BRICS; CAN IT BE AN ADVENT OF A NEW WORLD ORDER..?

The emergence of the BRICs is a worry to the western dominance, especially in economic affairs and global domination, thus might be the reason why USA is advocating for a slowdown in China‘s GDP and accusation for violation of human rights, however the cooperation of BRICS countries does not consider the aspect of human rights and democracy as such of other regional groups and blocs. 

Misheck Gondo

BRICS is an acronym for the world’s largest grouping of emerging developing nations namely Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.

The first BRICs summit took place in Yekaterinburg, Russia, where they elected membership of the BRIC economy. South Africa joined the bloc in 2010. 

Some of the BRICS ‘objectives are to achieve peace and security, development, cooperation and contribute significantly to the development of humanity and establish a more equitable, fair world. Hence the main mission of the BRICS is to find a counter balance for the structures controlled by the traditional centers of the world of economic and political power.

The resent events in Brazil on the 6th BRICS summit has dominated the international debate on whether the bloc ‘s strategy that established the new Development Bank;  is a sign of the new world order, with the old order  dominated by the Britton wood institutions such as the World Bank , IMF among other, that are controlled by the western powerful nations.

The new economic order is seeking to establish a strong cooperation that helps developing countries with resources for infrastructure development, and enhancement of trade among other.

The grouping is also threatening the concept of unipolarism in which USA was a global dominator, with control of existing financial institutions. This means, the bloc has a major task to make their dream a reality as other global powers will try by all means to dilute their destined agenda.

The recently established Development Bank will start with a 100 billion capital, with China contributing 42 percent of the fund; China will also host the bank, with India hosting the Presidency.

The BRICS like the G20 is a new actor in the global system mainly aimed at transforming global regulatory systems and a panacea to the theory of south to south cooperation that challenges western dominance in the global political economy. 

The Goldman Sachs predicts that China and India will become the suppliers of manufactured goods and services whilst Brazil and Russia will become suppliers of raw materials.

South Africa and Brazil have the advantage of being both suppliers   and manufactures within the bloc whilst China’s pace has outdistanced that of its peers.

Together, BRICS comprise of more than 2, 8 Billion people, 40% of the world’s population and 25% of the global GDP which is $US18 Trillion.

In 2003, the Goldman Sachs forecasted that China and India will become the first and third largest economies by 2050 with Brazil and Russia fifth and sixth. 

BRICS’s combined nominal GDP accounts for 14.6 % of the world’s indicator, 15,434 trillion dollars and 18 percent of global trade, attract 53 percent of the foreign capital, accounts for about 25 percent of global gross domestic product on purchasing power parity basis and are currently generating about 45 percent growth of the world economy.

China, Brazil and India take 2nd, 7th and 10th positions respectively in the ratings of countries with the highest GDP; China, Russia and India take 1st, 3rd and 6th positions respectively in the ratings of countries with the greatest stock of gold.

The joint Development Bank can be taken as a step in the right direction since it seeks to finance first rate collective projects;   it acts as a chamber of international payments with a view to use national currencies in trade and investment. 

It also acts as exchange union that will be able to join the five countries stock markets thereby attracting further investment and currency resources. 

However, the BRICS agenda still remain unclear to some people, questions still linger on how Africa will benefit or is it a case of another exploitative world order that seeks to manipulate poor countries for the idiosyncrasies of the bloc countries.

Let’s wait and see.

Misheck Gondo is an International Relations Expert with the University of Zimbabwe (U.Z)

gondo.gism@gmail.com

How can I be a more effective leader?

When two key players are not part of your team, it should not affect the performance of the whole team; one great tenant of leadership is making every one take a responsible action towards a vision.

 Neymar and Thiago Silva held the strategy of their team but the coach did not have and the opponents took advantage of the exclusion of key factors, showed the unity and strength to beat Brazil with five (5) goals in 25 minutes and 7-1 with the final score. 

 Misheck Gondo

As I was reflecting I noticed that effective learning is not getting 100% for spelling and for reaching a reading benchmark level on time if in the process it dampened your spirit, squashed your imagination and didn’t help you to learn how to keep learning. Meaningful life and learning is not just about a score.

Same with leadership, it’s not about getting 100 percent of your assignments or getting it correct all the times, but in the process one makes mistakes (not deliberate) and apply some remedies as a pinnacle to growth.

One of the catalysts of being a good leader is knowing when to use a particular approach, understanding different leadership approaches and when there are likely to be suitable will help one to succeed.

I have come to realize some key issues in effective leadership; being visionary, affiliative, collaborative, coaching, directive and pace-setting.

A visionary leader fosters trust and respect by bringing the staff and stakeholders together toward a common vision and a focused end goal; in so doing allow everyone to swim with the vision by driving the work forward independently.

Vision without action is a dream. Action without vision is simply passing the time. Action with Vision is making a positive difference.

Coaching is an aspect of mentoring the team players and building their strengths and skills, at the same time allowing the coached to contribute meaningfully to the goals.

Affiliative establishes positive relationships and works to create strong emotional bonds with employees; creates a sense of ownership and belonging in the business. It creates a sense of ownership and belonging in doing various businesses, also a key component in times of stress, as part of a healing process, to build or rebuild trust, when bringing in new people or building a new team. However, affiliative encourage mediocre behavior if negative behaviours or poor performance is ignored; best when used in addition to other approaches. 

Directive is essential to make things happen in times of need or to address the challenges or opportunities that comes by, if overused, can be overbearing and cause team players to feel resentful and can reduce motivation.

Collaborative approach involves everyone in contributing to the decision-making process, in line with the vision, to get buy-in when there is that time, it brings sense of ownership to all, though does not work well in times of crisis. 

Pace-setting sets high performance standards and leaders leads by example, it works well when the team is highly motivated and skilled; but when there is a tight deadline can overwhelm team players and suppress innovation.  

Apart from these approaches   effective communication is a key factor to leadership success; there are many ways of communication in which one can use apart from traditional ones, everyone in the institution should be kept appraised of what’s happening.

As noted by one Alvin Toffler~the illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn. Same with all leaders, one has to be open minded not to stick to a single approach were it requires a different one.

Misheck is a youth leader in Zimbabwe Civil Society and an academic with University of Zimbabwe (UZ)

gondo.gism@gmail.com

It depends on what you do when you are in the desert

I know it is a harsh environment with very stratospheric temperatures, many people get to wonder why they are in that situation, things seems not to be moving while they are trying their best to achieve their vision.


Difficulties sometimes make us take unusual road that seeks to question the existence of God. This questioning existed even from the time of creation.

When the Israelites; the chosen generation, on their way to the Promised Land of Canaan, they could not understand the plan and mercies of their God- towards humanity.

 In that regard, they questioned their leaders about the type of God that led them to the desert instead of the promised land, the God that makes them thirst and hungry along the way, they envied their days in Egypt where they  ate meat, but they forgot the suffering they endured; and that it was a foreign land not theirs.

During the time they reverted back to their agreed principles with God, they had enough of water and manner.

Some failed to make it to the Promised Land because of lack of belief in the vision and agreed principles. Not knowing that the desert was just a passage not a home.

This applies to all of us, what we do during the time of  difficulties determines our success, we all go through the desert, but if we remain focused, principled, goal oriented, definitely we will reach our promised land, by the way, challenges makes us think of innovative strategies.

Extracted from let's wait and see series







Misheck Gondo is a youth leader and an academic with University of Zimbabwe (U.Z)

Zimbabwe‘s Economic Challenges and the Relevance of the National Budget to Pro-Poor Development

The National Budget is a critical economic instrument which the Government can use to drive and impact the well-being of its citizens.  A budget is a government document presenting the government's proposed revenues and spending for a financial year that is often passed by the legislature, approved by the executive and presented by the Finance and Economic Development Minister to the nation as a proposal of revenues and expenditures a government expects for a given fiscal year.

Misheck Gondo 

The budget has to spell out the government priorities in reduction of poverty and championing economic growth, it gives a clear outline on the projections of revenue and expenditure which the government will be anticipating to receive and expend the following year.

As 2014 draws to an end it is a very important time were the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development will be conducting consultations on the 2015 National Budget, as the economy faces various challenges such as the liquidity crunch, unemployment which is being exacerbated by the daily closure of companies among others; an indicator of how the 2014 National Budget failed to address critical economic issues. The Minister should swim with reality set aside political pre-amble but take onside key economic catalysts that drive the economy to a developmental victory.

The budget should be a pinnacle towards addressing income disparities between the poor and the rich through enactment of favorable policies and proposal, as progressive tax reforms. In Zimbabwe most people earn below the poverty datum line according to ZimStat (2013), therefore the budget should specify tax exemption strategy for those below the datum line bracket.

The National Budget can be a tool to drive the economy if done and supported with positive economic and political sense; taking into account critical pillars that are key to the economy and at the same time the government needs to be realistic on its statistical data on various priority areas.

A good example of unrealistic prediction on statistical data is the recently published rate of unemployment in Zimbabwe which they peg at 11(%) percent, if the government uses such dangerous prediction, it will result in pseudo policies that do not address the actual needs of people, it will be a political statement; showing a picture that Zimbabwe has a lower unemployment rate yet in the actual sense it’s above 80 percent.

The key priority areas such as Agriculture, Education, Health and Micro Economic Policy and Trade Relations should be given attention in 2015 National Budget. Agriculture is the pillar and the backbone of our economy, the Poverty Income Consumption and Expenditure Survey of 2011/12 indicated that about 68.2% are in rural areas and depend on Agriculture for food and income.

According to Maputo Declaration the Agricultural Sector should receive at least 10% attention of the national budget, in 2014 the budget only allocated 3.8 % which was far beyond reality. Zimbabwe also needs to fully align the SADC Regional Agricultural Policy (RAP) with other frameworks such as Zimbabwe Agricultural Policy Frameworks, Climate Change Policy and Strategic Action Plan (CCP). 

Practically the budget must give adequate support to farmers based on clear business models that are premised on efficiency and profitability.

Education should also be a center in 2015 budget in line with Dakar Declaration that stipulates the need for a at least 20% allocation to education in every budget, however in the 2014 National budget, Zimbabwe surpassed the 20% mark and allocated 29 %, a positive move on paper, but there is need to evaluate if the allocated budgetary requirement has been received by the sector, also the salary to programs ratio has to be analyzed before we celebrate the surpassing standard.

Attention in education should also be centered on the new Constitution Section 27 that calls for free education at primary level. In addition, the need to adequately resource the BEAM to ensures access to education by all children especially orphans and vulnerable. There is need to avail resources for construction and rehabilitation of educational infrastructure especially in rural and resettled areas.

At tertiary level, many poor families cannot afford college tuition and related cost; the government should prioritize re-introducing grants to students. 

The teachers are said to do community service to the nation with regard to their remuneration which need attention as one of the requirements to improve the quality of education in the country.

We need a healthy nation, the government should give adequate support to the health sector with regard to maternal health (free maternal care), reduce child mortality, combating HIV and AIDS, malaria and avail more resources to fight non communicable diseases such as cancer, diabetes among others, as enshrined in Abuja Declaration which calls for the availing of at least 15 % of the national budget to the health sector. The Ministry of Health has endorsed the rise of health fees in an economy where people are failing to bring food on their tables; this is an anti-poor strategy that requires urgent correction.

Trade relations are fundamental in International Relations; there is need for policy shift especially on Indigenization in order to accommodate foreign direct investment(FDI) which is a key factor in boosting the economy. The country must establish and maintain policies conducive for microeconomic stability and align the country’s micro economic policies with SADC Trade Protocol and the SADC Protocol on Free Movement of Persons as a measure to support the SADC Common market; a strategy to increase access to a larger market to local industry.

The challenges that our economy is facing can be a thing of the past if the government show political will, support its blue print such as ZIMASSET with enough resources backed by genuine policies which come from wider consultations, stick to the culture of adherence to the budget, strict alignment of all expenditures to disbursements, debt management- cash budget principle, eradicate corruption, support industrial growth, set measures to manage imports to maintain an even playing field with regards to cheap imports and above all guided by the universal principles such as: rule of law, democracy , good governance and respect for human dignity, and  by this, there is assurance of achieving pro-poor development.

Let’s  wait and see

Misheck is an International Relations Expert with University of Zimbabwe