POLITICS-AFRICA: Upbeat on Globalisation, Although Southern Africa Lags

By Jim Lobe Reprint | | Print |

Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Jun 16 2004 (IPS) - Africans feel relatively positive about globalisation and the United States, although the enthusiasm for both is markedly weaker among Southern Africans and Tanzanians than among people in other parts of the continent, according to a major survey of seven sub-Saharan African nations.

The survey, conducted by the international polling firm Globescan (formerly Environics International), also found stronger support in Africa for multinational corporations than in other parts of the world.

At the same time, however, respondents said they feel they are not being treated fairly by rich countries in trade negotiations. And, while strong majorities endorse democracy as the best form of government, most Africans believe that their countries are not being run by the will of the majority.

Those are some of the findings of a new poll of 7,556 Africans in seven countries – Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe -conducted between December 2003 and January 2004 and released by Globescan and the University of Maryland’s polling analysis group, Programme on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) here Wednesday. Earthscan stressed the survey was conducted exclusively in urban areas of the countries involved.

The African results released Wednesday are part of a much larger survey, parts of which were released in early June, of many more countries around the world. Detailed results of the entire poll are made available only to Globescan’s paid clients, mainly large transnational corporations.

The new data provides information about how Africans from different countries, religious faiths, and income and education levels view globalisation, multinational companies, trade, the United States and Europe, democracy, corruption, and other problems – such as HIV/AIDS – faced by the region.

On globalisation, the survey found that roughly two-thirds of the Africans queried considered it either ”very positive” (29 percent) or ”somewhat positive” (36 percent), the highest rating of any region except for North America.

But there were significant differences among countries, with Ghanaians registering the greatest enthusiasm (82 percent either very or somewhat positive), followed by Kenya (79 percent), South Africa (71 percent), and Nigeria and Cote d’Ivoire (70 percent). A bare majority of Tanzanians, on the other hand, expressed positive views, while in Zimbabwe, only 35 percent of citizens felt positively.

Regionwide, the survey found further that those at the highest level of education and income tended to hold more positive views than those at the lower ends, while younger citizens felt better about globalisation than older ones.

Views about foreign companies correlated strongly with perceptions of globalisation. Across the region, a total of 56 percent expressed either ”a lot of trust” (18 percent) or ”some trust” in global companies.

Ghana was the most enthusiastic, with 80 percent expressing at least ”some trust” in multinationals, followed by Kenya (67 percent), South Africa (62 percent), and Cote d’Ivoire (54 percent). Tanzania (46 percent) and Zimbabwe (28 percent) were once again the least favourable. In Zimbabwe, only four percent said they had a ”lot of trust” in global companies, compared to 34 percent who said so in Ghana and 18 percent in South Africa.

Nonetheless, asked whether they were in favour of foreign companies operating in their countries, 80 percent of Zimbabweans – eight points higher than the average – said they were either ”strongly” or ”somewhat” in agreement. That compared with 89 percent who agreed in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire, 84 percent in Nigeria, 71 percent in South Africa, and only 51 percent in Tanzania.

Overall, less than one third of those polled said they believed rich countries play fair in trade negotiations with poor countries. The most trusting of the rich were Nigerians, 46 percent of whom said they either strongly or somewhat agree with that thesis, followed by Kenyans (40 percent), and South Africans (37 percent). Least trusting were the Zimbabweans (12 percent) and Ivoireans (nine percent).

Those who felt that wealthy countries are not playing fair tended to be less supportive of globalisation, according to the survey.

Similarly, a majority (57 percent) of those polled in the seven countries disagreed, either strongly or somewhat, with the notion that poor countries benefit as much from free trade as rich countries.

”These findings suggest that Africans are eager and willing to join the game of world economic integration even as they have resentments that they are being treated unfairly by the wealthy countries”, said Stephen Kull, PIPA’s director.

Moreover, despite their greater enthusiasm for globalisation, Africans with higher education and income levels tended to feel more strongly that rich countries were unfair in trade negotiations, according to the survey.

On views of the United States, some 55 percent of African respondents either strongly (26 percent) or somewhat (29 percent) agreed that Washington is having a ”positive” influence in the world, making Africa the only other region, besides North America, where a majority has a positive view of U.S. influence.

Pro-U.S. attitudes, however, varied significantly, with Ghana the most favourable at 77 percent; followed by Kenya (63 percent), Cote d’Ivoire (60 percent), and Nigeria (57 percent). Once again, however, respondents in the Southern African nations were significantly more negative about U.S. influence, with 51 percent of South Africans providing a favourable assessment, 41 percent of Zimbabweans, and 39 percent of Tanzanians.

The survey also found a significant divide on the question between Christians and Muslims across the region. While 60 percent of Christians said they either strongly or somewhat agreed that Washington’s influence was favourable, only 45 percent of Muslims agreed with that thesis.

Favourable perceptions of Europe were similar, although around six percent lower on average for each country than views of the United States. The most striking difference was found in Cote d’Ivoire where 47 percent gave Europe positive ratings compared with 60 percent for the United States.

More than four out of five respondents (83 percent) expressed agreement with the statement ”Democracy may have its problems, but it is the best system of government for my country”, although the most significant exception was Tanzania, where only 54 percent agreed with that proposition. Besides Tanzania, South Africa and Zimbabwe expressed the most scepticism. There were not appreciable differences among different education and income levels.

While democracy is strongly favoured, however, very few Africans said they believe their country is run by the will of the people. Ghana was the only country where a majority (61 percent) subscribed to that proposition, followed by pluralities of 48 percent in Kenya and Cote d’Ivoire.

Majorities in Tanzania (53 percent), South Africa (57 percent), Zimbabwe (73 percent), and Nigeria (85 percent) said the will of the people in their countries was not being followed.

In both Kenya and Ghana, strong majorities said they believed that corruption had diminished in their countries over the past year, while only a third of respondents agreed with that statement in Cote d’Ivoire, Tanzania, South Africa, and Nigeria. Zimbabwe brought up the cellar with only 15 percent in agreement.

Asked whether they had been personally affected by an act of corruption in the past year, 50 percent in Zimbabwe, 42 percent in Cote d’Ivoire, and 25 percent of respondents in Kenya and Nigeria said they had. Nearly 90 percent of respondents in South Africa and Ghana said they had not.

On HIV/AIDS, 92 percent of those surveyed regionwide described the epidemic as ”very serious” (81 percent) or ”somewhat serious” (11 percent), with the greatest alarm expressed in Ghana, which ironically has one of the lowest HIV infection rates, followed by Kenya and Zimbabwe. Relatively less urgency was expressed by South Africans, Nigerians, and Tanzanians, 85 percent of whom said they considered the issue either – “very” (72 percent) or “somewhat” (31 percent) serious.

Overall, HIV/AIDS was considered more serious than any other problem, including poverty, jobs, and terrorism.

A strong majority of African respondents (75 percent) said they thought solving Africa’s health problems should be the shared responsibility of all governments, with four out of five insisting that rich countries have a ”moral responsibility to ensure that poor countries receive affordable drugs for serious diseases”.