CAN
AFRICA OVERCOME THE CHALLENGES OF POVERTY WITH A NEW
ECONOMIC PARTNERSHIP FOR AFRICA'S DEVELOPMENT
(NEPAD)? By
David J. Saunders The goals of NEPAD include: (a)
promoting accelerated growth and sustainable development;
(b) eradicating widespread and severe poverty; (c) halting
the marginalization of Africa in the global community; (d)
bridging the infrastructure gap on the continent; (e)
significant improvements in agriculture and the environment;
(f) the advancement of science and technology; and (g) human
resource development initiatives (i.e. &endash; poverty
reduction, higher education attainment levels, reversing
brain drain, cultural and health issues, etcetera).
These areas of focus for the
development of Africa through NEPAD are appropriate and
deserve commendation. However, in order for NEPAD to be
successful as currently articulated, it must aggressively
focus on solving the unfortunate legacy of poverty for
Africa and its people. Moreover, as a launching point for
Africa's long-overdue renaissance, based on indigenous
initiatives and focused external support, NEPAD must be seen
as the proper vehicle for tackling the major impediments to
the economic prosperity and political stability of
Africa. Currently, the leaders of Africa are
committed towards working together to mobilize the energy
and capacity of the international community to achieve a
series of millennium development goals for the continent.
Most essential to these overarching goals is the solution to
the crisis of people living in extreme poverty. The paradox
of our times is that more people have lifted themselves out
of poverty in the past fifty years than in the previous five
hundred years! However, because the world population has
grown so significantly, there are more poor people than ever
before. There are now approximately 1.2 billion people
living in abject poverty out of the six billion who share
our planet. This is the ultimate challenge facing the
leaders of Africa and its global partners. Africa is the
poorest continent and while roughly two-thirds of the
world's poor live in Asia and one-third live in Africa,
poverty is more deeply entrenched in Africa. In fact, half
the population of Sub-Saharan Africa is surviving on a
dollar a day in terms of purchasing parity. This means that
what they have to survive on is the equivalent of what a
dollar would buy them in the United States. During the 1990s, population growth
outperformed economic growth and therefore if this trend
continues the continent of Africa is destined to become
steadily poorer. The challenge of NEPAD is to radically
change this trend. While this is definitely possible it will
require a very strong commitment to both political and
economic reforms from Africa's current leadership and a real
partnership from the industrialized countries to support
this monumental effort. There is no doubt that history has
been cruel to the people of Africa. Slavery and colonialism
degraded and exploited the continent and left a bitter
legacy. Apartheid and the Cold War continued the
destruction. But if we are to learn from history we must
also face the fact that part of the explanation of the
present situation in Africa lies in the failed policies that
have been forced upon many African nations in recent decades
by both industrialized nations and African
themselves. Africa's per capita income is lower
now than it was thirty years ago, in the heyday of the
independence movement. Added to this, we now face the tragic
and brutal reality of more than 25 million African people
living with HIV/AIDS. On present trends, none of the
millennium development goals will be met and Africa will
unfortunately become even poorer. As stated previously, the
overall purpose of NEPAD is to reverse these trends. We must
therefore be ambitious about what can be achieved &endash;
but all sides of the partnership must be clear that business
as usual will not do &endash; and NEPAD must lead to a
radical shift in the pace and depth of African development
in order to survive in the new millennium. Accordingly, I
will briefly outline six major areas requiring capacity
building (both internally and externally) to support NEPAD's
goals, priorities and current areas of focus as they relate
to the challenges of poverty. CAPACITY BUILDING FOR PEACE AND
SECURITY. The first issue, which is critical to NEPAD's
success, is solving armed conflict and civil unrest on the
continent. Currently, twenty percent of the people of Africa
are living in conditions of conflict. These conditions cause
terrible suffering and hold back economic development in the
affected countries. The extent of conflict is so great that
the whole continent is affected, and this creates a major
barrier to inward investment. The World Bank estimates that
conflict is costing Africa two percent economic growth every
year. But on conflict resolution we are in a position to
make considerable progress. We have learned in Sierra Leone
that, with concentrated international effort, conflict can
be successfully ended and that institutions of a properly
functioning state can begin to be rebuilt. It is now clear
that in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola and the
Sudan that similar conditions are now ripe for progress
towards real and lasting peace. This should be the top
priority of NEPAD. CAPACITY BUILDING FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH
AND DEVELOPMENT. The second issue, which is critical to
NEPAD's success, is the need to significantly increase
levels of economic growth. After the negative growth in many
African countries in the late 1980s and early 1990s,
Sub-Saharan Africa is now achieving an economic growth rate
of around three percent. But in order to significantly
reduce poverty, Sub-Saharan Africa needs an estimated seven
percent economic growth each year for the next ten to
fifteen years. This is not impossible. Countries like
Uganda, Mozambique and Botswana are achieving such levels of
growth &endash; and the commitment to reform in countries
like Ghana, Tanzania, and Ethiopia is likely to lead to
significantly greater progress. But the NEPAD partnership
must not be satisfied until there is a commitment to
economic reform that is generating seven percent annual
growth across the continent. This will require better
economic and political governance throughout Africa. Poor
people need political rights in order to be able to express
their views and preferences, and social and economic rights
in order to enjoy their humanity, and to see their children
grow and prosper. CAPACITY BUILDING IN FINANCE AND
MARKET ACCESS. The third issue, which is critical to NEPAD's
success, is appropriate financial mechanisms and fairer
terms of trade. Approximately seventy percent of Africa's
exports are unprocessed commodities, and most commodity
prices are falling consistently. Current trade rules create
serious barriers to the processing that Africa needs to
speed up its economic growth and development, to generate
higher income for workers, and to be able to afford the
imports it needs to invest in the better infrastructure
necessary for global commerce. Africa's marginalization in
the globalization process is exemplified, according to the
World Bank, by its almost zero share of global manufactured
goods (less than two percent) and its reliance on volatile
commodity prices as sources of foreign exchange. As a
continent that exports mostly non-processed goods, Africa in
addition to the impediments of massive agricultural
subsidies imposed by the more industrialized nations, must
deal with its small domestic markets that are dependent on a
very tiny middle class of consumers. But Africa can also do
more to encourage trade within the continent. Trade barriers
between African countries are high. This creates obstacles
to regional integration, economic growth and inward
investment. It is entirely within Africa's own capability to
agree to the lowering these barriers, which would
significantly contribute to improved economic growth and
development. CAPACITY BUILDING AND INVESTMENT IN
INFRASTRUCTURE. The fourth issue, which is critical to
NEPAD's success, is inward investment and the need for
increased investment in Africa's infrastructure. There is no
doubt that poor transportation systems in Africa are a major
barrier to economic development and add massively to the
overall cost of exports. Other weaknesses in infrastructure
are a reflection of underdevelopment. Most Africans have
never used a telephone let alone a computer and less than
ten percent of rural Africans have access to electricity.
The most important point is that the reforms needed to
encourage the growth of a strong domestic private sector in
Africa are the same reforms that are needed to attract more
inward investment. And urgent reform is essential because in
current conditions forty percent of Africa's savings, which
should be the basis for increased domestic investment,
unfortunately leave the continent and are invested
elsewhere. CAPACITY BUILDING IN HUMAN
DEVELOPMENT RESOURCES. The fifth issue, which is critical to
NEPAD's success, is increased investment in human
development in order to secure rapid progress in education
and the delivery of effective health-care systems. The high
levels of communicable diseases in Africa are a major burden
holding back the development of Africa. Malaria,
Tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS create a disease burden that is
causing great human suffering and severe economic loss.
Recent developments point the way forward in dealing with
the HIV/AIDS crisis. Senegal and Uganda have demonstrated
that levels of HIV/AIDS infection can be drastically reduced
with a strong commitment to public education and testing,
coupled with the treatment of sexually transmitted disease
and widespread availability of condoms. Many countries are
now putting in place the appropriate arrangements to prevent
mother-to-child transmission and to take up the
pharmaceutical companies' offers of reduced-price anti-
retrovirals. In the long term, the research evidence is
clear that we will have an AIDS vaccine and a microbicide
that will enable women to protect themselves from the risk
of infection. HIV/AIDS is a formidable foe of accelerated
growth and sustainable development in Africa. HIV/AIDS is
also a deadly opponent of any serious poverty alleviation
effort in Africa. By decimating the most productive segments
of the society, HIV/AIDS creates a domino effect
of poverty seriously eroding gains made
over the past thirty years on the family, community and
national levels. As wage earners become sick and die,
household income dries up, food becomes increasingly scarce
and/or rationed, children are pulled out of school, and more
poor families spend limited savings and household holdings
on fruitless HIV/AIDS palliative treatments. In addition,
communities are deprived of their best-trained leaders, and
nations suffer from the untimely deaths of its best
bureaucrats, technocrats, nurses, teachers and other
professionals. Similarly, education is a basic human right
but also a crucial investment for a successful economy.
Obviously our aspirations must not stop at primary education
and we must focus more attention on the health, education
and welfare of the many children who become orphans as a
result of the HIV/AID pandemic in Africa. CAPACITY FOR INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL
AID ASSISTANCE. The final issue, which is critical for
NEPAD's success, is a clarion call for better overseas
development assistance. Studies have suggested that we need
a doubling of development assistance from the current $50
billion to $100 billion if the world is to meet its
millennium development goals. But equally important is the
commitment to improve the quality of aid offered to African
nations. Against considerable resistance, aid is gradually
being unified from the narrow national interests of donors
and consultants, to a more focused strategy where there are
large numbers of poor people in need of social and economic
reforms. In addition, progressive countries have moved away
from funding a proliferation of projects to backing
poverty-reduction strategies drawn up by developing
countries themselves. The consequence has been considerable
strengthening of the quality and effectiveness of local
institutions including finance ministries, central banks,
health and education systems, revenue collection agencies,
courts and the private sector. This is itself an improvement
in the quality of governance. And the consequent improvement
in public financial management enables development agencies
to transfer resources directly to government budgets, thus
helping to fund rapid improvements in health, education and
other poverty-reducing services. NEPAD must continue to
build on the success of these reforms. In conclusion, if NEPAD is to succeed
it must transform the relationship between Africa and the
rest of the world it must bring about a new desire to
encourage political energy and focus to the joint efforts of
pushing forward the long overdue political, social and
economic development of Africa identified in the capacity
building categories outlined above. Most important of all,
the people of Africa must be empowered to demand more of
their governments and of the international
community. To learn more about the New
Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) contact David
J. Saunders. He is the co-founder and CEO of Venue
International Professionals, Inc. (VIP) - a full service
travel, tourism and trade consulting firm based in the
Washington Metropolitan Area that specializes in travel,
tourism and trade-related opportunities to the Continent of
Africa. He is also the Director of Administration and
Management Services for the Constituency for Africa (CFA),
which is the premiere advocacy-based non-governmental
organization (NGO) based in America focusing on Africa's
political, social and economic issues and concerns. He is a
frequent panelist of radio and television talk shows as well
as a featured writer of articles for several newspaper,
magazine and trade publications on the subject of the travel
and tourism industry as well as related trade and investment
opportunities in Africa. He can be contacted at telephone:
(202) 371-0588 and e-mail: dsaunders@cfanet.org.
The
Africa conceived and led New Partnership for Africa's
Development (NEPAD) is an ambitious attempt by African
leaders to "jumpstart" economic growth and development on
the continent. NEPAD is currently being touted as a
"holistic, comprehensive integrated strategic framework for
the socio-economic development of Africa". NEPAD does, in my
opinion, provide a "sound vision for Africa through its
recognition of the unique challenges facing the continent
and offers a realistic plan of action to resolve these
serious challenges".
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