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der genannten Verordnung freigegeben. 
COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
COM(84) 310 final
Brussels, 22nd May 1984
THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY AND AFRICA
(Communication from the Commission to the Council)
COM(84) 310 final

CONTENTS
SUMMARY
INTRODUCTION
I. ANALYSIS OF THE SITUATION
1. The disappointing results of two decades of development
2. A sudden deterioration in the situation
3. Poor economic prospects
4. Alarming Long-term trends
4.1 Population
4.2 Environment
II. NEW DEVELOPMENT PRIORITIES IN AFRICA
1. Food self-sufficiency
2. Reducing energy dependence
3. Industrialization geared to the domestic market
4. The development of regional cooperation
5. Internal conditions for development
5.1 Political stability
5.2 Redefinition of the role of the state

III. THE ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY
1. Aid
1.1 More money for Africa
1.2 Appropriate aid
1.2.1 Food aid ancj  emergency aid
1.2.2 Support for development policies
1.2.3 Halting environmental deterioration in
Africa: a new priority
2. Mutual interest
2.1 Trade
2.1.1 Trade arrangements
2.1.2 Commodities
2-2 Mining  
2-3 Energy
2.4 Fisheries
2.5 European investment in Africa  
CONCLUSION

SUMMARY
Africa faces severe economic and social problems. The results  
of two Development Decades have been disappointing. Its  
considerable natural resources are ill-exploited or unexploited,  
barely known.
African countries have been hard hit by the international recession  
and the 1980-82 slump in commodity prices. Their food situation  
is increasingly precarious, made worse by drought, which has  
afflicted Southern Africa and the Sahel in particular. Their  
deteriorating trade position is coupled with a deepening insolvency,  
many of them are now finding it impossible to pay for imports vital  
to the very functioning of their economy.
These short-term survival problems are accompanied by disturbing  
long-term trends, the consequence of soaring population growth,  
rapid urbanization, and environmental deterioration.
Africa has reached a critical stage in its affairs, and events have  
brought home to its leaders that if the tide is to be turned, the  
priorities and approaches adopted at the time of independence must  
be reconsidered.
New development priorities for Africa were accordingly spelled out  
in the 1980 Lagos plan of action: greater self-reliance;
self-sufficiency in food; less reliance on imported energy; an  
industrialization process geared to domestic markets; and more  
regional cooperation.
The need now is to translate these principles into sectoral  
strategies and policies which will gradually relax the stranglehold  
of present constraints.
The countries of Africa are well aware that they have to rely  
primarily on their own efforts, but the necessary policy changes

and socio-economic reforms will only succeed if they are backed up  
by more, and more suitable, outside aid.
Europe's position, history, economic and strategic interests and  
formal ties give it special responsibilities towards Africa of  
which it cannot divest itself unilaterally.
The difficulties and challenges facing Africa make it incumbent on  
Europe to take that relationship further, consolidating the  
Lomé Convention and refashioning the Mediterranean policy. Europe's  
contribution to the development of Africa must rest on two  
foundations - aid and, if it is to be effective and durable, mutual  
interest.
Not only does Africa need a larger volume of aid, that aid must be  
made more relevant and more effective. At the moment, Europe
provides assistance in two main forms: one is food aid and emergency
relief, and the other is support for development policies. A new priority  
must now be added, in the shape of help .from the Community and its Member  
States in halting desertification and preserving Africa.'s natural environment.  
Otherwise.,there is a danger of the whole exercise, being jeopardized.
But European support for Africa's development must go beyond the  
provision of aid, to become manifest in the field of economic  
relations as welt. The Community must offer more stable and  
predictable arrangements for trade with African countries. There  
is a need to develop more ambitious policies and action in all the  
areas where complementary resources and interest permit, in mining,  
energy, fisheries and industry. European investors must step up  
considerably their involvement in the development of Africa's  
productive resources. For this, however, the conditions first  
need to be right.
The present paper contains a review of the situation, an analysis,  
and some suggestions. If the Coüncil were to express its agreement with  
these guidelines, the Commission could make some more specific proposals  
later in the context of the. different cooperation agreements which link  
the Community with the African countries and also regarding the application  
of the other instruments which it administers.

INTRODUCTION
There are many Africas. Mediterranean Africa has characteristics not  
found in countries south of the Sahara, where political, economic  
and cultural patterns likewise differ widely. Nigeria alone has a  
population of over 80 million; there are twenty-five countries, on  
the other hand, with a population of under 5 million. Some  
countries are oil- or mineral-rich, others lack such resources.
There are coastal states, and also a large number of landlocked  
countries. There are countries on the way to industrialization and  
others - the majority - stilt wholly agricultural.
This enormous diversity must be taken into account in analysing Africa's  
situation and devising a response.
Yet underlying all the diversity is a physical and geographical unity,  
and the historical legacy; the recent decolonization, the structural  
similarities of the highly extraverted economies, agriculture-based,  
heavily dependent on exports of a few commodities, and the high  
population growth rates. These factors pose similar development  
problems everywhere.
However, Africa's underlying unity is not simply a fact of life, but an  
economic and political necessity in this age of division into geopolitica  
blocs. A divided Africa would be without influence on world affairs and  
would be dangerously exposed in turn to influence from abroad. A  
balkanized Africa could never progress in economic and social  
development, for it faces problems that no country can hope to solve  
alone. Even in such troubled and difficult times as these, African  
unity is regarded as a top priority by all African leaders.

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The European Community, by reason of its own nature and its ties with  
so many of the African countries under the Lomé Convention and the  
Mediterranean agreements, cannot turn a blind eye to that movement  
towards political and economic unity of which the Organization of  
African Unity is an outward expression.
Hence this Communication.
Africa faces severe economic and social problems. The results of  
two Development Decades have been disappointing. African countries  
have been hard hit by the international recession and the 1980-82  
slump in commodity prices. Their food situation is increasingly  
precarious and has recently been exacerbated by drought.
These short-term survival problems are accompanied by disturbing  
long-term trends, the consequence of soaring population growth, rapid  
urbanization, and environmental deterioration.
Africa has reached a critical stage in its affairs, and events have  
brought home to its leaders that if the tide is to be turned, the  
priorities and approaches adopted at the time of independence must  
be reconsidered.
But the new development policies in Africa cannot succeed unless they  
are backed up by more, and more suitable, outside aid. Europe has  
special responsibilities in this connection. Aid, however, is not  
enough; European investors must also step up their involvement in  
Africa.
The difficulties and challenges facing Africa make it incumbent on  
the European Community to refashion its Mediterranean policy* and extend  
the scope of the Lomé Convention. Such is the purpose of the Commission's  
proposals on the implementation of a Mediterranean policy for the enlarged  
Community, and such is the aim of the current negotiations for a new ACP-EEC  
convention.
Africa's problems are a major area of concern for the Community. However,  
it must be quite clear that this concern must not be at the expense of the  
Caribbean and Pacific countries, also parties to the Lomé Convention, whose  
problems are in many respects similar to those of African countries.
*See C0MC84)107 final.

- 3 -
In this communication we Look first at Africa's present economic and  
social situation (Part I), go on in Part II to outline the new  
development priorities set out in the Lagos Plan by the African leaders  
themselves and incorporated in turn in the Community's own development  
cooperation policy, and finally, in Part III, suggest the part Europe  
can play today in furthering the development of Africa.
★
The Commission will shortly be presenting a similar communication to  
the Council on the Caribbean and Pacific countries.

I. ANALYSIS OF THE SITUATION
1. The disappointing results of two decades of development
1.1 Between 1950 and 1980, that is in the space of a generation,  
most African countries achieved independence and had to set up new  
institutions and administrative structures. They had to cope with  
unprecedented demographic growth and radical economic and social  
changes. In spite of all sorts of difficulties, considerable  
progress was made in 30 years.
1.2 At the end of the 1970s, however, the general development picture  
on this continent is a very gloomy one, although there are some  
patches of light. Be that as it may, Africa is a long way from  
achieving its enormous economic potential, which is still largely  
unexploited. Today Africa is the continent of underdevelopment.
Of the 38 countries classified by the World Bank as low-income  
countries, 22 of them are in Africa.
During the 1970s, the average annual per capita GNP growth rate in  
Africa was only 0.8%, whereas for all developing countries it was  
2.7%. The group of low-income countries in sub-Saharan Africa even  
had a negative rate.
Per capita food production decreased by 1% per annum during the  
same decade.
The human situation of these countries remains precarious. Life  
expectancy at birth is 11 years shorter than the developing country  
average. In 1979 the infant mortality rate was two and a half  
times higher in sub-Saharan Africa than in the developing countries  
as a whole.

-  2 -
Consequently, despite the considerable progress achieved since these  
countries became independent, particularly as regards education, health  
or infrastructure, and in the building up of the States, enormous efforts  
still have to be made if the situation in Africa is to be on a par with that  
in other developing countries.
1.3 Although the results themselves cannot be denied, the reasons  
advanced for them are various.
They can in part be attributed to natural handicaps (most of the soil  
in Africa is fragile, with little organic matter, and is usually only  
moderately fertile), weather problems (the poor agricultural performances  
of the 1970s were mainly due to drought), or geographical factors (14  
of the 20 land-locked developing countries in the world are African).
The structural causes should not be overlooked: the political fragility  
of young states worried in the early stages about their own existence,  
economic systems inherited from the colonial period, very dependent  
on external factors, internally weak and regionally ill-coordinated.
Nor must it be forgotten that in the 70s the international economic  
context was not very favourable to Africa, which suffered a considerable  
deterioration in its terms of trade over this period. Weaker than  
the other continents, it felt the effects of the recession more severely.
However, there is no denying that the way the situation has developed  
is also partly attributable to mistakes made by African authorities  
in their choice of priorities (with agriculture generally being sacrificed)  
or the implementation of policies on the morrow of independence. Many  
countries set up planning bodies to establish overall development strategies,  
but generally speaking these strategies did not correspond exactly  
to the needs or capacities of the countries concerned. In the 1960s,  
for instance, no African country gave priority to investment in agriculture
In this connection see the Lagos Plan of Action for the Economic  
Development of Africa, 1980-2000 - 0AU, 1981. Accelerated development  
in sub-Saharan Africa (Berg Report), World Bank, 1981.
Sub-Saharan Africa: Progress Report on Development Prospects and  
Programs, World Bank, 1983.
The ECA and the development of Africa, 1983-2008 - United Nations,  
1983.

- 3 -
and, except in four countries (Egypt, Morocco, Sudan and Tunisia), 
agricultural investment accounted for only a small fraction of 
total investment. But even when programmes were adopted, they 
were very seldom followed through owing to a lack of the necessary 
discipline and détermination, but also for lack of personnel and 
resources.
■ ■  2. A.  su d d e n d e t ë r î  ora t tô n i  n t ne situation
Africa is very vulnérable to outside influences. External trade" 
accounts for a quarter of its'GNP on average. As a resuit it was 
hit very hard by the worsening international crisis and the* sudden 
drop in the price levels of raw materials (about 25% in real terms) 
in 198o~82. As noted in the 1983 World Bank Report on world 
development "the low-income countries in Africa, being more 
dépendent on primary commodity exports, hâve suffered badly from 
the world recession. Their Der caoiïta inco'rrie has continued to
fa11^'âhd^-^h^^j^-'qow a real posstbility that it will be lower 
by t P ie end o^thë 1~980s than it was in I960."
In addition, Africa has again been hit by drought. The Sahel 
was very seriously affected in 1983, as were the sudanese areas 
of the Coastal countries, and also Morocco in North Africa. In 
Southern Africa, two consecutive droughts in 1982 anç^ 19.8^fîave 
had catas^rophic results, particularly in Zimbabwe, Botswana and 
Mozambique. There is a threat of another drought in 1984.
The resuit is a considérable shortfall in food production in these 
régions, with the likelihood of famine. Livestock will be decimated 
because of lack of feed. Export crops such as coffee and cocoa in 
West Africa hâve also been severely hit by drought and bush fires, 
and this will further exacerbate balance of payments problems.
The détérioration in the trade position of African countries has
been accompanied by grqwong insolvency. Their indebtedness has
increased ninefold since 1970, which means that certain countries--
hâve a debt servicing/export earnings ratio of 20% or more. Between
1979 and .1983, 34 of 56 multilatéral debt rescheduling operations
for 25 developing countries concerned African States. On average,
their currency, reserves do not cover more than two months' imports against
four monthsf imports for the developing countries as a whole. Moreover,
many countries are no longer able in 1984 to import essential
goods (oil, agricultural inputs and spare parts) which are necessary

- 4 -
for putting to use their production capacity, which is partially 
idle as a resuit.
3. Poor économie prospects
Africa's difficulties are not merely due to circumstances and 
something more than a straightforward improvement in the 
international économie situation would be needed to remedy them.
Africa's share in world exports fell from 3.9% in 1970 to 3.4% in 
1980. But the most serious problem is the fact that sub-Saharan 
Africa is virtually excluded from the world economy: its share
in international trade has fallen from 3.1% in 1960 to about 1% 
today. This décliné on the world market, which has been to the 
advantage of other developing countries, even affects those sectors 
which were Africa's strongest assets: minerais, cocoa, groundnuts,
vegetable oil and cotton. Generally speaking, prospects for the 
coming years in these sectors look unfavourable. Technical 
progress reduces demand for a certain number of industrial raw 
materials, while for coffee, cocoa and groundnuts, which are 
Africa's three main agricultural exports, the medium-term trend 
is towards a surplus in supply which threatens to affect price 
level until the end of the decade.
Recent estimâtes running up to 1995 drawn up by the World Bank 
show that if présent trends continue the prospects for the African 
continent are alarming. In its most optimistic scénario, based on 
a set of very favourable hypothèses, the World Bank envisages 
per capita growth in Africa of 0.1% per annum.  According to the 
unfavourable scénario there will be an average fall in per capita 
GNP of 1% per annum.  Similarly, the Longer-term forecasts of the UN 
Economie Commission for Africa show that if the status quo is 
maintained without any notable changes in development policies or 
international relations the African région will be ousted from 
the world economy by the year 2008.

- 5 -
4. ALarming Long-term trends
In addition to the problems of immédiate survival, Africa has to 
face Long-term trends which are the resuit of very rapid population 
growth and accelerated urbanization as well as the détérioration 
of its ecosystem.
4.1 Population
There were 440 million people in Africa in 1980. There will be over 
1  100 million in the year 2010. It has the highest population 
growth rate in the world (an annual rate of 2.8% in the 1970s) 
and it is estimated that this will increase further in the présent 
decade (up to a rate of 3.1%) as a resuit of improvements in 
hygiene and nutrition.
Modernization is generally accompanied by a falling-off of 
population growth, known as the démographie transition. According 
to the estimâtes of démographie experts, the population of 
African countries will not "level off" until between the year 
2080 (in the case of North Africa) and the year 2135 (sub-Saharan 
Africa). The slowing-down of the birth rate could be stepped 
up by a deliberate policy of birth control. Any measure which 
would help to control population growth is bound to further 
the development of Africa. Such measures will corne up against 
cultural patterns and will hâve to be worked out by the countries 
concerned.
However, given the inertia of social and démographie phenomena, 
this image of Africa in the year 2010 has practically become 
a reality already. The population growth, which will be unprecedented 
over the next twenty years, will bring about radical changes 
in the way space is occupied and organized in Africa.
Urban pressures in the 1980s will be intensified in the world's 
least urbanized continent. Already in the course of the last 
decade the population of African towns increased at an annual 
rate of 6% because of the attraction of towns and the fact 
that the incomes offered by traditional agriculture were decreasing.
In many towns or cities the population will continue to double 
every ten years. In 1980 there were twelve cities of more 
than 1  million inhabitants in sub-Saharan Africa (compared 
with only one in 1970). Three cities (Kinshasa, Lagos and 
Abidjan) will hâve more than 10 million inhabitants in the

-  6 -
year 2010 an^ there will be 70 cities with more than 1 million 
inhabitants. In the countries bordering the Mediterranean,
Cairo will by then be approaching 15 million inhabitants, while 
Casablanca and Alexandria will hâve nearly 6 million.
In spite of this rapid urbanization, the rural population will 
continue to increase, but at very different rates according 
to the area.
As in the past, the population increase should continue to 
cause a significant amount of internai and external migration.
In sub-Saharan Africa the greatest émigration flows will be 
notably from Rwanda, Upper Volta and Kenya. On the other hand, 
about 15 countries should hâve a positive migratory balance, 
in particular Zaire, Ivory Coast, Cameroon and South Africa.
These démographie developments will lead to radical population 
shifts in Africa. A significant amount of urban and rural 
infrastructure will hâve to be set up.
It will be necessary to monitor this urbanization in order 
to prevent the imbalance from getting out of hand and leaving 
Africa an "empty shell" - deserted in the interior and overcrowded 
along rivers, on the coast and in the upland areas.
In Africa, as in many countries of the Third World, the trend 
is towards the growth of a relatively small number of very 
large towns or cities. It is therefore important to develop 
the whole urban fabric. And to counter the trend it is necessary 
to encourage the development of secondary towns and to check 
the rural exodus by attacking its causes.
No doubt the urban phenomenon can hâve a positive effect on
the transformation of attitudes, but it may also jeopardize
the political stability of countries and distort their development
policies, since the towns already carry considérable weight in the allocation
of countries' resources. African towns are often a burden
on the rest of the economy. Owing to a lack of industrialization most
town dwellers work in administrative jobs, the private services sector
of the "informai" sector (small business, Personal services),
*Study of the long-term prospects for Africa south of the Sahara. 
Study by the SCET International carried out for the Commission in 
1983.

- 7 -
that is to say in activities financed at the expense of the 
primary, agricultural or mining sectors.
At any rate there will be a significant change in the ratio between
the agricultural and non-agrieuItural population. It will be
necessary to develop non-agricultural employment and there will
hâve to be a considérable increase in agricultural production and
productivity. Africa, which is not even self-sufficient in food
at the moment, will hâve to feed twice its présent population in
20 years' time. In 1950 the non-agricultural population - fed by
means of the surplus produced by farmers over and abovetheir own
consumption - was outnumbered by the farming population in the
ratio of 1:0.18. This latter figure had become 0.45 in 1980 and
is likely to reach 1.21 in 2010. The quantity of food products
to be marketed by each farmer will hâve to hâve been multiplied sevenfold,
which calls for a radical change in production and marketing Systems.
4.2 Envi ronment
The balance of nature is under threat in Africa. Soi l  érosion and 
the destruction of forests are the most obvious signs. The root 
causes are démographie pressure and the techniques being used.
In this context, drought has conséquences which are increasingly 
serious, and its effects are becoming impossible to reverse.
The density of th^ population in Africa varies enormously, from one 
inhabitant per krn to 150 inhabitants per km .  But the average 
figures are not of any great significance. High density does not 
necessarily imply strong pressure on resources, while on the other 
hand a low level of density can lead to overexploitation.
There is a considérable amount of soil érosion in Africa, reaching 
catastrophic levels in the Sahel,where the desert is advancing at 
a rate of 2 million hectares peryear.
The destruction of forests, and therefore of the humus accumulated 
over centuries, is also a very important development.
The pressure of population and of accompanying domestic livestock 
leads to a clearing of the forest for growing crops, overexploitation 
of forestry plantations to provide firewood, and overgrazing of the 
mixed shrubland and herbland which is characteristic of very many 
grazing grounds.

-  8 -
The Lack of firewood is already so great in certain parts of the 
Sahel that a member of each family is occupied full-time looking, 
sometimes very far away, for the wood needed for cooking the 
family's meals. In numerous communities up to one third of a 
household's financial resources goes towards purchasing wood or 
charcoal. It is estimated that at the présent rate wood will hâve 
practically disappeared from the Sahel countries in 20 years' time.
The stripping of the tropical forest for exporting logs or 
creating large plantations is just as alarming. This déforestation 
is likely to cause significant changes in the climate, the extent 
and conséquences of which are still not known.
Thus, 1 300 000 hectares of closed forest and 2 300 000 hectares of 
woodland disappear every year in Africa. Only 93 000 hectares of ail 
types of forest are being planted every year, which is 29 times less 
less than what is being destroyed.
An overall, wide-ranging and long-term strategy is necessary in 
Africa to combat this détérioration in the soil and végétation before 
it is too late.
11‘  NEW DEVELOPMENT PRIORITIES IN AFRICA
Africa has reached a crossroads. The pressing problems assailing it, the 
challenges it has to meet, are enormous. Most African leaders are 
learning from the lesson of the past twenty or thirty years that, to 
reverse the présent trend, the priorities they adopted after independence 
must be revised, that they need to change direction. This new direction 
has already been mapped. It was plotted by the 0AU Heads of State and of 
Government, at the summit meeting in Lagos in 1980, when they set 
themselves the dual objective of îndividual and collective 
self-reliance and self-sustained development. The new path is to 
lead them towards a more self-reliant type of development and 
broadly coincides with the objectives that the Community has set 
for its own development coopération policy.*
★Mémorandum on the Community's development policy, 1982.

- 9 -
Now the time has corne to translate the aims into actions, to work 
out a strategy and sectoral policies in line with the new priorities 
so that one by one the existing constraints can be eliminated.
Africa has no choice if it wishes to avoid disaster. It will hâve 
to count on its own efforts: this is what self-reliance means.
Looking at the présent difficulties squarely should not become a 
source of pessimism, still less of fatalism. Over the past 
thirty years the continent has shown that it has great capacity for 
adapting itself. It has mining, energy, agricultural and other 
natural resources which are major assets for the future. But the 
centre of the stage will be occupied by its people: men and women
whû are better educated and properly trained, with leaders who are 
more attentive to the problems of économie and social development.
It is none the less obvious that it will not be possible for Africa 
to apply its own efforts and see them bear fruit unless it receives 
help from outside on a larger scale and of a more appropriate kind 
than hitherto.
The Lagos Plan set out the new development priorities for Africa: 
food self-sufficiency, réduction of energy dependence, industrialization 
geared towards its own markets and the development of régional 
coopération. These are the very priorities that the Community's aid 
policy intends to support. But full implémentation of these 
priorities will dépend on the achievement of certain internai 
conditions: political stability, and a redéfinition of the place and
the rôle of the State.
1. Food self-sufficiency
In most African countries today food is the key problem to be solved 
in order to break the vicious circle of mounting external dependency.
At the colloquium which the OAU held in Monrovia in 1979 on Africa 
in the year 2000, it was correctly suggested that the degree to which 
a country depended on imports for its food should be considered one 
of the main indicators of its level of development.
The situation is very worrying both north and south of the Sahara, and 
it may become catastrophic in the future. It is estimated that at the 
présent rate, Africa will be dépendent on imports for 30% of its food 
by the end of the century (instead of 1980's figure of 14%).

-  1 0  -
Africa has now supplanted Asia as the chief beneficiary of food 
aid. For sub-Saharan Africa, the level in 1981 was approximately
2.2 million tonnes, accounting for more than 25% of world food aid.
There are three factors at the root of this food problem: 
population trends, changes in consumer tastes and the unsuitability 
of agricultural policies.
Per capita food production remained more or less constant during 
the sixties, and dropped by some 15% during the seventies.
Not only has production failed to keep pace with the population's 
growth rate, but there has been the phenomenon of local agricultural 
production Systems being unable to respond to the new pattern of 
urban consumption. Town dwellers hâve acquired new tastes, which 
hâve to be met by more and more imports. In Dakar, for example, 
the dried cereals produced locally (millet, maize and sorghum) 
represent less than 10% of the daily cereal intake. It is also 
through the towns that imports and food aid arrive and it is there that 
they are first of ail distributed, often with the effect of eroding the 
prices of local produce and hence discouraging production.
The major cause of the growing food déficit in Africa, however, is 
the inappropriate nature of the agricultural policies that hâve been 
adopted. Notable among their effects hâve been underpayment for 
agricultural labour and more basically, the down-grading of the 
peasant's social status. The resuit has been a very marked rural 
exodus.
Agricultural workers' pay can often be as low as one sixth of that 
of workers in other sectors. People in the country find it difficult 
or impossible to hâve access to social and administrative services. 
Farmers' purchasing power has not improved as it should, because 
of the tendency of the price of inputs to rise far more rapidly 
than agricultural prices in general and those of food products 
in particular. Rural populations corne up against a host of problems: 
irregular supply of inputs, unsuitable financing Systems, and 
inadéquate transport, packaging and storage facilities.

- üi -
There is an urgent need for recovery efforts to be mounted. It 
will not be easy to ensu.ré, in the short terni, food security and, 
in the Longer term, food self-sufficiency.
Increasing food production and productivity is both a prerequisite 
and a central pillar of development - a prerequisite if Africa is 
to be able to feed its population not only today but also tomorrow, 
when it will be twice the size. It is also fundamental to any 
type of development or industrialization.
Agriculture, in other words, is at the very heart of the African 
economy. It provides a livelihood for the greater part of the 
African people and represents approximately 70% of the region's 
GNP. Only by developing agricultural production and satisfying 
the basic needs of urban and rural populations can the solvency 
of traders and farmers be guaranteed and the economy in general 
take off.
The link between agriculture and ihdustry is a two-way one. The 
industrialization process dépends on the presence of an agricultural 
surplus, for if the goods it produces are aimed at the domestic 
market, purchasing power must exist in the countryside to absorb 
them. In the other direction, agricultural development is dépendent 
on the graduai installation of an upstream (agricultural equipment, 
fertilizers) and a downstream (processing and distribution) 
agro-industrial complex adapted to local constraints.
Agricultural and rural development in Africa means that rural populations must
be given a minimum of security. Price policy must be such that
producers are given an incentive to go beyond the stage of mere
local seIf-sufficiency.  And it can hardly be confined any longer
to the national level, for large commercial flows of food products
are constantly Crossing frontiers. Price policy must therefore
relate to real trade networks and follow geographical patterns
endorsing the de facto régional intégration of traditional food
économies. At the same time, consumer prices must move towards
a more realistic level. This will also mean reducing and finally
removing subsidies for imported cereals. Switching to a more
balanced pricing policy will not be easy for it requires the
priority so far accorded to the needs of the urban consumers to be
reversed. It will be a délicate operation that will hâve to be
introduced gradually if it is not to provoke some social upsets.

-  1 2  -
Stimulating production by price mechanisms will be meaningless 
unless the peasant farmer can market his products satisfactorily, 
so gradually, a System of agricultural crédit and the means of 
storing, transporting and Processing the produce will hâve to be 
introduced. Local products must be processed so that they acquire 
the qualities and ease of use that consumées in the towns hâve corne 
to expect. This effort will call for political underpinning of 
the type used by Sénégal, where the government has made it 
compulsory for bread to contain 15% of millet to be raised to 20% 
eventually.
The long-term effort required on the part of African countries in 
order to regain their independence of foreign food supplies needs 
to be organized in the form of a food strateqy, and the Community 
is now helping to work out and'apply this approach in four countries 
Kenya, Mali, Rwanda and Zambia.
The experiment provides a framework in which to link up the various 
éléments - price policy, reform of the System of rural extension 
services, storage, transport, etc. - on which success will dépend.
The various forms of aid given in support of these countries' 
efforts, for example aid for capital projects or maintenance, aid 
to boost production (inputs), organization and operation of the 
domestic market, food aid and the use of counterpart funds, should 
also be included and coordinated in the same framework.
It should be stressed that the priority objective of improving food 
crops for local consumption is in no way incompatible with the 
development of export crops. These account for some 10% of ail 
cultivated land and are a valuable source of foreign earnings. 
Expérience has shown that in some cases (cotton and maize crops 
in Mali, for example) the technical improvements and the development 
of the économie structures set up to aid export crops can directly 
or indirectly benefit food production for the domestic market.
But there will only be any real interaction between the two types 
of agriculture when there is a real détermination to develop food 
crops (as regards output and also marketing, transport, Processing, 
etc.) on the same footing as exportcrops.

- 13 -
Agricultural and rural development in Africa must be part of a 
broader policy of land-use planning, which should help to 
hait the rural exodus by improving the conditions of life in the 
countryside and the means of communication between the areas where 
food is produced and where it is used, between the marketplace 
and storage facilities. It is necessary to favour thé development 
of small or medium-sized towns, a process that is less costly than 
the unchecked expansion of the large towns. Ail around the 
latter, the conditions (land-owning structures, agricultural 
equipment, training, etc.) should be created - where they are 
lacking - for an appropriate form of agriculture based on market 
gardening.
2. Reducing energy dependence
With the exception of a few oil-exporting countries, energy 
dependence is, after food dependence, the greatest external 
constraint on the African countries' possibilités for growth.
These countries spend more than a quarter of their export 
earnings on their energy bill. Together with this externat 
constraint, there is the problem of the supply of traditional 
forms of fuel, particularly fuelwood, on which people dépend for 
their survivat and the demand for which is helping to destroy 
the environment in many régions.
Africa, however, where per capita energy consumption is lower than 
anywhere else in the world, has a rich variety of energy sources 
to hand (coal, oil, natural gas, hydroelectric power, solar 
energy). But these are very unevenly distributed and expérience 
has shown that their exploitation, other than for export purposes, 
is hampered by the amount of fixed investment required and the tow 
domestic demand, which in any case is scattered. For this reason any 
exploitation must be adjusted to local constraints and conditions.
Too often in the past, energy coopération has been channelled into 
ambitious électrification projects, which do little to reduce dependence 
on oil and absorb large sums of money at the expense of other projects 
which now hâve a higher priority. It is by making the best use of the 
avai labié resources that energy strategies for individual countries 
must be worked out with the aim of coordinating internai policy 
measures, investors' decisions and consumers'.needs.
In many countries it would seem essential to set up structures 
rapidly to improve knowledge of resources and needs (energy 
statistics, inventories, forecasts) and to pinpoint those measures 
that will encourage more efficient use of energy in the transport 
and certain production sectors.

-  H  -
Efficient use of energy can be encouraged by suitable taxation and 
price policies and should lead to higher energy yields and the use 
of forms other than oit (fossil fuels and renewable energy sources). 
In Africa, as in the developing countries in general, it has been 
estimated that considérable energy savings - 15% of consumption on 
average - could be made.
It must be stressed, however^that an energy strategy tailored to an 
individual country's needs is no less difficult to operate than 
a food strategy.
3. Industrialization geared to the domestic market
The industrial sector has developed to some extent in Africa over 
the past 20 years but it represents barely 10% of the continent's 
GNP and can only really be considered of any significance in a few 
countries - in North Africa, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Zaire 
and Zimbabwe. Africa's share of world trade in manufactures is 
still marginal indeed (0.6%).
In the Lagos Plan, Africans set themselves the target of 
thorough-going industrialization of the continent, which, based on 
individual countries' resources, would be geared to the domestic 
market, i.e., towards the needs of agriculture and the majority of 
the population. This was a fundamental objective, which showed the 
will to cast off the old outward-oriented model of development 
hitherto espoused - a model that had been geared to the needs of a 
minority, providing little in the way of employment and generating 
a whole network of foreign dependency (for financing, marketing, 
technology, etc.).
The new kind of industrialization does not rule out large, 
export-oriented industrial firms, especially those involving the 
Processing of local raw materials (copper, energy, bauxite, wood, 
agricultural and fishery products, etc.). As a source of foreign 
exchange, such firms should create new jobs' and lead to improvements 
in training and the level of technology. If such firms are supported 
by an extended network of small businesses a ripple effect can be induced 
throughout the economy.
To start with, industrialization should be an intégral part of 
rural development policy. In this connection, it is useful 
to establish agro-industrial complexes which, upstream, 
provide agriculture with its inputs (fertilizers, tools and 
equipment, products for plant health) and, downstream, treat its

- 15 -
Products (p.rocessing, storage, préservation). Such agro-industry 
must be adapted to Local conditions, which means that enterprises 
should be on'a smaller scale than most set up so far, and they 
should be locatëd néar raw material supplies to heduce transport 
costs and help to.keep the workforce in the countryside. Spécial 
attention should be paid'to technologies designed to eut post- 
harvest losses and to preserve food produce properly. Priority 
must be given to processes for convérting.local raw materials 
into inputs such as fertilizers andcattle feed from agricultural 
waste or by-products.
The purpose of industrialization must be to satisfy essential 
individual and collective needs. It will therefore include the 
wood industry (building, furniture), urban and rural infrastructure 
(housing and public works), inland transport (river and road), 
everyday consumer goods (electrical and mechanical). In other 
words, industrialization geared to one's own market covers a 
large number of manufacturing activities and should not be confined 
to elementary rural industrialization or to the agro-industries 
alone.
Moreover, as a second stage, industrial development implies that 
the various économies extend their activities to the basic 
industries. This is difficult in Africa within the narrow 
confines of existing national boundaries, since most current 
technology is designed for large-scale production methods and 
économies of scale. Coopération on a régional level is therefore 
called for. This aspect is fundamental, and indeed, is one of 
the main planks of the Lagos Plan of Action.
Industrial development in Africa is being held back by a number of other 
factors: the shortage of qualified labour, the Virtual absence of an 
entrepreneurial class, inadéquate attention to maintenance, weak 
infrastructures, and so on. Ail these, no doubt, are real impediments, but 
they are not, at the end of the day, insurmountable.
In this connection, the rôle of the SMEina development strategy must be 
emphasized because they gradually build up the industrial fabric. Small 
businesses help to develop an industrial mentality, to encourage the

- 16 -
emerqence of entrepreneurs, to forge a concept of managemént adapted to 
African socio-cultural c . i  rcumstances.  One of the major concerns in African 
development policies should be to devise appropriate technologies.' These may 
in.certain cases require a substantial outlay in terms of research, and they 
should be accessible to small-sca.le industry. The rôle of .the SME in this has not 
yet been fully recognized; they too often find themselves up against a 
discriminatory attitude on the part of the authorities, for example, when 
they try to import materials or borrow money.
In many countries, industrial equipment is often underuti lized and the 
technologies that hâve been imported are ill-suited to local conditions, 
in addition to which there are growing problems of energy supply, raw materials 
and spare parts, engendered by the shortage of foreign exchange. Thus, 
the number one priority today is to rehabilitate and repair existing 
installations. What is in place already must be the starting point, and 
the best advantage must be taken of it at the least possible cost.
4. The development of régional coopération
Régional coopération is still a fundamental requirement for most African
countries, even though many attempts at it hâve been disappointing or hâve
yielded lim.ited results. It.is true that there are major obstacles:
économies which are not complementary, transport and communications difficulties,
non-convertible currencies, the réluctance of governments to
relinquish any portion of their national sovereignty. This State of
affairs is well-illustrated by the low level of intei— African trade, even
if the official figures, which put it at 4-5% of the African countries1
total foreign trade, are a serious under-estimate because part of the
trans-frontier trade slips through the statistical and monitoring net.
These difficulties must be overcome. Régional intégration is clearly one 
of the conditions for économie and social development in Africa. Progress 
in this direction, however, will only be achieved by treading a pragmatic 
path and slowly developing links of solidarity between States and between their économies.

- 17 -
Given the small scale of the markets and the completely or partially 
landlocked situation of many countries, there is much scope for 
developing régional coopération in areas such as: strengthening 
transport and communication networks, combating désertification 
and endemic diseases, making better use of the minerai, energy and 
fisheries resources shared by several countries, joint industrial, 
training and research projects. It is also in a régional context 
that the problem of the countries' food security must be raised.
Régional intégration is a dynamic process which must be undertaken 
step by step and can take a variety of forms. But it will not be 
achieved without institutionalized collaboration between the countries 
involved and a readiness to transfer a measure of their sovereignty 
to a régional entity with means at its disposai and its own resources.
In the 80s régional intégration should be promoted by reinforcing 
the existing régional communities (ECOWAS, CEAO, SADCC, UDEAC, etc.) 
and by establishing new groupings in other régions of Africa.
In this approach, very spécial importance must be attached to developing 
intra-regional trade and dismantling the customs, and more especially, 
the currency barriers that may be hindering it. At the outset,
Systems of counter trade or of Limited convertibility might take 
care of the problem of the non-convertibility of the various currencies. 
Such measures would also constitute a step towards a fuller régional 
monetary System in the long run.
5. Internai conditions for development 
5.1 Political stability
In order to develop, Africa needs to hâve political stability of 
a sort that it lacks. The continent is beset by unrest, both in 
the form of civil wars and conflicts between neighbours, some of 
which hâve dragged on for almost twenty years. By 1983, one African 
State in three had suffered internai troubles to say the least, 
jeopardizing any sustained development efforts, in an international 
économie climate that was, in itself, unfavourable.

18
The African continent has not been immune to the effects of the 
East-West confrontation, so often played out in the Third World 
where local conflicts often provide the chance to flex muscles.
But it would be an exaggeration to see this as the source of ail 
of Africa's problems (although it is the continent with the worst 
refugee problem, accounting for five million out of the world's 
recorded ten million displaced persons). Many of its problems stem 
essentially from local antagonisms.
Africans themselves, especially through the OAU, must strive to 
résolve these conflicts, in order to be better placed to take up 
collectively the économie and social challenges which confront the 
continent.
5.2 Redéfinition of the rôle of the State
Following independence, the construction of the State was quite naturally the 
absolute priority in countries which needed to affirm their existence and 
their own identity. The State thus assumed a somewhat exclusive 
position, being seen too often in practice as the sole or privileged 
agent of development.
African countries are today faced with the need to redefine the rôle 
and the place of the State in development policy, without in any way 
challenging it, weakening it, or reducing it, for it is essential to 
the nation.
Development can only stem from an actively engaged population. It 
calls for decentralized initiatives and requires that suitable 
structures exist or be created so that these may flourish.
Most African countries suffer notably from the lack of a 
structured organization of the local communities in their territory.
The establishment of small units at the grassroots level and the 
development of responsibilities at local authority level would provide 
very valuable instruments for promoting local operations throughout 
the country. Africa can draw on the village héritage proper to it to 
bring this about. Such local structures hâve a specially important 
rôle to play in the rural development process and in land-use planning.
This is the level at which certain important decisions can be taken on 
the distribution of water, agricultural crédit, the supply of seed, storage 
and crop marketing.

- 19 -
Expérience indicates that a good size for such Local structures is 
between 5 000 and 10 000 inhabitants*, each community being a 
fédération of ten or so villages, close to each other geographically 
and ethnically. Experiments along these Unes are being tried out in 
Sénégal and Madagascar, for example.
Again we'would emphasize the important rôle of small businesses, 
whose prolifération must be encouraged alongside that of the larger, 
often public, enterprises. In this way, the industrial fabric of 
the country will gradually be buiIt up.
III. THE ROLE 0F THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY
Europe cannot turn its back on Africa, whose destiny is to some extent 
bound up with its own.
Relations with the Third World are of crucial importance to the European 
Community. For reasons historical, geographical, économie and also strategie, 
Africa is a subject of major concern for Europe.
There is no need to dwell on the importance of économie ties with Africa for 
a Community dépendent on imports for most of its energy, products and 
agricultural and minerai commodities and looking to the Third World for 40% 
of its export markets, Africa alone accounting for a third. The recession, 
which has hit African countries hard, has led to no growth or even a décliné 
in our exports in many sectors.
Strategically an Africa prey to growing ï.nstability would be a danger to 
Europe's securi.ty.
Realizing the interdependence of the two continents, the Community has 
established a network of spécial contractual relationships with African 
countries via the successive Lomé Conventions and the Mediterranean aqreements,
*
Report by R. Lenoir to the Club of Rome: "Le Tiers Monde peut se
nourrir. Les Communautés de base, acteurs du développement" September 1983.

-  20  -
which link it - or wilt after the forthcoming accession of Angola and 
Mozambique - with practically ail the developing countries of Africa.*
The problems and challenges facing Africa today mean that Europe must 
take the relationship further, extending and going beyond the Lomé Convention 
and refashioning the Mediterranean policy. The Community has an essential 
contribution to make to the development of Africa, both via the different 
forms of aid and on the basis of mutual interest in ail those areas in which 
the two sides' complementary resources and mutual interests so permit.
1. Aid
Aid for the development of Africa must be stepped up. Not only does more 
money need to be made avai labié, but the aid must be provided in more 
appropriate ways, taking greater account of local circumstances and the 
requirements of development.
1.T More money for Africa
Africa is heavily dépendent on inflows of capital on easy terms, since its 
capacity for indebtedness is slight. Official development assistance (ODA) 
is accordingly the African countries' main source of external finance and 
détermines - in most of them - the size of their external déficit.
Per capita ODA is fairly high in Africa compared to other developing régions, 
at around $22 against an average of $8 for the developing countries as a whole,
*A recent public opinion survey undertaken si muItaneously in the ten countries 
of the European Community shows that the European public is clearly aware of 
this interdependence.  According to the survey findings, Europeans regard 
Africa "as a part of the world with which we hâve historical and cultural ties, 
whose raw materials are vital to us, and which should be helped."
(Summary of the survey carried out in October 1983 at the request of the 
European Consortium for Agricultural Development and cofinanced by the 
Commi ssion).

-  21  -
The Community and its Member States together account for a sizeable 53% 
of that aid (45.5% from the Member States and 7.5% from the Community). 
Community aid stricto sensu atone is more or large equat to - or even 
slightly in excess of - the IDA's contribution. The IDA's average annual 
commitment in Africa over the period 1978-82 ran at about $800 million, while 
EDF aid plus food aid was worth $810 million a year over the same period.
But Africa is still not receiving the amounts of ODA it needs. The Berg 
Report concluded that to get development off the ground in the 1980s,
ODA to Africa should be doubled in real terms. But the figure for 1981-82 
remained static, representing a décliné in real terms. The outlook for the coming 
years is grim, because of cutbacks ;by some bilateral donors and the financial crisis 
at the IDA, about 32% of whose'operations are in Africa south of the Sahara.
But African countries will never push through the necessary policy changes 
or socio-economic reforms without an increase in aid from both bilateral 
and multilatéral donors.
Consequently the European Community's aid to Africa through the EDF and 
EIB should be reinforced. Community aid, it must be stressed, is 
particularly appropriate for African countries in that it is highly 
concessionary (for the EDF as a whole, the grant element is put at 
94%), whereas most other multilatéral aid agencies only provide loans.
1.2 Appropriate aid
Africa needs more aid, and that aid needs to be made more appropriate and 
more effective. The European Community provides two main forms of assistance: 
food aid plus emergency aid and support for development policies. And a new 
priority is now making itself felt, narnely the need for the Community and 
its Member States to help hait désertification and the dégradation of the 
environment in Africa.

-  22  -
1.2.1 Food aid and emergency aid
If the food strategies succeed they should eliminate the need for food 
aid. In the meantime, food aid will remain necessary, particularly in the 
light of Africa's precarious food situation.
The downturn in Africa's food situation in 1983 called forth an increased 
commitment by the Community and the Member States which will hâve to continue, 
and indeed increase stitl further, in coming years in order to provide for 
immédiate assistance to the countries in the most critical situation.
The worst difficulties are in two régions: Southern Africa and the Sahel.
In 1983, Southern Africa experienced its worst drought this century.
In Southern Mozambique in particular it is no exaggeration to speak of
famine, and former net food exporters such as Zimbabwe are themselves
now having to import large quantities of cereals. Nor does the forthcoming 
harvest look as if it will be much better than last year's, so things are 
hardly likely to improve.
In the Sahel, harvests in the first couple of years of the decade were not
too bad, but last year the situation once again started to deteriorate and
the région had to increase its food imports quite sharply. Some of the 
West African Coastal countries will also hâve to import more this year to 
cope with the effects of last year's drought in West Africa as a whole.
There is also continuing cause for concern in East Africa, where imports 
hâve been increasing steadily for a numbe'r of years.
The FAO has identified 24 African countries with particularly severe food 
problems. Community food aid to these 24 countries under the 1983 budget 
totalled 375 000 tonnes, over 50% up on the previous year's performance.

- 23 -
Community food aid in 1984 is to be increased still further for countries  
such as those in the Sahel and southern Africa facing severe problems.
Better mobilization procedures will also enable the aid that has been  
voted to arrive in time.
The Community and the Member States also need to improve the coordination  
of their aid programming (to the extent that the existing monitoring systems  
give early warning of shortages) and the transport of aid to and within the  
recipient country.
Food aid has a useful role to play in enabling countries to cope with a  
sudden fall in production caused by climatic vagaries. Nevertheless,  
it should be stressed that short-term measures, however necessary, must  
not be allowed to undermine - notably by an unfavourable impact,on the  
prices of local food crop products - longei— term efforts by the recipient  
countries to increase their own agricultural output. In this context,  
efforts to integrate food aid more closely into development policy must be  
intensified and speeded up, whether to coordinate it with the food strategies  
or to tie it to the implementation of cereal policies or specific  
food-production projects or programmes.
That is the thrust of recent decisions by the Community's development ministers  
laying down a number of guidelines which should enable food aid to make a  
better contribution to development, in particular by the use of multiannual  
programming, more frequent recourse to triangular operations (surplus food  
is bought in one developing country to be transferred as aid to a  
neighbouring country with a deficit, thus promoting regional food security),  
and the extension of food aid substitute operations (money for agricultural  
or food production projects instead of food aid as such).*
*Resolution on food aid for development. November 1983.

- 24 -
1.2.2 Support for development policies
So far, aid has not proved very effective in promoting the development  
of African countries. It is now absolutely essential that the impact of  
cooperation activities be improved, and this means that Community  
operations must be more closely geared to the economic and social facts  
of Life in Africa.
Cooperation activities have tended in the past to concentrate too much  
on the financing of capital projects or, to be specific, civil engineering  
projects. The current trend away from this format needs to be  
accelerated, in the interests of encouraging self-reliant development.
That is what the current EEC-ACP negotiations are really about.
We need to concentrate above all on providing support for the aid  
"customers" own efforts and making sure that external contributions are  
more closely geared to domestic policies.
The Community's cooperation with African countries should increasingly take  
the form of programmes to back up sectoral (food, energy, industrial)  
policies. Such programmes will cover not only capital projects, but a  
variety of other forms of support such as maintenance aid, technical 
assistance, training and - where necessary - food aid.
With this in mind, consideration should be given, as a means of coping with  
the worst effects of the ACP countries' current financial crisis, to  
having wider recourse to the practice under which at the request of the  
countries concerned, a certain proportion of programmed but as yet unused  
fifth EDF money would be set aside (certain projects, or parts of projects,  
being postponed if necessary to the sixth EDF) in order to finance, via  
a rapid disbursement procedure those imports which the ACP themselves can  
no longer afford but which are needed in order to maintain or restore their  
productive capacity. Experience under previous Funds indicates that  
aid "packages" for such a purpose are quite feasible. Examples are the  
counterpart funds set up to finance local costs of agricultural development  
in Zaire, or in Sudan, in order to offset the foreign currency supplied  
by the EDF for the purchase of fertilizer; again, money"was made available  
for the purchase of spares and equipment needed to get Tanzania's truck  
fleet on the road again.
One objective of Community development policy which should be given greater  
priority in future is support for regional cooperation, important not only  
for Africa but for the Caribbean and Pacific countries as well.

- 25 -
There would need to be thorough discussion between the Community and the  
recipient countries on the ways in which EEC-ACP cooperation must be  
implemented - the dialogue on sectoral policies. The aim of the dialogue  
would not be to call in question those countries' choice of society, development  
model,“general policy stance or sectoral priorities, but to enable the  
Community to get a better understanding of them in order to organize joint  
operations more efficiently. In sectors for which Community support is  
requested, dialogue will provide a means of working out jointly how best  
to pursue the objectives set by the government of the recipient country.
Programmes worked out in that framework to support sectoral policies  
defined by the Community will determine the measures to be undertaken by  
each side, with the partners offering undertakings with respect to  
decisions for which they have responsibility: the ACP State concerned
for policy decisions and measures within its jurisdiction, and the  
European Community for the resources it will deploy. This is how the  
food strategies work.
Support for sectoral policies can be effective only if enough money is made  
available to ensure that all essential operations will be financed.  
Community aid can reach this "critical mass" in a limited number of  
countries or sectors. In most cases, however, a further contribution,  
normally from the Member States, will prove necessary.
As with the food strategies,.the Community will have to get together with  
Member States to coordinate ideas and aid operations, in order to  
ensure the necessary consistency.

-  26  -
It would be desirable to involve other sources of funds as well, but the  
main thing is to work towards the creation of a "Community cooperation  
strategy".
1-2.3 Halting environmental deterioration in Africa: a new priority
The major ecological balances in Africa are deteriorating ever more  
rapidly. The next twenty years will be crucial. Damage which can still  
be repaired now will in many cases be irreversible by the year 2000,  
except perhaps at astronomical cost. Africa is threatened with the  
destruction of its natural assets: its arable land is being lost and
its water becoming scarcer.
People are now beginning to realize the seriousness of the situation and  
the need to do something about it. But Africa itself is facing too many  
other short-term difficulties to cope alone. So far, the international  
aid forthcoming to deal with environmental problems has been pathetically  
inadequate.
The halting of drought and desertification must become one of the  
priorities of aid to Africa. That, however, will mean a coming to terms  
with the regional or continental scale and long time horizon of the  
necessary operations.
The Community itself has identified three priority targets for the  
"thematic" campaigns to be undertaken in future:
control of desertification through the promotion of re-afforestation and  
the efficient use of fuelwood; protection and economic management of livestock  
and game resources; and efficient water resource management. All these  
measures are directed towards a single end: repair of the damage caused
by drought and the advance of the desert, prevention by attacking the root  
causes of these problems.
We cannot tackle desertification wherever it occurs, and efforts will need  
to be concentrated in certain regions, priority going to those where the  
threat is most severe: the Sahel countries and those bordering the Sahara,
the Horn of Africa, and the southern African SADCC member countries.

- 27 -
More specifically, we should concentrate on three types of  
location: areas currently accounting for the bulk of
agricultural production in the country concerned (e.g. Senegal's  
groundnut-growing area, and the sorghum- and cotton-growing  
area in Mali); river and lake basins, where proper water  
management will allow the intensification of agriculture  
(e.g. the Lake Chad and Senegal or Zambezi river basins); and  
the areas around major cities, where soil and plant destruction  
is severe and pressure on resources considerable (e.g. around  
Kano, Kinshasa, etc.).
Operations of this nature call for a whole new approach. They  
will generally need to be undertaken on a regional scale, for  
ecological zones do not coincide with administrative or national  
front i  ers.
It will also be essential to have the active support of the  
local population, who are both the main agents of environmental  
damage and the only people who can really see to it that the  
process is reversed.
Finally, the necessary measures can only be effective in the  
longer time-scale. They will therefore call for long-term  
programmes to be undertaken jointly by the Community, its  
Member States, and other sources of funds (the Arab funds should  
be able to make a significant contribution) and financed in  
multiannual instalments.
It is important at Community level that provision be made for  
an appropriate mode of financing these thematic campaigns when  
cooperation agreements are negotiated.

- 28 -
In 1983 12 million ECU were set aside under Article 958 of  
the Community budget (hunger in the world) to launch  
operations of this type, and 10 million ECU has been entered  
in the 1984 budget.
It is important to get these operations off to a rapid start,  
firstly to demonstrate before it is too late that in most  
cases environmental damage is not irreversible, secondly to  
show that given the will, the imagination and the resources  
the cost of effective action need not be prohibitive, and  
thirdly to set an example which the leaders of African  
countries, industrialized countries and international  
organizations may feel encouraged to emulate. Because of  
its links with Africa, the European Community must take the  
initiative here.
2. Mutual interest
The backing which Europe must give to the development of Africa  
must extend beyond the confines of aid and also be reflected  
in the sphere of economic relations, for they are the expression  
of a global mutual interest.
Africa supplies Europe above all with the raw materials -  
agricultural, mining and energy products - and with only marginal  
amounts of manufactures. But it is not in Europe's interest  
to have Africa permanently cast in the role of raw materials  
supplier. It is clearly in Europe's interest to have as  
preferential partners African economies which are strong,  
balanced and diversified. That is why-the Community is backing  
the idea of self-reliant development fop Africa.
It is important for the Community to offer African countries  
more stable and predictable trade prospects, hence the  
preferential arrangements and the creation of a special  
instrument - Stabex - designed to'alleviate the damage caused  
by fluctuating commodity prices.
On these bases it is necessary furthermore to develop, in a  
spirit of cooperation, more ambitious policies and courses of  
action in all spheres where the complementary nature of  
resources and mutual interests permit, in the mining, energy and  
fisheries sectors, and also in industry. It is important to involve

- 29 -
European investors, far more than hitherto in developing Africa's  
productive resources.
2.1 Trade
2.1.1 Trade arrangements
The Lomé Convention and the Mediterranean agreements offer African Countries  
the widest trade preferences accorded by the Community.
Having said that, it must be admitted that the liberal Lomé Convention  
arrangements have not produced any significant increase or structural change  
in the sub-Saharan African countries' exports to the EEC. They still consist  
for the most part of energy products and agricultural or mineral commodities,  
and only a handful of countries are to any extent exporters of products  
which actually benefit from the preferential arrangements.
Preferential import arrangements are merely a facility, and cannot in  
themselves strengthen African countries' international competitiveness,  
or promote structural change or industrialization.
As regards trade with the industrially more developed Mediterranean countries,  
the Community has had to restrict imports of sensitive
products and this has reduced the real value of the concessions originally  
accorded. We will eventually have to get back to the provisions of the  
agreements in these sectors. The circumstances are not easy, but an  
effort has to be made to develop trade cooperation based on the joint

identification of areas of complementarity and the use of suitable measures to  
cope with threats of disruption in such a way that crises can be forestalled.’ '
Basically what it comes down to is that Europe must face up to an international  
division of labour in which there is a qradual shift of the balance in favour of  
industry in the developing countries, and Africa in particular.
In particular the necessary structural adjustments must be made without  
yielding to the temptation to resort to protectionist measures, which  
experience has shown rarely achieve the objective of preserving business  
and employment in the "threatened" industry they are aimed at. In the  
adjustment exercise, the emphasis must be laid less on protection of  
employment in the declining industries and more on the encouragement of  
manpower mobility and promotion of industries which prove competitive at  
international level.
In that context, these countries need to see free access to the  
Community market secured over the long term if they are to be  
guaranteed the modicum of security needed to justify capital investment  
required for their industrial development (which of course would be  
primarily geared to the domestic market).
2.1.2 Commodities
African countries have been extremely hard hit by the fall in commodity  
prices, from which a very large proportion of their export earnings is  
derived. This worldwide problem has been exacerbated by one specific to  
Africa: the relative decline of its agricultural productivity and the
collapse of mining investment, which has led to a decline of the African  
countries' position on most international commodity markets.
The Community operates an instrument designed to cushion the effects of  
instability of the agricultural commodity markets, Stabex; it has  
undoubtedly been helpful, but was never intended to be anything other than  
a palliative and proved inadequate, not surprisingly, to cope in 1980  
and 1981 with a slump of such magnitude. Nevertheless, it will be  
continued and its operating resources must be increased.
^Commission report to the Council on the exploratory talks with the  
Mediterranean countries and the applicant countries. Commission  
proposals concerning the implementation of a Mediterranean policy for  
the enlarged Community. C0M(84)107 final.

- 31 -
But a real solution to fluctuating commodity prices must depend on a  
determined, concerted effort by the whole international community to  
stabilize world markets. The European Community in particular must be  
active in seeking the establishment of really effective commodity agreements.  
The forthcoming negotiations for the next international cocoa agreement  
will be of great importance in this context, for both Africa, which produces  
three-quarters of the world's cocoa, and Europe, which takes a third of  
it and is the leading world consumer.
But raw materials make up only a small proportion - rarely more than 10% -  
of the value of any finished product. It is therefore vital that  
African countries begin to add more value to their commodities, either by  
processing them locally or by organizing their marketing more  
efficiently.
The importance of these commercial issues is worth stressing, in the first  
place because they constitute one more handicap for the African countries  
in addition to their production and productivity problems, and have thus  
contributed to their loss of world market shares to Latin American or  
Asian competitors, and secondly because dealing, brokerage and arbitrage  
represent a by no means negligible proportion of the value of a finished  
product. In particular, it is vital that Africans increase their  
activities in the futures markets, which have become an essential mechanism  
for coping with price instability.
In future more should be done to help Africans make
the necessary improvements in their commerical performance, by means of  
trade promotion measures (business contacts, marketing campaigns  
involving several producer countries) and above all by training people to  
run marketing boards, operate on futures markets, etc.

- 32 -
2.2 Wining
Clearly the Community and Africa share a mutual interest which should  
be reflected in the development of a concerted policy for developing  
mineral resources.
Africa possesses substantial mineral resources although so far they have  
been little exploited and little exploration work has been done.
Broadly speaking, Africa's reserves are as plentiful as those of Asia  
and Latin America, despite the fact that far less prospecting has been  
done. The harnessing of this natural wealth could make a significant  
contribution to the development of the African countries by providing  
financial resources and encouraging their industrialization.
For its part, the Community is the world's leading raw materials importer.  
Its external dependence rate is 75%, compared with 15% for the United States  
and 90% for Japan. It is of vital interest for the Community to guarantee  
and diversify its sources of supply.
This statement must be tempered by two observations. Firstly, where  
they exist and have been exploited subsoil resources have not contributed  
as much to development as was hoped. Secondly, to investors looking for  
mineral deposits, Africa's mineral resources do not seem to be as  
attractive as those of other continents.
Of the developing countries, Africa is the Community's major non-energy  
raw materials supplier, providing 20% of all its imports. It plays a  
predominant role with regard to cobalt, phosphates, copper, manganese  
and fluorine.
It is, however, a long way behind the group of industrialized countries  
(Australia, Canada, South Africa and the United States) where in recent  
years mining investment has to a large extent been concentrated. Africa  
in particular is an under-explored continent. Out of a total of  
$1 500 million invested annually on prospecting, less than $50 million

- 33 -
is spent in Africa, whereas sub-Saharan Africa's requirements are  
estimated at $75-100 million per year at least. If one takes Community  
firms alone it will be found that in recent years more than 80% of their  
investment has been in industrialized countries (38% of world resources)  
and less than a fifth in developing countries (of which 2% in Africa,  
which accounts for 13.5% of world reserves).
While Europe's marked and growing dependence for its supplies on  
industrialized countries may appear to offer security for the time  
being, it may present disadvantages in the longer term.
Declining demand, coupled with the worsening international recession and  
structural changes on the raw materials markets, has led to a cutback  
in mining investment worldwide. No-one knows whether the level  
of replenishment is sufficient to protect European industry from  
abrupt market fluctuations caused by supply-side rigidity, since the  
lead time on mining projects is five to ten years from the time when  
financing decisions are taken.
If strains appear when the minerals market picks up at the end of the  
eighties or at the beginning of the following decade, there is a risk that  
Europe, given its present supply position, would be served not only after  
the United States but also after Japan, which has managed to establish  
preferential links with North America, Latin America and Australia in order  
to guarantee its supplies.
Therefore, in order to guarantee its mineral security, it is important  
for Europe to look towards Africa in order to diversify its investment  
effort and supply sources.
This must be a Community concern, for all the Member States are in  
the same boat in terms of external vulnerability. The Community has a  
fairly wide range of instruments at its disposal, should it wish to  
use them: grants, special loans, risk capital, Sysmin under the EDF,
EIB loans with or without interest rate subsidies, plus ECSC loans  
and possibly the budget.
The EDF and the EIB in particular, under the ACP-EEC Conventions, can act  
to create the conditions for improving the development of African resources  
by, for instance, helping with prospecting activities, rehabilitating  
production plant - which is a priority in many countries - financing  
infrastructure and improving the integration of mining into the  
economies of the countries concerned.

- 34 -
Failure to invest in mining, if it relates to cost considerations, is  
often largely the result of a mutual lack of confidence between the host  
country and mining companies. By being party to arrangements between  
the two partners, the Community can contribute to establishing a climate  
of trust.
The specific agreements provided for in the second ACP-EEC Convention, even  
though for want of investment they have not yet been applied in practice,  
provide an appropriate framework for such measures.
2.3 Energy
Energy is another area where cooperation based on mutual interest can  
be developed.
Africa possesses considerable, inadequately exploited energy resources.
If those resources were exploited to a greater extent, Africa could both  
increase its energy independence and have a surplus left over for export.
These resources could provide the EEC - which purchases 76% of its oil,
30% of its gas, 20% of its coal and 80% of its uranium from outside  
the Community - with a more substantial source of supplies, to the  
development of which it can contribute its know-how, experience and  
capital. The Community's external dependence for its energy supplies  
is not likely to go away, since according to the most probable forecasts  
its energy imports will still account for almost 50% of consumption at  
the turn of the century.
The development of the African countries' fossil resources (oil, gas,  
coal and uranium), part of which can and must be exported, indeed deserves  
priority and is of mutual interest.
With regard to oil, the Community could in particular concentrate on the  
pre-production stage (geophysical exploration, feasibility and market  
studies, etc.) and help with setting up the necessary production infrastructure.
The development of natural gas will initially to a large extent depend  
on the export opportunities. This is because while the cost of producing  
it is relatively low, the extent to which it can be used on the domestic  
market is limited by a number of constraints (cost of infrastructure,  
exchange rates, transport and distribution facilities, need for geographical  
concentration of consumers).

- 35 -
The situation is fairly similar in the case of coal. While the possibility  
of working low-capacity local deposits deserves to be studied, for major  
calfields the only viable economic approach, not with standing the compe­
tition on the word market, presupposes production mainly for report, since  
national and regional thermal power stations can only absorb a small  
proportion of the coal. The Community could, by concentrating on countries  
with coal resources, help them to develop those resources and establish  
the necessary infrastructure which, moreover, is itself conducive to  
development.
2.4 Fisheries
In the fisheries sector the Community has a deficit in terms of fish  
stocks for own consumption and, at the same time, spare production  
capacity in terms of fishing vessels. This imbalance will, moreover,  
be sharply accentuated when the Ten become Twelve, which will increase  
the tonnage of the Community's fishing fleet by nearly 7o% . Many African  
countries have a food deficit, whilst some possess substantial resources  
but are not able to exploit them rationally themselves (the Africans  
fish only some 35% of their resources).
Community action in this sector can take three forms: firstly, the
conclusion of fishery agreements;. secondly, EDF participation in the  
financing of projects in the fisheries and fish farming sectors, and,  
lastly, the incentives to expand the fisheries industries which may  
result for the ACP and the Mediterranean countries from their preferential,  
access to the Community market.
It has to be acknowledged that the impact of these arrangements has so  
far been very limited. Relatively few projects have been financed by the  
EDF and the scope of the fisheries agreements is limited. This is  
due to the fact that so far most African countries have shown little  
interest in the fisheries sector and also to the low level of Community  
fishery activities in ACP waters (2% of Community catches).
The situation is, however, changing. Firstly, because the African  
countries are attaching growing importance to the fisheries sector  
and to relations in this field with the Community,

- 36 -
Community, after its enlargement to 12 members, will, derive 10% of  
its fish supplies from the Mediterranean or off the Atlantic coast  
of African countries.
Thus it is desirable to define in the fisheries sector a genuine  
policy based on mutual interest which will integrate, by combining  
them, the various instruments existing at Community level. This policy  
should place a particular emphasis on regional cooperation between  
coastal countries in order to bring into play the features which are  
complementary within the same maritime zone and, with Community aid,  
enable measures to be brought to bear more rationally for the conservation  
and management of stocks and for controlling fisheries activities.
2.5 European investment in Africa
Official assistance cannot aim to meet all of Africa's external  
financing requirements, and certainly not in the industrial, energy and  
mining sectors. It can, however, enable conditions to be created  
which are more conducive to external investment. This investment has  
an important role to play since it represents not only essential  
finance but also - and perhaps above all - valuable knowhow in the  
fields concerned.
To date private investment flows to Africa have been fairly modest -  
experience of nationalizations and political instability in particular  
having made investors cautious - and has tended to concentrate on  
sectors where there was a very quick "financial return".
The cooperation of European firms - mainly industrial but also those  
in the services sector, whether private or public - to promote the  
development of Africa may provide an important means of renewing  
Community cooperation and needs to be expanded by active steps  
to encourage it.
European investors must get more involved on the African continent as  
its potential is considerable and, whatever the present difficulties,  
it will be a major market tomorrow.
For them to be able to do this they must insert their activities within the  
framework of the host countries' priorities and developiriei^t policy. The African  countries must, however, if they wish to attract such investment, offer
in return a favourable climate marked by transparency, stability and  
equity and must participate in a joint guarantee mechanism.

- 37 -
The second Lomé Convention contains provisions on industrial cooperation  
which can be applied to the promotion of private investment. It also  
contains provisions regarding agreements on protecting investment  
concluded or to' be concluded between Member States and ACP States, but  
no use has been made of them in practice.
Framework provisions should be sought regardingthe factors which can genuinely exert a positive influence on private
investment flows, in response to the more favourable overall attitude
shown by the African countries. It is important to note that this field is no
longer one where different ideologies fight it out but one where
discussions are held on detailed procedures since in Europe and
Africa alike private investment is seen as an important element
in establishing an industrial base. It should be possible, in this
new context, by fully acknowledging the role of the states of origin
and the host states, to create the right kind of climate and prepare
the ground for receiving the investment and offering protection
and guarantees in such a way as to encourage investment flows.
It will also be necessary to look into the adequacy of financing resources  
where a favourable overall environment has revealed various investment  
opportuni ties.
While it is fundamental to devise a contractual legal and financial  
framework conducive to private investment and geared to the  
needs of small and medium-sized European firms, which have an important  
role to play in Africa, it must be supplemented by a package of industrial  
promotion measures which should be developed and make is possible to  
increase the capacity of African countries'-to identify viable projects,  
to improve the flow of information and contacts (investors’  forums,  
information and promotion measures in the Member States, specific  
missions) and to carry out diagnostic, corrective or ^organizational  
operations.

CONCLUSION
Africa s economic and social plight requires cooperation between  
Europe and Africa to take on a new dimension.
Africa needs more, and more appropriate, official aid. But aid  
alone is not enough. The European economy has to increase its  
involvement in Africa, in compliance of course with the laws and  
priorities of the countries concerned and on a basis of mutual  
interest.
As far as aid is concerned, the Community and its Member States have  
a variety of instruments available, and these need to be deployed in  
a coordinated fashion. Purely ad hoc aid operations will not solve  
the problems facing African countries. Short-term measures need to  
be welded into a medium-term approach, and designed as aids to  
development. —
We therefore need to try and improve the coordination of Community  
aid and bilateral aid from the Member States, so that European  
operations form a consistent whole and, where necessary, can provide  
the "critical mass" of funds needed for effective support to African  
countries' sectoral development policies. We must work towards a  
"Community cooperation strategy".

-  2 -
Food aid is a necessary part of the response to Africa's food crisis,  
particularly in order to cope with shortfalls caused by climatic  
conditions. Community food aid was stepped up sharply in 1983  
because of the drought, with 50% increases for the 24 worst-affected  
countries. There will again be a slight increase this year from  
the already high 1983 level, and aid mobilization will have to be  
speeded up to prevent a hiatus in the Sahel and southern African  
areas where the situation is most serious. We need to improve  
coordination with the Member States on aid programming and transport  
to and within the country concerned. But such short-term measures,  
necessary as they are, must not be allowed to undermine the recipient  
countries' efforts to develop their own agriculture. This wilt  
mean intensifying efforts to integrate food aid with development  
policy as a whole.
The new approach of support programmes for sectoral development  
policies should make it possible to help African countries cope with  
their financial problems, since the programmes will combine different  
forms of assistance, including maintenance aid and aid for  
rehabilitation work. With this in mind, consideration should be  
given to extending the practice whereby at the request of the  
countries concerned,and after case-by-case examination, a certain  
proportion of programmed but as yet unused fifth EDF money would be  
re-allocated in order to finance, via a rapid disbursement procedure,  
those imports which the ACP themselves can no longer afford but which  
are vital to maintain or rehabilitate their productive capacity. In  
the present difficult circumstances the new domestic policies  
introduced in African countries cannot succeed unless more external  
aid is forthcoming, to respond to this need the European Community's  
financial assistance for the African countries provided via the EDF  
and EIB should be reinforced.

- 3 -
The halting of drought and desertification must become one of the  
priorities of aid to Africa; the African countries are facing too  
many other short-term problems to deal with this themselves. Operations  
of this nature will require a whole new approach. They will generally  
need to be undertaken on a regional scale, for ecological zones do not  
coincide with political frontiers. It will also be essential to have the  
active support of the local population. And the necessary measures can  
only be effective in the long term. Donors and affected countries must  
work hand-in-hand. The European Community, given its ties with Africa,  
must take the initiative here.
European public enterprises and private-sector firms have an important  
role to play in enhancing Community cooperation through their  
contribution to the development of Africa. There is scope for us in a  
spirit of partnership to develop more ambitious policies and operations  
in the various areas where our resources are complementary and we have  
mutual interests, in mining, energy, fishing, and manufacturing  
industry. In negotiating the next ACP-EEC convention, therefore, we  
need to provide a legal and financial contractual framework incorporating  
a joint guarantee to encourage European businessmen to step up their  
investments in Africa.
For the purposes of its cooperation with Africa, the Community also  
needs to coordinate its activities with those of other bilateral and  
multilateral donors. It needs closer links, too, with the OAU,  
responsible for implementation and monitoring of the Lagos Plan, and  
the UN's Economic Commission for Africa, which is an important body  
in the field of African development.
If the Council approves these guidelines, the Commission could present  
more specific proposals in due course in the context of the different  
cooperation agreements which link the Community with the African countries  
and regarding the implementation of the other instruments which it  
administers.