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DEVELOPMENT: Ask What Britain Can Do for Africa

Sanjay Suri

LONDON, Mar 16 2005 (IPS) - The Commission for Africa report sets out what Britain could be doing for Africa, and is not; that undermines in considerable measure the British government’s call for new international action over Africa.

The Commission for Africa report outlines at length what the world must do for Africa and Africa for itself. The report also sets out what Britain could be doing for Africa, and is not.

That undermines in considerable measure the British government’s call for new international action over Africa. Britain has made such international effort the centrepiece of its agenda as head of G8 this year, and plans to do so under its European Union presidency in the second half of this year.

But Britain does not have to wait for action from the European Union (EU) and G8 (the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia), campaigners say.

”On aid matters Britain can work entirely independently of others,” John Hilary, director of campaigns and policy at the independent group War on Want told IPS. Under new aid policy Britain will not impose conditions on the economic policy of a receiving country. But under British proposals for an International Finance Facility for more and quicker aid, it would still be making aid conditional, Hilary said.

”Trade is a difficult matter because Britain works through the EU,” he said. ”But Britain is a powerful voice within the EU. So if Britain steps back (from unfair trade policies), it would have a lot of weight. Britain could take a strong lead in this.”

The Commission has said that ”forcing poor countries to liberalise through trade agreements is the wrong approach to achieving growth and poverty reduction in Africa, and elsewhere.” It says the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) is not an appropriate mechanism for managing services liberalisation in Africa.

”Yet the UK government continues to press for trade liberalisation in developing countries for the benefit of its own multinational corporations, both in the ongoing GATS negotiations at the WTO and through the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) currently being negotiated with African, Caribbean and Pacific states,” War on Want says in a statement.

Britain has been going the opposite way from reforms recommended by the Commission for Africa on some fronts, Hilary says. The commission has called for early steps to tackle corruption, in which many Western countries are complicit. ”Yet, the Export Credit Guarantee department rules on bribery were watered down just three months ago as a result of pressure from companies,” he told IPS.

Britain has sought a voluntary and not a binding code for the regulation of corporations, Hilary said. ”That’s ridiculous, because a voluntary code has been shown not to work.”

The Commission for Africa, he said in an earlier statement, ”has slammed the UK government’s harmful policies towards some of the world’s poorest countries. The UK’s policies of trade liberalisation and privatisation are revealed as part of the problem facing Africa, while reluctance to crack down on corporate corruption is highlighted as another key failing. Tony Blair must now respond with a thorough overhaul of UK policies towards Africa across the full range of issues identified by the Commission.”

War on Want points to several areas where the Commission for Africa has challenged British government policies.

The Commission has said that relying on the private sector to provide infrastructure services in Africa such as water, transport and agricultural markets has been a ”serious policy mistake, driven by the international community that undermined growth prospects and generated a substantial backlog of investment.”

But the British government has ”championed the role of the private sector in delivering infrastructure services in Africa, setting up the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund and other private sector financing mechanisms, as well as further privatisation initiatives through the Public Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility and through direct contracts with privatisation consultants,” War on Want says.

On the arms trade the Commission notes that ”violent conflict has killed and displaced more people in Africa than in any other continent in recent decades”, and says the developed world’s continuing participation in the arms trade is a contributing factor. ”Yet while the Commission calls for more effective action to counter arms proliferation, the UK continues to export arms and arms components to some of the poorest countries in Africa,” War on Want says.