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[ Back to Volume15 #3 Table of Contents ] [ back to Africa Recovery home ] [ Email this article ] From Africa Recovery, Vol.15 #3, October 2001, page 25 African initiative challenges the UN International community to explore best ways to support new African plan The New African Initiative will not only require considerable commitment by Africans, but also will pose "a challenge by Africa to the international community, to the United Nations and its members, to make available the means necessary for the continent's development," declared Ambassador Martin Belinga-Eboutou, president of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in mid-July. He was addressing a three-day high-level session of ECOSOC in Geneva, Switzerland, devoted specifically to examining the UN's role in supporting African development efforts. "Imbalances in the global trading system, including in a number of WTO agreements, constitute serious impediments to growth and development in Africa." -- African Group Many of the speakers alluded in one way or another to the New African Initiative, seeing it as an important, positive move by Africans to take charge of their own development strategies. Mr. Koos Richelle, director-general for development of the European Community, declared that Europe welcomed the initiative as "a concerted step forward in the areas of poverty eradication and sustainable growth and development." World Bank President James Wolfensohn and International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Horst Köhler both pledged their organizations' backing. "The IMF stands ready with its expertise and resources," said Mr. Köhler, "to cooperate actively in the process and provide strong support for this African vision and work programme." World Trade Organization Director-General Mike Moore acknowledged some of the difficulties African countries are facing in gaining access for their exports to the markets of the industrialized world. The African Group of ambassadors to the UN agreed that "imbalances in the global trading system, including in a number of WTO agreements, constitute serious impediments to growth and development in Africa," and urged "special and deferential treatment" for African exports. Mr. Belinga-Eboutou also highlighted the problems of attracting foreign investment to Africa. "Last year alone, Africa saw a spectacular 13 per cent drop in foreign direct investment," he noted. Since private capital flows cannot be counted on to fill Africa's financing gap, argued Mr. Rubens Ricupero, secretary-general of the UN Conference on Trade and Development, the continent must be supported with greater official development assistance and debt relief. It is therefore vital to turn around the "perverse trend" in which aid is dwindling, and much of the aid that still is given is used to service Africa's debt. "It may sound paradoxical, but the only way to end aid dependency is in the first instance by using more aid," Mr. Ricupero stated. And if aid is used more effectively, it could "generate a positive momentum that in due course will make aid superfluous." Beyond improved financing and trade, African ownership of its own policies is a key goal of the New African Initiative, said Nigerian Foreign Minister Sule Lamido, reading a statement by President Olusegun Obasanjo. In the past, the World Bank, IMF, and donor agencies designed some of the economic policy models implemented by African countries. "The major cause of the failure of these models," Mr. Obasanjo's statement said, "was the use of pure economic logic to address problems that were often found out to be sometimes political, socio-cultural, and often very complex." If the UN system is to better support Africa's own chosen goals and strategies, it too must make some changes, a number of speakers affirmed. "The way the United Nations does business must change," declared Mr. Kwesi Ndoum, Ghana's minister of economic planning and regional cooperation. He urged more UN collaboration with civil society organizations and the private sector. Mr. Charles Ntwaagae, Botswana's ambassador in Geneva, recommended greater flexibility and responsiveness in UN operational activities. Next year's final review of the UN New Agenda for the Development of Africa in the 1990s "will provide us with the ideal opportunity to ensure that future UN programmes and initiatives work in support of the New African Initiative," said South African Minister of Communications Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri. Secretary-General Kofi Annan vowed that the UN system would more energetically speak out on behalf of Africa's development needs. "We must make ourselves Africa's advocates," he declared, for improved market access, increased aid, faster debt relief, more foreign investment, and "the prompt repatriation of the illegally acquired wealth which was transferred to Western banks by some corrupt African leaders and officials." See related articles: [ Back to Volume15 #3 Table of Contents ] [ back to Africa Recovery home ] [ Email this article ] [ New Releases ] [ Magazine - Current/Past issues ] [ Index / Search ] [ About us ] [ UN Home ] [ UN News ] [ UN Key Reports ] [ UN Africa Links ] Material from this article may be freely reproduced, with
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