordinate development programmes, mainly on the continent.
Although the government is hoping for contributions from the private sector, most of the funding will come from public money, said Dr Ayanda Ntsaluba, Director-General of the Department of International Relations and Cooperation.
– South Africa is in a unique position – we are recipients of development assistance, and we are anxious that that status be preserved. At the same time … we are in the African continent and in that context we occupy a relatively privileged position, Ntsaluba told IRIN.
Post-conflict reconstruction
Since 2001 the South African government has channelled its aid contributions through the African Renaissance Fund (ARF), which is administered by the department.
Much of the assistance provided by the ARF has focused on conflict resolution and peacekeeping in various countries, including Mali, Zimbabwe, Burundi and the DR Congo (former Zaire).
– What became clear as we moved on is that we need to look beyond conflict resolution into largely post-conflict reconstruction, and that begins to involve many other departments and arms of state, Ntsaluba said.
Although the mandate for the new agency was still in draft form, he said South Africa would continue providing assistance to countries recovering from conflict.
The Democratic Alliance, South Africa’s opposition party, has criticised the ARF for supporting “rogue” states (slyngelstater) and failing to monitor how its funding was being spent.
Ntsaluba responded that countries emerging from conflict often required the most assistance:
– There will still be residual (tiloversblevne) elements in those countries that triggered the conflict in the first place, but if we waited until it was all perfect then we would be of no use to those countries, he noted.
He conceded that the tracking of ARF funds had not been optimal, partly because the responsibility for administering projects had been spread across several departments.
The new agency would be set up as a separate institution, with the administrative capacity to track and oversee all the programmes it funded.
Not just altruism (uegennytte)
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