Carnegie
Corporation
of New York
Winter 2007
In their confidential statement to the Corporation’s board of trustees, program officers outlined what they saw as the greatest risks to the Commission’s work: “The fact that an increasingly unpopular president willingly appointed the commission opened the process to accusations of political rigging, which could reduce the credibility of the final product”; and the “compressed time frame,” which allowed only six months for the entire process, from setting up the commission to writing the draft constitution.
Noting that other international funders had already decided the risks were worth taking, they wrote, “Ultimately, staff members believe that the strengths of this initiative—the high caliber and level of commitment of many of the commissioners, a number of whom are known to staff members, either personally or by reputation; the inclusive, transparent process; the albeit controversial indications that the president will honor the results—as well as the urgent need for constitutional reform, outweigh the considerable risks.”
Optimism Trumps Evidence
Persuaded by the actions of other trusted institutions and eager to see Zimbabwe, a country that had long been the focus of Corporation support, achieve governance based on the rule of law, the International Development Program staff came to believe the Constitutional Commission was capable of engendering sufficient grassroots support to overcome the president’s machinations and succeed. In retrospect, it was an idealistic vision of the country as one wished to see it — democratic, inclusive and eager for reform, rather than as it was — corrupt, fractured and under the thumb of a tyrant intent on retaining power for life.
This confident point of view was influenced by the Corporation’s longstanding focus on capacity building in African democracies; the proposed grant would be the last one made under the rubric of the developing countries program that predated Gregorian’s presidency. Another key factor was program staff’s familiarity with the Constitutional Commission’s leadership, which included past grantee Walter Kamba in a key position as head of the coordinating committee, the chief administrative body responsible for producing the draft constitution. “Walter Kamba was an internationally recognized constitutional scholar and a very successful former vice-chancellor of the University of Zimbabwe,” says Patricia Rosenfield, then International Development Program chair. “We had every reason to support him.” McClure also wanted to back Kamba; “He was the university’s first black vice chancellor,” she noted, “and had helped Namibia with its constitution. He believed in the possibility of peaceful transition, and although they were often at odds, he had a long-term working relationship with Mugabe. We thought it was worth a try.”