In 1995, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) developed an alternative to the IMF/World Bank inspired Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (ESAP) called ‘Beyond ESAP: Framework for an Alternative Development Strategy in Zimbabwe.’ Following discussions around the ‘Beyond ESAP’ document at various levels (national, regional and continental), it was agreed that given the widespread implementation of neo-liberal policies across the region, continent and indeed at the global level, it was imperative to develop alternatives at all these levels. To push the work forward, an advocacy programme was developed as part of the ‘Beyond ESAP’ project. As Zimbabwe descended into crisis since 1997, the extension of the ‘Beyond ESAP’ programme to the region and beyond was temporarily shelved, only to be revived in 2003 when Timothy Kondo, the advocacy officer, Yash Tandon and John van’t Hoff sourced some funds from EED in Germany and ICCO in The Netherlands to kick-start the first phase of the project extension to the region.

To guide the process, Yash Tandon was requested to prepare a concept paper (see Chapter 1), on the basis of which deliberations for the first workshop revolved. The first ANSA workshop was held on 23-24 April 2004 at the Pandhari Lodge in Harare (Zimbabwe) and was attended by representatives from LaRRI (Herbert Jauch), LEDRIZ (its chairperson, Colin Gwiyo, Godfrey Kanyenze, Tendai Makwavarara and Rodney Ndamba), NALEDI and ALRN (Thobile Yanta), the Southern and Eastern African Trade Information and Negotiations Institute – SEATINI (Yash Tandon, Mary Tandon and the late Gregory Peta), Witwatersrand University School of Public Management and Development (the late Guy Mhone and Masimba John Manyanya), ZaCTU (Austin Muneku), ZiCTU (its President Lovemore Matombo and Timothy Kondo) and an activist from the region (the late John van’t Hoff). Representatives from SATUCC, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and the then President of ICFTU, Fackson Shamenda who had confirmed their participation could not attend due to pressing work commitments.

Having concluded that the current economic, political and social order in the Southern African region was not supportive of attaining higher growth, development and the equitable distribution of national wealth and benefits, the workshop agreed that a major objective of the programme is to take the first steps towards creating a different economic, political and social order in the Southern region of Africa. In which case it was agreed that there is need to redefine the political order of Southern African nations, so that the role of the state could be made more developmental, while the states themselves would become stronger institutions in relation to decision-making processes in the implementation of national policies, which are pro-poor. The importance of developing national policies that are home-grown in order to establish a true sense of ownership was stressed.

Another objective of the programme as set out at the workshop is to translate the ideas into actions and to broaden the ownership of the programme, and turn it into a mass movement over a period of sustained education, consultations and debate. In this regard, even though the wisdom of an intellectually developed alternative was acknowledged, it was highlighted that this was not on its own adequate to turnaround the development agendas in Southern African economies. This therefore implies that even though it is trade unions in the region that initiated the programme, other stakeholders, including the regional States, would be mobilised and engaged around the issue of alternatives to neo-liberal policies.

The workshop adopted the principles and values to inform and guide the alternative framework, which creates a humane society based on human values. Participants resolved that there was a need to formulate policies that have positive welfare implications, create quality employment and guarantee people’s access to socio-economic rights (basic needs). To achieve this, an analytical approach that uses the equity growth models to derive/ develop alternatives to the neo-liberal policies was proposed. This approach is based on the conviction that, the nation State has the capacity to redistribute and allocate resources within the economy (amongst its sectors) in a way that increases equity between the sectors of the economy and classes. It was highlighted that growth and development in the non-formal economy could be elevated to match that in the formal sector, whilst at the same time achieving equity.

This framework provides the possible solution in which economic growth is transformed into human centred development and improved welfare. In such a framework, the two sectors in the economy (the formal and non-formal sectors), feed into each other (form backward and forward linkages). In this case, the state is expected to support the production process of the non-formal economy to boost its incomes. This intervention could be in the form of national policies such as land reforms, redistribution policies, empowerment initiatives, provision of resources and an enabling macro-economic environment. Thus, a key objective of the equity growth model would be to transform the non-formal economy into a formal one, so that it equally benefits from national policies and from an equitable resource allocation system. This equity growth approach, which addresses the inherited enclave and dual economies of Southern Africa, is elaborated in Chapter 2.

Such a development approach is informed by a holistic approach that fuses together a global perspective to the national growth and equity approach. In this regard, whilst seeking to strengthen Southern African states in the international global systems, alternative national policies that are pro-poor are formulated to immediately work towards poverty reduction.

Thus, a holistic approach that looks at developing alternatives to neo-liberalism on all fronts namely, the global (the Imperial factor), the State (the Governance factor) and the people (the Social factor) would be most ideal. In a nutshell, the alternative framework adopts a holistic approach, is driven by people’s principles and values, relies on the mobilisation of the people around daily struggles, acknowledges the role of agency in development (a strategic developmental state) and the state as a site of struggles and undertakes a regional perspective. The strategy walks on two legs, namely, analysis and research (synthesis of sectoral studies from a holistic regional and anti-globalisation perspective) and union-led mobilisation around daily struggles (such as access to water or economic rights and defence of regional integrity). The second leg involves training and advocacy / networking aimed at engaging people and the regional States in pursuit of alternatives to neo-liberalism.

It was agreed that the research approach would analyse the current situation in each sector of the economy by drawing from experiences from Southern Africa, guided by the conceptual syntheses presented in the revised Concept paper and alternative framework. Participants also agreed that the analysis would not only focus on the current sectoral situation, but would present what the ideal scenario should be and how to shift from the current state in each sector to what would have been presumed to be the ideal scenario. After the final deliberations on the structure of the holistic approach, the workshop participants proposed and listed a preliminary list of possible researchers that would be engaged under the programme to develop papers on the 12 selected sectors. It was also agreed that Guy Mhone would coordinate the research work while LEDRIZ would overally coordinate the programme, receive and account for resources and formally engage the researchers.

The second workshop was held at the Pandhari Lodge in Harare (Zimbabwe) on 9-10 July 2004 and was attended by trade union leaders from the region (then President of ICFTU, Fackson Shamenda; the President of SATUCC, Lucia Matibenga; SATUCC’s Executive Secretary, Moses Kachima; the President of ZiCTU, Lovemore Matombo and the ‘Beyond ESAP’ project advocacy officer, Timothy Kondo); representatives of the ALRN from Southern Africa (Ntwala Mwilima of LaRRI, Ravi Naidoo of NALEDI, Austin Muneku of ZaCTU, Blessing Chiripanhura, Godfrey Kanyenze, Rodney Ndamba and Tendai Makwavarara of LEDRIZ); SEATINI (the late Gregory Peta); the participating progressive intellectuals (Guy Mhone and Yash Tandon); some of the prospective sectoral researchers (John Manyanya – Finance, John Pampallis - Education, Dan Ndlela – Manufacturing, Lloyd Sachikonye – Agriculture, and Richard Saunders - Role of South African Capital in Africa).

At this workshop, the revised concept paper and alternative framework were presented and the participants made further comments and suggestions. A brief outline of the terms of reference and methodology for the prospective researchers present and their sectors were developed and discussed at the workshop. The workshop set end of September 2004 as the deadline for submitting the first drafts of the sectoral papers. On processes like privatisation that are sweeping across the region, it was resolved that there was no need to wait until the end of the studies to start mobilising, but rather this would be done parallel to the research process.

The third regional workshop took place at the Parktonian Hotel, Johannesburg (South Africa) on 7-8 January 2005. Apart from the President and Executive Secretary of SATUCC, virtually all its affiliates attended (including its new member, the Mauritius Trade Unions Congress – MTUC, with the exception of COSATU). The ALRN was represented by its co-ordinator, Thobile Yanta, Godfrey Kanyenze, Austin Muneku, Tendai Makwavarara and Rodney Ndamba. Nine sectoral researchers, the two participating progressive intellectuals, Jos Martens of FOS Belgium, Alice Siame of LO-Norway and the then President of ICFTU, Fackson Shamenda also attended the workshop.

Following the presentation of the revised concept paper and the alternative framework, 9 sectoral papers were also outlined (finance, manufacturing, health, culture, role of South African Companies in Africa, labour, land and agriculture, education and gender). During the discussions, it was agreed that additional research needs to be done on six new areas, namely, macroeconomy, trade and trade agreements in the region, social policy, infrastructure, science and technology and role of the State. It was emphasised that the link between research and mobilisation should be strengthened through the development of popular and education materials based on the research papers, on globalisation, the SADC Trade Protocol and other regional trade agreements. Participants noted that apart from ZiCTU, several alternatives had been developed in various countries such as the ‘People’s Budget Initiative’ spearheaded by COSATU and encouraged the researchers to draw from them as well.

Participants expressed concern over the reconfiguration of the region through trade agreements after it had been presented that the SADC region had been fragmented in the current negotiations on Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with the European Union (EU) where only 7 SADC member States are involved. While the other countries are negotiating under the East and Southern Africa area (ESA), South Africa already had its own bilateral trading agreement with the EU. It was agreed that trade unions in the region should engage EPAs and other trade agreements such as the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) as a matter of urgency. Participants encouraged the research process to include an audit of all SADC protocols relevant to the sector work. It was agreed another workshop should be organised to deal with the remaining papers that were not discussed and that global unions be engaged to support the ANSA cause.

The fourth and final workshop to discuss the outstanding research papers was held at Boysens Hotel, Johannesburg (South Africa) on 15-16 December 2005. The workshop was attended by the trade union officials that attended the third workshop, a researcher from most of the affiliates, the representatives of ALRN in the region and 6 of the researchers. At this workshop, the papers on the Macroeconomy and Finance, Science and Technology, and Mining were presented. It was agreed that once the research is finalised, Herbert Jauch and colleagues from ILRIG would develop a popular version. The coordinating committee was requested to finalise the research phase through the production of the book so that the second phase of the programme, involving research at national level, training & advocacy and engagement would commence.