{"id":12347,"date":"2015-08-22T18:01:50","date_gmt":"2015-08-22T18:01:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/arabsiyonews.net\/?p=12347"},"modified":"2015-08-22T18:01:50","modified_gmt":"2015-08-22T18:01:50","slug":"rwanda-and-ethiopia-inventing-a-new-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arabsiyonews.com\/index.php\/2015\/08\/22\/rwanda-and-ethiopia-inventing-a-new-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Rwanda And Ethiopia Inventing A New Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rwanda and Ethiopia have suggested new development models they believe can help Africa break away from the prescribed Western models.<\/p>\n

African leaders of the two countries and those from other states agreed that Africa should stop being bullied into \u201caccepting policies that misrepresent us and do us harm in the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking at a high-level inaugural symposium organized by the \u2018Meles Zenawi Foundation\u2019 (MZF) in partnership with the African Development Bank, on August 21, Rwanda\u2019s President Paul Kagame said that time has come for Africa to stop being \u201ca place where experiments are being carried out.\u201d<\/p>\n

The discussion, under the theme \u201cThe African Democratic Developmental State\u201d, was<\/strong>inspired by ideals from the late Ethiopian Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, who believed that Africans needed to shape their own destiny by \u201cdoing things their own way.\u201d<\/p>\n

He believed that: \u201cIn spite of the monstrous homogeneity in policy stance that we have allowed ourselves to be shackled with, there is some space for policy experimentation and diversity commensurate with our diverse circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n

Current Ethiopia\u2019s Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn said that, \u201cWe must have a new beginning for Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n

The dialogue pondered on perceived contradictions between Zenawi\u2019s philosophy of \u2018developmental state\u2019 and democracy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are actually mutually reinforcing \u2013 sustainable socio-economic development gives rise to greater democracy and political rights can best be exercised and enjoyed in a climate of growing prosperity and improved quality of life,\u201d Kagame said.<\/p>\n

\"Rwanda<\/a><\/p>\n

Kagame told over 200 participants attending the symposium at Serena Hotel in Kigali that, \u201cThose who tell us the state is bad for us mean that they will fill the void and become the state and run the markets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ghana\u2019s Vice-President, Kwesi Amissah-Arthur attended the event, which was moderated by Former US State Department Secretary for African Affairs, Jendayi Frazer.<\/p>\n

The outgoing African Development Bank President, Dr. Donald Kaberuka, said that \u201cnobody should be dictating the continent\u2026no one knows how development happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaberuka said that from 1980 the World Bank forced Africa to take up dead paradigm of eliminating governments from development process, but its time \u201cevery country has to decide what works for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Africa to achieve its aspirations, Kagame said, it \u201cmust stop taking lessons from the outside.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem is people provide the definition thinking of their own interest, not where it will be exercised.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ideas from the symposium will be shared with the African Union for fellow African leaders to consider as they discuss development strategies for the continent.<\/p>\n

Great friendship<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"From<\/a><\/p>\n

From left, Ghana Vice President Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn (2nd left), President Kagame (Center) and First Lady Jeannette Kagame. Far right is Azeb Mesfin Haile, former Ethiopian First Lady and founder of the Meles Zenawi Foundation.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rwanda and Ethiopia have suggested new development models they believe can help Africa break away from the prescribed Western models. African leaders of the two countries and those from other states agreed that Africa should stop being bullied into \u201caccepting policies that misrepresent us and do us harm in the end.\u201d Speaking at a high-level […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12348,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-english-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5kp1p-3d9","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arabsiyonews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arabsiyonews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arabsiyonews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arabsiyonews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arabsiyonews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arabsiyonews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12347\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arabsiyonews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arabsiyonews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arabsiyonews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}