The New York (NY, USA) Times
Economic watcher
term op-ed, it is an opinion piece written by someone not in the employment (or
contract) of a newspaper, and typically the writer is not paid for the op-ed.
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Africa's New Realism
By THABO MBEKI
CAPE TOWN -- A great moment is at hand: a chance for developed countries to
make a sound investment while helping to break the cycle of African
underdevelopment. This prospect now seems as obvious as it was previously
elusive.
The Group of 8 conference of industrialized nations that begins this week in
Canada comes as we plan for the World Summit on Sustainable Development in
South Africa in September. It follows significant commitments made by the Bush
administration and the European Union at a United Nations conference earlier
this year in Mexico to increase development aid. The common thread here is the
renewed determination among political leaders and civil society to build a
humane world of shared prosperity.
The idea gains its momentum not from the desire to provide charity. Nor is it
premised merely on fears in highly developed nations of new immigrants or of
poor regions becoming so volatile as to pull the rest of the world into
instability. The momentum for sustained development, in partnership with the
private sector, is based on a recognition that it is possible to revive poor
nations, particularly in Africa, through investments for mutual benefit. There
is an unprecedented resolve on the continent to turn away from the begging bowl
and engage in new efforts to build a better life.
The fact that most African states have held multiparty elections in the past
decade is relevant. So is the imminent formation of the African Union, out of
the Organization of African Unity, which will occur at a summit in South Africa
early next month. Such developments have helped reveal a socioeconomic
potential previously obscured, and they have given strength to a new realism.
In this great effort, we Africans seek, and need, partners. On offer to the
investors from the highly developed economies are sound prospects in countries
whose infrastructures — limited telecommunications systems, poor roads, rail
and port facilities, sometimes dilapidated cities — hold the promise of
exponential improvement. Where others are approaching saturation, Africa offers
rapid growth.
Such cooperation will reward the many African nations prepared to improve
political and economic governance. But there could be broader spinoffs. This
partnership of equals may lead to new introspection among the citizens of
developed countries about themselves; it may rekindle that humanism that should
lie at the foundation of global relations.
Such might be the outcome, if the developed nations work with Africans in
redefining assistance, fashioning a fairer trade regime and treating Africa as
an investment destination. Group of 8 leaders and other statesmen will gather
in a remote spot in the Canadian Rockies to hear more about the New Partnership
for Africa's Development. African leaders will arrive with concrete proposals
on how to get this partnership off the ground.
A central feature of the new partnership is ensuring democracy, human rights
and good governance. It sets out independent mechanisms for peer review, with
provisions aimed at foreseeing problems and working to prevent their spread —
rather than just censuring and punishing when things go wrong. If programs in
manufacturing, agriculture, education and health are to succeed, Africans in
their millions must take an active part.
Most important, it is Africans who have done and will continue to do the
planning. As George C. Marshall noted in proposing his famous plan to rebuild
Europe half a century ago: "It would be neither fitting nor efficacious for
this government to undertake to draw up unilaterally a program designed to
place Europe on its feet economically. This is the business of the Europeans."
And so it will be for Africans now.
Thabo Mbeki is the president of South Africa.