Zambia is member of the Commonwealth, largely driven by the United Kingdom, for its former
colonies, including some countries in Africa, Caribbean and Asia. Africa makes up more than a third
of the Commonwealth of its 56 member states. Next month, this year, its Heads of State, including our
own President, will be electing a new and 7th African Secretary General, to replace the existing Ms.
Patricia Scotland from Caribbean, in accordance to geographical rotation.
On Wednesday 11 September 2024, at 14:30 hrs Zambian time, the Commonwealth held a debate of
its three candidates from Liberia, Dr. Mamadou Tangara, Minister of Foreign Affairs; Ghana, Ms.
Shirley Botchwey, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Lesotho; Mr. Joshua Setipa who had quit his position
at the Commonwealth secretariat as Director to stand for the position, at the. Chatham House,
London. I listened to the debate chaired by Zeinab Badawi, BBC Broadcaster.
The absence of a Zambian candidate baffled me because, I thought it was global competitive
opportunities like this that Zambians should take advantage of in our search for global integration and
competitiveness. Candidacy was open to all member states, and, as always, they’re informed through
their High Commission offices in London. Noticing the advertisement, I personally took it to a
prominent Zambian who, I thought was suitable enough to excel, therefore asked him to seek
government support. However, he and I were disappointed after we learnt that our discussion was in
fact taking place long after the deadline for candidature submission.
The deadline was not inside the advertisement but was instead placed in a different attachment that I
could not see at the time. But more importantly, the deadline was known by government through the
High Commissioner. So, I personally cannot understand why our country was not part of the hugely
missed opportunity.
The topic of the debate was, “The future of the Commonwealth.” I’m only being honest to state that at
the end of the debate, my conclusion is that if my proposed Zambian was part of the debate, he’d
have competed favorably. The candidates did their best but, if I were government, I’d ask the
Commonwealth to re-advertise and ask for more names because three is simply not democratic for so
many African member states, and for the Commonwealth whose core business is to promote
democracy and inclusiveness. During my work as United Nations staff, I travelled to all the fifty-five
African countries, mixing with highly qualified and experienced Africans that I think, should be an
integral part of the candidature.
In the future of the Commonwealth, the three rich members, namely, the UK, Canada and Australia
are likely to continue to preach the familiar chorus of democracy, human rights, security and peace,
good governance enshrined in freedom of speech and assembly, rule of law, gender, and protection of
the environment. For poor members from Africa, the future of the Commonwealth is largely a carry-
over of poverty, disease and hunger; global marginalization in infrastructure, technology, trade,
innovation, digitalization, foreign direct investment, and perhaps more importantly, global
marginalization of human-capital.
We highlight this because it’s at the heart of all other factors that determine social and economic
development, including the factors we have mentioned earlier that deter Africa’s progress. Human-
capital determines the quality of infrastructure, technology, trade, innovation, digitalization, foreign direct investment and many other factors that have led to economic surge in some nations and
marginalization in others. The view of Professor Kavwanga Yambayamba and mine are that the future of the commonwealth means that it must become innovative enough to create centers for child development in each member state aimed at transforming early childhood development (ECD) in order to prepare them to
integrate in the global landscape and create wealth not only for Africa but the world.
The formative years of a child's life (0-5 years) are critical for innovative development. It is
scientifically proven that investing in proper nutrition, parenting, early childhood education, caregiving, and an appropriate physical environment during these formative years enhances the development of the cognitive or mental function of an individual. This is because the brain during the under-5 age exhibits neuroplasticity (high adaptability), making the brain very flexible and can easily adjust to the external environment. It is during these formative years when executive functions of the brain are established and strengthened to enable an individual attain the highest level of performance in the later years. In fact, this is what we mean by “human capital.”
It is scientifically established that heavy investment in the above-mentioned factors results in a well-developed cognitive function of individuals, leading to high level of thinking, reasoning, understanding,memory capacity, resilience, problem-solving, including socio-emotional skills. This has beneficial effects not only on the individual but on the entire society as can be seen in developed countries.Such individuals become successful academically as well as in all spheres of human life. Such
individuals are able to create, innovate and solve problems using more critical thinking than ordinary.
In developed countries and Asia, this investment has created immense wealth from human capital.
We are hopeful that the Commonwealth has a great opportunity to plant a new seed of hope that may
germinate into an endless political, social and economic transformation of member states similar to
what we envy of some Asian nations. While the planters of that seed may never live to enjoy the
sweet fruits of that seed, they will however be remembered forever by the future generations. That’s
what developmental leadership is about, and that’s’ why we think the Commonwealth’s support for
this project comes at the right time.
In concluding, we wish to state that Africa’s problems are not myriads of challenges such as the ones
listed earlier. Neither are they dishonesty, disease, overreliance on one commodity export, global
marginalization, low global commodity prices, lack of foreign direct investment, infrastructure and
technology, insecurity, wrong mindset, failure to implement plans, lack of commitment to work, hunger,
poverty, high food prices, high fuel prices, load shedding, corruption, unemployment, bad leadership,
lack of financial and other resources or any other adverse situation being experienced.
For us these are mere symptoms of an underlying fundamental problem. The fundamental problem of
Africa is INADEQUATE HUMAN CAPITAL – human beings who are competent; human beings who
have the knowledge, the skill and positive attitude or growth mindsets; human beings who are critical
thinkers; human beings who can create and innovate; human beings who see a broader picture and
welcome new ideas; human beings who are resilient, have the courage, do not give up, and can solve
problems from different perspectives; human beings who embrace challenges and turn possibilities
into realities……, the inadequacy arising from inadequate investment in the entire human capital
development value chain –a part in this unfortunate situation.
It’s appropriate to state that most of the things that we Africans fail to do (or do negatively) are largely a result of inadequate human capital, arising from. Inadequately developed cognitive function. This limits our ability to catch up with countries that are progressing. It limits us to compete globally. It makes us be overtaken by countries like Viet Nam in global exports of manufactured goods. It reinforces in us the penchant to celebrate small and irrelevant economic and other wins. For example,
a Head of State declares a public holiday when his citizen wins a gold medal while the Chinese,
winning 24 similar medals are upset for not winning it all, and are probably ridiculed. There’re many
examples of cognitive malfunction, including concentration lapses and their impact on our daily lives
which’s one of the biggest problems in Africa.
Addressing this for Africa, is what the future of the Commonwealth should be about because this will
have a multiplier effect of solving what are often perceived as Africa’s problems, which we’re naming
mere symptoms of a bigger problem.
By Edward Chisanga
The author has completely departed from the headline!
Sadly, our PhD syndrome is to blame for Zambia’s non-participation in the race for Secretary General.