Material from this article may be freely reproduced, with attribution to
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From Africa Recovery, Vol.15 #1-2, (June 2001) page 3

Africa preparing its own recovery plans

Leaders aim for new drive to combat continent's poverty, global marginalization

By Ernest Harsch

Africa's leaders are actively working on a set of new continent-wide development strategies. With the gap between the world's rich and poor nations growing ever wider, the overall goal is to end "the marginalization of Africa and the global social exclusion of her people," says South African President Thabo Mbeki. He and several of his fellow presidents are finalizing two separate initiatives, which they aim to present to the annual summit meeting of African heads of state in Lusaka, Zambia, in July. Many hope that the two plans will be consolidated into a unified vision for the continent's progress.

As these African presidents have repeatedly affirmed since the beginning of the year, their plans will rely as much as possible on Africa's own efforts and resources. This reflects their growing disillusionment with the assistance and policy advice offered by Africa's traditional donors, anger over the continent's exclusion from the opportunities provided by globalization and a realization that something dramatically different is needed to break Africa out of its cycle of slow growth and deepening poverty. It will be "a plan by Africa for the people of Africa," stresses Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo.

The growing prevalence of such views across Africa is reflected in the near-simultaneous emergence of several distinct initiatives, launched independently of each other. One, provisionally known as the Millennium Partnership for the African Recovery Programme, is being coordinated by Presidents Mbeki, Obasanjo and Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria. Another, named the Omega Plan by its initiator, President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, overlaps in many respects with the OAU venture. In addition, the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) has drafted the Compact for African Recovery, intended to provide technical and analytical support to the Millennium Partnership.

Photo: Associated Press

African finance, development and planning ministers, meeting in Algiers on 8-10 May, took up these various plans. Expressing the desire of many African governments for a more coordinated process, Zimbabwean Finance Minister Simba Makoni warned that Africa could not afford to diffuse its energies through separate initiatives. The ministers further urged the initiators of the Millennium and Omega plans to work toward "a common vision of Africa's future ... a single programme that reflects the national, subregional and regional dimensions." In order to further refine and harmonize their work, experts on both plans are to take part in workshops in Abuja, Nigeria, and Dakar, Senegal, prior to the Lusaka summit.

"We agree on the overall vision for Africa's development: a prosperous continent free of conflict in which all our people can fulfil their potential, that participates effectively in the global economy on an equal footing," declared the African ministers.

That vision, however, is far from the sobering reality currently facing Africa. The hard evidence of Africa's experience with globalization, Tanzania President Benjamin Mkapa has observed, "points to exclusion rather than integration, deprivation rather than benefit." As African analysts frequently point out, sub-Saharan Africa accounts for just 2 per cent of the world's exports and the continent as a whole for a mere 1.9 per cent of total stocks of foreign direct investment. Meanwhile, aid from Africa's main donor partners has been steadily shrinking over the past half-decade (see box "Africa gets a shrinking share of aid", below).

Reshaping globalization?

It was with such concerns in mind that African leaders took their case to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in late January. Held annually, the forum regularly attracts many prominent political and corporate officials from around the world, especially the industrialized countries. As a result, the event has come to symbolize the forces that champion globalization.

In his address to the forum, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan noted that the numerous protesters outside the conference halls reflected a widespread public mood. "For far too many people in the world today," he said, "greater openness looms as a threat -- a threat to their livelihoods, to ways of life, and to the ability of their governments to serve and protect them." He felt that most people do not wish to reverse globalization, but instead "aspire to a different and better kind than we have today."

The organizers of the forum convened a special panel on "the backlash against globalization," thereby indirectly acknowledging the impact of the large public protests that have been mounted over the past year against the World Trade Organization (WTO), International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and other such institutions. While World Bank President James Wolfensohn and several leading corporate executives emphasized the importance of dialogue with the critics of globalization, Mr. Mbeki more forthrightly welcomed the protests as a reflection of a developing "new internationalism" among social activists in both the North and the South.

President Mbeki cautioned that for many people in developing countries, especially in Africa, globalization implies not new opportunities, but "rising inequalities within countries ... greater polarization across countries ... [and] greater vulnerability to macro-economic shocks." Therefore, he said, the goal should be to "reshape" globalization, by minimizing polarization and social exclusion and by enhancing people's access to its benefits.

Millennium priorities

The South African president, along with his counterparts from Nigeria, Senegal and Tanzania, placed many of these broader considerations within a specifically African context during a separate panel devoted to the African Millennium initiative. This programme, they stressed, may offer a way to redefine how Africa interacts with the rest of the world, while simultaneously getting its development agenda on track.

The main priorities of the Millennium plan highlighted by Mr. Mbeki and his fellow presidents were:

-- Creating peace, security and stability, in part through further efforts to expand and consolidate democratic forms of rule in Africa. As Mr. Mbeki elaborated several months later, this should entail "an end to coups d'etats and the imposition of military governments on the peoples of Africa, an end to destructive violent conflicts and the defeats of elites that corruptly enrich themselves at the expense of the people." President Mkapa made it clear at the Davos forum that more effective government and administrative institutions can only be strengthened by Africans themselves, not imposed from outside.

-- Investing in Africa's people, through a comprehensive strategy for the development of human resources, including improved health, education and training. This contrasts with the rigours of structural adjustment policies implemented throughout much of the 1980s and 1990s, which often brought cuts in social spending.

-- Promoting industrialization on the basis of Africa's plentiful agricultural and mineral resources, thereby broadening the continent's economic diversity and harnessing and developing its comparative advantages in the world economy.

-- Increasing investments in advanced communications and information technology, to bridge the "digital divide" that now separates Africa from the developed countries. The UN Secretary-General noted at Davos that the entire sub-Saharan region currently has less Internet access than the borough of Manhattan in New York City. Most Africans live two hours or more from the nearest telephone.

-- Developing basic physical infrastructure such as roads, railways and electricity systems. Today, Africa (excluding South Africa) has just 171,000 kilometres of paved roads -- less than Poland.

-- Establishing funding mechanisms to support all these efforts. These mechanisms should finance projects at the national level, but above all should support regional and continent-wide projects and programmes.

Domestic resources, external partners

The financing, promoters of the Millennium plan have insisted, should be mobilized as much as possible by African countries, with less reliance on traditional sources such as the donor agencies. "We must and can move away from measures that further entrench the dependence of Africa on aid," said Mr. Mbeki. "It is necessary that the peoples of Africa gain the conviction that they are not, and must not be wards of benevolent guardians, but instruments of their own sustained upliftment."

To reduce aid dependence, greater efforts are required to involve the private sector in Africa. "We must take all necessary measures to encourage our own domestic African investors to invest in Africa, rather than contribute to the flight of capital out of Africa," President Mbeki said at an African Renaissance festival in Durban at the end of March.

It also will entail attracting more foreign investment. As South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel observed in Davos, even his country -- which has the largest, most diversified economy on the continent -- does not have a high enough domestic savings rate to support the necessary investment levels. Therefore, it too must rely on greater external investments.

Additionally, more revenues can be generated through increased exports. But as Mr. Manuel argued strongly, this requires opening up the markets of the more developed economies to exports from Africa. Currently, he noted, the strongest economic powers -- the European Union, US and Japan -- do not follow the same free trade rules as the rest of the world.

Given the uncertainties of Africa's trade prospects and the minimal foreign investment coming into the continent, official development assistance will remain an important component of African development financing, along with any savings that can be realized through debt relief. On debt, the Algiers meeting of African ministers noted that deals currently agreed to for 18 African countries under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative of the World Bank and IMF are insufficient and that more needs to be done to significantly reduce the continent's debt burden.

Some promoters of the Millennium initiative have argued that it is in the interests of the industrialized countries to provide more aid. President Mbeki pointed out that Africa has extensive "environmental assets" such as abundant rain forests, an atmosphere virtually free of carbon dioxide and soils and waters that have not been excessively polluted -- assets that contribute to the global environment. Investments in Africa's sustainable development can thus help Africans preserve their environment, for themselves and everyone else.

Others have spoken more in terms of donor country obligations to Africa. Archbishop W.H. Njongonkulu Ndungane of Cape Town, South Africa, argued that because of Africa's inherited legacy of slavery, the Cold War and debt, the continent needs a massive aid programme, "as a kind of reparation."

Whatever the donors' motivation for such assistance, African leaders are increasingly critical of the established practices of the main donor countries and agencies, which they see as paternalistic, domineering and shackled with so many conditions that Africans have little room to take the initiative.

African leaders insist that the continent's relationship with external institutions should be more equitable, on the basis of genuine "partnership." To make this possible, the international institutions need to be reformed. President Mbeki urged that the WTO "give greater weight to the concerns of the countries of the South." His finance minister, Mr. Manuel, proposed that the World Bank and IMF stop giving more voting power to the largest economies, and adopt the "one nation, one vote" system of the UN General Assembly.

Omega Plan

President Wade of Senegal welcomed the Millennium initiative during the Davos meeting. But he also used the occasion to release his Omega Plan. The plan is based on the premise that economic growth and development in Africa will be strong and sustainable only if countries invest more heavily in four priority areas: infrastructure, education and training, health and agriculture.

Since his election victory in March 2000, Mr. Wade's emphasis on skills and training already has prompted new efforts in Senegal to promote higher education, even at the risk of conflict with the World Bank (see box, "Senegal dares to expand its universities", below). Such a focus is essential, he argues, for Africa to boost its productivity and face up to the stiff competition of an increasingly globalized world economy. "If we can move towards more equality in education and infrastructure," he said in Davos, "then Africa could be part of world trade."

Better transport connections among African countries also are vital to help promote regional trade and integration, Mr. Wade added. Existing transportation links, established in the colonial era, generally run from the interior to the port cities along the coast, but much less between neighbouring countries themselves. He noted that it is impossible to drive directly to Dakar from Rabat, the capital of Morocco.

Mr. Wade has described the Omega Plan as "Keynesian" in inspiration, implying a central role for government in promoting investments in these key sectors. Yet he also emphasizes the importance of domestic and foreign private investment in helping to finance infrastructure projects, and is an outspoken proponent of privatization. His mention of privatization at the World Economic Forum prompted some debate, with Mr. Jackson Shamenda, president of the Zambia Congress of Trade Unions, arguing that African leaders should not abandon their responsibilities to society through privatization.

One apparent difference between the Omega and Millennium plans concerns the relative weight given to traditional sources of financing. Mr. Wade seems even more critical of external development assistance than the other presidents. He refers to Africa's past reliance on aid and loans as "a complete failure," which has brought few lasting benefits but has increased the continent's debt burden. Another problem with the current aid process has been its piecemeal nature, the Senegalese president said during a late-May visit to Morocco. "If we continue to build a small airport here, a stretch of road there, it will take 50 or 100 years to overcome the gap in infrastructure."

One of his economic advisers, Mr. Gnounka Touré Diouf, has raised an additional concern: that aid often comes with excessive conditionality and undue donor influence over national policies. Africa has had development plans before, he noted at a May briefing in Dakar on the Omega Plan, "but every time, those other plans were infiltrated by the donors. This time we have a plan thought out and finalized by African experts themselves."

At a February meeting of economists in Dakar, Mr. Wade had some sharp words for the IMF and World Bank. Those institutions were not created with Africa's interests in mind, he stressed, and their constant interventions in Africa have resulted in the continent's increasing indebtedness. The specific focus of their involvement also keeps changing, he said. "They do not consult us to understand what orientation should be followed."

So that the world community can better support Africa, President Wade proposes the creation of a new international fund, managed by the UN, to provide very long-term concessional loans (not due for 50 years) for projects in the four priority areas highlighted in the Omega Plan.

Porto Alegre

Similar criticisms of the international financial and trade institutions have come from African non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and civil society associations, although usually expressed in even more stinging terms. During the Davos meeting, some 15,000 participants from 120 countries around the world, including Africa, convened at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Acknowledging the meeting's significance, some of those in Davos -- including international financier George Soros and UN Development Programme Administrator Mark Malloch Brown -- took part in a live satellite debate with leaders of the Porto Alegre forum.

Many of those gathering in Brazil disagreed with a narrowly economic or "neo-liberal" approach to globalization, calling instead for an "other globalization" that would place a higher priority on people's rights and social well-being. "The values of neo-liberalism are being attacked on the grounds that they prioritize free-market individualism over social values and the common good," commented South African Member of Parliament Ben Turok.

The disparate groups that gathered in Porto Alegre did not issue a final communiqué, although they did agree to convene again next year and urged social activists to continue their protests at major meetings of the WTO, World Bank, IMF and other such institutions.

Cancel Africa's debt

Individual organizations or groups of associations did present their specific concerns during the forum. Mr. Ousseynou Sané, a Senegalese farmer belonging to an international network called Agriculture Paysanne et Mondialisation, denounced the decline in world market prices for farmers' crops, while the costs of fertilizer and other inputs continue to rise. Many of the African NGOs in Porto Alegre issued a declaration demanding cancellation of Africa's debt and the restoration of African countries' "sovereignty." Jubilee South, one of the components of the Jubilee 2000 international anti-debt coalition, called on NGOs and researchers to convene in their countries "people's tribunals on the debt" to judge whether the loans contracted by their governments had any legitimate purpose.

The issue of Africa's debt came up again a month later, in Bamako, Mali. When Mr. Wolfensohn, World Bank president, arrived for a joint visit with IMF Managing Director Horst Köhler, he was greeted with a demonstration organized by the Malian affiliate of the Jubilee movement. "For us, the IMF and World Bank are the source of our country's impoverishment," declared Ms. Aminata Touré Barry, one of the protest organizers.

The joint visit to Mali by the heads of the two financial institutions was unprecedented, and according to Mr. Köhler represented a "new approach" based on closer dialogue with African leaders. After meeting with a dozen, predominantly West African presidents in Bamako, they then traveled to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where they met with another twelve heads of state from Eastern and Southern Africa.

The meetings were held behind closed doors, and no concrete results were announced. Mr. Köhler indicated, however, that the IMF and World Bank would be more open to financing projects that have a regional and sub-regional dimension, rather than just a national one. This is in accord with the approach recommended in both the Millennium and Omega initiatives.

Indeed, during the Bamako visit, the IMF and World Bank heads were directly briefed on the Millennium programme by Presidents Mbeki, Obasanjo and Bouteflika, joined by Malian President Alpha Oumar Konaré. A few days later, Mr. Köhler publicly welcomed the programme as a "distinctly African vision," under the direction of "an emerging collective leadership in Africa."

At the May meeting of African ministers in Algiers, donor representatives were similarly impressed. Mr. Jean-Claude Fauré, chairman of the Development Assistance Committee of the industrialized countries' Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development welcomed the push by Africa to "take charge" of its own development and promised the organization's support.

The African initiative, stated ECA Executive Secretary K.Y. Amoako in Algiers, "provides a needed political momentum, as only Africa's top political leadership can make the kinds of changes in governance necessary to create a lasting foundation for our development. It provides a high-level visibility with our partners. I think it will give us a far better chance of obtaining the changes in development partnership which we seek."

Related boxes:
[ Africa gets a shrinking share of aid ]
[ Senegal dares to expand its universities ]

Material from this article may be freely reproduced, with attribution to
"Africa Recovery, United Nations".
We would appreciate a copy of the reproduction.

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