Give Africa a chance: End slavery, exploitation, and racism, now!
Thu March 1st, 2007
Africa needs a "fair break" from the rest of the
world, and the determination to address its own problems,
former president of South Africa FW de Klerk said on
Wednesday.
In a lecture at the University of Pretoria's Centre for
International Political Studies, De Klerk said there was an
unfair perception that Africa was lagging further and further
behind in the global race.
He said while there were still "too many" African
states that conform to the stereotype of poverty, conflict and
tyranny, this was not only a problem on the continent.
"Such states conform to the stereotype not because they
are African, but because poverty, tyranny and conflict go hand
in hand throughout the world and throughout history and not
just in Africa... the problem, accordingly, is poverty - and
not Africa," De Klerk said.
The challenge for the world and for Africa was to address
the causes of the cycle of poverty, conflict and tyranny on
the continent.
De Klerk said it was a challenge Africa accepted, but that
there were some facets of economic policy that African
countries must address urgently.
African should stop the flight of capital from the continent.
African countries should liberalise their own tariffs and
expand inter-regional trade.
Steps should be taken to increase Africa's diminishing share
in global trade - which had declined from two percent in 1980
to one percent in 1999.
"Although First World nations are quick to give lip
service to the need to help develop African economies, they
are often ruthless when their own interests are adversely
affected," De Klerk said.
On the political front he said the continent has still some
way to go to promote democracy.
"We need to apply the Peer Review mechanisms more
fearlessly. This will not happen if African leaders continue
to avoid criticism of countries like Zimbabwe.
"The future of our continent depends on our ability as
Africans to establish peace and stability; to promote genuine
democracy and to ensure basic standards of good
governance," De Klerk said.
Will the G8 break their
promise to Africa?
Placing Africa at the top of the G8 agenda has actually led
to a decrease in development aid to the African continent,
according to Oxfam International.
The British-based charity on Thursday called on the G8
countries to deliver on their promises made in 2005 at its
meeting in Gleneagles, Scotland, pointing out that aid fell by
2,1 percent in that year.
The call comes ahead of the meeting of G7 finance ministers in
Essen on Friday. Finance Minister Trevor Manuel is expected to
attend on the sidelines, where non-G7 officials often meet
with their counterparts.
Earlier this week Oxfam published an exposé on the
distribution of foreign aid.
It revealed that more than R9-million of European Union aid
for Palestinians was being paid to HSBC Bank each month in
bank charges for transferring allowances to more than 140 000
Palestinian workers and people on low incomes.
The huge bank charges are the result of what the agency calls
"an aid fiasco". On Africa, Oxfam said: "The
hypocrisy is that the G7 ministers are talking about
governance and financial responsibility in Africa yet at the
same time they are reneging on their promises and
responsibility to Africa.
"The G8 has a choice: Will 2007 be yet another year of
broken promises to Africa or the year they finally put their
words into action? Germany has got to take the lead on
this," said Max Lawson from Oxfam International.
Germany, under Chancellor Angela Merkel, is heading the G8
group of countries this year.
Progress on debt cancellation has enabled African countries to
increase spending on poverty reduction, but significant
further finance is required if they are to have any chance of
meeting the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, Oxfam said
in a statement.
'Africa missed out
on decades of growth'
African economies face a daunting challenge to catch up
with the rest of the world after missing out on two decades of
growth, a new report by the World Bank said on Tuesday.
The author of the study, Benno Ndulu, said Africa had been
losing the battle against poverty in comparison to the rest of
the world but expressed hope there was enough ambition to
reverse the
current situation.
"With the region hosting 10 percent of the world's
population but a staggering 30 percent of the world's poor,
the challenges facing the region are enormous but not
insurmountable," said the report.
Ndulu said that while Africa had kept pace in economic
terms with much of Asia in the immediate post-war period, it
has since lagged spectacularly behind.
"African countries missed out on two decades of global
growth," said Ndulu at the launch of the report at a
location on the outskirts of Johannesburg.
"Other countries have made strides in addressing poverty
and in Africa we see the reverse happening."
Asian countries had "grown not only at a rapid pace but
steadily... In Africa, each country has had a spurt of rapid
growth (in 1960s and 70s) but between 1975 and 1995 most
countries went into
deceleration," he added.
Ndulu said the percentage of the population throughout the
continent who were classified as living in extreme poverty was
36 percent in 1970 but had reached 50 percent by the end of
the
century.
However, some countries' paths have been radically different.
Six countries have tripled their per capita income between
1960 and 2005, and nine have lost ground, said Ndulu.
"The critical point is that frequently, over the long
term, the tortoise beats the hare ... Many African countries
made policy changes in 1974 that continue to haunt them
today," reads the report.
Xolile Guma, deputy governor of South Africa's central bank,
said the economic woes experienced by many countries stemmed
from governments' failures to stick to their policies.
"Policy slippage is often the cause of diversion from the
kind of growth path you would have achieved with
consistency," he said in a debate that followed the
launch.
Another factor identified by the study as hampering growth was
age dependence, with the bulk of the population "on the
youthful side."
In Africa's favour were lessons learned by other countries
that had grown rapidly, as well as available technology that
could help speed up growth. Ndulu said Africa should not be
afraid of looking at unorthodox approaches to growth.
"Africa can take advantage of being a late starter - it's
not always a curse," he said.
To turn the situation around, the report recommends improving
the investment climate, infrastructure and institutional
capacity and innovation.
Despite the continent's economic performance over the last
three decades, Ndulu said there were reasons to believe the
future would be brighter.
"The challenges that Africa faces are still phenomenal
but the language of ambition that I hear is quite
remarkable," he said.
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