The Context
Formed out of collective desire by conflict affected states and the OECD International Network on Conflict and Fragility (a term Africa Platform opposes), the New Deal Framework provided clear pathways to joint cooperation for Peace and Development under the neutral platform of the International Dialogue on Peace-building and State-building (IDPS).
For two years, The Africa Platform was the only non European Non Governmental Organization engaged in the process. The Africa Platform later succeeded in persuading the other Organizations o bring on Board Organizations in the conflict affected countries, and hosted the first conference that formally endorsed this decision.
The IDPS delivered on key aspects, including the New Deal for Peace, the input into the High Level Panel on Post 2015, the Fragility Spectrum and in 2015 the IDPS was among the key champions of Peace and Development in the Agenda 2030 of the United Nations.
The Outcome
While Africa Platform was forced to pull out of the engagement after it became clear that INCAF members were unwilling to address the foundations and critical drivers of conflicts in the G7+ countries, the engagement over a seven year period remains central to many of the shifts in policy by mostly Donor Countries. In one specific case, Africa Platform took on INCAF members after it emerged that ALL funds given to Sierra Leone for Ebola response never actually reached the Government. Instead it was delivered to intermediaries (INGOs and the UN system) on account of “lack of systems for fund utilization and accountability”.
In a classic case of double speak, this is not what the INCAF countries stated publicly. It was also a complete show of disrespect to the New Deal Agreement that clearly the use of country systems to deliver support, and where needed, strengthen those systems. The Africa Platform also took on the World Bank after it emerged that in the seven preceding years the Ebola outbreak, the IFC had deliberately weakened the Health systems of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea through a privatization program that gave incentives to nurses and doctors to abandon the Public Hospitals in favour of the well funded private facilities supported by the IFC. Africa Platform took up this issue with the World Bank Senior Leadership. To date the IFC has neither acknowledged their mistake, nor shifted their policy of creating parallel healthcare systems in weak countries in ways that promote foreign interests while killing public healthcare.