By IPS Correspondents
BONN, Jul 7 2000 (IPS)

Germany’s minister for economic co-operation and development, Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul and the federal parliament have reiterated their commitment to assisting African countries in overcoming their pressing poverty-related problems

Intervening in a parliamentary debate Thursday, Wieczorek-Zeul stressed the need for recognising that many African countries had succeeded in achieving impressive progress.

“Many African countries are undertaking enormous efforts to avail of their ‘window of opportunity’, their chances to catch up with the speed of the twenty-first century,” Wieczorek-Zeul said in the German Parliament, Bundestag, Thursday.

“In the last years they have achieved impressive political, economic and social progress,” she added, exhorting Germans to “at last consider the diversity of African cultures as wealth for all of us and thus regard the immensely creative potential of Africans as an opportunity for us as well.”

Wieczorek-Zeul was participating in a parliamentary debate on Africa that focussed on the continent in general and the Great Lakes region in particular.

The debate took place on the very day Germany was awarded the World Cup for 2006, edging the other main candidate, South Africa, by 12 votes to 11 with one abstention after the third round of balloting in Zurich by members of the executive committee of FIFA, the governing body of world soccer.

Though the decision elated the spirits of Germans after the disaster called Euro 2000, in which the German soccer team gave a lacklustre performance, wide sections of the media took a critical view.

Germany’s reputed daily newspaper, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, commented: “Many of Africa’s 770 million residents are undoubtedly disappointed that their continent has again been passed over by FIFA.”

The newspaper added: “It certainly seemed that Africa’s moment had come, especially since it has never hosted either a World Cup or the Olympics.

Not even South Africa’s idol, Nelson Mandela, was able to turn the tide. So Africa remains offside, casting a shadow over the selection, despite all the German joy.”

In the parliamentary debate, held ahead of the FIFA decision, there was no reference to the World Cup 2006.

However, cutting through party political barriers, the Bundestag deputies were unanimously of the view that there was no question of Africa being allowed to remain “offside”.

There was a broad consensus that since the end of the East-West conflict 10 years ago, Africa was being politically “marginalised”.

The conflict involved the now defunct Soviet-led East Bloc and the US-European North Atlantic Treaty Organistion, NATO, military alliance.

There was also agreement that in view of the geo-strategic proximity and significance of the continent, Germany and other European countries could not afford to ignore Africa.

While war and discord had renewed doubts about Africa’s future, a more complex and encouraging reality was also unfolding.

Economic co-operation minister Wieczorek-Zeul, in fact, cited a recent World Bank report titled “Can Africa Claim the 21st Century?”, which points out that there is the other side to the coin.

Countries, such as Mozambique and Ghana, have made key economic reforms – liberalising markets and trade, improving economic management, and promoting private sector activity. Growth and personal incomes have risen and poverty has been reduced.

Elsewhere on the continent, there is also good news, says the report.

Nigeria is re-building its economy and political system after years of hardship; private investment has picked up; and large projects, such as the Maputo Transport Corridor between Mozambique and South Africa, are offering some solutions to Africa’s pressing infrastructure needs.

In addition, more effective regulation in key sectors – such as opening up West Africa’s airspace to competition – is also expected to help galvanise economic performance.

However, average income per capita is lower than at the end of the 1960s.

Incomes, assets, and access to essential services are unequally distributed.

The region’s total income is not much more than Belgium’s, and is divided among 48 countries with a median Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of just over two billion US dollar – about the output of a town of 60,000 in a rich country.

Excluding South Africa, the continent has fewer roads than Poland. And HIV/AIDS is fast reversing some of the social gains of the last 40 years.

For example, two African countries Botswana and Zimbabwe now have HIV infection rates in excess of 25 percent of the adult population, says the report.

Wieczorek-Zeul was backed by her colleagues from the ruling government coalition of Social Democrats and the Green Party – as well as those from the opposition conservative CDU-CSU – when she pointed out that this state of affairs called for some fundamental policy changes, in order to improve Africa’s prospects.

With its rapidly growing population, the region needs to grow by five percent a year just to keep the number of poor from rising.

If the percentage living in dire poverty is to be halved by 2015, annual growth will have to exceed seven percent and income must be distributed more equitably.

This will require decisive action in three main areas: increasing competitiveness and diversifying economies, more investment in Africa’s people, education and health, and good governance and conflict prevention.

There was also need of better support from the international development community by way of “strategic partnerships” with African countries.

Such partnerships, according to the World Bank, could aim at reducing aid dependence and debts.

The reason, says the report released end of May, is that Africa is the world’s most aid-dependent and indebted region. Concessional assistance is essential if Africa is to grow rapidly while also increasing consumption to reduce poverty.

Wieczorek-Zeul said the EU-ACP convention, involving 15 countries of the European Union and the 71 African, Caribbean and Pacific states provided a solid basic for such a partnership.

The new accord, signed last month in Coutonou, Benin, includes a development assistance package worth nearly 15 billion US dollars over seven years.

Germany’s economic co-operation minister pointed out that Germany was taking a leading role in writing off the debts of highly indebted poor countries, under the so-called HIPC initiative.

Germany alone will be cancelling debt worth some five billion US dollars from a total claim of an estimated 6.1 billion US dollars.

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