Help Us To Help Our Selves

Fuente: World Bank
http://www.worldbank.org

In Africa, Just Help Us To Help Ourselves


/noticias.info/ In a commentary published in The Washington Post (07/24), Gebreselassie Y. Tesfamichael, a development economist and former finance minister of Eritrea, writes that by many measures, it's been a great year for Africa, with debt relief, awareness-raising concerts and G8 leaders pledging more aid. “As an African, I am gratified that the world has turned so much attention to my continent,” Tesfamichael writes. “But at the same time, a voice inside me wants to shout: ‘Wait. This is not the way real development happens!’”

Since the 1950s, when most of Africa achieved independence, billions of dollars have been spent on aid and development. So why is the gap between the continent and the rest of the world widening instead of narrowing? The problem is that the aid community has been determining how Africa should go about development. At present, 30 African governments have produced national development programs from the same externally designed template -- the World Bank/International Monetary Fund's so-called poverty-reduction strategy papers. All are aimed at obtaining the most aid possible. Most of the other African countries are sure to follow. We continue to ignore the stark lesson that externally imposed development models have not gotten us very far. It's what Africans do themselves that will determine how far and how fast we move forward. The only way forward is for Africa to drive its own bus and for the driver and passengers to be in full agreement about where they're going. That said, we do need help filling up the tank. If donor nations and African governments are truly concerned about development, they should foster that sense of self-reliance.

In Eritrea, where I served as the head of development for the first years after liberation from Ethiopia in 1991 and later as finance minister, we decided to take control of our future, and for a number of years we worked hard at designing and implementing our own development. Eventually, another conflict brought much of this to a standstill, but I believe the lessons we learned point the way for the rest of Africa.

One of the major issues for us was the donor-recipient relationship. For decades, we had watched governments throughout the continent compromise their sovereignty as they adopted economic models imposed on them by both the West and the East in order to get aid. We could not help noticing how aid distorted the development process. For instance, donor organizations emphasize the social sectors -- health and education -- while almost entirely ignoring the commercial and business sector. Africa's cities are full of educated, enterprising people who are peddling goods made in Asia. Why should that be? Agriculture and manufacturing are starved for funding. We need health care and education, yes, but we also need a productive sector for the healthy and the educated to work in.

Eritrea implemented a vigorous program of market liberalization, reduced and simplified the tax and customs rates, liberalized investment laws and regulations, restructured public finance and reduced the civil service by a third. Without the guiding hand of structural adjustment and its associated aid, the Eritrean economy grew at an average of 7 percent a year between 1992 and 1997. We did it all with minimal external advice and funds. Obviously, Eritrea, which has suffered recent setbacks, still has a long way to go. But our success over those years shows what's possible. If a small country coming out of 30 years of war and drought could achieve this reform on its own, why can't the rest of Africa?

The fundamental problem in Africa is not lack of resources, but the failure of political leadership, argues Tesfamichael. The modern African state is a colonial creation, extractive in its design. Its mission was not to serve the people, but to dominate and exploit them. Despite independence, and despite improvements brought by numerous recent democratic elections, the nature of that state remains intact. The primary solution is to change it. I am pleased by all the focus on my continent this year. But aid and one "Year of Africa" is not enough. Developing Africa is indeed the challenge of our times, but that challenge is primarily Africa's.

In a commentary published in Les Echos (France, 07/25), Richard N. Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, writes that international aid to Africa can have a positive impact but that it is far from a perfect solution. Africa’s problems persist despite dozens of billions of dollars in aid. The efforts to gather more aid should be refocused on fostering trade. Trade is the forgotten weapon in the fight against poverty. If the rich countries truly want to help poor populations, they must open their markets to the production of poor countries, including textile and farm products. If customs barriers and import quotas imposed on developing countries’ exports were abolished, along with the subsidies given to farm producers in rich countries, the positive effect on the lives of poor people in Africa and elsewhere would be spectacular. The private sector would develop, jobs would be created and revenues would increase. Trade can act as an engine for economic and political reform.