L'économie politique post-conflit de la RDC

La Section de l’Histoire du Temps Présent du Musée royale de l’Afrique centrale publie la collection Cahiers africains depuis 1993. Spécialisés en matière d’analyse politique, sociale et économique de la RDC, les manuscrits passent par un processus de peer review avant publication.

Nous avons reçu un manuscrit en français sur l’économie politique de la RDC depuis la transition post conflit et cherchons dès lors deux experts pour le peer review. Si ce travail vous intéresse, merci de me contacter : theodore.trefon@africamuseum.be.

Ce travail est non rétribué mais donne droit au choix d’un ouvrage de la collection.

Le volume (de 250 pages) est constitué des chapitres suivants :

1. L’analyse socio-économique de la guerre : Essai de modélisation théorique et évidences empiriques.
2. Transition démocratique et croissance économique.
3. La réhabilitation du système financier en période post-conflit.
4. Les stratégies gouvernementales de sortie de crise : Le programme des 5 Chantiers de la République et la coopération entre le FMI et la RDC.
5. La promotion de l’entrepreneuriat en période post-conflit.
6. Les défis de l’environnement international.
7. Reforme financière et croissance économique : Les dilemmes de la mise en œuvre du DSCRP en RDC.
8. Décentralisation et reforme de la fiscalité en RDC.
9. La dynamique des réseaux d’assurance mutuelle et informelle constitue-t-elle un filet de sécurité en période de conflit ou de post-conflit ?

Cinq chantiers rebaptized révolution et modernisation in Congo

In Kinshasa and on the road to Boma, I’ve noticed that the big advertising posters that pollute the landscape are spreading a new political slogan. Kabila’s smiling face - with strangely whitened complexion - is no longer associated with cinq chantiers but révolution et modernisation. In this country where transport advances at a snail’s pace, the new posters are outrageously cynical because they associate Kabila with a bullet train network for Congo.

The development programme launched in 2008 was a flop. Just like Kabila’s strategy to call 2010 l’année sociale, it was poor political strategy to campaign on. By the time the campaign officially opened, even the government had to admit that everyone recognised cinq chantiers as empty propaganda.

One of his worst scores was paradoxically precisely where some road improvements were made: the nation’s capital where Kabila has become persona non grata. Some central areas of Kinshasa (mainly the boulevards 30 Juin, Triomphal and Lumumba) benefited from road and infrastructure improvements carried out by the Chinese but the programme has not extended into the provinces. The other priorities, health and education, water and electricity, housing and employment did not produce any results.

Presidential candidate Nzanga Mobutu who was Minister of Agriculture under Kabila declared on Radio France International that there was never any discussion of cinq chantiers during cabinet meetings, adding that the programme was thought up by the Kabila parallel government.

A well-known opposition singer Bill Clinton (not to be confused with the former US president) produced a video clip showing an exasperated father taking his son by the hand to the renovated Boulevard de 30 Juin, telling him, if you are hungry, eat that! The message is that some prestige road work does not help the Kinshasa poor and hungry.

Hatuone kitu is Swahili for ‘we don’t see anything’. It is also the title of a song sung during the electoral campaign in Bukavu referring to the fact that there were no cinq chantiers projects in the Kivus.

Kinois cleverly transformed the name on a State-controlled television programme Cinq chantiers en marche (moving ahead) into cinq chantiers en marche arrière (going in reverse). Further mocking the slogan, they also say that personal struggle for life is their sixième chantier.

A mid-ranking civil servant working in the Ministry of Higher Education told me that until a few months ago, if he ever omitted mentioning cinq chantiers in any kind of project, his boss would say to him: ‘Do you want me to have problems with the Minister?’ Today, if he inadvertently does mention cinq chantiers, he is asked exactly the same question.