Commission for Africa: Amboka Wameyo

We asked eight Africans for their views on the UK-sponsored Commission for Africa following the group's second meeting since it was launched.

Godwin Emejuobi: Port Harcourt, Nigeria "God is the help of Africa" Kasozi Lubega: Kampala, Uganda "Gain power without conflict" Ousman Njie: Cairo, Egypt "Reaffirming British interests" Samantha Smit: Lusaka, Zambia "Teachers and textbooks"

Iqbal Jhazbhay: Pretoria, South Africa "Development and stability" Yared Mussie: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia "Uncompetitive in business" Trevor Simumba: Freetown, Sierra Leone "We have to help ourselves first" Amboka Wameyo: Arusha, Tanzania "Africa should be trusted"

Amboka Wameyo

Africa should be trusted.

MEET THE PANEL Name: Amboka Wameyo Age: 36 Lives: Arusha, Tanzania Occupation: Africa Regional Advocacy Adviser, World Vision Born: Nairobi, Kenya Religion: Christian In 10 words or less: Dynamic, talkative, honest, understanding, laughs and smiles a lot

The G8 (group of eight leading industrial countries: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK, US and Russia) and EU governments should allow Africa to develop its own future without imposing their own political agendas.

Tony Blair's formation of the Commission for Africa to develop recommendations to shape commitments of the G8 in 2005 is very welcome.

Listening to Africa is one of the Commission's stated objectives and is by far its most important, because if well managed it will generate much needed trust for Africa from the developed world.

However, the Commission for Africa must listen to recommendations already made in the past and must urge the international community to these commitments including providing high quality aid for development.

The biggest challenge for the Commission is to trust Africa.

This change should start with the G8 itself providing a permanent seat for the African Union

Success in fighting poverty will come if Africa is allowed to negotiate the strategy for its own development, come up with its own reforms and find ways of engaging its peoples, particularly the poor, in its political and institutional processes.

Africa's unique cultures, societies and history must be reflected in its reformed systems and Africa's own citizens must understand and participate in its systems of economic and political governance.

The vision of the African Union (AU), to "build an integrated Africa, a prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in the international arena" highlights the new energy within Africa for change and the appeal for space to shape its own development agenda.

Current international discourse subjects Africa to increasing pressure for good governance.

This is an explicit requirement of the G8's partnership with the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad).

However, the definition of good governance often takes too much account of the foreign policy aims of donor governments.

African voices: See where our panel live

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Even outside the G8, developed countries and international finance institutions are too readily piggy-backing inappropriate policy conditions onto good governance.

These conditions rarely take cognisance of Africa's own vision, analysis and perceptions.

Further, the constriction of Africa within negotiation instruments that ignore civil society and pressure governments to follow the traditional top-down processes of policy formation mutes African creativity, innovation and ownership.

This change should start with the G8 itself providing a permanent seat for the African Union.

As an African I think that we have a significant role to play in holding both the international community and our national government to account.

Even very clear intentions of the Africa commission and the G8 at large are bound to fail if we the citizens remain ignorant of the international development landscape and the forces that shape development in our countries.

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Your comments:

The developed world shape African countries the way they want so they can benefit. So we shouldn't welcome any idea, only if it comes from Africans themselves.
Abdelmanan Mahamat, Central African living in Cairo, Egypt

We need to think deeper and harder to get a good visionary insight out of the lifestyle, culture, social and economic orders of the place where we live.
L Booji (African Women Perspective Org), The Netherlands