Abstract:

African civil society is grappling with the stagnation of democratization after the highs of the Arab Spring and the crackdowns in its aftermath. Many governments, including several in sub-Saharan Africa, have retreated to repressive laws, big security budgets and expensive patronage that is straining resources and, in some instances, reigniting tensions between communities. More than dealing with bad governance as usual, African civil society is challenged to find new ways to protect the most vulnerable groups. Renowned Ugandan lawyer Nicholas Opiyo, celebrated anti-corruption activist John Githongo, and distinguished scholar of democracy, Larry Diamond, unpack the tool kit for civil society actors to find new ways to confront old dangers to minorities in sub-Saharan Africa.

Bios:

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John Githongo

John Githongo, former correspondent for The Economist, is a courageous leader in the struggle to combat corruption and improve governance in Kenya. 

Selected in 2011 as one of the world’s 100 most influential Africans by New African magazine and one of the world’s top 100 global thinkers by Foreign Policy magazine, Mr. Githongo currently serves as CEO of Inuka Kenya, an NGO that works with Kenyan youth to provide civic education and address societal problems.

From 2003 to 2004, he served as permanent secretary for governance and ethics in Kenya’s post-transition government, and risked his life and career to expose one of the biggest government corruption scandals in Kenyan history. 

Mr. Githongo has served as CEO of Transparency International Kenya, vice president of World Vision, senior associate member at St. Antony’s College Oxford, and member of the Kenya Human Rights Commission. 

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Nicholas Opiyo

Opiyo is a former Secretary of the Ugandan bar association and a vocal defender of human rights outside the courts as regular commentator on public affairs. He heads Chapter Four Uganda – a legal charity and think tank named after Chapter Four, the bill of rights in Uganda’s constitution. As well as consulting widely on human rights related issues for the World Bank and other international agencies, he leads a team of lawyers seeking out strategic litigation in defense of human rights and providing immediate legal representation to human rights defenders. His public interest cases include challenges to Uganda’s anti-pornography law, discrimination under the HIV Prevention and Control Act, Uganda’s laws on defamation and freedom of expression amongst others. He is also engaged in litigation before the regional East African Court of Justice as well before the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights.

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Larry Diamond

Larry Diamond is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, where he directs the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law. Diamond also serves as the Peter E. Haas Faculty Co-Director of the Haas Center for Public Service at Stanford. He is the founding co-editor of the Journal of Democracy and also serves as Senior Consultant (and previously was co-director) at the International Forum for Democratic Studies of the National Endowment for Democracy. During 2002-3, he served as a consultant to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and was a contributing author of its report Foreign Aid in the National Interest. He has also advised and lectured to the World Bank, the United Nations, the State Department, and other governmental and nongovernmental agencies dealing with governance and development.

AUDIO FROM SEGMENT OF TALK

Abstract:

A democratic recession is underway across much of Africa. Ironically it coincides with sustained economic growth since 1998. Much of this growth derived from political and economic liberalization in the 1990s, that has accelerated over the past 15 years due to an upsurge in demand for Africa’s natural resources. GDP growth does not mean development, however, and deepening inequality is more easily politicised and militarized along identity lines by elites in an era where across the world the politics of identity is resurgent. Both the war against terror and the rise of the Chinese governance model – authoritarian but efficient and compelling politically and economically – have seen elites consolidate power in fewer hands stalling and/or reversing the democratic developments of the last two decades. This elite capture of democratic processes is not limited to the South and has led to a delegitimisation of traditional political parties and players. Additionally, the securitization of geopolitics that has accompanied the ‘war against terror’ has fed a dramatic upsurge in spending on ‘national security’. National security is the last refuge of the corrupt. Indeed, this securitization has been accompanied not only by an upsurge in graft but the ongoing democratic recession. My presentation asks why and how this has come about. Finally, how can democratic gains be protected, consolidated and expanded.

Speaker Bio:

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