Are the 20 Year Visions Really Working?

Every sane company has a vision and mission statement. For a majority of companies, these vision statements are nothing more than a loose three or four sentences compiled together to be included in the company’s website and newsletters. However, for other companies, the vision statements are not mere words, but capture the heart and soul of the company and its essence.

Increasingly too, countries, in Africa especially, are drawing their own vision statements, usually outlining the goals that the country should have achieved in the next 20 or 30 years. This is no different than what China coined last year, urging its citizens to aspire for the ‘Chinese dream’, although opinions diverge on what this really means. America has also for the longest time always had the American dream, although increasingly, for many Americans, the American dream appears ever more distant.

Rwanda’s Vision 2020 was launched sometime in 2000. In it, Rwandans asked themselves pertinent questions. ‘How do they envisage their future?’ ‘What kind of society do they want to become?’

‘How can they construct a united and inclusive Rwandan identity?’ ‘What are the transformations needed to emerge from a deeply unsatisfactory social and economic situation?’ These are the main questions Rwanda Vision 2020 addresses.

In the Vision 2020 dream, Rwanda wants to move from the humanitarian assistance phase associated with the 1994 genocide into one of sustainable development. So, for Rwanda, the Vision 2020 is about economic stability, social cohesion, as well as political stability. For Rwanda, the resolve to ‘never again’ repeat the events of the 1994 genocide serve as a good enough motivator. The Rwanda Vision 2020 has input from both the locals and international strategy experts as Michael Porter who continue to advise Paul Kagame’s government on the analytical aspects of the vision.

Uganda too has a Vision 2020 dream, which coincidentally was drawn up almost the same time as Rwanda’s. In it, the country seeks to become a middle income country, with much the same goals that Rwanda hopes to achieve. However, given that Uganda has not had the same traumatic experiences as Rwanda, the country’s leaders may not be as motivated enough as their Rwandan counterparts to achieve each of the goals set out in the Uganda Vision 2020.

Nigeria’s vision 2020 seems to be the most ambitious in Africa. In this Vision, the country hopes to become among the 20 largest economies in the world. About two weeks ago, the country moved a step closer to this dream, when the rebasing of the economy resulted into a near doubling of the economy to half a trillion dollars. This puts it at position 26 in the world, and the largest in Africa, but with a population of nearly 170 million, its per capita income levels are still way low. However, it is now increasingly being counted as among the frontier markets, never mind the instabilities that Boko Haram continues to inflict on the country. Some economists are now grouping it among the MINT economies of Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Turkey, which are areas of likely global growth in the next few years. However, the MINT acronym continues to be a term mainly in the domain of economists and has not been quite as mainstream as the BRICS acronym.

South Africa, which is going to the polls on May 7, too has its vision 2030 dream. The country, which just recently celebrated 20 years of free democracy, still has been caught in a relentless drive to bring down the number of people living in poverty. The Vision 2030 dream is set out in the National Development Plan (NDP), and its brief goal is to eliminate poverty and create 11million jobs by the year 2030.

"By 2030 we must be able to declare that no South African lives below a poverty line and we can fix that line," Trevor Manuel, minister in the presidency for the National Planning Commission, said when launching the vision three years ago. In this Vision, the peaceful transition from apartheid to democracy must be taken further into tangible benefits for the common person on the street, with opportunities for all genders, and races.

In Togo, a country in West Africa, ‘The Togo Vision 2030’ will be the guiding principle for the next 16 years. The country has not received much aid for the last 20 years, but it is now returning to growth. Under President Faure Gnassingbé, the country hopes to attract foreign investment and reduce the high poverty levels in the country. To achieve the goals set out, the country targets double digit growth rates for the next 15 years.

While the Visions 2020, 2025, 2030, or even 2040 are great in mobilizing a country towards a common goal, and putting the resources to areas which are most critical to achieving those goals, questions still remain whether these vision statements ever achieve their purpose. For example, in the 1970s and 1980s, almost every country in Africa had a Vision 2000 dream. By then, the year 2000 looked so far down the road that the goals set out would have been achieved regardless of how slow the transformation process was.

Guess what; almost none of those goals were achieved. Few homes get piped water, few children transition from primary to secondary school, and also the jobs for the youth continue to be minimal. Most of all, food security, which should have been achieved in almost all countries in the continent, seems a distant dream. Perhaps, then, the Vision statements are a good opportunity to kick the can down the road, as the eating and piling continues.