Africa’s economic recovery plan yet to win financial backing

by William Dhlamini

Johannesburg, 19 Jun 2001 (IPS) - Africa’s ambitious development vision, the Millennium African Recovery Plan (MAP), aimed at kick-starting the continent’s economic and social recovery, has so far been ‘positively’ received by key developed countries and international organisations, but this support has yet to turn into hard currency and action.

This is the view of Abdul Minty, deputy director-general in South Africa’s ministry of foreign affairs who has been closely involved in the MAP plan.

“The European Union, Canada and Japan have taken positive political positions on trade matters, but this is yet to be followed by actions,” said Minty in an interview with IPS.

“The world must face the challenges that were posed at the United Nations Millennium Summit, which included debt cancellation, improved market access, enhanced official development assistance, increased flow of foreign direct investment, transfer of technology and, more broadly, bringing Africa into the mainstream economy,” says Minty.

South African President Thabo Mbeki last week visited the United Kingdom to drum-up British support for MAP and to push the former colonial power to step up investment and peacekeeping efforts on the continent.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has promised Mbeki that he would help persuade the West to join in a ‘new partnership with Africa’.

Mbkeki is due to follow-up on his UK trip with a visit to Washington where he hopes to sell the plan to US President George W. Bush.

Mbeki and his Nigerian counterpart Olusegun Obasanjo and Algeria’s Abdelaziz Bouteflika have been spearheading the MAP plan, which is being sold as Africa’s version of the Marshall Plan - the US-backed plan that lifted post-war Europe out of economic and social despair.

The African leaders want rich nations to take a similar approach to their continent and expect that next month’s G8 summit of the group of developed countries in Italy will provide ‘tangible’ financial support for the plan.

French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, who was in South Africa for a two-day state visit last week, gave his country’s support to the MAP plan. Colin Powell, US secretary of state, on his recent visit here, also praised the plan.

The final shape of MAP will be released at the Organisation for African Unity (OAU) conference in July in Lusaka, the Zambian capital, following revisions now being undertaken by a technical team of prominent African and international economists.

The success of MAP really depends on two key factors: willingness of developed nations to open up their markets to African products, especially agricultural and manufacturing, and to cancel the crippling debts that the poor owe to the rich.

In return for these two fundamental concessions, African countries are pledging to meet rigorous good governance, democracy, human rights, peace and rule of law targets.

However, debt cancellation and persuading developed countries to open up their markets to African goods have been a hard sell.

Minty says, the upcoming World Trade Organisation (WTO) global trade negotiations in Doha, Qatar in November will reveal whether the developed nations are really prepared to open their markets to African goods.

Minty says that G-8 countries have expressed a desire to forgive stifling debts, except those directly owed to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.  However, there has not been much action from the G-8 countries in turning their ‘desire’ into positive action.

In an unprecedented joint visit to Africa in February this year, World Bank President James Wolfensohn and International Monetary Fund Managing Director Horst Koehler pledged their support for the MAP plan. “What is clear is that (MAP) is an orientation that deserves our support,” said Koehler.

However, although the World Bank and IMF have announced debt relief for 22 of the world poorest countries, it still falls far short of the comprehensive debt cancellation that the MAP plan demands.

The lack of enthusiasm to lift trade barriers to African goods, especially agriculture, is another stumbling block. Trade barriers cost developing countries $20 billion a year, which was $6 billion more than they received in direct aid, says Unilever chairperson Niall FitzGerald.

Alec Erwin, South Africa’s Trade and Industry Minister, says that key on the agenda should be agriculture, which is heavily subsidised in the European Union, Japan and the US, thus keeping out exports from developing countries.

The EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is particularly troubling, says FitzGerald, observing that the EU spent more money on cattle subsidies than many Africans have to live on.

“More than a dollar a day goes to support every cow in the EU herd,” says FitzGerald. This, while hundreds of millions of people in the developing world are forced to live on less than one dollar a day.

Mfundo Nkuhlu, a member of the technical team drafting the final version of MAP says the initiative aims to develop a coherent, but focused strategy and implementation programme to tackle poverty and underdevelopment in Africa.

Other goals include promoting democracy, respect for the rule of law and human rights, ending the many violent conflicts on the continent, eliminating the spread of AIDS and other communicable diseases, he said.

The MAP further calls for investment in information and communication technologies to access the knowledge economy and bridge the digital divide, diversifying production and exports through value added agriculture, and expanding tourism.

But, according to Nkuhlu, these goals will hardly be realised without debt cancellation, improving capital inflows and reform of international trade to create a fair and just system in which African exports can gain access to markets of developed countries. – SUNS4919

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