090520 Diaspora Experiences Of Indaba - K.chinsembu Report

Report on the April 4-5, 2009 Indaba, Mulungushi International Conference Centre, Lusaka Kazhila Chinsembu Lecturer and Doctoral candidate University of Namibia in Windhoek The indaba was a good initiative by the GRZ. With over 600 delegates, the two-day event was too big to make spot-on resolutions on the way forward. Whilst I appreciated the keynote speakers from the World Bank (WB), African Development Bank (ADB), Malaysia, Mauritius and Tanzania, this leaning towards ‘exotic consultants’ is the exact mindset that stunts the contributions of our own Dambisas. The indaba should have allotted more time for plenary presentations on Zambia by Zambian experts. Todate, I have failed to understand why there were no keynote presentations from the Central Statistical Office, Bank of Zambia, Zambia Chamber of Commerce, Zambia Congress of Trade Unions, and UNZA. My fears about the WB and ADB as agents of profits were confirmed, for two reasons: One, the speaker from the WB was eagerly critical about the operations and viability of ZESCO, yet the same WB has been pushing for the privatization of the electricity company in order to further their own nests. It is my humble opinion that given the strategic nature of ZESCO in our economy, our country needs to think deeply about the privatization of ZESCO. Two, the speaker from the ADB argued that the Zambian government should not make economic “policy reversals”. I was sure he was worried about the return of Keynesian economics. However, he was saying this two days after Gordon Brown admitted the “Old Washington Consensus had collapsed”. Here, the indaba failed to reflect on the deeper and historical roots of how Zambia’s economy deteriorated through the years of former Presidents Kaunda’s Mixed economy and Chiluba’s wholesale privatization and market economics. Notwithstanding the current global crisis’ contagion effects on the Zambian economy, the indaba failed to grasp the ideological drivers of Zambia’s economic policies in the first and second republics. As instructed by the ADB, the indaba did not question Zambia’s current economic policies as premised mainly on: (a) Monetarism, a policy that is focused on the role of money in the economy, that markets naturally move to a stable centre, and (b) Supply side economics, a policy that our government has (mis)used to provide for tax incentives and tax holidays to encourage ‘foreign investors’ (read as traders selling cheap wares). In essence, the indaba rushed to analyze the superficial effects brought on by the current global economic crisis without capitulating that, in the case of Zambia, the crisis has been long-time coming, that most of the apparent effects are embedded within a systemic erosion of our country’s economic fortunes due in large part to 1

economic policy mistakes of the past. For example, the current crisis in the mining sector can partly be linked to the bungled privatization process that went against expert advice to unbundle ZCCM’s core assets. An historical perspective to the current problems would have been the sixth sense to guide a rethink of our economic policy agenda. As they say: “the deeper we look into the past, the further we can go into the future”. In the case of Zambia, the failure to situate the current economic problems into a historical context would later consign our understanding of the current crisis to a shallow intellectual framework. Whilst the mining sector was discussed at length, it was not clear how Zambia would move from exporting hard commodities to soft commodities. It was surprising that whilst Zambia produces 54% of world emeralds, there was no discussion as to how our government would extricate this precious resource from the grips of foreign smugglers. But again, it was not surprising because the Zambian economy is known to hurt the locals while it remains a cash-cow for the so-called foreign investors. One discussant wondered whether there would be a silver lining to the current global economic crisis? Well, my sense of optimism was that every cloud has a silver lining. The same Chinese word for crisis also means opportunity. There have been 122 recessions in 21 advanced countries since 1960. These recessions have come and gone. I was hoping that in the case of Zambia, the government would have seized this crisis to find a sound shareholding policy to put the country’s mineral wealth and rights into the right hands. Zambians in the Diaspora As regards the Zambians in the Diaspora, I was honoured to be part of the entourage. The Diaspora presentation to the indaba was based on a previous e-conference, of which I totally missed, hence naturally I was self-critical of certain sections of the Diaspora presentation. In fact, some sectors of the Diaspora presentation made me sense a disconnect between Zambians in the Diaspora and home. It was ironic that in the e-conference report, some Zambians in the Diaspora that wish to buy land on which to build a house would wish to resort to government intervention. My understanding is that the role of government is set policy, and in the current policy environment, there are many genuine players selling land e.g. Meanwood. One of the pillars of contribution by Zambians in the Diaspora was that of Diaspora remittances. Given the current global economic crisis- coupled to the fact that many Zambians in the Diaspora may have low quality jobs that make it difficult for them to remit- these remittances will dwindle. So, as an innovative financing instrument, Diaspora remittances will fall short of mitigating the effects of the global economic meltdown on Zambia’s financial sector. In this context, the Diaspora presentation should have shifted focus to Diaspora intelligence, rather than Diaspora remittances and bonds. However, the presentation did not articulate the pool of intellectual capital in the Zambian Diaspora. The presentation was quiet on how the government could harness and head-hunt Zambia’s own Philip Emeagwalis. Given the soaring interest in tertiary education and the mushrooming of many private Universities in Zambia, for

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example, it would have been good to present plans on how the Zambian Academic Diaspora could come together to form a Virtual University that provides the much needed higher education to our own brothers and sisters back home. There is a lot that the Diaspora presentation could have done. In this respect, I was as much a part of the problem than the solution.

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