Growing pains
Is NEPAD the answer to Africa's woes, or just another big-budget talking shop? asks
Gamal Nkrumah
From Cape to Cairo, African heads of state and government descended on Algiers for what is seen as the continent's most crucial economic summit of 2004.
Whether for their sins, or for their edification, the African leaders spent the sunny part of the day discussing the continent's innumerable woes behind closed doors.
Nobody can accuse them of not being in the right place at the right time. The opening session brought together 22 of the continent's leaders, including Egypt's Hosni Mubarak and his South African counterpart Thabo Mbeki. Also present were Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zennawi.
One person who was conspicuously absent, however, was the flamboyant Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who had made a habit of stealing the show at these gatherings.
The two-day summit of the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) was opened by the host nation's President Abdul-Aziz Bouteflika amid much media fanfare. But critics of NEPAD, first launched in October 2001, say that what was once heralded as a blueprint for African economic survival has lost its original spark.
The assembled leaders agreed that the Algiers summit was a golden opportunity to take stock, and there was more than a little self-congratulation on display during the proceedings.
"We note an evolution towards the consolidation of democracy through the constant progress made in terms of popular representation, pluralistic debate and freedom of expression in almost all African countries," Bouteflika declared in his opening remarks.
"More and more African countries are establishing sound macro-economic policies and seeking to become more efficient in their economic and financial management and the workings of their judicial and administrative institutions," he informed his listeners. He was not alone in this optimistic interpretation of reality.
"Africa is on the right track," Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo concurred, "and it is clear that the success of the peer review mechanism will considerably increase the credibility of African countries in their efforts to ensure growth, development, stability and democracy."
But even the upbeat Algerian president had to admit that several sticky problems persisted. "While several conflicts have been resolved, we obviously deplore the persistence of these crises which affect our unity and divert us from our objectives of development and progress," he told the assembly.
President Mubarak, for his part, proposed that Egypt host the next NEPAD summit scheduled for April 2005.
But behind the diplomatic niceties there were serious concerns. Africa has found it difficult to keep its footing amid the shifting sands of the new world order.
According to recently released United Nations figures, Africa now has the lowest level of foreign investment of all continents, attracting a paltry two per cent of global foreign direct investment flows. The entire continent received a mere $15 billion last year, a shocking figure, especially when contrasted with China, which alone ensnared a whopping $53 billion.
In addition, Africa has the lowest per capita income rates and the largest number of people living in absolute poverty (defined as less than one dollar a day).
It is these harsh facts, not their leaders' daydreams of a better future, that are the reality which the long- suffering people of Africa have to face every day.
This contradiction between optimistic official statements and grim realities can lead to confusion and serious disappointment. Indeed, Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade did not mince his words. "I am disappointed," he told reporters after the meeting. "I have great difficulty explaining what we have achieved when people at home and abroad ask me that question. We're spending a lot of money and, above all, wasting time with repetition and conferences."
Wade described NEPAD as "confused and unfocussed".
But even if the leaders who masterminded NEPAD themselves concede that the project is a "failure", they are pinning their hopes on this mechanism to reverse Africa's slide from a much-coveted gold mine into tragic irrelevance.
For a start, the pressing problem of Africa's debt burden must be tackled head on. Across the continent, health, educational and social services are being systematically dismantled, precisely because heavily-indebted states are forced to put servicing their debts first.
Africa owes its foreign creditors $400 billion, and this drain on resources is the cause of untold suffering for their people. Another set of constraints are those created by the new world economic order, in which the subservience of the weak and under- resourced has been further aggravated. Economic growth in Africa has hovered around 3.5 per cent annually over the last five years, which falls far short of the NEPAD estimate of the 6-8 per cent needed to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted by African and world leaders in 2000.
The MDGs include reducing the proportion of people living on less than $1 a day by half by the year 2015.
Many highly vocal African civil society groups are sceptical about the NEPAD agenda, which pins the continent's hopes on attracting a larger share of global capital flows, in the form of Western funding. Their experience teaches them that the half-hearted efforts of the wealthier nations to salvage the fate of the poorest countries have always achieved precious little.
Thus, they cite the example of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative: launched by a handful of the world's wealthiest nations with the aim of alleviating the economic plight of the poorest and least developed countries, it has yet brought little change to the suffering of the poorest of the poor.
Meanwhile, demography is speaking volumes. Africans are leaving their continent in droves, as the cream of the youth hopes to find greener pastures overseas. The result is a debilitating brain drain which will make economic resurgence all the more essential, just as it makes it ever less likely. Under these wretched conditions, how can NEPAD hope to achieve the steady improvements in living standards which it promises?
Meanwhile, the wealthy nations refuse to agree to trade concessions for poor countries, instead imposing subsidies to protect their own industries.
"The NEPAD mechanism is still in its infancy, and we expect it to grow up very soon," Nigerian President Obasanjo said, defending NEPAD's record.
Yet development assistance to African countries has plummeted in recent years. Official aid for African agriculture fell from $4 billion to $2.6 billion over the past decade, to cite only one example.
Indeed, then, Africa must grow up, if it wants to be taken seriously. The hubris, incompetence and failure of African officials and policy-makers should not be permitted to form international attitudes about the situation and future of the continent.
The current neo-colonial system, over which these leaders preside, continues to give the Western powers control over the continent's resources. And it is in this context that NEPAD expects the international community to cough up $64 million annually in investments to pull Africa out of its economic woes and seriously kick-start a new "development" process.
But why would the Western powers step up to meet these demands?
Its supporters say NEPAD has enhanced Africa's credibility on the world stage. Yet the current socio- economic situation is untenable, and unbearable. Until the continent's leaders learn to draw the lessons of their past experiences, and stand up for their people's true interests, the international community is unlikely to take Africa's voice more seriously.
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