PHA-Exchange> AFRICAN ORGANISATIONS SPEAK OUT ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

[Aviva]

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> AFRICAN ORGANISATIONS SPEAK OUT ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
> Firoze Manji, Fahamu - Learning For Change, UK.

> About 200 organisations from around Africa, including representatives
NGOs,
> trade unions, women's organisations, farmers and young people's groups met
> in Bamako, Mali, recently to prepare African inputs to the World Social
> Forum held at the end of January.
>
> They resolved, among other things, that globalization is just a new and
more
> acceptable term for imperialism, that double standards were being applied
> with the selective imposition of rules about trade to the detriment of
> Africa. They expressed concern that the "New Partnership for Africa's
> Development" (NEPAD) was based on accepting the neo-liberal analysis and
> strategies of the rich countries and was therefore not acceptable as a
basis
> for planning Africa's future.
>
> The importance of the African Social Forum was in presenting development
in
> Africa as a political issue about power to decide on Africa's future. For
> too long development has focussed on the physical consequences of this
> unjust world order and has limited itself to addressing the lack of water,
> health, incomes, basic services etc. This has led to NGOs becoming
> instruments of neo-liberal globalisation that have colluded in undermining
> the state by providing services and using funding destined for them. (For
a
> fuller report see below).
>
> Sustainable development is about much more than the rise and fall of GNP.
It
> is about creating an environment in which people can develop their full
> potential under conditions where there is respect for human dignity and
> human rights. The goal of sustainable development must be human freedom,
and
> the measure of its success must be a measure of the extent to which
citizens
> of a country are able to exercise that freedom. But, as Professor Amartya
> Sen, Nobel Prize Winner in Economics, has argued in his book 'Development
as
> Freedom', "Freedoms are not only the primary ends of development, they are
> also among its principal means." Development should be seen as a process
of
> expanding freedoms. "If freedom is what development advances, then there
is
> a major argument for concentrating on that overarching objective, rather
> than on some particular means, or some chosen list of instruments". To
> achieve development, he argues, requires not only the removal of poverty,
> lack of economic opportunities, social deprivation, and neglect of public
> services, but also the removal of tyranny and the machinery of repression.
>
> Such a view is in contrast to what has become the 'conventional wisdom' of
> development that sees economic growth as both the means and the end.
> Development, the story goes, is possible only if there is growth. And
growth
> is equated with the 'right' of a minority to amass wealth. Only when this
> freedom is unrestricted will others in society benefit from any associated
> spin-offs (the trickle-down effect). All other freedoms are only
achievable
> if such growth occurs. The purpose of 'development' is, therefore, to
> guarantee 'growth' so that ultimately other freedoms can, at some
> indeterminate time in the future, be enjoyed. Such a view has increasingly
> been associated with the international financial institutions (IMF and
World
> Bank) whose influence on economic policy - especially in Africa - has been
> so pervasive. State expenditure, according to this view, should be
directed
> towards creating an enabling environment for 'growth', and not be 'wasted'
> on the provision of public services that, in any case, can ultimately be
> provided 'more efficiently' by private enterprise. This is the approach
> that, as Professor Sen points out, makes socially useful members of
society
> such as school-teachers and health workers feel more threatened by
> development policies than do army generals.
>
> Such an approach to development has had dire consequences for the
developing
> world in general and Sub-Saharan Africa in particular. Of the nearly 5
> billion people in the developing world, more than 850 million are
> illiterate; 325 million boys and girls are denied schooling; 2.4 billion
> have no access to basic sanitation. More than 30,000 children under the
age
> of 5 years die each day from preventable causes. And some 1.2 billion
people
> live on less than a dollar a day. Add to that the fact that more than 36
> million people were living with AIDS. Of the 36 million people living with
> HIV/ AIDS, 70% are to be found in sub-Saharan Africa.
>
> Only 60% of adults in Sub-Saharan Africa are literate in the region, as
> compared with 73% in the rest of the developing world. Life expectancy at
> birth is less than 49 years, and nearly half the population survives on
less
> than $1 a day. Economic growth in the region has fallen during the last 25
> years, with GDP per capita growth averaging -1%. Per capita income in 1960
> was about 1/9th of that in high-income OECD countries, but by 1998 it had
> fallen to 1/18th.
>
> Sub-Saharan Africa's massive external debt, estimated at more than $300
> billion is perhaps the single largest obstacle to development and economic
i
> ndependence. The 48 countries of sub-Saharan Africa spend $13.5 billion
each
> year repaying debts to foreign creditors. Over the last 20 years, African
> countries have paid out more in debt service to foreign creditors than
they
> have received in development assistance or in new loans. Trade
> liberalization associated with the Structural Adjustment Programmes may
have
> increased the importance of international trade for Africa, but the
region's
> share of world trade has declined.
>
> But it is not that sub-Saharan Africa is devoid of wealth. There is
abundant
> mineral wealth in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Angola, in the Democratic
Republic
> of Congo (DRC), in South Africa and elsewhere. Yet it is this very
abundance
> of natural resources that has led to vicious competition for access and
> control, frequently supported by outside vested interests. The result has
> been armed conflict, mass displacement of people, torture and ill
treatment,
> and frank impunity for the perpetrators. Unarmed civilians have frequently
> been the victims of such conflicts with killings, amputations, rape and
> other forms of sexual abuse and abductions being rife in countries such as
> Sierra Leone, the DRC, and Burundi. Angola, which has seen an estimated
> 500,000 people killed since 1989 and an estimated 3 million refugees. It
is
> also being torn apart directly as a consequence over the competition for
> resources such as diamonds and offshore oil, with various factions
fighting
> for these prizes.
>
> But, as Mahmood Mamdani has pointed out, despite the current dogmas, "the
> story of independent Africa is not one of unremitting decline. The first
two
> decades of independence were decades of moderate progress. Between 1967
and
> 1980 more than a dozen African countries registered a growth rate of 6%
[.]
> To be sure there was a downside. That was that the failure to transform
> agriculture, and thus to bring the vast majority of the population into
the
> development process. This shortcoming in economic policy went alongside
and
> was sustained by a political authoritarianism."
.>
> The economic policies followed by many African countries, frequently under
> pressure from international financial institutions, have resulted in high
> levels of income equality. And it is this that has created instability in
> the region. Development policies have, it is true, resulted in enrichment.
> But it has been the rich in these countries who have been getting richer,
> while the poor have become poorer. According the UNDP, "In 16 of the 22
Sub-
> Saharan countries with data for the 1990s, the poorest 10% of the
population
> had less than 1/10 of the income of the richest 10%, and in 9 less than
> 1/20." Marked, and growing, inequalities have had serious consequences on
> the social fabric of these countries. It has resulted in massive social
> exclusion, the growth in organized street crime, disillusionment with the
> political process, and the growth in the appeal for the use of violence
for
> political ends. Faced with growing discontentment, corruption, abuse of
> state power, many governments have become intolerant of legitimate protest
> and political opposition. The use of excessive force to deal with public
and
> political discontent has become all too common, as vividly illustrated by
> the current crisis in Zimbabwe where, as a result of recent legislation,
it
> has become illegal to criticize the president.
>
> Time has come for there to be substantial changes to current approaches to
> development. Ten years ago at the "Earth Summit" in Rio de Janeiro,
> Governments committed themselves to a plan of action known as Agenda 21.
> Principle 5 of that plan stated that:
>
> "All States and all people shall cooperate in the essential task of
> eradicating poverty as an indispensable requirement for sustainable
> development, in order to decrease the disparities in standards of living
and
> better meet the needs of the majority of the people of the world."
>
> "But commitments alone", as the Secretary General of the United Nations,
> Kofi Anan has put it, "have proven insufficient to the task. We have not
yet
> fully integrated the economic, social and environmental pillars of
> development, nor have we made enough of a break with the unsustainable
> practices that have led to the current predicament."
>
> The Jury at the International People's Tribunal on Debt, convened at the
> recent the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, called for the external
debt
> to be declared "as fraudulent, illegitimate and the cause of the loss of
> national sovereignty and the quality of life of the majority of the
> population of the South". Similar proclamations are needed in the build up
> to the World Social Summit on Sustainable Development scheduled to be held
> in Johannesburg 26 August to 4 September. One hopes that the alternative
> view from African civil society organizations will be heard loud and
clear.
> Southern African NGOs have already organized.