 March 12, 2005Commission on Poverty in Africa Seeks a Doubling of Aid
At a news conference in London, Mr. Blair said the impoverishment of Africa and the needless deaths of millions of young children there each year presented "the fundamental moral challenge of our time." The commission, which includes President Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania and Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia among its members, contends that many African governments are already improving their practices and noted that democracy was on the rise. Africa could effectively spend an additional $25 billion a year on health, education, rural roads, small-scale irrigation, railways and a raft of other needs, roughly doubling current levels of aid, the commission says. Its members come down firmly in the camp of those who believe foreign aid works, but their report also warns that donor nations will have to pool resources and simplify reporting requirements to avoid overloading African governments whose ranks of skilled managers are thin. The commission also said Britain, the United States and European nations should abolish the huge agricultural subsidies that give their farmers an unfair advantage over Africans. The amount that rich countries spent on such subsidies in 2002 was the equivalent of the income of all the people in sub-Saharan Africa combined, the report said. The commission's report arrives when global poverty is rising on the international agenda. Advocates and development experts alike say there is both a new sense of the possibilities and risks as billions more dollars in aid come available. "It doesn't take many high-profile examples of aid going astray to undermine the case for aid," said Kevin Watkins, director of the Human Development Report Office at the United Nations Development Program. The commission's support for a dramatic ratcheting up of aid echoes the recommendation earlier this year of a team of experts sponsored by the United Nations and led by Prof. Jeffrey D. Sachs: that aid to poor countries should be doubled. At the annual gathering of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January, business executives, politicians and academics put poverty at the top of their list of priorities. Last month, the world's wealthiest nations agreed to raise contributions to the World Bank's international development program to $34 billion, from $23 billion. This year, Britain is the leader of the Group of 8 industrialized nations. In that role, Mr. Blair will push for a sweeping plan to diminish poverty in Africa when the leaders of those nations meet in Scotland in July, and the commission's report will serve as the basis for his pitch. Like the United Nations team, the commission said rich nations should set clear timetables to give seven-tenths of 1 percent of their national income in aid - a step that Britain, France, Spain, Ireland, Belgium and Finland have taken, but not the United States, which gives less than two-tenths of 1 percent in aid, the smallest percentage of any major donor. The leaders of many nations, including President Bush, supported a declaration in 2002 promising to "make concrete efforts" toward the target of seven-tenths of 1 percent. The Bush administration has increased aid to 15-hundredths of 1 percent, and its new budget proposals would increase it to levels near the two-tenths mark. But a spokesman at the National Security Council said yesterday that the United States had no intention of committing itself to a specific timetable to reach the seven-tenths target, even as he praised the commission for stressing the importance of improved governance and private sector investment, among other things. "We disagree with the global quantitative aid targets," said the spokesman, who declined to be quoted by name. "They bear no relation to recipient countries' ability to use these resources effectively. And they incorrectly imply that foreign aid alone can eradicate poverty." The poverty debate will likely peak in September, when world leaders will gather at the United Nations to measure progress toward the so-called millennium development goals to reduce poverty, which were set in 2000. Lately, the British leadership on global poverty has been center stage. "There's a little friendly competition, and I think the United States does notice the British are getting a lot of attention," said Steven Radelet, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, a Washington think tank. "That may provide some impetus for the United States to increase spending." While the report of the Blair-led commission says Africa is ready for a huge new infusion of aid, it also sharply defined corruption and ineffective governance as critical issues. "What is clear is that if Africa does not create the right conditions for development, then any amount of outside support will fail," the report says. At a news conference yesterday in London, Sir Bob Geldof, the rock musician and organizer and a member of the commission, singled out two African leaders for sharp criticism. He said the Ugandan leader, Yoweri Museveni, was trying to stay in power for life. "Get a grip, Museveni," he said. "Your time's up - go away!" And he called President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe an "aging creep," demanding that he leave in order to "let Africa breathe." Mr. Blair was more diplomatic, but blunt nonetheless. "We have told the truth about Africa," he said. "We've been frank about corruption and conflict. But we are also frank in criticizing rich countries about how they've failed to fulfill their promises on aid and trade." And he returned to the idea that Africa's plight is a moral issue. "I fear my own conscience on Africa," he said, "and I fear the judgment of future generations when history properly calculates the gravity of the suffering around us. I fear those generations asking this question: How could wealthy people so aware of such suffering and capable of acting simply turn away and busy themselves with other things?" |
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