Africa - a saga of desperation

The Gleneagles Hotel was the plush backdrop for the 31st summit of the world's industrialized democracies in 2005. Mr. Tony Blair had set the priority of supporting Africa's economic development as one of the agendas for negotiations. The customary meeting of G8's finance ministers, before the summit, agreed to write off the entire $40 billion debt owed by eighteen 'Highly Indebted Poor Countries' to the international agencies. In addition, there was a trivial agreement of $50 billion pledged in aid to developing countries by 2010 (half of which was pledged to Africa.) Trivial, I say, because two years on, the west continues to protract shoddily on its promise.

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Stark reality

The Africa Progress Panel, headed by the former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, describes the attitude of the west as 'grotesque.' He said yesterday that rich countries were only 10 % of the way to their target.

In a meeting with British PM Tony Blair and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Annan said:

Unless we step up our efforts ... we will not make the (Gleneagles) target.

The meeting follows a World Bank Report this month that global aid to poor countries fell to $103.9 billion last year from $106.8 billion in 2005. These slack efforts seriously jeopardize the G8's goal of doubling aid to Africa as well as the UN's 'Millennium Development Goals,' which include reducing global poverty.

Only five countries - Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden - have met the U.N. aid target of 0.7 percent of gross national income. The United States gave $22.7 billion in aid last year, or 0.17 percent of gross national income. U.S. aid was down 20 percent from 2005, when it offered a large debt-relief package to poor countries, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Leaders' response

Both, Tony Blair and Angela Merkel, have vowed to press rich nations to fulfill aid pledges to Africa.

Angela Merkel said:

We have made clear there will be continuity. We are going to take things up where Gleneagles ended.

Merkel said that the promise to double development aid to Africa would be delivered upon before promises are made at the German G8 summit in June, where she has promised to make Africa a major topic.

Tony Blair echoed similar views but put things in West's perspective. He was quoted:

...we will end up with our own self-interest in countries like Germany and Britain being damaged, as result of poverty, conflict, mass migration and the spread of terrorism.

I believe he is right in coming out with such a comment, but somehow it doesn't seem appropriate in the context. A bit self-centered, one might argue.

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Aid to Africa - a necessity

Economic history of Africa is a paradox. While other colonial countries have been able to develop after their liberation, African countries are, on an average, poorer than they were 25 years ago. Africa's current poverty is rooted, in part, in its history. The transition from colonialism has been shaky and uncertain in most of the African countries.

Now, the entire continent is battling with problems like civil wars, famines, corruption and rampant disease. These problems necessitate that their developed colonial masters come to the rescue. Foreign aid has had a strong and positive effect on several countries' economic development. However, institutional and structural weaknesses have not allowed optimum utilization of the foreign aid in Africa. It has been misdirected and in some nations completely misappropriated. Foreign aid is never a long-term measure but at the moment necessary for millions of the poverty-stricken people of Africa.

Alternatives

The only alternative to foreign aid for Africa is building sound, self-sustaining economies. Any efforts in this direction are, however, thwarted by their so-called saviors. Policies of the United States and the European Union provide substantial subsidies to domestic farmers and undermine the ability of third-world farmers to compete where they have comparative cost advantage.

Another panacea for Africa's problems may be its vast oil reserves. Countries like Nigeria, Sudan, Angola and Congo have proven oil reserves. But here too foreign countries like USA and China deprive natives of possible benefits. These nations have adopted an aid-for-oil strategy and continue to exploit Africa's oil to their own advantage.

To generalize Africa's problems, or for that matter their solutions, would be completely unfair. Circumstances are different from nation to nation. The approach to deal with their respective problems also needs to be multifaceted.

Bob Geldof, the musician and lobbyist who also sits on the APP said the promises of 'economic justice' made at Gleneagles must be fulfilled.

No one wants to see the compact of Gleneagles destroyed. Economic justice is the most sacred promise you can make, because if you break it you kill people. We cannot be the instruments of death -- we need to be the instruments of life

Until the developed countries deliver on their promises, be prepared for a parallel reality check in Sudan for every success story written in South Africa.