Dr Sidi C. Jammeh

On the eve of the first day of 2003, I join the Executive Committee of the African Society in conveying to you and your loved ones our very best wishes for peace, stronger bonds of human fellowship and greater security in the New Year. This year’s message is special for two important reasons. First, it will be the last opportunity for me to address the traditional end-of-year message to you as chair. As I had promised this time last year, I am stepping down to make way for a new leadership team to step in and seize the opportunity to take this organization to the next level. The electoral committee (NEC), which the Executive has created to manage the entire succession process, will communicate with you this week about the elections, formally launching the electoral process. The second reason why it is special is that it will allow me to do some self-reflection, looking at our organization through the rearview mirror, and as it prepares for leadership change.

The Journey (July1996-January 31, 2003) When we received the mandate to lead the Africa Club more than 6 years ago, our motivation was to consolidate the many contributions and achievements of the founding fathers and to take our organization to the next level. And, our inspiration was “giving something back”, especially by way of voluntary service to our constituents, including our twin institutions. At the risk of sounding like a broken gramophone record, we had always emphasized that the community we were trying to build was a community of we, not me”, with the club as the heart of that community. We believed then as we do now that all of us can reach entirely new levels of possibility together. And that to achieve this, we need to begin serious conversations about purpose and shared significance and commit to staying in them.

We are capable of creating wonderful and vibrant communities when we discover what dreams we share. And always, those dreams become much greater than anything that was ever available when we were isolated from each other. The journey was about providing breakthrough leadership--breaking through old habits of thinking to uncover fresh solutions to perennial problems. It also means breaking through the interpersonal barriers that we all erect against genuine human contact. It’s leadership that breaks through the limits imposed by our doubts and fears to achieve more than we believed possible. During this voyage of inner and outer discovery we faced extraordinary demands on our time, energy and intellectual capacities. We made sure that service to the community was not on “borrowed time” and/or at the expense of our job. We are here in the first place to make a career with the Bank or the Fund, and not with the Africa Club. The emotional demands were especially daunting. We had a choice: to remain indifferent, self-centered and hostile to “public/community life”. We rejected this option, however.

We developed and successfully implemented a strategy to constructively engage senior management on African staffing issues and an Outreach Program whereby we had pledged to help mobilize the collective strength and wisdom of the Africans in the World Bank Group and the Fund to contribute positively, and sometimes in an “out of the box” manner to the irreversible change processes taking place here at the Bank and the Fund and throughout the Africa Region and to enhancing relations between our twin institutions, the African client countries and the host community. Please bear with me for a moment, while I attempt to give a brief historical perspective to these aspects of our voyage, leaving to history and other more distant objective observers the task of evaluating and making a determination of what legacy, if any, the outgoing team will be leaving behind. The African Staffing Agenda (Racial inclusion):

Bank Group: “Allegations of racial discrimination at the Bank Group have been documented as early as 1971”. In 1979, the African Governors discussed the issue at their meeting in Belgrade. In 1992, the WB Staff Association issued a report documenting discrimination against African staff, and in 1997, an audit team from Dewey Ballantine provided further evidence of allegations of discrimination against blacks” (World Bank: Racial Equality in the Bank Group—The Challenge of Inclusion, Main Report, March 1998). In October 1997, the Bank established the “Team for Racial Equality”1i. The TOR for this task force was to review existing documentation on racial discrimination and to make recommendations to management. The next important milestone was December 12, 1997, when the Personnel Committee of the Executive Board of the Bank stressed that race-based discrimination could not be tolerated in the Bank, and underlined the urgent need to address it. The recommendations of this task force included adoption of a policy of zero tolerance for racial discrimination and bias and a racial diversity action plan.

Bank President and his management team endorsed the report of the task force. There can be no denying of the fact that this team played a very proactive role in moving this agenda forward. We take heart from the new energy that was injected into the engagement process by Mr. Wolfensohn and some key members of his management team, particularly Managing Director Shengman Zhang, who was a champion, Richard Stern, HRVP; and we recognize the indispensable political support and contributions of the Executive Directors. We are thankful to those in our Council of Elders, especially Elder Statesman Callisto Madavo, who played a pivotal role in getting the buy-in of his colleagues of the Corporate Team and in actual implementation, and getting “results on the ground”. Many other members of the Council have quietly but surely contributed to the “big picture agenda”, and a few more of them and other managers have and continue to sacrifice time and energy to keep our efforts on course.

The message here is that a lot has been done on African staffing during the tenure of this team. We recognize that the challenge remains and the achievements must be broadened and consolidated. The Diversity Director, our own Julie Oyegun tells me that the mainstreaming strategy, which is currently in place, will serve to enhance racial inclusion, among broader diversity goals, and will take this agenda to the next level. Our constituents remain concerned, however, that the focus on racial inclusion would be diluted. While we note this concern, sister Julie deserves the benefit of doubt. And, we reassure her of our support. At some point, nonetheless, the new leadership team would need to take stock, as well as develop partnership with Kathy Sierra, the HRVP, and her team to make sure that the issues which matter the most to many of us: pipeline building, level playing field and equal opportunities for career progression and development, including, removing the barriers to mobility, equal pay for equal work and job security are adequately addressed.

IMF: Across the street in the Fund, the team has closely followed the treatment of the African staffing issue, and as in the Bank, the African Governors (through the offices of the EDs and at Annual Meetings) have constantly brought up the issue before Fund management. The following have been attempts at getting a handle on racial and other types of discrimination at the Fund:

May 1994: “Equity and Excellence: A Report by the Working Group on The Status of Women in the Fund” (Chaired by Ms. Margaret Kelly) -- it is gratifying and very encouraging to note that Gender has since become an organizational imperative—a business priority in the Fund);

July 1995: “Discrimination in the Fund: A Study of the Nature, Extent, and Cause of Discrimination on the Basis of Race, Nationality, Religion and Age (Pelerei, Inc.); nationality was used as a proxy for race due to data availability problems.

December 1995: “Discrimination in the Fund” (chaired by Mr. Azizali Mohammed); 1996/1998: “Report of the Consultants on the Discrimination Review Exercise”

Fund management has also been taking steps to address discrimination and achieve greater diversity among the staff, albeit at a much slower pace. And, recent appointments of competent Africans to senior management positions and other measures designed to ensure a level playing field for all staff are reassuring and indicative of their leadership’s commitment to a more inclusive work environment. In July last year, I led a delegation comprising Lubin Doe, Gemina Archer Davies and Obert Nyawata to a meeting with IMF Managing Director, Mr. Kohler to exchange views on this issue. This was a good meeting.

We are pleased to learn that their senior management will, early this year, issue a policy statement reiterating management’s commitment not to tolerate discrimination and adopt “An Enhanced Action Plan on Diversity”. We are encouraged by these developments in the Fund, and would like to salute the Managing Director for being a champion of inclusion and providing the leadership for the way forward. While we await the details of these impending actions, we cannot but reemphasize the need for our Fund colleagues to be more proactive in making full use of existing staff development opportunities and to continue constructive engagement with senior management to make their work environment a more racially inclusive one. Our team acknowledges and truly appreciates the positive contributions of Margaret Kelly, Director, Human Resources Department and Leena Lahti, Senior Diversity Advisor. Alassane Ouattara and other members of the Council of Elders have been instrumental in moving this agenda forward, and we remain grateful to them. I would urge the new team to cultivate and nurture the strategic partnership with the EDs and senior management to take the African staffing issue to the next level.

The Outreach Program: This has been the instrument we used to channel our contributions to the African development agenda and to carry out institutional assignments. We did this, usually, in partnership with others within and outside the twin institutions. Given its importance, the Africa Club Secretariat is preparing a separate report on the implementation of this program. I shall share this report with you in due course. The highlights of the program are summarized below:

July 1997: IDA 11 Replenishments—Mobilizing support of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC). In consultations with other institutional partners, we worked closely with the CBC to ensure appropriation of adequate funding of IDA, leading to letter (signed by most CBC members) to chair of the Appropriation Committees supporting this outcome. The Africa club jointly sponsored a lunch hosted by the CBC at the Hill, providing JDW the opportunity to make a case for the Bank’s work in Africa and IDA resources. US arrears stood at about $1 billion. We delivered on this assignment (although the role played by others, especially the US ED, was pivotal). November 1998: The First Africa Day Business Forum:

Attended by about 600 business executives from the Africa region, this groundbreaking event was about celebrating the emerging African entrepreneur, whether in business, or in the sciences, or in arts and culture. An African private sector that is competitive, seeking partnerships wherever they can find one to expand and enhance Africa’s trade and investment relationships. Because of the exposure during this week-long event, many participants established enduring mutually beneficial business relationships with their counterparts on this side of the Atlantic. The Alumni of this groundbreaking event—the First Africa Business Forum ever- included some of Africa industry giants, including Aliko Dangote, Tony Elumelu, Peter Munga, Nicolas Biwott, to name but a few.

September 1999: Advice on and support for the Chad-Cameroon Pipeline Project-- After extensive consultation and internal debate within the World Bank-IMF African community, through focus groups and in a town hall meeting attended by some 100 African members of the association, we provided advise to the President, as he had requested. In addition, we partnered with the CBC, the African Diplomatic Corps, Africare and the Center for Political and Economic Studies to mobilize support for a “go” outcome at the Board discussions of this major project (total estimated cost of about $3.4 billion). The CBC and the African Ambassadors wrote to the US Treasury supporting this position. At the Board discussions (after approval of the project), the President formally acknowledged the Africa Club’s contributions. The President of Chad also sent a Thank you letter to the Chair of the Africa Club expressing gratitude for our contributions to Board approval of this Flagship oil pipeline project.

September 1999: The Ethiopia Cultural and Trade Fair, Chantilly: The chair was invited to give a keynote address at this event, filled with rich culture and an impressive display of entrepreneurial talent and inventiveness. October 2000—Second Africa Day Business Forum—As in the first one in 1998, the goal of this event was to create opportunities for the African private sector to connect, network and do business with their counterparts in America and other parts of the world. About three hundred business executives from Africa and the US participated. We believed that this too was a successful experience, judged from the above overarching objective. Financially however, it was less successful in the sense that our expectation that the event would be a self-financing proposition did not materialize. The lessons we learned were that: (a) more attention should have been placed on the nuts and bolts of event implementation and supervision of the contracted event manager, and (b) it is highly risky and ill-advised to undertake a program of such magnitude based on a “self-financing” assumption.

More recently, we have undertaken several activities, including: (a) organizing two all-day Town hall Meetings at the Bank on HIV/AIDS, in partnership with CFA and OIC International of the late Reverend Leon Sullivan (in September 2001 and 2002); (b) participated at a CFA-sponsored Town Hall Meeting in Philadelphia in February 2002, at which the chair gave a keynote address on HIV/AIDS in Africa; (c) jointly sponsored about half-a-dozen fundraising events to support victims of natural disasters; (d) attended several events organized at the White House by the AGOA Coalition, of which the Africa Club is a founding member; (e) participated in a Power Breakfast Roundtable discussion on NEPAD (co-chaired by the chair), organized by the African Studies Association (December, 2002) and (f) co-sponsored a Stakeholders Town hall Meeting at the Medical School Building, Howard University to discuss the African Union, during the recent AU mission led by Ambassador Amara Essy (December 2002). Further details on our outreach program would be provided in the report that is under preparation.

The HIV/AIDS Pandemic:

As I step down to create opportunities for a new leadership that will move this Club to the next level, I have but only one request to make of the next team and, indeed, to all of you. The request is for each of you, individually and collectively, to contribute to the ongoing global effort to combat HIV/AIDS in Africa.

HIV/AIDS is the greatest threat to Africa’s development and to the realization of the dream of Africa’s renaissance. The UNAIDS estimates that about 30 million Africans live with HIV/AIDS. About 3.5 million were infected, and 2.5 million died during 2002 alone. At least one out of every three adults in four African countries: Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe live with HIV/AIDS according to the UNAIDS.

The future looks bleak, but we can change it and we must all commit to doing so. About 10 million Africans ages 15-24, and 3 million children live with this terrible disease. Millions of AIDS orphans are already taxing the traditional support systems in many parts of Africa. By 2020, more than 40 million AIDS orphans may live in Africa. In our continent, a teenager has a 50% chance of dying of AIDS.

Despite the high rates of infection, only a very small fraction of infected Africans has access to antiretroviral therapy, according to the UNAIDS. And only a limited number of Africans have access to medications effective against opportunistic infections. Put simply, millions of Africans, including some family members and loved ones, will die unless they have access to available, lifesaving medicines.

HIV/AIDS is at the nexus of any serious development effort in Africa. The experts from both the Bank and the IMF have noted that HIV/AIDS is gradually eroding household coping mechanisms, jeopardizing hard-won gains in primary and secondary education, and slowing down economic growth. The average life expectancy for Sub-Saharan Africa is now 48 years instead of 62 if AIDS were not a factor. And the epidemic hits at some of Africa’s best and brightest—usually at the prime of their lives—teachers, doctors, technocrats, farmers and business executives. Health systems in most of Africa are under severe strain from increasing death of key personnel to the intensive use of scarce hospital and public health services and resources. As noted by Dr. Chinua Akukwe of the Constituency for Africa (CFA) and former Vice Chairman of the National Council for International Health (NCIH), Washington D.C. (now known as Global Health Council), it is meaningless to discuss Africa’s renaissance and/or NEPAD without dealing with the HIV/AIDS crisis in a comprehensive manner.

Closer to home, some of the Africa Club members are taking care of affected siblings and loved ones. Many of them are not only dealing with the emotional burden of watching family members gradually wither away but they must cope with the growing, personal financial commitments. Several Bank staff initiatives are already producing results, indicating that working collectively, we can make a difference—a big difference. These include: The Staff Response Initiative, which the Africa Club launched more than two years ago, AIDSETI, FOAA and ZOA. I have requested the Staff Response Committee to prepare a special report on these staff initiatives, including a summary of the achievements and acknowledgement of the various champions and others who have contributed to the results so far obtained. This report would be shared with you in due course. We need many more of these grassroots-type efforts inside and outside Africa because in the coming years, it is highly unlikely that any African professional working or living in any part of the globe will escape the burden of either caring for a loved one living with HIV/AIDS or taking care of their survivors and dependents. Thus, only a coordinated effort involving a wide range of affected and concerned parties can create real change. The strategy must be based on drawing on an even broader range of talent within the twin institutions, i.e. drawing on diversity as our key asset.

Martin Luther King’s philosophy constantly prodded me to go beyond the in-born self-centeredness. It showed me the power of committing one’s life passionately and compassionately to helping others. His vision created spiritual, intellectual and physical energy that eclipsed the self-defeating negativity that had often accompanied indifference and self-centrism.

In the true Martin Luther King spirit, it is, therefore, our dream that every member of the Africa Club, including the extended family will: Commit to be a part of the solution to the HIV/AIDS pandemic Join the debate on access to affordable care and do whatever is necessary to ensure that those living with this terrible disease receive appropriate medical care Work toward the development and implementation of comprehensive, culturally appropriate information, education and communication campaigns against HIV transmission at national and local levels in Africa Volunteer time and money to help their communities at home cope with this epidemic In their official assignments, encourage their colleagues and collaborators within our twin institutions, the UN system, African Governments, civil society and the donor community to do more on behalf of some 30 million Africans living with HIV/AIDS

To beat back the grave threat posed by HIV/AIDS in Africa, our members are, by default, the natural leaders in any serious remedial effort. Africa needs its prominent sons and daughters to stand and be counted among the leaders of the global effort to stem the tide of this epidemic.

I have made a personal commitment to maintain a laser beam focus on HIV/AIDS no matter what I do after I step down as your chair. I challenge every one of you to make the same commitment. Margaret Mead noted in a famous quote: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world”. The possibilities are limitless if some 1, 600 members of the Africa Club commit to stop AIDS in Africa.

Farewell:

This has been an exciting journey. And, I can only express gratitude to all of you for giving my team and I the honor and the privilege of leading this prestigious organization for the last six years. My attempt to trace the voyage is by no means a journey into self-righteousness. We have done well in certain areas, and not so well in others. A key finding of the recent audit of the Club’s accounts by Deloitte and Touche, which was commissioned at our request, following the delivery of Africa Forum 2000, is illustrative of the latter, and I quote from the Memo of the Auditor General of the Bank, dated June 28, 2002: “ our overall conclusion is that the club’s balance sheet as of July 31, 2001 and its income statement for the year then ended cannot be relied upon because the club has an unsatisfactory system of financial control…”, end of quotation. It is important that I state outright that the auditors certified that all institutional funds received for the Africa Forum 2000 were duly accounted for and that no impropriety on the part of the management of the club or its employees was found during the audit exercise. The recommendations of the audit are in the process of implementation. In fact, but for the intervention of the Elder Statesman, we would not have produced “a statement of account”, which the auditors needed to do their work. Those who volunteered to do the necessary work could not be compelled by the chair to get the work done. This is not passing the buck. The buck stops here. Another illustration of adversity must do with our unresponsiveness to a request from Hilton Hotel to settle the bill for staging the Gala there. They referred the matter to the Ethics Office. The President’s Office and the AFRVP bailed us out. Finally, I gave media interviews to respond to unjustified hostile press coverage of internal Bank matters, which some interpreted as “grandstanding” on my part. An attack on a friend of Africa is an attack on our entire organization. Some of my colleagues have also reminded me that I should have done more to address the perceived disconnect between senior African managers and the rank-and-file. I shall not indulge in any self-righteousness. I take full responsibility for the omissions and commissions of the past. And, I beg your forgiveness in this season of goodwill.

One of the most reliable indicators and predictors of true leadership is an individual’s ability to find meaning in negative events and to learn from even the most trying circumstances. The skills required to conquer adversity and emerge stronger and more committed than ever are the same ones that make extraordinary leaders. I have learned from the Elder Statesman and other members of the Council of Elders who have been around much longer than many of us that it is important to have resolve and humor and determination not to let the system define you; and to be more focused and determined to change the status quo that excluded you. Rather than just feel beaten down, they turned it around. And, they set the highest standards for themselves and for others--respect being a core value. During my long tenure, I was motivated in no small measure by the desire not to disappoint “these elders”. Here I end the journey of deep self-reflection.

My advice to my successor is adaptive capacity is what you need to cope with difficult situations and to learn from them. Ability to transcend adversity, with all its attendant stresses, and to emerge stronger than before. These are attributes which permit you to find opportunity where others might find only despair. This is the stuff of true leadership. Bad leadership happens when leaders put their personal desires ahead of their good judgment. We will share our views on the “unfinished agenda” at a more appropriate time and context.

As I stated in my message to you last year, we must learn to rise above our egos, and see our organization flourish despite us and not because of us. If we allow ourselves to stay beyond our welcome, we would be presiding over declining creativity, freedom, innovation and success. It is good-bye for now from my team and me. As we step down, we want to acknowledge the voluntary contributions of Dr. Dominic Ntube, Head of the Africa Club Secretariat during most of our tenure. Without Dominic’s total devotion to service to our community and to manning the Secretariat, which is the pivot around which our machinery revolves, it would have been very difficult for our organization to maintain its vitality. We hope we will be able to appropriately reward him for all his help. The support from the Elder Statesman was always there. Without this support, there will be no Secretariat, and we thank him deeply.

I look forward to having some additional quality time for life outside of work, because I may not need to come to the office on week-ends, which is the time I set aside for the club’s work. Some of you asked if I would be happy moving on after all the “sacrifices” and excitements. I appreciate the concern. Happiness is not a function of one’s circumstances; it’s a function of one’s outlook on life.

To you and your loved ones, we extend our best wishes for a most blessed 2003.

Thank you!! Sidi, chair, Africa Club.