By Henry J. Hyde, chairman of the House International Relations Committee Published July 5, 2005 Throughout Africa, millions of people live in conditions
scarcely imaginable to most Americans. It is too simple to lay the conditions of
grinding poverty, failing institutions, rampant corruption, recurring conflict,
starving children and flagging economies all at the feet of some notoriously
wretched leaders, although the continent has had its share. Africa has also been
the victim of good intentions. Decades of half-promises from Western donors have
littered the landscape with half-finished projects that now stand as rusted
monuments to the African miracle that hasn't happened. We should all applaud British Prime Minister Tony Blair for making Africa the centerpiece of the G-8 summit at Gleneagles, Scotland, this week--and for hustling other world leaders to the cause. However, the chief proposal being offered to address African needs is suspect. The United Kingdom is pushing for an "International Finance Facility" that would use international bond markets to raise $50 billion in development funds for each of the next few years, with donors committing future aid budgets to pay off the bonds in subsequent years. The notion of mortgaging the future for an immediate and massive push for cash now that would magically shove Africa writ large over an imaginary barrier into a promised land of opportunity lacks the mechanics to link western money to African outcomes. In many parts of Africa, a $50 billion roll of the global dice to hand over truckloads of cash would merely fund ineffective projects and further entrench the elements of corruption, thuggery and income disparity, while undercutting those African heroes laboring on an uneven playing field to promote transparency, good governance and economic participation. We already have a framework for confronting Africa's ills. In Monterrey, Mexico, in early 2002, developed nations agreed to a new bargain with the world's underdeveloped nations: Donors would increase aid spending and the world's poor nations would carry out economic and political reforms to ensure that development-assistance money gets spent effectively. Something-for-nothing handouts would end. The IFF undermines the spirit of Monterrey by focusing on the tin-cupping of financing the enterprise rather than crafting a strategy for achieving desperately needed outcomes the enterprise is intended to provide. We must no longer treat Africa as a ward of the developed world. We must no longer espouse the welfarism of patting the continent on the head muttering, "poor Africans" while opening our wallets so we, as donors, can sleep better at night thinking we've made a difference when we haven't. No nation ever spent its way out of poverty by cashing foreign-aid checks. Instead, we should focus our partnerships with committed African leaders who are actively implementing the kinds of policies and actions necessary for home-grown economic growth and poverty reduction. African leaders genuinely concerned about the betterment of their country focus on trade, private investment, technology and other core drivers of lasting economic growth--and how to become less dependent on the whims of Western handouts. Transparent and dedicated African states deserve our targeted assistance to support them as they wrestle through their own development challenges with their own solutions, where mutual self-interest in the continent's development infuses a commitment to visible outcomes and expectations that run both ways between donors and developing states. In Gleneagles, the Bush administration and the other G-8 participants should hold fast to the principles of Monterrey and tie aid to policies that promote growth and democracy. President Bush's $674 million aid package to Africa announced at Tony Blair's White House visit last month and the subsequent announcement to join the G-8 to forgive $40 billion in debt to 18 mostly African countries are good steps forward. These latest measures are on top of other recent initiatives by the United States, including the $15 billion, five-year effort to combat global AIDS, the multibillion Millennium Challenge Account to spur economic growth in good performing countries, and the African Growth and Opportunity Act to provide trade preferences to 37 African countries. The voices of political leaders, movie and rock stars and the African poor are united in saying that Gleneagles poses a great opportunity. Let us seek to ensure that the focus is on achieving outcomes for African people rather than creating new monuments to our good intentions. ---------- This commentary first appeared in The Sunday Telegraph. Copyright © 2005, Chicago Tribune |
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