DEVELOPMENT: African Activists Call for Economic Freedom

By Emad Mekay Reprint | | Print |

Emad Mekay

WASHINGTON, May 29 2002 (IPS) - African development activists accused Western powers Wednesday of intentionally seeking to harm home-grown development plans and said they wanted the U.S. Congress to use its clout to end the practice.

Speaking during a congressional briefing that attracted only a handful of staff members, several leaders of African non-governmental organisations (NGOs) poured out their frustration at a global economic system that puts them at the receiving end of plans and initiatives cooked up in rich countries.

The activists, in Washington for dialogue with U.S. policy makers, officials of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank and civil society groups, said they are lobbying for a hands-off approach by Western governments and international financial institutions.

“We need to start taking control of our resources,” said Lawrencia Adams of the Ghana-based Pan African Organization for sustainable Development. “We need to build our institutions and our own capacity. But how can we achieve that when the World Bank and the IMF are sitting in our ministries of finance?”

Africa now tops the list of the world’s development agenda. Next month’s G8 summit of the most industrialised countries will focus on the continent’s problems, including debt, poverty and HIV/AIDS.

For the first time, the U.N. secretary-general and five African leaders will attend the usually closed-door meeting of the world’s richest nations.

On the agenda is the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD), a pan-African programme created by presidents Abdelaziz Boutefllika of Alegria, Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, Nigeria’s Olusegun Obasanjo and Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal – all expected to attend along with Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak.

NEPAD is based on the notion that the West will reward good governance in Africa with aid, accessible trade, private sector involvement in fighting poverty and, possibly, more debt cancellation.

But the activists disowned the initiative as just another proposal in a long chain of failing and “undemocratic” Western-made ideas for the struggling continent.

“This baby (NEPAD) is not ours,” said Oduor Ongwen, president of Kenya’s National Council of NGOs. “Because our leaders want the money and because they formed alliances with certain interests here, they never tell you that.”

Ongwen stopped short of accusing African leaders involved in NEPAD of corruption but he and other activists agreed that the leaders, like their citizens, remain vulnerable in the face of the political, diplomatic and financial might of rich countries and the international financial institutions (IFIs).

“What we need is some room to dialogue with our leaders, formulate exactly what we want and then see how you (rich countries) fit in. We might not need you at all after that serious reflection,” said Ongwen.

Bishop Akolog of the Ghana based Integrated Social Development Center (ISODEC) said that African leaders, too, needed to feel less pressured.

“We want to stop the top-down approach and to give control to our people. Give our leaders a chance to go down to go to their people, and give the people a chance to make an impact through domestic policies.”

The activists said their pessimism about Western proposals stems from decades of plans that never worked to improve the economies of the continent or alleviate poverty. The schemes, they argued, were used to force nations into an international economic system where they are hardly influential.

Among the plans is the Highly Indebted Poor Countries initiative (HIPC), a debt relief programme for countries that meet economic liberalisation standards. HIPC, the activists said, has failed to put the brakes on African debt.

The Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) was meant to permit countries to design their own economic agendas, but it too has been condemned by many activists and community leaders as undemocratic and another tool to impose further conditionalities on African countries.

Even the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), signed by former U.S. President Bill Clinton in 2000 as a blueprint for replacing aid with trade and investment, is seen as flawed and ineffective.

Finally, President George W. Bush’s proposal of a Millennium Account, which promises millions of dollars in aid to poor countries, comes with strings attached that stipulate that the money be given only to countries that are reforming and fighting corruption, said the activists.

“For the past 400 years, Africa has been forced into an international condition of labour that has been responsible for our under-development,” Ongwen said. “This system requires us to produce what we do not consume and consume what we do not produce.”

The activists blamed the IMF and World Bank for attaching too many conditions to their lending and the World Trade Organization (WTO) for over-emphasising global trade while neglecting domestic trade, entrepreneurship and other domestic resources.

“What they should do is allow every country to construct its own formula of doing domestic trade first and build their capacities, not forcing us to work through the WTO,” said Akolgo.

The activists said U.S. elected representatives should use their power and Washington’s position as the main shareholder in many of the world’s IFIs, to “leave us alone”.

“We want to be able to dream,” said Ongwen. “And to make plans out of our dreams and to be able to realise those plans. But we do not even have a space to do that.”