CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE | WEEKLY NEWS
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Africa |
DEVELOPMENT
A critical analysis of what
the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) is all about,
together with its strengths and weaknesses.Zambia within NEPAD
Jubilee-Zambia is a national movement campaigning for the total cancellation of all Zambia’ foreign debt and that of other poorer countries. The main goal of the campaign is to achieve effective and equitable debt cancellation that results in increased poverty eradication. In his special paper on the «Strengths and Weakness of NEPAD», Jubilee-Zambia‘s economic and policy analyst, Jack Zulu, comments on NEPAD‘s relevance to Zambia. He says: «If Zambia is to benefit from new and economic and development initiatives such as NEPAD, it is imperative that the nation puts its house in order. By this, we mean that we need to come up with well-planned programmes and well-designed policies in a well-ordered manner. As a nation, Zambia should first identify her comparative advantages in the global markets. Corruption and similar vices must not be allowed to take root in the country’s private and public institutions. It is in this light, therefore, that current government efforts aimed at fighting the vice (corruption) are a step in the right direction. One hopes that the fight against corruption will not be in words only, but in deeds.»
What NEPAD seeks to achieve
Zulu notes that on paper at least, NEPAD provides hope for the African continent, in that African leaders say they will address many problems facing the continent. «NEPAD is anchored on the determination of Africans, to disentangle themselves and the continent from the malaise of underdevelopment and exclusion from a world which increasingly must be viewed within the context of globalisation context.»
Looking at some of NEPAD‘s major strengths, Zulu points out that being an indigenous African idea, it marks a significant departure from past efforts, where individual African countries have pursued development initiatives on their own with little or no success.
Zulu feels that NEPAD‘s goals reflect «a bold attempt» by Africans to tackle poverty. He says: «NEPAD offers a rare window of opportunity to the peoples and governments of Africa, to understand that development is a process of empowerment and self-reliance. It attempts to help Africa find its place in the global economy, by encouraging African countries to form strong economic blocs for trading purposes.»
Commenting on n Africa’s huge external debt currently standing at slightly over US $300 billion, Zulu is happy to see that NEPAD strives to reduce the debt by at least by 10% of governments’ revenue. Promotion of good governance in the areas of economic and political spheres is another positive development that needs to be nurtured.
Zulu is optimistic that despite the complex problems of donor funding, «so far donors have in principle expressed willingness to fund NEPAD, hoping that this is not just mere political rhetoric to appease Africans so they continue to provide the West with cheap raw materials for their industries.»
NEPAD‘s weaknesses
Zulu points out that while NEPAD takes into account that Africa has not been able to take advantage of globalisation, because of «structural impediments» and unfavourable terms of trade, it is silent on what African countries might do to make a global system of trade and finance fairer and equitable.
Neither does NEPAD explain how «structural impediments» might be removed, or how the adverse terms of trade might be reversed. NEPAD has opted to leave these to the international community to resolve.
NEPAD does not mention where the «massive» investment is to come from, given the fact that no foreign investor would risk his/her capital in a continent or country plagued with huge external debts. Zulu points out that «Africa continues to remain an unattractive destination of foreign investment because of its huge external debts. NEPAD will not go far in terms of implementation if its entire faith lies in the benevolence of the West for all its funding. One has just to look at the G8 meeting in Kananaskis in Canada where the donors barely scratched the surface of Africa’s problems». (NEPAD had asked for US $64 billion but only a paltry US $6 billion was given to Africa, compared to US $20 billion given to Russia).
Zulu points out that since the bulk of the needed resources (US $64 billion) will have to be obtained from outside the continent, NEPAD is almost certain to fail in achieving its target of an estimated 7% annual growth rate needed to meet the Millennium Development Goals — particularly that of reducing by half the proportion of Africans living in poverty, by the year 2015.
NEPAD — an imposed concept
Father Joe Komakoma is the Catholic Centre for Justice, Development and Peace’s (CCJDP) Executive Director. Speaking about the new African action plan, he says: «As long as NEPAD is something that has been dictated and imposed on African leadership by the West, nothing is bound to change in the existing relationships of the southern poorer nations with the richer northern nations, who still stand to benefit in terms of the global trade.
«The terms of trade have to be questioned and change fundamentally if we have to have a new partnership that can work. Unfortunately, this partnership is a total failure from the beginning because it does not embrace the views of the ordinary people who were not consulted. The NEPAD document is just something that was discussed and adopted by the African leaders at the top, whereas the people at the bottom do not know what it is.»
Bishop Paul Mususu is the Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ)’s Executive Director. He doesn’t have many kind words for the authors and signatories to the NEPAD action plan. «I do not see anything coming from NEPAD, since there is nothing new about it in terms of development. We Africans have had any number of Charters and Agreements which haven’t borne fruit. And here we are, rushing in to substitute them with NEPAD. What about current African initiatives such as the Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Were does NEPAD fit in with SADC and COMESA? The way things are at present, we shall end up having nothing».
Bishop Mususu says that NEPAD lacks specific targets, especially that it is totally silent on key issues such as human rights, globalisation in terms of present-day market forces, good governance which the international donor community are always on about, and most important, debt cancellation demanded by the burdened poor African nations.
- Moses Chitendwe, Zambia, October 2002 — © Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgment