• Enlarge Text
• Decrease Text
• Print
• E-mail Article

 

Africa has today a large window of opportunity. Domestic, economic and political conditions in most countries are at their best in decades. It is time for international partnership to make the extra effort. The time is now.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) constitute a shared vision of global partnership based on mutual accountability. Developing countries have the primary responsibility for achieving these Goals. But the international community acknowledges that for poor countries to achieve them, a reinforced partnership is critical, including scaled-up and more effective aid, more sustainable debt relief and fairer trade rules, as well as improved access to affordable drugs, addressing the special needs of landlocked and small island developing nations, and bridging the digital divide.

MDG 8 calls for stronger global partnerships for development. Its uniqueness arises from the fact that it is really less of a “goal” and more of a vehicle to facilitate the attainment of all the other MDGs; thus, failure to attain a true global partnership for development makes it unlikely to achieve any of the Goals.

We welcome the progress made on debt relief via the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative (HIPC) and the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI). Through these two instruments, the stock of debt of poor countries is estimated to have been reduced by $96 billion in net present value (NPV) terms by the end of 2006. The decrease in debt-service has been accompanied by an increase in poverty-reducing expenditures, which have increased on average, from 7 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2000 to 9 per cent in 2006. In nominal terms, poverty-reducing expenditures amounted to $17 billion in 2006, which translates into an increase of $3 billion since 2005. These figures represent significant gains in HIPC.

We must work closely with low-income countries to build capacity for debt management to avoid unsustainable build-up of debt and encourage non-Paris Club (the Paris Club is an informal group of financial officials from 19 of the world’s richest countries that provides financial services to indebted countries) and commercial creditors to respond adequately. There remains the issue of additionality; if it does not materialize it would simply imply that low-income countries, in effect, financed debt relief from future official development assistance (ODA) flows to themselves.

Progress on scaling up is mixed. Clearly, further efforts are needed. In 2006, the world’s major donors provided $104 billion in aid, down by 5.1 per cent (0.3 per cent of GDP) from 2005, in constant 2005 dollars, including $19.2 billion of debt relief. If the latter is excluded, there has been a decline, the first in development assistance since 1997.

Over and above aid levels, there was a commitment to improve the quality of aid. It is encouraging that progress has been made towards establishing tangible indicators and targets for commitments made in the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness. The Accra High-level Forum in 2008 will be an opportunity to assess progress. The ever more complex international aid architecture makes efforts at harmonization as urgent as ever.