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AFRICA: But Where Is the Money

Sanjay Suri

LONDON, Mar 11 2005 (IPS) - The Commission for Africa set up by the British government made a ‘bold’ recommendation Friday for an additional 25 billion dollars a year in aid by 2010, but nobody was clear where this money will come from.

The commission, a loudly proclaimed British initiative, sought a further 25 billion dollars a year by 2015. It called also for 100 percent debt cancellation for African countries, and for rich countries to provide 0.7 percent of their gross national income (GNI) for aid.

The extra cash would be conditional on ”good governance”, and on the other hand aid delivery must be improved to include more grants, more predictable and untied aid, and donor processes that are less burdensome.

The recommendations came under some long shadows. Firstly, the lack of commitments from rich countries that would add up to an extra 25 billion dollars a year. Secondly, the sense that everyone has heard this before.

”There have been numerous commissions on the state of the developing world which have delivered tens of thousands of carefully considered words,” Peter Hardstaff, head of policy with the independent World Development Movement said in a statement Friday. ”They have been warmly welcomed, then put on the shelf to gather dust.”

If Britain is not itself prepared to meet recommendations which go beyond existing policy ”then the Commission will be proved to have been nothing more than a pre-election PR exercise and a distraction from real action for Africa,” Hardstaff said.

Many of the demands are in fact less far reaching than those proposed by the Willy Brandt Commission over two decades ago, Hardstaff said. Former British Prime Minister Edward Heath was on that commission headed by former West German Chancellor Willy Brandt. That commission called for rich countries to give one per cent of their national income as aid by the year 2000.

”It was heralded as a fresh start and marking a new relationship between rich and poor countries,” Hardstaff said. ”Its recommendations were ignored. The big question today is does the same fate await the Commission for Africa?”

The United States has pointedly stayed away from recent British proposals, including the International Finance Facility (IFF) that wants governments to raise money from the market and borrow from their own future lending to increase aid.

The United States has set up a Millennium Challenge Account to provide aid grants – in exchange for its requirements to meet democratic standards and a commitment to a ‘war on terror’. And the United States is not about to increase its aid budget on the recommendations of a British commission.

The United States has also opposed plans for any automatic and across-the- board cancellation of debt. British moves for such debt cancellation were rebuffed last month at a meeting of finance ministers of the G7 (the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan).

The 400-page report of the commission titled ‘Our Common Interest’ does more than call for more aid and debt cancellation. It points also to policies that undermine development in Africa.

These include primarily the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union (EU). More than 300 billion dollars paid by rich countries by way of subsidies to their farmers present a major hurdle to farmers in Africa and elsewhere in the developing world find fair price and reasonable access for their produce.

But no country, least of all France which benefits most from the subsidies within EU is prepared to give up these benefits. The commission talks of giving to Africa with one hand what EU policies more than take away with the other.

The Commission of Africa recommendations are the highlight of a big British push this year to put Africa on the world agenda. Britain has presidency of the G8 (G7 plus Russia) this year, and will have EU presidency in the second half of this year. Britain’s chancellor of the exchequer (finance minister) Gordon Brown has called British initiatives this year a once in a generation chance to make a difference to poor countries, particularly Africa.

The Commission for Africa has generated enthusiasm in Britain and in African countries û but not beyond where it could really matter.