Mere af det samme: Markedsbaseret, privatsektordrevet dansk udviklingspolitik

Ifølge Udviklingsminister Søren Pind er den nye Strategisk ramme for prioritetsområdet, Vækst & Beskæftigelse 2011-2015, ”en klar oprustning af vores indsats for at fremme markedsbaseret vækst.” ”Markedsbaseret økonomisk vækst er altafgørende for at bekæmpe fattigdommen og skabe jobs til Afrikas store ungdomsårgange,” siger udviklingsministeren.

”Fremover vil der ikke være tvivl,” står der i Vækst og Beskæftigelse 2011-2015, ”privatsektorudvikling i udviklingslandene vil stå helt centralt i dansk bistand.

Senior Danish Politician Mogens Lykketoft meets with Mario Masuku

Foreign Policy spokesman and Former Danish Finance Minister and Foreign Minister, Mogens Lykketoft, met with People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) President Mario Masuku in Johannesburg yesterday, February 17, to discuss the political situation in Swaziland.

Here Lykketoft expressed his support for democratisation in Swaziland. “Today Swaziland seems to be at a crossroads with only two alternatives,” he said. “Either Swaziland continues down its present path of undemocratic rule, inequality and increasingly unsustainable financial turmoil, or its masses must bring about a complete change of system – one that is democratic, participatory and based on the rule of law and human rights.”

‘If Egypt can, we can do it too’ says Swaziland United Democratic Front

“Tunisia and Egypt are a big ‘we can do it too,’ not just for Swaziland, but for the rest of the African continent and the repressed Arab world,” according to Swaziland United Democratic Front (SUDF) Project Coordinator Sikelela Dlamini.

Change is becoming increasingly urgent in Swaziland, an authoritarian absolute monarchy where the economy is in danger of spiralling out of control. But as recent events in Tunisia and Egypt have shown, change can happen quickly, says Dlamini.

What international pressure on Swaziland?

Swaziland is not an issue or concern in most countries around the world.  This can be seen by the fact that most foreign ministries do not have details on Swaziland on their websites – somewhat symptomatic of the international community’s lack of interest in regard to the country’s repeated human rights violations, poverty and lack of democracy.

It can also be seen in the fact that only Taiwan, Mozambique, South Africa and the USA have diplomatic missions in Swaziland, although 47 other countries have diplomatic missions with Swaziland in neighbouring countries South Africa and Mozambique. Ten accredited ambassadors or honorary consuls are resident in Swaziland.

Ex-Miners fight for justice in Swaziland

“We will always actively try to mobilize and conscientize our people so that they become aware of their rights and that they stand and fight for them.” Cebisamadoda Nxumalo, coordinator of Swaziland National Ex-Mineworkers Association (SNEMA), is speaking of the role of SNEMA in a broader struggle for Swaziland’s many poor.

SNEMA was formed in 2007 because the pensions of many mineworkers, invested by the Swazi state in a fund run by Fidentia Asset Management, have not been paid. Over 50000 ex-miners and their widows from several countries in Southern Africa, including Swaziland, have been trying to get their pensions – totalling about 1 billion Rand – from Fidentia and its boss J Arthur Brown, who has allegedly laundered the entire amount from Living Hands Trust, the mineworkers pension fund.

Swazi Media Commentary: telling the truth about Swaziland

To read accurate daily analyses of the situation in Swaziland, you must turn not to its self-censored official newspapers or a foreign media that has no daily presence in Swaziland, but to a blog written by Richard Rooney, a 54-year-old journalist and former associate professor at the University of Swaziland (UNISWA). “The Swazi media aren’t very good and there isn’t really a foreign press in Swaziland,” Rooney says of the standard of reporting on Swaziland. Rooney’s blog, Swazi Media Commentary, in contrast, is both very outspoken, comprehensive, and widely read. It usually carries articles every day on a wide range of subjects in relation to the Swazi media, democratisation and human rights which “helps to build a loyal readership”, as Rooney puts it.