by Barbara Lopi – SANF 05 no 60
Six African leaders, including the chairperson of the African Union, as well as civil society groups have urged the rich and powerful to cancel debt for all African countries to enable a fresh start.
The G8 group of leading industrialized nations are meeting this week in Scotland, and the incoming chairperson, Britain’s Tony Blair, has put African development on the agenda, both within and outside the meeting.
Finance ministers from the eight countries met in June and recommended debt relief for 18 selected countries, including 15 in Africa.
The Chairperson of the African Union, President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, hosted a meeting in Abuja with five other African leaders, including those from South Africa, Rwanda and Ghana, to add their voice to the call for 100 percent debt cancellation.
They want this to apply to all African countries, not only the selected few. They commended the decision of finance ministers as “progress” but called for “steps to be taken to include all African countries”.
Delegates to a recent southern Africa regional consultation on the report of the Commission for Africa also urged the G8 meeting to adopt the recommendations in the report and deliver on them.
The 461-page report titled Our Common Interests has several recommendations, which include the call for a 100 percent debt cancellation and doubling of aid for African countries in need.
The report recommends that the cancelled debt must be part of a financing package for poor countries to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Participants to the two-day consultation however disagreed with the key criteria and conditionalities set in the report for debt cancellation.
According to the report, the key criteria should be that the money be used to deliver development, economic growth, and the reduction of poverty for countries actively promoting good governance.
However, participants feared that such criteria might disadvantage some needy African countries. They insisted on unconditional debt cancellation.
On doubling aid, the report recommends the proposals for an increase in aid to sub-Saharan Africa by US$25 billion per annum, over the next three to five years to complement rising levels of domestic revenue arising from growth and better governance.
Executive Secretary of the African Union’s Regional Office for Southern Africa Ambassador Susan Sikaneta, who is based in Malawi, said in her opening remarks that the debt burden is one of the greatest obstacles to Africa’s development.
“The circumstances surrounding the mass accumulation of these debts and reasons for failure to repay are well known. Suffice to say, cancellation of debt is a critical move which will free Africa and help the continent kick start its economies and lift out of poverty,” Ambassador Sikaneta said.
The AU envoy added that it was Africa’s hope that at the G8 Summit on 6-8 July, the debt that has overwhelmed the heavily indebted poor countries for decades will be completely written off.
The report of the Commission for Africa was published early this year, to generate support for the G8 Africa Action Plan and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).
The commission report has a number of bold recommendations grouped under the headings on: governance and capacity building; peace and security; investing in people; growth and poverty reduction; more and fairer trade; resources; and how to make it happen.
On governance and capacity building, the report recommends to the international community to commit substantial amounts of money to revitalise Africa’s institutions of higher education.
“The international community should in 2005 commit to provide US$500 million a year, over 10 years, to revitalise Africa’s institutions of higher education and up to US$3 billion over 10 years to develop centres of excellence in science and technology, including African institutes of technology,” says the report.
Acknowledging the importance of information to policy making and effective delivery, the report recommends donors to provide additional amounts required to help Africa improve systems to collect and analyse statistics, to meet criteria normally regarded as an acceptable minimum, estimated at about an additional US$60 million per year.
The report recommends multi-million dollar funds for other critical issues such as growth and poverty reduction, as well as private sector initiatives that contribute to small enterprise development by giving them better access to markets.
The Commission is an independent body with 17 commissioners, launched in February 2004 by Blair to provide a policy framework to accelerate progress towards a strong and prosperous Africa. Nine of the Commissioners are Africans with four from southern Africa, Dr Anna Tibaijuka and President Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania, Linah Mohohlo, Governor of Botswana’s Central Bank, and Trevor Manuel, Finance Minister of South Africa. (SARDC)
