ELECTED MAYORS ARE KEY TO SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

On 5^th of January 2016 the constitutional amendments were signed into effect. And among the amendments was the mode of electing mayors into office. One might ask, what is the importance of such an amendment? But for one to know that they need to understand how important the office of the mayor is. Allow me to be a bit academical   

Its emphatic that the credibility of any democratic nation depends on the strength of the institutions it builds, notably its capacity to meet citizens’ demands for service delivery and accountability. In the process, enhancing the performance capacity of government decentralizing power from the national level to the municipal level is cardinal. Decentralization is considered a tool to deliver results shaped by local needs and market realities, engage citizens in decision making, and bridge ethnic divisions. And directly-elected mayors assume a primary role in helping ensure accountability, transparency and responsibility.

The word Mayor pronounced /ˈmɛər/ or /ˈmeɪər/ is from the Latin maior [majˈjɔr], which means "bigger". In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor, as well as the means by which a mayor is elected or otherwise mandated. Depending on the system chosen, a mayor may be the chief executive officer of the municipal government, may simply chair a multi-member governing body with little or no independent power, or may play a solely ceremonial role. Options for selection of a mayor include direct election by the public, or selection by an elected governing council or board.

MAYORS are meant to be guarantors of services, the public good and citizens’ participation in local life.[1] Clearly, good governance needs to combine economic policies that support city prosperity with good social policies. Mayors play an important role in governance, in fact in “good governance”. This is an office that, in a fully decentralized unitary state, is a pinnacle point in bringing about balanced and sustainable development that stems from the grass roots.

So what creates and sustains “good governance,” a few things can be attributed to what creates and sustains ‘good governance’ and these include:

·         elected leaders in local governments;

·         local governments with the capacity to act, including the resources and powers to allow them to do so (often linked to decentralization);

·         formal and  informal avenues to allow civil society to influence what governments do and hold them to account;

·         organized urban groups that can work at the level of the city, that are able and willing to interact with local government and to whom local government is prepared to listen (otherwise middle- and upper-income groups are likely to be the key civil society influences on city policies); and

·         a rule of law not too biased against the less privileged groups and their informal housing and enterprises. Of course, this rule of law must also protect community leaders and other citizens from arbitrary arrest (or worse).

It is however quite difficult to generalize when the scope for what can be done and what needs to be changed is so rooted in local contexts and local political forms – as well as the extent of supportive laws and institutions at higher levels of government. Local governments have important roles in addressing poverty and inequality. In cities where low incomes are a reality for a significant proportion of the population, their access to safe, secure housing, infrastructure, services and other resources is critical for avoiding poverty.

So WHAT MAYORS DO and think is obviously an important influence in many cities. Mayors generally head the political and administrative parts of urban governments that are so important to low income groups with regard to the potential for getting or building housing (or land for housing), being able to pursue livelihoods, having access to water, sanitation, health care and education, and often for the rule of law. Local governments are particularly relevant to people’s daily lives as they manage the infrastructure and services that directly influence quality of life.[2]  Mayors generally have some influence on the form of the city’s current and future development, including its success in attracting new investment. They are also likely to influence the form and extent of the urban center's physical expansion (and whose needs are accommodated in this expansion) by the extent of their commitment to managing land use in ways that allow low-income groups to get land for housing.

In some contexts, mayors have considerable importance for the nature of the government’s relations with urban poor groups – for instance, in opening and maintaining dialogue with these groups or other groups whose needs have been given inadequate attention (including women, youth or children), and in piloting institutionalized change that can transform the ability of an government to address the needs and interests of the poor – for instance, through introducing or supporting participatory budgeting[3] or choosing to support representative organizations of the urban poor.

Local democracy has been an important feature of most pro-poor city and municipal governments. In addition, most of the more innovative mayors have been directly elected by city voters (rather than chosen by elected city Councillors). Perhaps mayors who depend on voters in their city or municipality are more likely to be responsive to the needs and priorities of these voters – although it might also be that such mayors are more visible and that their work and influence is noticed more than that of mayors or heads of city councils who are chosen by elected city Councillors. In addition, elected mayors may focus their attention on the people and urban districts that helped get them elected or, once elected, become less responsive to civil society demands and pressures as they claim that their election gave them the right to make decisions. It should be emphasized that with directly-elected mayors the chain of responsibilities are clear for executive decisions, and mayors have full accountability.

In many nations, mayors’ capacity to act is severely constrained by higher levels of government and by long-established traditions of clientelism or corrupt practices within local government. In many low-income nations, it is constrained by very inadequate funds available for investment in relation to deficits in infrastructure and service provision.

Mayors generally head the political and administrative parts of local governments so what they do and think influences government policies and practices. Many mayors have been important for poverty reduction, as their attitudes towards or relations with low-income groups and their settlements influence the possibilities of these groups getting or building housing, being able to pursue livelihoods and having access to water, sanitation, health care and schools. Successful mayors have balanced the need to attract new investment and support business expansion with good social and environmental policies; many have made government agencies more responsive and accountable to citizens, with particular attention to allowing more voice and influence to low-income groups or other groups that generally have little influence. The nations where mayors have had positive roles in development are mostly nations where local government reforms have strengthened the capacities of city and municipal governments while also increasing their transparency and accountability to their citizens. With the new reform in Zambia we hope to see a positive change that will spur development and improve people’s lives from the grass roots all the way to the top.

What Do You Think about Elected Mayors, Feel free to share your comments??

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[1] See Diop, Mamadou (2007), “The role and place of mayors in the process of decentralization and municipal management in Senegal”, in Dickson Eyoh and Richard Stren (editors), Decentralization and the Politics of Urban Development in West Africa, Comparative Urban Studies Project, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington DC, pages 197–208

[2] Julio Davila’s interviews with four Colombian mayors

[3] Marcondes, Claudia and Richard Stren (2001), “A conversation with Raul Pont, mayor of Porto Alegre”, in Mila Freire and Richard E Stren (editors), The Challenge of Urban Government: Policies and Practices, World Bank, Washington DC, pages 145–150.

SUBSIDIES

The previous weeks have been quite something with issue of subsidies in the air, fuel increment cascading to the increment of everything including the basic needs for survival as well as upkeep. We saw UNZA students taking to the streets… having a go at it with the Zambia Police, teargas, stones flying, rooms burning it was crazy, people calling in and giving the government a piece of their minds... some even mispronouncing the word as ''subsidiaries.''  It was quite eventful. For some it was the 1^st time they were hearing of such a term hence the unrest… we heard of some people explaining to their friends that subsidies were some chemical that they put in mealie meal so that the germs die… and one Miss NIPA Participant was asked what subsidies were and unashamedly she answered that subsidy is “self-confidence…” and obviously before we know it the famous easterners will be naming their kids Subsidy or Sabu for short… lol 

But really what are subsidies and how do they affect the economy? I’ll go for the most common definition: "a subsidy refers to a payment made by the government to a producer. Subsidies can be direct – cash grants, interest-free loans – or indirect – tax breaks, insurance, low-interest loans, depreciation write-offs, rent rebates. This form of support can be legal, illegal, ethical or unethical. Subsidies are used for a variety of purposes, including employment, production and exports." Often subsidies are regarded as a form of protectionism or trade barrier by making domestic goods and services artificially competitive against imports. Subsidies may distort markets, and can impose large economic costs. Financial assistance in the form of a subsidy may come from one's government, but the term subsidy may also refer to assistance granted by others, such as individuals or non-governmental institutions.

That said, the government of Zambia removed subsidies on fuel and agriculture these have been some of the biggest expenditures of the government. It is safe to say that fuel subsidies add to the fiscal deficit, which in turn causes inflation. Reducing fuel subsidies would improve Zambia’s fiscal balance and create fiscal space for increased investment in infrastructure and other development activities. Environmental damage caused by the steady rise in the sale of fuel vehicles due to price differential between diesel and petrol can also be reversed over time.

With benefits of removing fuel subsidies known to everyone, it eventually boils down to the political economy of reform. Looking at it from way back it can be said that governments actually give subsidies as part of a political bargain — they are “a visible way to deliver benefits in exchange for political support.” Because they are a symbol of populist action by successive political leaders, these subsidies, once started, get permanently locked-in.

Something to critically look at though, is that, even if subsidies may free up resources for development, people have little confidence that this will happen given high levels of corruption in the country. The government would dread the scenes witnessed on the Nigerian streets where people came out with banners saying “Remove corruption, not subsidy”.

It is a very delicate issue, as in,. if you raise fuel prices, it has a cascading effect on the economy. The government should work out a solution so that this impacts the economy in the least manner but also brings down the fiscal deficit.

If fuel subsidies were meant to help the poor, then they were very poorly targeted. I might not have the statistics but I believe that billions of dollars/kwacha have been spent by the government in the past. Yet we haven’t seen a reduction but an increment in the poverty levels and reports that the MDG’s will not be met by 2015.

Allow me to highlight the fact that even if poor households previously got only a small portion of direct subsidies, the effects of subsidy removal on their incomes is far higher than for richer households. This is partly because raising fuel prices has a significant impact on inflation and cascading effects throughout the economy, via sectors such as transport and agriculture.

But the problem of removing fuel subsidies is not limited to chaotic democracies. Even China was unable to fully pass on fuel price increases at all times during 2010 and 2011. Elsewhere, attempts at fuel subsidy reduction were reversed within a few days in Ghana in 2008 and in Nigeria in January, and postponed in Indonesia earlier this year.

Overcoming political and public opposition to fuel subsidy removal would have been the order of the day in Zambia and for the current regime, in my thinking, hence the decision to go ahead and just announce the removal.

Just my thoughts really, subject to discussion… sometimes if we resist change we will end up being crushed. Let us be knowledgeable be well read so that when we want to argue we are well informed and not following the masses blindly. Let us work at developing and improving our country. Individual efforts always ripple out to the development of a country as a whole. God Bless Zambia.

Intellectual Capital - "The ultimate Resource"

The chief cause of wealth is intellectual capital, since the wealth of nations is based much more on intellectual property and know how than on natural resources. Some nations are very wealthy in natural resources (such as Brazil, Zambia etc.) but still remain poor, while other nations that have virtually no natural resources (Like Japan) can become among the richest in the world

Today, as opposed to the past when the decisive factor of production was land and letter capital, the decisive factor is increasingly human knowledge especially scientific knowledge. Yet enterprise depends also on the capacity for interrelated and compact organisation and on the ability to perceive the needs of others and to satisfy them. These are exactly the factors in which japan is preeminent: scientific knowledge a capacity for organisation and capability to perceive the needs of others and to satisfy them. These tools make japan a country poor in natural resources an economically preeminent country among nations.

Of course, natural resources are still important, but if human beings don’t see their value and figure out ways to bring them into universal use, natural resources may lie fallow forever undiscovered and unused. Oil lay beneath the sands of Arabia for thousands of years, unused regarded as a nuisance until human beings developed the piston engine and learned how to convert crude oil into gasoline. It is the mind of the human that enabled him to make useless crude oil into a highly much needed natural resource.

For this reason, inanimate things are not the deepest, best or inexhaustible resources. The human mind is the “ultimate resource”. It is not the things of the earth that set limits to the wealth of the world. Many of the things of this earth are useful at times depending on the value the human mind sees in them. In this case the human mind is PRIMARILY a source of wealth. And no wonder it participates from afar in the source of all knowledge, an all knowing creator, sharing in Gods creativity. It’s safe to say that the principle source of the human is their own inventiveness. Their intelligence enables them not only to discover the earth’s productive potential, but also the many ways in which human needs to be satisfied.

It should also be highlighted that many goods cannot be adequately produced through the work of an isolated individual; they require the cooperation of many people working towards a common goal.

Do not regard the earth as a realm merely to accept, never to investigate or experiment with; but rather a place in which to exercise human powers of inquiry, creativity, innovation and invention. Humans and everything in it are intelligible because all things – even contingent and seemingly accidental events – spring from the mind of an all knowing creator.

Summing it all up, man, the discoverer is made in the image of God. To be creative, to cooperate in bringing creation itself to its perfection is an important element of the human vocation. This belief that each human being is “Imago Dei” – made in the image of God – was bound to lead in an evolutionary and experimental way, to the development of an economical system whose first premise is that the principle cause of wealth is human creativity

Sow a thought you’ll reap an act;

Sow an act you’ll reap a habit;

Sow a habit you’ll reap character;

Sow a character and you’ll reap destiny