Overall disbursements of development assistance by the largest donor countries have continued their downward trend of recent years, falling from $55.4 bn in 1996 to $47.2 in 1997, according to preliminary figures released in June by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The data highlight the aid performances of the 21 member countries of the OECD's Development Assistance Committee (DAC), but figures are not yet available according to geographical destination (in 1996 sub-Saharan Africa received $9.9 bn from the DAC countries, or 58 per cent of the region's total aid receipts).
There was a decline in official
development assistance (ODA) from most of the Group of Seven (G7), the largest
industrial powers, with only Canada and Japan increasing their ODA in real
terms. Expressed as a percentage of gross national product (GNP), aid from
the US fell to its lowest level ever, 0.08 per cent, although the country
still remained the world's third largest donor, giving $6.2 bn, down from
$9.4 bn the year before. Japan ($9.4 bn) and France ($6.3 bn) were the largest
donors in 1997. Aid from the G7 countries, as a group, represented only
0.19 per cent of their collective GNP, compared with 0.45 per cent for other
DAC countries. Just four DAC countries -- Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the
Netherlands -- maintained their ODA above the UN target of 0.7 per cent
of GNP (see graph).
The OECD notes that the 14.2 per cent decline in overall ODA can be attributed partly to falls in the exchange rates of other national currencies against the US dollar and to Israel's progression from DAC's "developing country" category. Taking these factors into account, the decline in ODA in real terms was 3.2 per cent. The OECD described this as a "disturbing trend," running counter not only to the improvements in the DAC countries' economic and budgetary situations, but also to their stated policy goals.
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UNICEF highlights landmines threat
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Many of the special measures designed to help African and other poor countries join and benefit from the liberalized international market have not yet been implemented, African trade ministers declared at the 18-20 May meetings of the World Trade Organization (WTO), held in Geneva. On behalf of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and African Economic Community (AEC), they expressed concern over ongoing "inequities" in the multilateral trading system, noting that Africa in particular "continues to be bypassed" by the benefits of growth and global integration.
Many African countries have experienced difficulties in adjusting their economies to an increasingly competitive world market and in implementing policies required by the WTO, the ministers said. As South African President Nelson Mandela said during his address to the session marking the 50th anniversary of the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT), the WTO's predecessor: "Rules must be applied without fear or favour, but if they contain prescriptions that cannot be complied with by all, or the results benefit too few, then injustice will emerge."
The world's 48 least-developed countries (LDCs), of which 33 are in Africa, account for just 0.04 per cent of world exports, said LDC ministers. Zimbabwean Industry and Commerce Minister Nathan Shamuyarira called for "special measures to deal with their difficult situation." African ministers declared that WTO Director-General Renato Ruggiero's proposal for duty-free treatment of products originating from LDCs has been "all but forgotten."
Noting that WTO negotiations recently have broadened to encompass new areas, such as basic telecommunications and financial services, the African ministers urged that new issues not be taken up until the Uruguay Round agreements favouring the poorest countries actually are implemented. Among other points, they appealed for increased market access for African exports, compensatory aid to food-importing countries, technical assistance to help African governments implement their obligations and exercise their rights under the WTO agreement, and the granting of observer status to the OAU/AEC in WTO bodies.
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Foreign ministers of the European Union (EU) have endorsed a draft negotiating mandate for a new Lomé Convention, the trade and aid pact between the EU and 71 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. Before it expires in February 2000, the current convention must be revised to meet World Trade Organization (WTO) rules. The agreement, reached in Luxembourg on 30 June, comes before formal negotiations for a new pact begin in September between the European Commission, the EU's executive body, and the ACP countries.
The Commission's blueprint for a new Lomé Convention, first unveiled in February, promises that exports from ACP countries will have the same access to the EU market as under the current Lomé agreement (although in practice the share of such exports has declined, from 4.7 per cent in 1990 to 2.8 per cent in 1994). In return for this pledge, the ACP states would be expected to open up their own markets to EU exports over a transitional period of 5-10 years. However, ACP countries have argued that if they allow tariff-free access to EU goods, their economies will not withstand the competition and their public finances will be adversely affected.
The Commission acknowledged that the least developed countries (LDCs) are less prepared for free trade and therefore will need to be protected from the rigours of reciprocal trade with a powerful bloc like the EU. The proposed solution for these countries is the granting of "enhanced" preferences, or complete tariff-free access, to the European market. British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said the compromise in Luxembourg would mean that the poorest developing countries would be able to export "essentially all products" to the EU duty-free by 2005. The ministers also agreed that any future review of the beef, banana and sugar protocols with ACP countries would be accompanied by transitional financial support for the affected countries.
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Ms. Graça Machel, Mozambique's former First Lady and Minister of Education, and author of a 1996 report on children and armed conflict commissioned by the UN General Assembly, has been named as a member of the Board of Directors of the United Nations Foundation. A non-profit entity, the Foundation was established in January to channel the $1 bn pledged to the UN last September by US media magnate Ted Turner.
The pledge is to be disbursed to UN projects and programmes in the humanitarian, economic and social fields in $100 mn installments over 10 years, and the UN Foundation handed its first tranche of awards, totalling some $22 mn, in May. Projects in Africa to benefit from the awards will focus on the eradication of Guinea worm in Central Africa; nutrition and household food security for vulnerable groups in Sierra Leone; reducing measles and vitamin A deficiency in Nigeria; demobilization of child soldiers in Sierra Leone; enhancing reproductive health in the Comoros; helping Burkinabè women in the production and marketing of butter from shea nuts; and socioeconomic reintegration of landmine victims in Angola, Mozambique and Somalia.
Other members of the Foundation's Board of Directors include Mr. Turner, as chairman; Ms. Ruth Cardoso, First Lady of Brazil; Ms. Emma Rothschild, Director of the Centre for History and Economics at King's College, Cambridge University; Mr. Maurice Strong, Executive Coordinator of UN Reform; Mr. Timothy E. Wirth, President of the Foundation; former US Ambassador to the UN Andrew Young; and Prof. Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh.
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El Niño spurs African disaster preparednessThe El Niño weather phenomenon had a varied impact across Africa over 1997-98, bringing torrential rains in East Africa and drought conditions in parts of Southern Africa. Several thousand people were killed in floods that ravaged Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda (with most of the deaths in Somalia), while the entire region suffered serious economic losses. In Kenya, alone, government officials estimate that it will cost KSh8 bn ($130 mn) to repair the damage. Although El Niño did not bring a devastating drought across Southern Africa, as initial forecasts had warned, it did contribute to below-average harvests in several countries. As of late May, Zimbabwe's Crop Forecasting Committee put grain production (excluding wheat) in the 1997/98 agricultural season at 1.5 mn tonnes, or 23 per cent below the 1990-97 annual average. Zambia's national maize production was about 30 per cent less than the 1988-97 average. South Africa's cereal output also will be well below normal, but since the country usually produces significant surpluses, there will be little impact on food security there. Mozambique will have above-average national production, thanks to good rains and a 10 per cent increase in land area planted under food crops. Overall, according to June projections by the Southern African Development Community's early warning unit, the region will face a 1.35 mn tonne maize deficit this year, compared with a 204,000 tonne shortfall in 1997. Although warnings about El Niño's possible impact came several months earlier, not all countries were equally ready to meet the threat. "We are slow, lack proper coordination and are often haphazard in our approach to disaster preparedness," acknowledged Kenyan Agriculture Minister Musalia Mudavadi, in explaining his country's vulnerability. An April 1998 report by the US Agency for International Development's Famine Early Warning System found that, in face of the El Niño threat in Southern Africa, Mozambique, Swaziland and South Africa were among the leaders in reassessing and reformulating their structures and plans for early warning and response. Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi and Zambia already had response mechanisms in place for several years, but Zimbabwe was relatively slow in responding and Angola did not have a drought plan in place. As governments develop better disaster plans, the report urged them to give adequate attention to the important roles of both the media and the private sector. Following the example set earlier by their colleagues in Southern Africa, climate and food security experts from throughout the Horn of Africa and East Africa met in Nairobi, Kenya, in February for a "Greater Horn of Africa Climate Outlook Forum." Besides discussing ways to refine climate forecasting, they also focused on how to integrate such forecasts into their countries' decision-making processes, to improve mitigation plans and better safeguard food security. |
Globalization is "irreversible," 16 African leaders, mainly from West and Central Africa, agreed in a meeting with World Bank President James Wolfensohn in Dakar, Senegal, on 20-21 June. They also acknowledged that it is up to African leaders to create the conditions for the continent to join the globalization process. Open market competitiveness, the adoption of successful industrialization strategies, and strong regional integration through infrastructure development were cited as essential factors in meeting the new challenges.
The closed-door meeting was a follow up to a similar forum initiated by the World Bank president in January in Kampala, Uganda, with 12 leaders from East and Southern Africa. Attending the Dakar meeting were the heads of state of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, the Congo Republic, Côte d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, The Gambia, Madagascar, Mali, Niger, São Tomé and Principe and Sierra Leone, as well as the South African vice president. Mr. Wolfensohn said he initiated the forums to alter the way in which the World Bank does business with sub-Saharan countries, in a spirit of "true partnership."
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In a sharply worded presidential statement, the UN Security Council on 13 July declared that it "condemns the massacres, other atrocities and violations of international humanitarian law," including "crimes against humanity," carried out in Zaire/Democratic Republic of the Congo during the conflict of 1996-97.
Citing evidence collected by an investigative team of the UN Secretary-General, the Council also called on the governments of Congo and Rwanda to "bring to justice any persons found to have been involved in these or other massacres." Depending on their actions, the Council also expressed its readiness to consider "additional steps" to bring the perpetrators to justice.
The Security Council statement came shortly after Secretary-General Kofi Annan issued the report of his investigative team. The team had first been deployed to Congo in August 1997 to examine allegations of massacres, especially of Rwandese refugees, but was withdrawn in April 1998 because it was not allowed to fully carry out its mission. It cites evidence of massacres of hundreds of refugees and concludes that all the parties to the violence in the country committed serious human rights violations, and that some killings by the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of the Congo (which took power in May 1997) and its allies, including elements of the Rwandese army, constitute crimes against humanity. The governments of Congo and Rwanda both expressed serious concerns about the report's credibility.
In introducing the report, Mr. Annan noted the "vicious cycle of violations of human rights and revenge, fueled by impunity," throughout the Great Lakes region. "This cycle," he affirmed, "has to be brought to an end if lasting peace and stability are to be restored to the region. Those guilty of violations must be brought to book."
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The HIV/AIDS epidemic continues to have a devastating impact in Africa, with 21 million adults and children infected, or nearly 70 per cent of the world's estimated 30.6 million infected people, according to a report issued by the Joint United Nations Programme on AIDS (UNAIDS) and the World Health Organization (WHO). The 10 countries with the highest rates of HIV infection among people aged 15-49 all are located in sub-Saharan Africa, with staggering figures for Zimbabwe (25.8 per cent) and Botswana (25.1 per cent), said the report, presented at the 12th Annual World AIDS Conference, held in Geneva from 28 June through 5 July 1998.
However, two African countries -- Uganda and Senegal -- stand in stark contrast to the overall trend, because their anti-AIDS programmes are resulting in falling HIV infection rates. Young people in Uganda and Senegal are much less susceptible to HIV infection than their counterparts elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa, and health experts attribute that fact to the aggressive "safe sexual behaviour" campaign launched by both governments.
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The population of sub-Saharan Africa has doubled in just 25 years, and is expected to double again in less than three decades from the current level of 620 million, according to a recent study by Population Action International (PAI), a Washington based non-governmental organization. The PAI report, Africa's Population Challenge: Accelerating Progress in Reproductive Health, presents a comprehensive overview of Africa's population and reproductive health situation.
While acknowledging progress in some countries such as Botswana, Kenya and Zimbabwe -- where use of family planning services currently exceeds 40 per cent of married women of child-bearing age -- the report brings into sharp focus challenges that remain more onerous in Africa than in any other region.
These include the fact that Africa is home to 10 per cent of the world's women, but accounts for 40 per cent of the world's pregnancy-related deaths. The PAI report says African farmers would have to increase production five-fold just to meet the region's basic food needs in the year 2050.
Addressing the challenge of Africa's poor reproductive health and rapid population growth requires significantly increased financing, the report says. It suggests that donors at least double their contribution by the year 2000 from the current level of roughly $500 mn annually, if African countries are to reach the goal of universal access to basic reproductive health services by the year 2015.
An interactive multimedia exhibition, "Landmines: Danger at Every
Step," was opened on 9 April at UNICEF House in New York by Executive
Director Carol Bellamy (right). With her (from left to right) were: Mr.
Rudy von Bernuth, Associate Vice-President for Humanitarian Assistance,
Save the Children; Ms. Jody Williams, coordinator of the International Campaign
to Ban Landmines, which won the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize; and UNICEF Special
Representative for the Performing Arts Judy Collins. The exhibition is part
of a campaign to raise public awareness of landmines, which each year kill
or maim some 26,000 civilians, mostly women and children, in more than 70
countries. It also aims to help mobilize support for ratification of the
Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer
of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction. The convention was opened
for signature in Ottawa, Canada, on 3-4 December 1997 and has been signed
by 125 UN member-states. Thirty-two of the signatories are from Africa,
the largest contingent so far. Forty ratifications are needed for the treaty
to enter into force, and 19 countries had ratified by the end of June.