Democracy Conference Shares Goals and Experiences, Participants Say: U.S.-hosted African and Latin American dialogue opens in Florida
By Charles Corey
Washington File Staff Writer

Coral Gables, Florida - The wide range of government ministers and non-governmental representatives from Africa and Latin America attending the June 5-6 "Dialogue on Democracy" conference are here to learn from each other's experiences, which they say is the best way to nourish sustainable democratic principles back home.

The conference is being hosted by U.S. Undersecretary of State for Global Affairs Paula J. Dobriansky as a direct follow-up to the 2002 Community of Democracies meeting in Seoul. Government representatives from Cape Verde, Mali, Botswana, Senegal, Kenya, Ghana, Mozambique, Jamaica, Brazil, Chile, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Peru and the Dominican Republic have come together to share their experiences in strengthening democracy at home and abroad.

Delegates from development and humanitarian NGOs are also attending the Coral Gables conference to discuss with government counterparts regional collaborative efforts to bolster democratic institutions and civil society as well as foster education on the principles of democracy.

Two conference attendees, Dr. Balfour Agyeman-Duah, associate director of the Ghana Center for Democratic Development and Ray Caldwell of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), stressed the need and value of the interactive nature of the conference in an interview with the Washington File June 4.

"I think it is good that those countries that are aspiring to be democratic, especially in Africa, have been invited to share their experiences and views with those who have practiced it for centuries," Agyeman-Duah told the Washington File. "So I am here to learn more from my compatriots and also for them to learn what we are going through as we endeavor to consolidate democracy in Ghana."

Picking up on that point, USIP's Ray Caldwell insisted that the conference is an opportunity to "raise consciousness and exchange ideas, to share experiences that can be very instructive.

"I think it is an opportunity for everyone to learn from everyone else," he said. "Everyone has something to bring to this event, based on their own experiences and their own thinking about the nature of their problems and what the solutions might be."

Caldwell said for his organization, the U.S. Institute of Peace, what is being done at this "Dialogue on Democracy" Conference is "what we really care most about, trying to work to overcome cleavages in societies, trying to help people figure out how to work with each other for common goals -- and maybe even to identify those goals."

This is what the Community of Democracies can do, he said, "to help those who need help fixing their problems but who just can't do it by themselves."

The spirit of change is alive in many countries whose governments want to fix their problems and become more democratic, he said. "Often, however, the capability is weak because of underdevelopment." In that light, he said, what the Community of Democracies is trying to do is a "long-term job -- a huge project."

"I look forward to the next two days," he said, "because it is such an opportunity to learn. I think everyone will leave this conference having learned something that they might not have fully appreciated because it is outside their own experience. That begins to create a certain kind of momentum and raises consciousness about problems and how to deal with them. It might be different in regions of Africa than it is in Latin America but this is the way you get those issues out on the table, look at them, examine them and learn from the experience."

Additionally, Caldwell noted that the conference affords many people the opportunity to exchange ideas who normally would not have that chance. "This can create a coalition of people, who, over a long period of time, will work together and learn from quite different experiences that have common elements"-- all in a common effort to strengthen democracy
worldwide, he said.

Commenting on the importance of democracy worldwide, Agyeman-Duah said, "If you recall the difficulties that we are having in Africa as a whole -- problems of conflict and underdevelopment among other things -- then you will know that for us democracy is the way to go. Also, it affords us the ability to pursue economic development because decades of dictatorships and authoritarianism have not done us any good. So we believe democratic
development is the way to go to ensure long-term peace and [economic] development."

For example, democracy, he said, could go a long way to solving the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo. "Ultimately, if people accept the tenets of democracy, which will require them to create a system of equity, fairness, freedom and equal access to national wealth," then peace might have a chance there.

Caldwell stressed the important link between democracy and peace and cited Winston Churchill's well-known dictum that democracy is "the least bad alternative."

Certainly democracy, Caldwell acknowledged, "has its own set of problems, but we believe...that democracy is really the basis for stability and progress, and the mode for engaging the people in a constructive way, making them feel responsible for their own future."

On the issue of corruption and the need for transparency in government -- a major issue to be discussed at the conference -- Agyeman-Duah acknowledged that corruption is a problem in Africa and worldwide. "But for us," he added, "because of the serious problem of underdevelopment -- corruption tends to make our condition worse. That is why we tend to view corruption more seriously than some other places in the world."

In Ghana, for example, Agyeman-Duah said, "You know the resources that we have...if they are not properly managed, we are worse off.... So I am happy that corruption is going to be one of the issues we are going to discuss."

On that topic, Caldwell warned that "if a government is not responsive to the people and if the people do not feel that they have a stake in their own leadership and the decisions that their leadership makes, then it tends to exist as a magnet for corruption, which can further destabilize what is already a fragile situation."

While many people think of strife as something that takes place between states, Caldwell explained, "what is really happening here, especially in areas such as the neighborhood that Ghana is in, is that there are many instabilities at work within the countries themselves. Unresponsive leadership, corruption, arms trafficking, drug trafficking and diseases
like HIV/AIDS are all destabilizing factors, all security issues" that directly impact on a country's democratic development.

"Something that can come out of the Community of Democracies," Caldwell noted, "is the belief that ‘we are all in this together' and that no one country can really solve many of these problems alone. These problems have to be solved in concert with a coalition -- a regional, national, and international coalition. This is what can support democratic development."

Agyeman-Duah reinforced the point, saying, "There is no way Ghana or any African country can do it alone. They need the support of the global community." That support, he said, can come in many forms, both financial and moral.

He also spoke of the need for democratic governments to institute policies and even level sanctions if needed against any governments that might be embracing corruption. That, he said, would "serve as a disincentive" for any governments that might be considering taking such a route.