“Most African regimes are corrupt and specialise in squandering public funds. For this reason, one should not waste time on bailing out these countries.” So runs the rationale of various Western governments and organisations, when the issue of aid to Africa comes to the fore.
While it is true that lack of good governance has held back some of Africa’s growth and aid flows, Europe and the USA, among others, need to address the fundamentals that are causing abject poverty to continue to prevail in this continent of failed states.
While agreeing with the UN Economic Commission for Africa dictum that “without peace there can be no long-term development and without good governance, there is seldom peace”, I feel that a comprehensive, holistic plan for Africa’s survival and renewal is still conspicuous by its absence.
The problems are so deep-
rooted that we should all agree that Africa needs more than just lip service.
I believe that the New Partnership for Africa peer review, which served as an independent inspectorate that can assess good governance in these countries is a voluntary system, it needs more teeth to benchmark the governments in the area, particularly if one is to step up aid to this particular continent.
These countries must be made to sign up to the UN convention on corruption and remedial action must be taken, should they fail to conform with such inherent obligations.
But if one is to point the finger of blame, one should not limit it to the African leaders, but one should also put in the dock all those Western companies that engage in bribes in the area.
In fact a recent study revealed that “No UK firms or banks have been denied government aid, or been blacklisted or prosecuted for involvement in corrupt activities overseas since the Labour government came to power in 1997.”
On the positive side, one should praise and support Tony Blair’s new action plan for Africa that cannot succeed without the US doubling its aid in the process.
Nevertheless, prospects seem bleak, so much so that the US government has been noted to have reacted negatively in the sense that such proposals do not fit its budgetary process.
The issue at stake is whether the leadership of the G8 group of industrialised countries was already tackling this problem adequately or else whether the present set up and framework needed further beefing up.
Mr Brown, Britain’s PM in waiting, is not likely to have made himself that popular across the Atlantic for having argued together with his prime minister that rich countries should pick up the debt-servicing bill.
This has almost become a mantra for Brown, which he has been proposing for ages.
I remember him doing so when attending a Commonwealth Finance Ministers’ meeting in Mauritius way back in 1997.
Nevertheless, I agree that a balanced solution needs to be found whereby aid, political reform and the eradication of corruption are somehow kept in check.
Another question which is often asked is how effective are rock singers like Bob Geldof and U2’s Bono when they put the current state of aid to Africa high on their “political” and public agenda.
They might be indulging in self-publicity in the process, but at the same time one cannot but admit that they are no doubt helping to turn the spotlight on this burning and festering issue.
What started off as a mere Live Aid concert has now taken the shape of what is called the Make Poverty History campaign.
One would expect that even local NGOs dealing with third world issues should take up this issue and lobby strongly in favour of such aid in the international fora they attend.
The same can be expected of government itself which should see that such an issue features in the next CHOGM summit due to be held in Malta this coming November.
I still believe that, although US support is crucial, there is much to be done even without such support – particularly by European G8 member states.
One little organisation that deserves public credit is AWEPA – The European Parliamentarians For Africa to which I have been affiliated since my early days in the Maltese Parliament.
It might have limited personnel and resources but it has been lobbying most governments assiduously, with a fair measure of success.
It is currently undertaking a project which is called Making Trade Work For Development, with a view to mobilising legislators to support sugar and cotton farmers in the developing world.
As social democrats and as Christians we cannot turn a blind eye to a continent that has been ravaged by HIV/AIDS, devastated by years of civil war and lacks infrastructure and investment.
While aid is important, AWEPA is also making the point that developing countries in Africa are dependent on Europe not just for aid but also for a chance to trade their way out of poverty.
The trade policies of Europe have repercussions way beyond its new expanded borders, and nowhere is this more strongly evident than in the sugar industry.
Europe is currently reforming its sugar regime, and the decisions taken will determine whether the enormous potential benefits of sugar production for very poor countries will be realised.
It is high time that a focus on Africa’s needs formed part of our foreign policy.
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Leo Brincat is the main opposition spokesman for Foreign Affairs and IT.