Our Common Humanity in the Information Age. Principles and Values for Development

AFRICARE AND ITS ROLE IN AFRICA
Julius E. Coles, President of Africare
Member governments of the United Nations declared more than six years ago in the UN 
Millennium Declaration (Resolution no. 55/2) the following values and principles:
“Men and women have the right to live their lives and to raise their children in dignity, 
free from hunger and from the fear of violence, oppression and injustice. Democratic and 
participatory governance based on the will of the people best assures these rights”.

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Chapter II – Freedom and Development | 29 
These are all important values that I believe all nations whatever their political or 
economic system may be, can agree upon. While progress has been made in achieving 
these universal values, much remains to be done before we can truly say that these values 
have been fully incorporated into the political systems of all of the countries in the global 
community. Over the past half century, much progress has been made in spreading 
democratic and participatory values into the governance system of most countries in the 
world. Whatever the political system a country may have, most countries have come to 
the realization that the peoples voices need to be heard as to what they want, need and 
desire. When governments have not taken the peoples views and desires into account 
these governments have not survived in the long term and their failure has often resulted 
in political instability and unrest.
Africare is an international NGO that has been working on the African continent for the 
past 36 years. During this period we have worked tirelessly to strengthen indigenous civil 
society organizations and local communities to participate fully in their country’s 
economic and political system. Our overall objective has been to work in development 
programs, including HIV/AIDS, health, food security, education, water and sanitation, 
democracy and governance, environment and micro-credit, to improve the overall quality 
of life of the African people.
During this 36 year period, we have definitely seen a steady trend towards improved 
governance and democracy on the African continent. From our perspective, these trends 
have had a direct impact on many of the African countries achieving higher economic 
growth rate, recently averaging well over 5%. It is interesting to note that these 
democratic and participatory values have now been incorporated as a part of the values 
stated in The New Economic Partnership for Africa’s Development which has been 
accepted by all African governments. Indeed, these governments have now made good 
governance a high priority for their own development agenda. An important symbol of 
the importance attached to these values has been the establishment of the Africa Peer 
Review Mechanism (ARPM) which monitors whether participating states’ policies and 
practices agree with political economic and corporate norms and standards. Over 20 
African countries have already signed up to subject themselves to the new peer review 
process.
We do not have a great deal of time left to meet the various goals that have been 
established under the Millennium Declaration. Nevertheless, I believe that it will be 
essential for the countries of the world to take a giant leap to promote the freedoms called 
for in this declaration if the nations of the world are to come close to meeting these goals . 

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30 | Our Common Humanity in the Information Age