The Future of Africa in the Context of Globalization

I say Africa deliberately and not sub-Saharan Africa. I am not certain that this division of our continent is still relevant. The term “sub-Saharan Africa” is a reflection of a west European perspective based not on geography, but on culture. The world known to Europe extended across the Mediterranean where other fair-skinned people lived. Beyond lay the desert and the unknown, except that it was inhabited by dark skinned people, the “monstrous races,” the Blemmye, Scopapods, Troglodytes, cave dwellers, and others as described by Plene and Sir John Mandeville even before colonization. This spawned particular attitudes as perspectives became entrenched. Faced with fact or reality, one sees only that which confirms our preconceptions and ignores that which does not. This approach has contributed in part to the continuing image of Africa south of the Sahara as one large negative homogenous mass.

The Future of Africa Is Bright
The region consists of forty-eight countries spread over twenty-four million square kilometers, and has a population of 642.1 million people. It is currently the most impoverished and least developed part of the globe. Opening this meeting, Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said of it: “It is not just an irony but a tragedy that the poorest continent in the globe is the one which has actually gotten poorer during the age of globalization.” The number of people living on less than one dollar a day has been increasing. The World Bank estimates that by 2008 those living on less than one dollar a day will increase by a further forty million. We have the lowest primary school enrolment rate. Life expectancy in 1997 was fifty-two years, a full generation lower than in the OECD countries. Generally, life expectancy has increased more in the last forty years than it has in 4,000 years, but it is now being reversed by highly preventable diseases arising from poverty, such as malaria and TB. Eighty percent of those infected by malaria live in Africa; nearly 70 percent of the world’s infections of HIV/AIDS and 90 percent of HIV/AIDS-related deaths are in the region. Excluding South Africa, the region’s average income per capita averaged just $315 in 1997.

Nevertheless, the future is bright and my message one of hope. I say this in the face of the news that regularly makes the front pages of the newspapers or onto prime-time television: the continuing strife and instability in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in which eight countries in the region are involved and whenever signs of a resolution have appeared, hopes have been dashed shortly thereafter; the war in Angola drags on with no sign of a solution in sight; the war in Sierra Leone is similarly destabilizing the region. However, it is incorrect to see conflict as endemic to Africa any more than to Europe. Note the conflicts in former Yugoslavia and the CIS countries.

The causes of such conflict are the legacy of colonialism followed by post-colonial mismanagement and corruption and the application of incorrect policies. For this, Africa must accept responsibility and does. But we must also acknowledge that the situation was aggravated by the Cold War and rivalries among former colonial powers. For their domestic interests, these states supported, protected, bankrolled, and sustained in power undemocratic and corrupt leaders. The United States, European countries, and the Soviet Union have all been involved. The result has been weak states, poor economic growth, and a shortage of human and financial resources to rectify the damage that was done.

Why then do I speak of hope? I am sure you will understand if I start with my own country—South Africa. The remarkable democratic transformation of post-apartheid South Africa continues under conditions of stability. As Speaker of the National Assembly, I am privileged to have a front row seat and the best vantage point for observing this democracy at work! I am particularly proud to preside over an assembly that is among the most representative in the world—with women, a full range of racial and cultural diversity, and representatives of disabled people who require the use of Braille and sign language interpretation as the norm. Few parliaments could claim such representativeness. Three of the four presiding officers of parliament are women, as are 38 percent of the executive—a record very few long-standing democracies could match. It is easy to forget how close we came to disaster just one short decade ago in South Africa and yet, if one reflects on the tremendous progress that we have made, it becomes clear that South Africa will continue to be a force for peace, stability, and development in the region.

Of course, South Africa is not the only country in sub-Saharan Africa where democracy is flourishing. Nigeria, for example, which is the most populous country in Africa, is firmly on the path to realizing its own goal of consolidating democracy. There are other countries where democratic systems are doing well in sub-Saharan Africa and, not surprisingly, that are flourishing economically as well. Indeed, Africa has a new generation of leaders who recognize both the colonial legacy and the failings of many African governments and accept responsibility for the current poverty and lack of development.

There are a large and increasing number of governments deriving their legitimacy from democratic elections and sustaining the democratic process. At the same time, the OAU has refused to accept leaders acquiring power through military coups. The new Treaty Constituting the African Union also provides for African intervention to support democratic governance. Civil society has burgeoned, often forcing democratic change and engaging governments and parliaments to ensure appropriate development policies are pursued. Prominent among these are a women’s movement, youth groups, professional organizations, and business.

Developing the Millennium Africa Programme
Many countries, but not enough, have maintained growth rates of over 5 percent per year over the past decade. Regional economic organizations are being established and strengthened. To take this process further, the Presidents of Nigeria, Algeria, and South Africa are developing a Millennium Africa Programme (MAP). It has not yet been finalized, but participation will be open to all African countries prepared to make a commitment to the guiding principles. Some of you at Davos last month heard President Mbeki present a brief overview.

The programme is a declaration of a firm commitment by African leaders to take ownership and responsibility for the sustainable economic development of the continent and to set out our own agenda. Our starting point is a critical examination of Africa’s post-independence experience and acceptance that things have to be done differently to achieve meaningful socioeconomic progress, without which it will not be easy to achieve our historic task of improving the lives of our people. The outlines of a concrete multi-faceted programme of action have been developed. Priority areas include:

• Creating peace, security and stability, and democratic governance, without which it would be impossible to engage in meaningful economic activity;
• investing in Africa’s people through a comprehensive human resource strategy;
• harnessing and developing Africa’s strategic and comparative advantages, i.e. in the resource-based sectors to lead the development of an industrial strategy;
• increasing investments in the information and communication technology sector, without which we would not be able to bridge the digital divide;
• developing infrastructure, including transport and energy; and
• developing financing mechanisms.

The objectives we want to achieve through the implementation of the programme include the acceleration of efforts to eradicate poverty on the continent and to significantly increase new investments by mobilizing both domestic and, especially, foreign savings. The focus is not on simply increasing aid, but increasing investments in viable infrastructure and business opportunities. Targeted aid and technical support to address capacity constraints and urgent human development priorities would be required.

The programme is based on recognition of global interdependence in respect of production and demand, an environmental base that sustains the planet, cross-border migration, a global financial architecture that rewards good socioeconomic management, and global governance that recognizes partnership of all peoples. The programme addresses the need for a global community in order to ensure that globalization is sustainable and will benefit both developed and developing countries.

The global technological revolution needs an expanding base of resources, a widening sphere of markets, new frontiers of scientific endeavor, the collective capacity of human wisdom, and a well-managed ecological system. Much of Africa’s mineral and other material resources are critical inputs into production processes in developed countries. Africa provides a great opportunity for investment, including opportunities for joint international efforts in the development of infrastructure, especially in information and communication technologies and transport.

It also provides prospects for creative partnerships between the public and private sectors in the processing of primary products and natural resources, agro-industries, tourism, human resource development, and in tackling the challenges of urban renewal and rural development. One needs to emphasize that a developing Africa, with increased numbers of employed and skilled workers and a burgeoning middle class, would constitute an expanding market for world manufactures, intermediate goods, and services.

Furthermore, Africa’s biodiversity—its rich flora and fauna and rain forests—is an important global resource in combating environmental degradation posed by the depletion of the ozone layer and climate change, as well as the pollution of air and water by industrial emissions and toxic effluents.

The expansion of educational and other opportunities in Africa would enhance the continent’s contribution to world science, technology, and culture to the benefit of all humankind.

As we have noted at this meeting, there is a backlash against globalization and fears among large sections of the population. This can be mitigated by actions and cooperation among the developed countries. A key priority is the reform of international financial and trading institutions to take on board the concerns of the countries of the South. For example, with regards to the WTO there is a need to re-examine the rules governing intellectual property rights, dumping and countervailing measures, subsidies, etc. The agreements governing market access may need to be renegotiated so as to benefit both developing countries and developed. (Perhaps they need to favor developing countries!) The structures of governance require reform to give greater weight to the concerns of the countries of the South. This would lay a foundation to address the profound imbalances in the structure of the global economy.

Further, governments of developed countries need to do more to expand access to their markets for developing countries’ products by lowering tariff barriers and by providing exemptions from the many non-tariff barriers. The developed countries need to provide support to developing countries to comply with their sanitary measures governing their imports.

An important challenge is how to ensure greater mobilization of resources for development in countries of the South. There are two particular aspects of this mobilization that require attention. The first of these relates to the expansion of the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative to include more countries and a larger share of their debt. Debt relief should be granted more quickly and should be tied to development targets and outcomes in relation to poverty reduction, and reform of institutions of governance.

The second relates to increasing the rate of flow of private foreign direct investments (FDI) to developing countries, especially to Africa. The net FDI inflows to sub-Saharan Africa averaged less than 0.7 percent annually in the 1990s, compared with an average for all developing countries of over 1.2 percent. Clearly, increasing the flow of such foreign capital as well as the savings of Africa’s private investors—many of whom also prefer to hold their wealth outside the continent—would require developing countries to lower risk perceptions of potential portfolio and direct investors by improving credibility of public financial authorities and the soundness of public and private financial institutions.

Finally, and most importantly, there is a need for a renewed commitment to partnership among the international social partners that entails a shared responsibility to eradicate poverty, social exclusion, and marginalization. On the part of developing countries and particularly Africa, this requires a commitment to create conditions of peace, stability, and good governance.