From: barnhart@ddsw1.MCS.COM (Mr. Aaron Barnhart)
Subject: IPS:AFRICA: THE LONG ROAD FROM BEGGAR TO EQUAL GLOBAL PARTNER
Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1992 22:19:30 GMT
Organization: Evanston, Illinois, U.S.A.

Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Area: Latin America
Title: AFRICA: THE LONG ROAD FROM BEGGAR TO EQUAL GLOBAL PARTNER


an inter press service feature

by peter da costa

banjul, dec 23 (ips) -- as africa takes up the challenge posed
by the advent of a new world order predicated on globalisation
and regionalisation, it faces a host of spectres conspiring to
sabotage the continent's campaign against marginalisation.

beset by rampant poverty, drought, wars, leadership crisis
and economic mismanagement, the world's potentially richest yet
most underdeveloped region remains firmly mired in the bog of
dependency -- manifested in the debt burden, pitiful commodity
prices and a steady decrease in aid commitments by donors.

as a continent africa owes some 270 billion dollars -- a mere
11 percent of total third world debt -- yet, more than any other
region, it is being bled dry by its western creditors.

the europe-based organisation for economic cooperation and
development (oecd) estimates that between 1982 and 1991
sub-saharan africa -- which accounts for little over half the
continent's indebtedness -- paid a straggering billion dollars a
month in debt servicing.

ever-dwindling earnings from core commodities whose prices
are fixed in the stock exchanges of the affluent west -- money
urgently needed for in-country social programmes -- are
mobilised into servicing interest payements of the debt monster.

where it has not already been marginalised, africa is at the
very best on the sidelines. it is estimated that africa's share
of world trade was already down to 2.5 percent by 1989 (60
percent of which was accounted for by south and north africa),
accompanied by lack of investment and capital flight -- totalled
at 40 billion dollars.

''even in the most unlikely event that all 43 sub-saharan
countries suddenly and collectively decided to stop servicing
their debt'', argues economist susan george, ''the world
financial system would just keep trundling along, its computer
screens registering scarcely a blip''.

yet creditors refuse to implement such progressive policies
as the trinidad terms involving debt write-offs, proposals the
world bank says could save africa 310 million dollars by the
year 2000.

aside from britain, which announced in 1991 it would apply
the terms even if the u.s. refused to do so, the group of seven
(g-7) industrialised nations has failed to seriously tackle the
problem. (more/ips)


africa: the long road (2)

sub-saharan africa is the only major developing region where
aid flows are dwindling. in 1990 the u.s. and france increased
overseas development assistance (oda). but germany, italy and
britain cut back significantly, crying that communism's demise
and the global recession had dictated that charity begin nearer
home.

proponents of the theory the winds of change have blown aid
earmarked for africa toward the former communist bloc are quick
to note eastern europe itself used to be a traditional, if
somewhat modest, donor.

in a typical year before communism collapsed, for example,
the ussr gave tanzania 21 million dollars, while zambia and
sudan had their debt to eastern bloc countries favourably
rescheduled.

structural adjustment, a philosophy widely held to have been
foisted on the continent precisely to ensure it serviced its
debt, has inflicted grievous bodily harm on africa's human
potential -- the much-vaunted great hope for a better future.

some 30 sub-saharan countries have formal agreements with the
world bank and international monetary fund (imf), while most of
the others have implemented virtually identical policies.

development experts are only now beginning to quantify the
social dimension of structural adjustment. real wages have
plummeted by between 30 to 90 percent, and urban unemployment is
as high as 70 percent.

the informal sector, held up by the bretton woods
institutions as some miraculous solution to unemployment, is in
the words of the international labour organisation ''a labour
sponge with a finite capacity of absorption''.

the negative effects on development are well known. despite
spectacular successes in such areas as immunization, africa
brings up the rear in key indicators, among them those relating
to children.

it has the world's highest under-five mortality rate, lowest
life expectancy and poorest rate of primary school enrolment,
and is second only to south asia in under-five malnutrition.

conflict has made the continent's task of achieving
socio-economic and political renewal that much more awesome.
(more/ips)


africa: the long road (3)

the new conditionality of ''multipartyism-or else''
currently being wielded as a yardstick for continued aid (in
itself on the downslide) has at once catalysed moves toward
long-overdue democratisation in africa's post-independence
dictatorships.

the much-vaunted democracy dividend has failed to
materialise despite threats to stability change has engendered.

african countries have pledged more of their financial
resources toward improving health, basic education and
infrastructure as part of an overall, novel committment to
human-centred development from the bottom up.

the emphasis is now on what africa can do for itself.
self-reliance underpins all the latest declarations of intent
toward sustainable development, be they action plans to improve
the lot of children, blueprints for population control or
programmes to alleviate poverty.

yet for the foreseeable future africa will have no choice but
to count on handouts. foreign non-governmental organisations who
increased their inputs from 600 million dollars in the 1980s to
a billion in 1990 -- may prove the continent's most willing
development partners.

africa has its share of self-generated policies that analysts
say must predominate over those imported from the west or
imposed by the bank and fund. among these is the african sap
alternative pioneered by the u.n. economic commission for
africa, hailed as a sound blueprint for economic regeneration.

but the fact remains that without a change in attitude by g-7
countries -- who oecd think tank guru louis emmerij says are
''still much too self-centred about the state of the world
economy'' -- africa's new realpolitik will not by itself change
the continent's status from beggar to equal global partner.

emmerij envisages a contract between europe post-maastrict
and africa based on reciprocal conditionality. this
''euro-african development contract'' would help africa grow
whilst binding europe to practising the open market principles
it preaches to others.

the bottom line, then, is that development be viewed in terms
of a partnership. ''debt relief must be linked to a coherent
development plan, including much greater popular participation
and genuine democracy'', concludes susan george in a paper on
africa's debt crisis.

''unless african nations, singly or jointly, can propose a
plan bold enough to capture the imagination and the attention of
the industrialized countries' governments and citizens, they
will be forgotten in the new world order''. (end/ips/pdac/oa/92)
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