As the year comes to an end, many things happen. But one of the most important occurrences is that of setting goals that one hopes or determines to achieve in the coming year.

The issue of goal setting and having ambitious action plans are always done at many levels. It is common knowledge that individuals set goals which in most cases they do not achieve. This is not limited to individuals, but also to governments and international organisations or communities etc.

It is one thing to have a vision, and consequently set goals, but it is another to achieve them. We have seen on national level bureaucrats outlining action plans that are meant to lift the masses from poverty to prosperity.

All these programmes look workable on paper but when it comes to putting them into action, the process stalls. If individuals set goals at the personal level and then fail to implement them within the time frame they set, then this is also reflected at all the other levels, like at the national level or even on the international level.

This is a net result of individual failure translating into collective failure. When years ago the United Nations and others embarked on the now famous Millennium Development Goals, one would have easily thought that poor countries were on the verge of "arrival”.

But now with less than a decade to the MDG’s deadline, it is apparent that some if not most of those goals will not be achieved. What does this mean? The implications of this are many and varied.

In case such goals are not achieved in the given time frame, people will start questioning the rationale behind adopting such goals or targets in the first place.

At the same time, others will question the competencies of those who were charged with the duty of implementing such (programmes.)

But one thing is clear in all this. For people to achieve personal goals or even for nations to realise transformation both in social and economic terms, there has to be a clear sense of purpose. This is more important at the individual level which translates into collective action.

Sense of purpose is always in form of a national vision that is shared by all the people. This brings us to the puzzle of African nation’s failure to take off.

What is it about Africa, that after many years of self rule and the availability of abundant resources that the continent still lags behind in terms of development?

Many have argued that there is lack of vision. But we will recall that all governments on the continent have always come up with development plans supported by international financial institutions.

The major point is that although some of these development plans have been inadequate in some areas, they have to a large extent remained on paper and have never been implemented.

Many writers and pundits have come to a point of stating that underdevelopment may be a question of genetic predisposition. This is a perception that holds in some quarters. But is it really factually true?

The achievements of black people like Ben Carson in the field of medicine and now Obama in politics, help to quash such kind of thinking when it comes to the black race.

Others have argued that the environment of a people determines what goals they set and the efforts they put into achieving such goals.

They postulate that Africa (Sub Sahara) has been endowed with a very good climate that ensures people survive with little effort towards innovation.

This same school of thought believes that since there are no bad climatic conditions like winter freezing or desert, people live off the land and as a result they just go to sleep and fail to innovate. This is based on the fact that innovation is driven by absolute necessity.

The result is that if one sets goals and mid way realises that they are not critical to his survival, they are likely to have a lackadaisical attitude towards meeting them.

What is required is a discipline to do what one sets out to do or a sense of urgency to achieve. People that are under permanent tension due to circumstances of their being are always able to achieve great things in a short time.

Contact: frank2kagabo@yahoo.com