WILD BW: THE BIRTH OF CNAB-REAL POWER TO THE PEOPLE
As the dust settles on the second CBNRM forum after more than ten years, and real work begins on the formation of a national association of Community Based Organisations, it is worth reflecting on the implications of this body. The famous quote by the Greek Mathematician Archimedes, “Give me a place to stand and a lever long enough and I will move the world”, comes to mind. Well this is the place to stand and the long lever that’s needed to move the complex universe of Community Based Organisations, formerly known as community trusts. At face value CBOs may seem like simple, grass roots, generally rural based organisations run by benign folks of unshakable righteous disposition. But that is not always the case. In fact if you were to listen to the Minister of Environment and Tourism Wynter Mmolotsi’s passionate explanation of the reasons behind the enactment of the CBNRM Act, you would think government had run out of patience with the shenanigans displayed by many of the CBOs. He felt something had to be done to bring the trusts to order. A closer look at many of the key clauses of the Act reflects this intent to control the CBOs. A clear example is their transformation from trusts to organisations, migrating them from the deeds office to the CBNRM department where they will be administered by the Director. For this reason, across the CBNRM community there is a foreboding sense of heavy handedness by the authorities, a kind of usurpation of power, with an animal called the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) being the attack dog. Clearly in reaction to perennial tales of legal battles, motions of no confidence on boards, disappearance of millions of pula of community money and general corruption, government took the approach of clipping the wings of the CBOs by grabbing the purse through the VDCs and decision making powers effectively diffused to the Ministry via TACs.
Thus the formation of an association to address the fortunes of the CBOs is not a small matter.
At face value, an association grouping community based organisations does not seem to warrant a second look. It does not seem to evoke any kind of serious consideration as a structure that is able to tackle a schoolyard brawl. In other words a cursory look at the idea of such an association can lead to an underestimation. But in a weird kind of way it is perhaps in its absence from the CBNRM Act that one can see how seriously government considers such an animal, that they would do everything they would to ensure it does not see the light of day. Consider this. The establishment of the CBOs is premised on enabling communities to sustainably extract maximum value from their natural resources. Such value is expected to accrue directly to the communities with forty (40%) of the CBOs profits going to Village Development Committees (VDCs). In principle, that grants a considerable degree of financial autonomy to the communities. For communities that are well run, that can amount to real wealth. That can translate into little or no dependence on central government. If you are the central authority, you would not want such independence. Worse still, if you are a central authority, you would clearly feel uncomfortable with a body that groups all of these potentially financially independent bodies representing people at grass roots level and spanning every district in the country. Dealing with trade unions is hard enough. This is conjecture of course. But when you consider the fact that the need for an association was long expressed during the discussions of the Act but was not taken aboard, and the dillydallying on its inclusion in the regulations, you begin to sense a suspicious stone walling. Be that as it may, the ground has been laid for the association, with appointment of the interim board. As stated at the CBNRM forum, the objectives of the Association include, advocacy and policy engagement, governance and institutional strengthening, resource mobilisation, community beneficiation, marketing and visibility, conservation and resource management, and coordination and information sharing. These are meaty objectives that if driven successfully will create unquestionable visibility for CNAB. Undoubtedly the performance of every organisation is dependent on the characters who run it. There is no reason to doubt the capacity of the individuals who make up the interim committee. They have their marching orders and the biggest hurdle for now will be to register the association and deliver it to its members within twelve months. Once that is done, a permanent board will be elected.
What we can expect of this animal when it is functioning well is to ensure that CBOs run professionally by capacitating them, a comprehensive engagement with all stakeholders, key of which will be government, robust advocacy for community beneficiation from natural resources, unhinged advocacy against international demonization of Botswana’s sustainable use policy which includes hunting and more importantly a push for optimum accrual of value to communities from their resources. This of course is the ideal. But there is no reason why this cannot be realised when you consider the fact that tourism, which constitutes the key area of investment by communities is being touted as the engine of economic transformation. What we can hope for is that this association is given the best support and should not be feared by government, neither should it be wearponised by unscrupulous entities. If it is allowed the space it requires to operate, it can represent real power to the people to uplift this country and bring a sense of deep ownership and accountability by communities to direct the destiny of this nation. We wish them all the best.
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