The recount of votes cast in Namibia's national elections, held in November last year, has confirmed the ruling party's landslide victory. The results of the recount were announced on Wednesday night. The process began on Sunday after two Namibian opposition parties won a court ruling last week ordering the recount.

Last year, communities in Maai Mahiu and Kajiado lost at least 140 animals after they sprayed them with chemicals bought from unscrupulous suppliers. Now, investigations reveal that the safety and quality of agro-vet chemicals in Kenya could be compromised following allegations of corruption at the Pest Control Products Board. A clique comprising officials who have been at the board for decades are said to demand as much as $5,000 (about Sh400,000) as inducement to register an agrochemical product and give it the nod to be offered for sale.

On International Women's Day, the Global Campaign for Education released a new report slamming world leaders for their failure to achieve the first and most critical of all the Millennium Development Goals - getting equal numbers of girls as boys into school by 2005. A majority of developing countries are set to miss the target, and new research cited in the report shows that an extra 1 million child deaths will occur this year alone because of failure to close the education gap facing girls.

Unacceptably slow progress on girls' education is perpetuating hunger, poverty and ill health, charged the campaign group. "This is the first of the Millennium goals to be missed," said GCE coordinator Anne Jellema, "and it is being swept under the carpet. The credibility of all the other Millennium goals will be seriously undermined unless the international community agrees fresh action and new resources to guarantee a basic education to every girl."

At a two-day meeting that began on Tuesday, AU officials were considering three options for disarming an estimated 10 000 to 14 000 Rwandan rebels in the DRC. "Short of nothing is being done and there is no other option than to make a forceful disarmament of the" rebels, said AU's Peace and Security Commissioner Said Djinnit. "Africa is ready to provide troops for that forceful disarmament. But we don't want to intervene in isolation of all the existing efforts." Both DRC's President Joseph Kabila and Rwanda's President Paul Kagame have agreed to allow the African Union to coordinate any new operation involving African Union troops.

Thousands of protesters in Niger have demonstrated outside parliament against rising prices - some calling for the president's resignation. They were complaining about tax increases of nearly 20% imposed in January on basic commodities.

Votes were being counted on Monday in the Central African Republic (CAR), the day after presidential and parliamentary elections marked by delays in many polling stations. The country's electoral body, the Mixed Independent Electoral Commission (CEMI), has 15 days to announce the results of the polls.

International health advocates "welcomed" British Prime Minister Tony Blair's Commission for Africa report, which was released on Friday, but said the report should have stressed the "crucial" need for improved health to aid the continent in "emerg[ing] from poverty," the Associated Press reports. Advocates praised the report's "bold recommendation" of providing HIV/AIDS treatment to everyone who requires it by 2010 but "expressed frustration" that its impact is "dampened" by the warning that "excessive medicalization" of the disease could harm prevention efforts, according to the Associated Press.

This weekend sees a new military operation underway in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Reports from the central African country say about 800 United Nations troops have been deployed in the north-eastern Ituri region to disarm local militias held responsible for the death of nine peacekeepers last month. Recent events have underscored the difficulty of bringing lasting peace to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where conflict in eastern regions has continued despite a 2002 accord aimed at ending five years of civil war.

Our common interest, the report of the Commission for Africa, launched 11 March, has pointed the finger at the Bretton Woods Institutions for their role in African underdevelopment and has called for sweeping reforms. Controversially, the Commission has proposed the establishment of "decision-making councils" for each institution made up of member countries' political representatives. In its analysis of the reasons for African economic woes, the Commission has singled out the IMF for forcing African governments to slash budgets for clinics and schools at a time when Asian countries were investing. "Evidence shows that IMF and World Bank economic policy in the 1980s and early 1990s took little account of how these policies would potentially impact on poor people in Africa."

Ghana has moved from 74th place to 65th place in the World Economic Forum's (WEF's) Networked Readiness Index, published on Wednesday. The index measures the propensity for countries to exploit the opportunities offered by ICT. According to the report, Singapore is the world's number one economy in exploiting information and communication technologies (ICT). South Africa lost the top spot among the 23 African countries covered to Tunisia, which held the 40th position last year, has moved up to 31st place. Other African countries in the index include South Africa (34), Mauritius (47), Botswana (50), Morocco (54), Namibia (55), Egypt (57), Gambia (74) and Nigeria (86). The lowest-ranking country overall was Chad.

Amnesty International fears that a military operation by the Joint Task Force Operation Restore Hope in the town of Odioma, Bayelsa State in the Niger Delta has resulted in the death of at least 15 civilians, the rape of at least two women, injuries to many people and the razing of the majority of houses in the town, the organization warned. Amnesty International has been informed that soldiers of the Joint Task Force, comprised of army and navy units, were called in to Odioma by the State authorities on 19 February to reduce tension between communities and to seek out and arrest youths who allegedly killed 12 community members, including four councillors, earlier in February.

The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) is pleased to announce a programme which it is hosting in Nigeria on 21 and 22 March, 2005 in collaboration with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on the theme of Reforming the Nigerian Higher Education System.

Rights & Democracy's new bulletin includes the following:
-Mobilizing for Democracy in Togo
-Foreign Direct Investment: How is it affecting human rights?
-Human Rights Challenges Plague Afghan Refugees in Iran
-Haiti's Transition and Elections
-A Year of Activism in the Middle-East and North Africa
-Human Rights Organizations Join Forces in Ivory Coast
-Rights & Democracy Network Connects Coast to Coast
-Reflections on the 2004 John Humphrey Freedom Award Tour
-New Publications
Visit http://www.dd-rd.ca/english/commdoc/publications/libertasOnLine/LOLFeb05/F ront.html

The Free and Open Source Software Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA) will hold discussion forums themed, “Privacy, human rights and freedom of expression in the information age, myth or reality?” The discussions will aim to bring to light the understanding that people in Africa have on privacy issues in as far as freedom of expression is concerned. The discussion will be held in English and French and will be held from the 7th - 8th April 2005. Visit http://www.dgroups.org/groups/Privacyfreedomofexpression/index.cfm to subscribe in English and http://www.dgroups.org/groups/Laviepriveetlalibertdexpression/ to subscribe in French.

Partners for Development seeks a Country Program Director to lead its dynamic and expanding Nigeria program. The Country Program Director's specific duties include overseeing ongoing program activities; program development, new business prospecting, and proposal preparation for Nigeria and other African countries; financial management; and developing and strengthening management systems. The successful candidate will have an MA or MS with an international development focus and a minimum of five years of field management experience in Africa, preferably in public health, and local capacity-building.

The department is looking for a candidate with research and teaching interests in any of a variety of sub-areas including, but not necessarily limited to: security/conflict studies and roots of terrorism; international public policy (encompassing issues such as genocide, human rights, trade and finance, nuclear proliferation, role of NGOs); the politics of Africa and/or East/South Asia and/or the Middle East.

A public beta of OpenOffice.org 2.0 has been released. The open source office suite replacement not only challenges the proprietary office suites in affordability but is also upping the stakes on the standards of compliance and functionality front as well, according to open source web site Tectonic.

In March 2004, a UNHCR-sponsored conference in Geneva, known as the Africa Dialogue, brought together senior government officials from Africa, donor states and representatives of international organisations. All shared the same goal: to find durable solutions for Africa's four million refugees and bring to a close some of the most protracted refugee crises in the world. A year on, more than 350,000 refugees have returned home, but there is a mixed picture ahead for 2005 with the potential success of some repatriation movements overshadowed by instability in some key regions.

In this small Liberian village just over the border from Cote d'Ivoire, one out of every 10 people is a French-speaking Ivorian refugee fleeing the country's volatile "Wild West." While tens of thousands of Liberian refugees are still living in Cote d'Ivoire despite a year and a half of peace in Liberia, a mass of frightened people fled in the other direction late last year. A total 3,406 Ivorians turned up here in tiny Loguatuo, seeking assistance.

We braved the chilling cold, snow and rains of London for three days of meetings and briefings of the Commission for Africa, set up by Prime Minister Tony Blair. We were 16 "senior" journalists from Africa sponsored by the British government to interest us in the commission's work. Like so many previous initiatives to deliver Africa from its state of permanent crisis, Blair's effort, in spite of good intentions, is bound to deliver little or nothing because it is not breathing fresh ideas into the debate on Africa's development predicament.

Zimbabwe’s ministry of foreign affairs confirmed on Monday that the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Parliamentary Forum will not be invited to observe the country’s election in three weeks' time. The forum -- comprising representatives of all SADC states, including Zimbabwe -- has traditionally observed elections in SADC countries. It observed Zimbabwe’s last major election in 2002 but unlike other African observer missions, produced a scathing report condemning violence and other unfair practices during the poll, which saw President Robert Mugabe winning a fifth term to rule the country. Mugabe and his government have apparently not forgiven the forum for breaking ranks with other continental missions three years ago. The forum was last week omitted from a list of countries and organisations invited to observe the March 31 poll.

As UNHCR prepares to close all but one of the eight refugee camps opened since 1990 to care for Somali refugees in eastern Ethiopia, Somali women and girls say they have profited from opportunities in the camps that they would never have had at home in their traditional, male-dominated society. The free education offered in UNHCR's refugee camps appears to be their top priority.

Refugee leaders who fled Angola's oil-rich enclave of Cabinda during the long-running separatist conflict recently went home for a "go and see" visit, organised by the UN refugee agency (UNHCR). The aim of their trip was to assess whether conditions were suitable for returning. "But, after a three-day trip, visiting three municipalities, leaders said they would be reluctant to come home unless conditions improved.

The statement on debt issued on February 5, 2005 by G 7 Finance Ministers after their meeting in London dashed hopes and expectations raised by an impassioned plea made by Nelson Mandela to the same Ministers the day before. Yet, Mr. Gordon Brown, the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, hailed the statement as “a breakthrough” and said that “it is the richest countries hearing the voices of the poor.”

However, when one reads carefully between the lines, one finds nothing new in the London statement. Indeed, it repeated the same platitudes heard many times before: promises of “debt relief”, but on a case per case basis and with strings attached in the form of the usual conditionalities. For instance, the statement says that to qualify, a country must have “sound, accountable and transparent institutions.” We all know what this means: a State and public institutions able to implement neoliberal policies. This is more explicit in the statement’s insistence on fighting corruption described as a “significant barrier to growth, private sector development, investment and poverty reduction”. The reference to “poverty reduction” is a window dressing meant to mask the real objective pursued by those policies.

In the end, the London statement clearly demonstrated that the “creditors” are not yet ready to unconditionally cancel an odious, illegitimate and immoral debt that has been transformed into an instrument of domination, control and plunder of indebted countries’ resources, especially in Africa. Otherwise, one cannot understand why the G 7 countries refuse to cancel a debt which actually has been paid many times over, and which will not cost them a dime, just a few weeks after the same countries had agreed to cancel a significant portion of the Iraqi debt. Once again, the London meeting turned out to be a missed opportunity by the richest nations to write off the debt burden of the poorest nations in the world in the name of justice.

A long list of failed “debt relief” plans

The London statement is likely to be one more item on the already long list of empty promises and failed “debt relief” plans. Indeed, as far as Africa is concerned, the approach to its debt crisis has always followed a pattern of cynicism and broken pledges, including the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative.

Bilateral Initiatives

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, a large part of African countries’ debt was owed to bilateral creditors. That debt mostly served the economic, political and strategic interests of Western countries, especially during the Cold War period. The early treatment of the bilateral debt crisis was through debt rescheduling within the Paris Club. However, this “debt relief” mechanism contributed to worsening the crisis because it only postponed debt payments while adding to the debt burden with penalties on the rescheduled portion. As a result, the debt of most African countries continued to pile up, with a growing part in the form of accumulated arrears, which averaged 10% of exports in the 1980s and 27% in the 1990s, compared to 1.5% in the 1970s.

These arrears were an illustration of the growing inability of African countries to service their debt. It is that realization, combined with the worsening economic and social crisis brought about by structural adjustment programs, that led bilateral creditors to contemplate some kind of debt write off, beginning with the Toronto Plan, proposed in 1988 during the G 7 Summit in Canada. Ever since, African countries have seen a string of proposals, plans and initiatives, all aimed at “solving” its debt crisis. Indeed, since the Toronto Summit, each G 7 Summit has been punctuated by statements on “debt relief” but they all turned out to be broken promises and failed plans. From Toronto (1998) to the latest London statement by G7 Finance Ministers (February 5, 2005), several other proposals have been put forward by industrialized countries. Among these are the London or “enhanced” Toronto Terms (1991), the Naples Terms (1994), the Lyon Terms (1996) and the Cologne Terms (1999). But none of these Plans provided a real solution to the debt crisis.

The HIPC Initiative.

The failure of the bilateral initiatives to solve the crisis was due in part to their exclusive focus on bilateral debt, up until 1996. The shift began with the Lyon Terms, which brought into the picture multilateral debt. This shift stemmed from the realization that multilateral debt had risen dramatically as a result of the worsening economic and social crisis during the peak of structural adjustment programs, from the mid-1980s onward. During that period, the share of the World Bank in Sub-Saharan Africa’s debt increased from 5% in 1980 to 25% in 1990 and to nearly 40% in 2000. For many countries, especially, the “poorest” ones, which bore the brunt of SAPs, the Bank has become the largest “creditor”. It is in light of this change in the structure of Africa’s debt and in response to growing and intense pressure from debt campaigners in the Jubilee movement that the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative was launched in September 1996.

After the first three years of implementation, there was a realization that the Initiative was going nowhere. Accordingly, it was “enhanced” in September 1999, by introducing more flexibility in the eligibility criteria, which allowed it to admit more countries. However, a new conditionality was introduced by the IMF and World Bank in the form of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), which each country should submit before being accepted. To give an air of seriousness, the IMF’s Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility (ESAF) was renamed “Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility” (PRGF), but with the same macroeconomic framework that underpinned the notorious structural adjustment policies.

But now, it is widely acknowledged that the Initiative has failed to deliver. The proposals put forward by the United Kingdom and the United States are an implicit recognition of that failure, which stems from the Initiatives major flaws. First, to be eligible, a country has to have a track record of “successful implementation” of IMF/World Bank-sponsored policies. That is, in the same failed and discredited policies responsible for the abject poverty affecting African countries. Second, using debt ratios, which have little to do with indebted countries’ development needs and ability to service their debts, the Bank and Fund have excluded many countries, much deserving of “debt relief”. In Africa, the Nigerian case is the most blatant example, as President Obasanjo himself has repeatedly indicated. For instance, in 2004, Nigeria’s debt service was estimated at $1.4 billion, more than the combined spending on education and health!

Third, the Initiative aims to bring debt to a level deemed “sustainable” by the Fund and the Bank. This “sustainability” is based on future export revenues, themselves depending on the behavior of commodity prices, which constitute the bulk of African countries’ exports. But as it turned out, the Bank’s “debt sustainability analysis” was so flawed that most of its projections fell flat, leading creditors to scramble for additional funding for “Completion Point” countries (topping-up).

Finally, reaching the “Completion Point” is contingent upon implementing structural reforms, such as trade and investment liberalization, deregulation, a further erosion of national sovereignty and privatization of public assets. The difficulty in fulfilling these reforms has often led several countries to fall “off-track”, that is, the suspension of their programs, by the IMF and the World Bank. But even more damaging to these institutions, these reforms tend to aggravate poverty and negate the stated objective of the PRSP: “poverty reduction”. Two examples illustrate this.

In Mali, the Bank forced the government to let producers and the management of the cotton-processing company (CMDT) “freely” negotiate the producer price of cotton. After they had reached an agreement to fix the price at CFA 210, which was below the actual cost of production, the Bank said it was “too high” and that the price had to be renegotiated! It imposed a price in the range of CFA 60-175 for the next three years, to the dismay of producers, who felt let down by their own government. Many producers say that the future of cotton production, which occupies more than three million people, is bleak. How can this contribute to “poverty reduction” in Mali?

The second example is the forced privatization of the Senegalese peanut-processing company SONACOS, last year. This privatization was one of what the Bank calls “completion point triggers”, that is, the conditions to be fulfilled by Senegal before reaching the “Completion Point”. Even the Chairman of the Committee in charge of the privatization admitted during a press conference that the Bank had pressured them to reach a deal with the bidder, at any cost. However, feeling that this is a very controversial and bad deal, the government said that it was a “provisional” deal, which could eventually be reversed if the bidder did not meet some of the conditions it has put forward. In any event, Senegalese peanut producers and SONACOS employees have all stated that the deal was against their interests. In an interview to a local newspaper, on February 15, 2005, Mamadou Cissokho, the leader of the leading peasant organization, CNCR, said that “the privatization of SONACOS is a declaration of war against the interest of the Senegalese peasants.” How can this privatization contribute to “poverty reduction” in Senegal?

Similar examples can be found in other African countries. They belie the objectives of the PRSP, which in reality stands for “public relations strategy paper”, according to many critics! This explains, inter alia, why five years on, the “enhanced” HIPC Initiative has not delivered. The debt crisis lingers on and even keeps worsening. As indicated above, the HIPC Initiative has nothing to do with achieving a lasting solution to the debt crisis, but with extracting as much as possible from indebted countries while increasing the IMF and World Bank meddling in those countries’ affairs via the crippling economic, financial and now political conditionalities, known as “good governance”.

For instance, according to UNCTAD, between 1997 and 2001, several African countries that had programs with the Fund and the Bank had each been imposed an average of 114 conditionalities, 75% of which were “good governance”-related! The new crusade at the World Bank seems to be the fight against “corruption” as if it had just “discovered” corruption. The fact of the matter is that the emphasis on “good governance” and especially on “corruption” tends to mislead world public opinion and put the responsibility for the failure of structural adjustment programs and their disastrous effects on the shoulders of “corrupt”, “inefficient”, “predatory” States. This is consistent with their attempts to mask their overwhelming responsibility in the abject poverty affecting most of the developing world, in particular the so-called “HIPCs”. In conclusion, the HIPC Initiative will never solve the debt crisis, nor will the PRSPs “reduce” poverty.

African civil society analysis of the debt issue

The reason lies in the fact that the Initiative, like all previous or current initiatives from “creditors, does not address the root causes of the debt crisis and the power imbalance between indebted countries and “creditors”. Long ago, African civil society organizations, engaged in the debt campaign, have said time and again that to find a just and lasting solution to the debt crisis, it is indispensable to examine its historical origins and analyze the structural factors behind its worsening.

It is a truism to say that debt is a legacy of colonization and imperialist domination. As an instrument of domination and plunder, debt has been used to promote Western countries’ economic, financial, political and strategic interests. This was done in many ways, in particular by using pro-Western dictatorial and corrupt regimes during the Cold War period, in the name of anti-communism. The loans given to these regimes were used for their own purposes and interests and for the repression and even murder of their own citizens, with the complicity of bilateral and multilateral creditors. Moreover, a greater part of that debt was looted by these dictators and kept in Western banks.

That debt is odious and illegitimate. This is the case of the overwhelming part of Africa’s debt, as well as of other Southern countries’ debt. Accordingly, the African people don’t owe that debt and so-called “creditors” have no right to claim it.

On the other hand, what Africa really “owed” has been paid many times over. This is best illustrated by the Nigerian example. President Obsanjo was recently quoted as saying:

“Nigeria’s original debt stock of about $10 billion had been paid twice over if one included the penalty for not paying and…penalty for the penalty. This is ridiculous…the debt that is being held against us [Nigeria] is unpayable and unsustainable if we really want to have an equitable world.”

How about the rest of Africa? According to the UNCTAD study, between 1970 and 2002, Africa as a whole had transferred $550 billion to pay back loans estimated at $540 billion. Yet, it continues to “owe” nearly 300 billion. Sub-Saharan Africa, for its part, had reimbursed $268 billion for loans estimated at $294 billion, but remains saddled with a debt of $210 billion. The authors of the study observed that “discounting interest and interest on arrears, further payment of outstanding debt would represent a reverse transfer of resources.” (page 9).

It is Western countries, their financial institutions, their multinational corporations and multilateral institutions that owe an immeasurable debt for the crimes of slavery, genocide, ecological destruction, colonization and structural adjustment. Therefore, it is the West that must pay reparations, even though no amount of money will ever pay for these crimes.

The way forward

From the above analysis, our fundamental demand is outright and unconditional cancellation of all Africa’s debt and reparations for its peoples. To achieve this fundamental objective, we propose the following measures:

1) Immediate and unconditional cancellation of HIPCs’ Debt

There is now a general consensus that the debt of the poorest countries must be canceled. And the sooner, the better. In light of this, we reiterate our call for the immediate and unconditional cancellation of all multilateral debts owed to the IMF and World Bank. Since the HIPC Initiative is not an adequate mechanism, we recommend that this cancellation by financed by these institutions’ own resources, which are more than enough to cover all costs associated with debt cancellation. If Western countries and multilateral institutions are serious about “debt relief” and “poverty reduction”, they have a golden opportunity to prove it by accepting this cancellation, which should release funds that will contribute to achieving at least some of the Millennium Development Goals.

2) Moratorium on debt service

On the other hand, these countries and institutions should accept a moratorium on debt payments for all African non-HIPCs, as they did for the tsunami-stricken countries. This will be the second step in the right direction. It goes without saying that the moratorium is without arrears, that is, during that period, indebted countries will use all the savings to their benefit.

3) World Commission on Debt

Once the moratorium is under way, the United Nations should set up an independent World Commission on Debt. This body, composed of eminent persons, trusted by both Western and indebted countries, should have as its mission to assess the development needs of indebted countries and whether these needs are compatible with further debt payments. Based on the conclusions and recommendations of that Commission, a determination will be made on whether to resume debt payments, at what conditions, or to cancel the debt altogether. The other task of the Commission should be to propose new lending mechanisms in order to avoid future debt crises.

4) Take example on the 1953 London Agreement on West German debt

The fourth step in the right direction is to take example on the West German example, more than 50 years ago. In February 1953, the then West Germany and its main creditors reached an agreement in London, whereby:

1) West Germany’s debt was reduced by half
2) The balance was rescheduled on a long-term basis and at fixed interest rates
3) The debt service was limited at 3.5% of annual export earnings
4) Debt service was levied only in case of a trade surplus

With that deal, the debt service was down to about 2% of export revenues three years later and by the early 1960s, West Germany had virtually paid back all of its debts. So, why not propose a similar deal to African non-HIPCs?

5) End all IMF and World Bank conditionalities

Another step in the right direction would be to end all IMF and World Bank conditionalities. As is widely acknowledged now, these policies have worsened Africa’s economic and social crisis and contributed to the debt overhang. Unless they are eliminated, they will more than offset any gains coming from the moratorium. The removal of these conditionalities is a prerequisite for effective poverty eradication through genuine people-centered development strategies.

6) Stop the EPAs

The Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) that the European Union (EU) wants to impose on African countries will be as devastating as the first generation of the now discredited and failed structural adjustment programs. Therefore, a lasting solution to Africa’s debt requires postponing indefinitely negotiations on the EPAs and their rejection by African countries. A further trade liberalization as contemplated by the EPAs will wipe out any remaining industrial infrastructure, worsen capital flight and aggravate capital shortage by spiriting away Africa’s own savings.

7) Cooperation in the repatriation of stolen wealth

Tony Blair and his counterparts can do a great service to the African people by sincerely cooperating with African governments and civil society organizations who are calling for the speedy repatriation of the stolen wealth kept in Western banks and the punishment of all those who collaborated in this loot. This operation, if successfully conducted, could provide hundreds of billions of dollars to be invested in Africa’s human development, thus greatly reducing the need for African governments to engage in a “race to the bottom” in order to “attract” foreign direct investments.

Conclusion

If Tony Blair and the other G 7 leaders are really serious about a “Marshall Plan for Africa” or want to “make poverty history” they need not look far: they should follow the above steps. Africa does not need charity and handouts, but justice and fairness. If the above measures were to be implemented, Africa would be able to finance its own development. African leaders should not have any illusions about Tony Blair’s “Marshall Plan” or about any other Plan concocted by other G7 leaders. No country or institution will ever “develop” Africa. If development has to come, it will not be from external forces, however well-intentioned, but from the African people.

* Demba Moussa Dembele is with the African Forum on Alternatives, Dakar, Senegal. ([email protected]; [email][email protected])

* Please send comments to [email protected]

Conventional approaches might at first sight not link trade issues with debt cancellation. But trade relations happen to have a marked and direct impact on economies, their productivity, balance of payments, revenue income from duties and other related issues. Hence trade affects national budgets - and therefore the (dis) ability to honour debt services, to provide investment or to be credible. This is even more so if trade relations in the global setting of today are regulated to the smallest details by bi- and multilateral agreements and domestic as well as international laws, which have a direct impact on the volume and flow of trade.

Rules and regulations negotiated and finally fixed between states are aimed to secure interests first and foremost in terms of the economic interests represented by the negotiating parties, normally on behalf of their respective governments. They often result in price regulations, definition of qualities and quantities of specified commodities, preferential treatment or exclusion of goods. At stake is the financial volume not only for the producers but also the economies. As long as global trade is skewed and to the advantage of some (normally those who have the power of definition to set the rules), it remains at the disadvantage of (most) others. Concerning debt, trade matters.

Debt cancellation, as one of the demands put on the table, is one obvious way to solve the current unacceptable situation. But at the same time it bears the risk of being misleading. It would be wrong to assume that the problem inherent in the in-egalitarian structures of the world economy are solved by such a one-time relief offered. Fairer trade would in contrast offer opportunities for moving into the direction of a more lasting sustainable alternative. Current initiatives towards further uniformity in global trade tend to suggest that they might contribute to such a development. Let’s have a closer look.

Globalisation and regional integration

It is sometimes suggested that African countries should chose between regional integration and globalisation. This dichotomy is misleading. Apologists of a liberalisation of trade argue that both trends complement each other in a positive way. But the real question is whether, under the pressure of global market forces, regional strategies remain viable at all. Regional and bilateral Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs) are booming. Within the last 15 years the number of PTAs proliferated and has more than quadrupled to about 230. It is estimated that some 60 further arrangements are currently negotiated. This means there are almost twice as many PTAs existing and negotiated than countries officially participating in the regulated world trade.

Under the regime of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), local and regional policies are increasingly determined by global factors. One example is the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), which serves as the socio-economic development blueprint for the African Union (AU). Similarly, bi- and multilateral trade relations between external actors and individual African states or regional blocs are becoming ever more decisive. This is true of the USA’s African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), the EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with South Africa and more recently the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) negotiated by the European Union. All these initiatives have a potentially detrimental impact on regional integration.

In the light of current evidence it is suggested that the trade policies of both the US and the EU are anything but helpful to consolidate regional integration – in contrast to the proclaimed priorities this should have within the developmental paradigm. The notion of coherence, meaning similar policies pursued and implemented in differing but complementing areas such as foreign and trade policy and development cooperation, is a relevant tool in this context to argue for a critical re-appraisal of currently established international regimes by initiatives of the OECD countries and in particular the G 7/8.

NEPAD

NEPAD claims that its agenda is “based on national and regional priorities and development plans”, which ought to be prepared “through participatory processes involving the people” (para. 49). So far, however, no visible signs indicate that the collective (multilateral) efforts aim at a united approach of the various regions in their relations with the outside world. Nor does NEPAD, so far, translate its noble aims into practical steps. The blueprint emphasises sub-regional and regional approaches under a separate sub-heading. It stresses “the need for African countries to pool their resources and enhance regional development and economic integration … to improve international competitiveness” (para. 94). The dilemma is that the emphasis on international competitiveness comes at the expense of strengthening local economies and people.

NEPAD also claims to enhance the provision of essential regional goods as well as to promote intra-African trade and investments, with a focus on “rationalising the institutional framework for economic integration” (para. 95). But again, such an approach neglects the local/internal in favour of the global/external orientation. In the meantime, NEPAD emerges as a type of mega-NGO channelling aid-funds to developmental projects. The claim that these are driven by a desire for closer regional collaboration is hardly more than lip service. Countries, not regional bodies, implement the programmes and policies. As Patrick Bond had already suggested in his annotated critique in 2002 (“Fanon’s Warning”), NEPAD seems more to undermine than to strengthen regional institutions.

Indeed, NEPAD defines the strengthening of African regional markets as a steppingstone towards greater integration into the global economy rather than as a goal in itself. Accordingly, its market access initiative advocates an external orientation. NEPAD identifies a need to negotiate for “more equitable terms of trade for African countries within the WTO multilateral framework” (article 188). This is deemed “an historic opportunity for the developed countries of the world to enter into a genuine partnership with Africa, based on mutual interest, shared commitments and binding agreements” (article 205). One wonders to what extent the NEPAD architects had lost their sense of reality when they drafted such obviously “wishful thinking”.

AGOA

Originally adopted as Title I of the Trade and Development Act of 2000 under the outgoing Clinton administration, AGOA was meant to apply the “trade not aid” paradigm. President Bush has extended its duration twice. As a US-law, AGOA was neither negotiated with its African beneficiaries nor based on any agreement with them. Its applicability is at the exclusive discretion of the US-administration. The current “AGOA Acceleration Act of 2004” had been enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress on 21 January 2004.

It should come as no surprise that US trade policy is not really geared to support Sub-Saharan economic development, but rather to provide access to potential markets. This would be fine if it only resulted in mutual benefits in the interest of all partners. But the bulk of African countries will not reap any such harvest. To a large extent, AGOA centres on oil and related commodities. African oil exports already amount to more than one fifth of the annual supply in the USA.

AGOA delivers benefits to countries according to their resources. Ironically, external capital (from mainly East Asian countries) has managed to exploit the opportunities created for supplying the US market with textiles from those African countries that rank as “Lesser Developed Beneficiary Sub-Saharan African Countries” in the AGOA context. These countries include those with a gross national product of less than US$ 1,500 in 1998 (as measured by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development) plus Botswana and Namibia (which in itself represents an interesting indication of politically selective preferences dished out).

These AGOA recipients are granted preferential treatment (such as reduced import taxes). However, the mostly unqualified and underpaid workforce in African sweatshops is hardly reaping any benefits. Rather, people are being super-exploited. Nor do the governments of the countries affected register much additional revenue. After all, initial investments and even running costs tend to be heavily subsidised with public funds whereas profitable operations normally enjoy tax exemption.

This setting makes neighbouring countries compete for foreign investors rather than foster common growth strategies. Asian companies exert pressure on African governments in the pursuit of the most attractive investment opportunities under AGOA. Officials strive to offer foreign investors the best incentives for projects of an ultimately dubious nature. Often enough, existing legislation to offer minimum protection of the labour force and the natural environment is simply ignored or declared non-applicable to meet the interests of such investment. At the end, the praised enhanced local production and trade boils down to nothing more than mere elite pacts, in which local African administrations and Asian capital gain from providing US markets with cheap goods at the expense of workers who hardly earn enough to survive.

Empirically, AGOA has slim positive impacts in only a few of 37 eligible countries, among them Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mauritius, Swaziland and South Africa. This is mostly attributed to the textile and apparel sectors: Only in Kenya and South Africa, did exports from other sectors (primarily agriculture) rise substantially. After the Multi-Fibre Agreement (MFA) ran out early this year, the textile and apparel industries in China, India and other Asian countries will be able to compete much more freely with African products favoured by AGOA. The predictable result will be a decline – if not collapse – of the short-term industry seeking temporary gains.

Once the AGOA bonanza is over, internationally operating capital and a handful of local compradors will turn out to have been the only winners. The much hailed investment opportunities then turn out to have been those for the haves, with no lasting assets created for the national economies and the benefits of the majority of the people participating in them. What is left behind is more likely to be a more damaged environment, while the detrimental effects had even been subsidised from the local public purse, which on top will have to deal with limiting further damage.

EPAs and FTAs

The EU is currently negotiating EPAs with African, Caribbean and Pacific countries (ACP). The goal is to replace the Cotonou Agreement with separate sub-regional accords and to, thereby, make existing EU-ACP relations compatible with WTO rules. Observers accuse the EU of using EPAs to push through agreements on a number of sensitive matters (such as investment, procurement and competition policy) that were rejected by developing countries at the WTO ministerial meeting in Cancun in 2003. In any case, such agreements will reduce the policy space for African governments.

The EU is striving for separate deals with each region, and no country may negotiate in more than one block. For EPA purposes, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) is accordingly reduced to half of its actual member countries. What could make the inbuilt conflict between regionalism and global perspectives more obvious? As an outcome of current negotiations, developmental space is likely to shrink. Official discourse does not even deal with issues of internal and regional integration anymore. Even experts at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) seem reluctant to generally consider EPAs as beneficial. Their blessing is currently depending on a number of positive assumptions made, which are not implemented so far within the ongoing negotiations.

These negotiations on future EPAs cause serious implementation problems and a negative impact on regionalism within the ACP group in general and its African members in particular. Regional organisations will suffer from capacity problems in the process. The matter is further complicated by the fact that all regions involved are made up of LDCs and non-LDCs, to which, so far, different rules have applied. The preferential clauses existing to the benefit of LDCs are not honoured so far in a similar extent under the EPA negotiations.

The EU’s FTA negotiated with South Africa during the second half of the 1990s has already had a divisive effect on the Southern African region. The fact that a single country entered a preferential trade relationship exacerbated regional tensions that result from divergent economic interests. In many respects, South Africa, the monetary zone, the South African Customs Union (SACU) and SADC are already not in harmony.

The EU intervention adds to the friction. While the FTA might indeed have some beneficial effects for South Africa, that is no convincing argument in favour of more FTAs with other – less industrialised – countries. The current negotiations by the USA for a US-SACU-FTA seemingly try to win back what is perceived as a lost territory in comparison with the EU-SA-FTA. But it is as questionable to what extent this would strengthen the regional interests in contrast to the South African and US American ones.

South African interests are by no means identical with those of the region. While regional integration would (and should) certainly not be at the expense of the hegemonic power, it would include the interests of the junior partners in the neighbourhood. The political economy of such regionalism depends on constantly (re-)negotiated arrangements, with shifting boundaries and changing coalition of interests. The EPA configuration process, as much as the FTAs with the central role of the South African economy as the point of departure does not seem to strengthen such alternative routes.

Conclusion

Recent trends indicate a less rather than a more conducive international environment for regional cooperation and integration. This is so, at least in macro-economic terms, among the members of bodies as SADC. Ironically, as a recent Swedish study submitted by developmental economists to the government had pointed out: While the EU, through its enlargement, is collecting the European states into an increasingly strong unit, EU’s African policies may have the opposite effect.

This brings the demand for policy coherence on the top of the agenda as a priority for further discussions also among those EU member states, which try to offer more than mere lip service to improved relations with the South aiming at offering a fairer share. If regional integration and collaboration remains a cornerstone in the developmental paradigm, with the declared aim of supporting the efforts to reduce detrimental dependencies in the South from the global market and its structural discrimination, trade as aid would have to be more than a mere euphemism for continued exploitation and discriminatory practices. It would require embarking on a different set of strategies as those currently imposed.

As long as this is not the case, such trade reforms will also have no lasting positive impact on the chances for smaller or weaker economies to overcome the structural dependency. Instead, by seeking a pseudo-way out, they continue the avenue, which turns out to be a cul-de-sac. All too often, this results in fatal survival strategies based on credits instead of genuine gains from trade.

* This is a revised version of an article in “Development and Cooperation”, vol. 32/no. 2, March 2005. More analyses offers: Henning Melber (ed.), Trade, Development, Cooperation: What Future for Africa? Uppsala: The Nordic Africa Institute (Current African Issues, no. 29). The volume is accessible at the Institute’s web site (www.nai.uu.se) and can be downloaded free of charge. Dr. Henning Melber is Research Director at The Nordic Africa Institute in Uppsala, Sweden. From 1992 to 2000, he was Director of The Namibian Economic Policy Research Unit (NEPRU) in Windhoek. He is currently a Vice-President of the European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI).

* Please send comments to

1. We’re always hearing about the debt crisis, but where did it originate?

The origins of the debt crisis are complex. The issue came to a head in 1982 when Mexico declared that it could not service its foreign debt. Twenty-five countries followed Mexico’s example or threatened to adopt the same stance. How did it get to that stage?

The price of oil was increased by OPEC producing countries in 1973-74, leading to a glut of money in commercial banks, who in turn offered it for loan at low interest rates. As a result, developing countries were courted to take loans to finance "development". Although the absolute size of debt of sub-Saharan African countries was relatively small in proportion to the external indebtedness of developing countries, the size of the debt (and the cost of servicing that debt) in relation to the resources and productive capacity of these African countries were significantly large.

But that glut was short-lived. Coinciding with the period of the emerging technological revolution in microcomputers and in gene technology that attracted capital to new fields where the rates of profit were likely to be substantial, the 1980s saw significant increases in the cost of borrowing. As interest rates rose, and debtor countries were suddenly faced with servicing the interest on loans that absorbed the ever-greater proportions of export earnings. Debt had now become the central issue of "concern" in development circles. This further provided the entry point for international financial institutions into African countries. The IFIs offered loans on condition of the adoption of a clutch of social and economic policies that came to be known as structural adjustment programmes. The social and political impact of these policies were to position the multilateral lending agencies (with the support of the bilateral aid agencies) where they could determine both the goals of development and the means for achieving them.

Another influence on the debt crisis was the Cold War, when donor countries were more concerned with their strategic interests than whether money they lent was spent on constructive activities. The most oft-cited example of this in Africa is Mobutu in Zaire, who was able to borrow huge amounts of money as long as he pledged his loyalty to the West. This is the reason why the argument is made that the debt crisis is not only about the responsibility of indebted countries, but also about the responsibility of creditor countries for creating the crisis in the first place.

2. Sure, but everyone knows that if you borrow money you have to pay it back. Why should the debt of African countries be cancelled?

Countries are trapped in an endless cycle of debt repayments created by an economic system which worked against their interests and by previous generations of leaders that were able to borrow money because they slotted into the geopolitical interests of the superpower of the day. But the problem was created by the fact that when they borrowed, the interest rates were low, but there after they grew and grew, with the result that nearly all the national wealth is used just to pay the interest – let alone the original amount that was borrowed.

People living in highly-indebted poor countries don’t and never have benefited from these loans. In actual fact, they have suffered as a result of money being diverted from spending on healthcare and education in order to service enormous debts. This means that any talk of development is the equivalent of a fools ranting until debt is cancelled. If African countries have to channel vast amounts of money into servicing their debt, how are they ever going to be engaged in meaningful development activities?

Besides, UN statistics show that indebted countries, although they have paid back three times more money than they originally borrowed, still owe more than they owed in 1980. It is in this context that campaigners have made a strong moral argument for the cancellation of debt, stressing that it is a key element used by rich countries to dominate smaller countries.

3. Who do indebted countries owe money to?

There are several different types of loans, all with their own particular history.

Bilateral State Loans have their origins in the Cold War, when scheming super powers were only to eager to dish out cash in order to secure the dependency of weaker states. Little was done in the way of a credit check as dictators lined up to access cash. Today, the populations of their countries are still paying the price.

Another type of loan was known as Export Credit Agency Corporate Loans. It goes without saying that corporate loans come at a far higher interest rate than bilateral loans. These loans increased from the 1980s onwards and were underwritten by so-called Export Credit Agencies. These are basically government agencies that fund or insure domestic corporations seeking to extend their business to high-risk areas. Again, it is the people of countries taking loans that face the burden of repayment.

Commercial Bank Loans took hold in the 1970s as petro bucks flooded banks, who looked around in glee for a way to make more profits. The answer: Lend it to the developing world and don’t worry that much about who you’re lending to or whether they can pay it back. It all went sour at the end of the 70s – interest rates rocketed, leaving indebted countries with a debt repayment headache that kept on getting worse.

Lastly, Multilateral Loans came about when the good old World Bank and International Monetary Fund came to the party, and offered rescue packages to make sure that indebted countries could at least pay the interest rates on the loans they had contracted. Later, The WB/IMF came up with the Brady Plan. The deal was that they would offer guarantees for the repayments of loans, while a portion of the debt was cancelled. The catch: Indebted countries had to open up markets and slash social expenditure. Again, you guessed it, the people took it on the back.

* This short description of the types of loans was compiled with assistance from an article on RISQ, an independent association of scholars, journalists, politicians, and activists who seek to render international political decision-making more inclusive, equitable, and responsible. For the full article, visit http://www.risq.org/article389.html

4. What is the total amount owed?

According to the Jubilee Debt Campaign, the original debt of the world's 52 poorest and most indebted countries is $375 billion. This translates into repayments of around GBP30 million every day. Zambia's debt repayments to the IMF alone cost $25 million, more than the country's education budget despite 40% of rural women being unable to read and write, according to Jubilee, which states that while Sub-Saharan Africa receives $10 billion in aid every year it has to pay back at least this amount in debt repayments.

5. Why cancellation? We already have the HIPC to take care of these concerns.

Following unprecedented pressure from debt campaigners, the Heavily In-debt Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative was set up in 1996 by the rich nations through the IMF and World Bank. It was intended for countries that had debt burdens of more than four times their annual export earnings and laid out certain conditions that had to be met by countries before they could be classified as having met a 'completion point', after which they would qualify for limited debt relief.

The conditionalities of the HIPC have been the subject of much criticism, as these prescriptions are regarded by many as contributing to poverty in highly indebted countries. Furthermore, there are questions as to whether the amounts of debt written off are sufficient. Many criticize the fundamental approach of the HIPC, which sets out to make debt sustainable rather than writing it off.

6. What is the human cost of the crisis?

Even for elite world leaders who have never stepped out of their comfort zones, it doesn’t take a huge leap of imagination to work out the massive human cost of procrastination on debt relief. In Zambia, for example, life expectancy is expected to plummet to an alarming 33 years as a result of HIV/AIDS. Over half a million children are out of school. One would have thought that this would be cause for massive investment in health care and education, but debt service, even after HIPC completion, chews up more cash than the combined spending on health and education.

A UNDP study estimates that for each additional one per cent of GDP spent on health and education, child mortality is reduced by 24 per cent. Therefore, taking 1999 as an example, when Zambia spent
$438.5 million (13 percent of GDP) on debt servicing, child mortality could have been reduced from 202 deaths per 1,000 live births to only 8 per 1000 live births.

How many lives is that over a ten-year period? There’s a frightening sum for leaders like Bush and Blair.

7. What is all this talk amongst the G7 about financing debt relief?

One of the major blocks to debt relief has been bickering amongst the G7 over how to fund any write-offs, the economic rationale being that the money has to come from somewhere.

At the recent G7 meetings in London, news reports indicated that most leaders favoured selling some of the International Monetary Fund’s gold reserves to finance debt relief. The IMF is the third largest holder of gold and this option would involve selling the gold to an interested party or revaluing the gold as a way of raising funds.

But it is never that simple: Gold producers are less than happy as they feel such a mass sale would disrupt gold markets. Lawmakers in the US, which has the world’s biggest gold stockpile, have opposed gold sales, saying it will harm the industry and cause job losses. Instead, the US favours a system where outstanding debts are cancelled and replaced with grants linked to human rights records.

Meanwhile, the world’s biggest gold producer, South Africa, has said through its finance minister Trevor Manuel that they support the use of IMF gold reserves to finance debt relief. Manuel’s comments may mask divisions within his own cabinet however. His cabinet colleague, Mineral and Energy Affairs Minister Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, came out against the plan and put it on record that other African mining ministers were also concerned.

Some of the other ideas put forward for financing debt cancellation include increasing multilateral development bank charges for middle-income countries and the provision of new funds by creditor nations. It’s clear that there are no lack of options on how to finance debt cancellation, but what is lacking is the political agreement and will to get things underway. Given that the US has basically said that debt cancellation isn’t in the budget this year, maybe the disputes over the financing of debt cancellation are just a mask to cover a wider political inertia.

8. If there was debt cancellation tomorrow, would that development hit the fast track?

Some analysts are already pointing to the new dangers posed by trade agreements and foreign direct investment flows. The argument goes that an outflow of resources from African countries as a result of, for example, World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreements could lead to greater financial problems than those caused by the debt crisis.

For example, an article on the website of Third World Network-Africa, based on a paper by David Woodward, economist and consultant, warns that foreign direct investment (FDI) is not a risk-free answer to the capital problems of developing countries. It was “dangerously mistaken” to view FDI in the same way as foreign loans to developing countries were viewed up to the 1980s just before the debt crisis struck.

There are a number of reasons why FDI could be worse than debt. Firstly, there is no fixed schedule for the outflows in the form of the repatriation of profits. Secondly, the rate of profit on FDI is much higher than the interest rates even on commercial loans. For Sub-Saharan Africa, the rate is estimated at 24-30% per year.

The conclusion of the argument is that FDI is like contracting a foreign loan at an interest rate of 24 – 34% a year. Any country exposed to this rate of FDI is faced with a net outflow of foreign exchange and the only way to avoid this is to attract new investment to cover the profits on existing investment.

* To read the full article on which this short report is based, please visit http://www.twnafrica.org/news_detail.asp?twnid=380

* Sources used to compile this Q&A

http://finance.channels.netscape.ca/finance/article.adp?id=2005022507360...
http://finance.channels.aol.ca/finance/article.adp?id=20050303220709990009
http://www.eldis.org/static/DOC13141.htm
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/nm/20050210/bs_nm/econom...
http://www.bicusa.org/bicusa/issues/spotlight/1877.php
http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/thomas-cn.htm
http://www.jubileedebtcampaign.org.uk/?lid=247
http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Debt/HIPC.asp
http://www.jubilee2000uk.org/databank/usefulstatistics/generalstats.htm

The pioneers of the International Women’s Day (IWD) in the late 19th century and early 20th century were ordinary women seeking rights that are today viewed as ordinary. In March 1917, previously downtrodden women gathering strength and passion swept through what is now Leningrad over several days in food riots, political strikes and demonstrations in a labour dispute that marked the most memorable International Women’s Day.

International Women's Day has today assumed a new global dimension for women in developed and developing countries alike. However few of the pioneers would celebrate the slow progress made in the protection and promotion of the rights of women since 1917. Better working conditions, the right to vote and hold public office, the right to nondiscrimination and the fight against poverty remain of concern to women today - as they were then.

The growing international women's movement, which has been strengthened by four global United Nations women's conferences, has helped make the commemoration a rallying point for coordinated efforts to demand for women's rights and participation in the political and economic process. Increasingly, International Women's Day has become a time to reflect on progress made, to call for change and to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who have played an extraordinary role in the history of women's rights.

It is interesting to note that International Women’s Day this year fell at a time when the world gathered in New York at the 49th Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) to review the progress made 10 years after the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing China in 1995. This review, also known as the Beijing+10, presented an excellent basis for reflecting on the position of women even as we celebrated this noble day.

We recall that at the end of the Beijing Conference, as was the case with the preceding conferences in Mexico City in 1975, Copenhagen in 1980 and Nairobi in 1985, governments present produced a policy document known as the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPFA) which was a statement of problems and issues.

The Platform identified 12 critical areas of concern that needed to be addressed to enable women to fully enjoy their rights. The governments committed to take measures aimed at addressing these concerns with a view to empowering women and achieving equality, development and peace. The 12 critical areas of concern are women and poverty, women in education and training, women and health, women and violence, women and armed conflict, women and the economy, women in power and decision-making, institutional mechanisms for the advancement of women, human rights of women, women and the media, women and the environment and the girl child.

An audit of the performance of governments in removing the inadequacies raised in the BPFA reveals that very little, if anything at all, has been done due largely to a general lack of political will compounded by patriarchal overtones that make policy or legislative reform extremely difficult even in the rare cases where political will exists. This is rather unfortunate given that the principles of equality and nondiscrimination are enshrined in a majority of the world’s Constitutions.

The above situation is compounded further in the African context by retrogressive cultural practices and traditions, poverty and armed conflicts, the former two of which influence, amongst other things, the legislative processes and serve to accentuate the discrimination that is visited upon women. Examples of harmful traditional practices include virginity testing, widow inheritance, sexual slavery and female genital mutilation.

Patriarchy has been perfected over the years such that even where discriminatory laws and policies are removed, women are unable to immediately enjoy the benefits of such change due to societal pressures that demand that the woman remains in a position inferior to the man. Take the case of free primary education for instance. Several countries have made it possible for children to access free education at primary or elementary level without discrimination on the basis of sex. Yet many girls drop out after the first few years mainly due to overload of domestic chores such as fetching water and firewood in addition to other work. Unless therefore the government addresses the basic issues of poverty such as provision of shelter, potable water and security from a gender perspective the results of the costly legislative reform processes will not be felt in a long time.

The recently published stories of sexual abuse of women and children in the Democratic Republic of Congo by UN Peacekeepers speaks volumes not only of the vulnerability of women in conflict situations but in society in general. Those to whom they turned for protection instead turned on them for the simple reason that they were women. The plight of women in the DRC rekindles the memories of the hundreds of women in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Rwanda who suffered unspeakable sexual atrocities in conflicts that they neither understood the origins of nor played a part in.

Is there then any hope at all for the African woman? The various continental processes currently underway under the auspices of the African Union offer some amount of respite for the women of the continent. The African Charter on Human and People’s Rights provides for non-discrimination in Article 2 and equality in Article 3. At Article 18 the Charter calls on all states to ensure the elimination of discrimination against women and to ensure the protection of the rights of women and children in accordance with international standards.

The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa was adopted to supplement the Charter with regard to the rights of women. The Protocol remains by far one of the best initiatives undertaken by African leaders to bring an end to discriminatory and harmful practices against women. It addresses issues of non-discrimination as they relate to civil and political rights, economic, social and cultural rights as well as the right to development and peace.

This progressive Protocol is yet to come into force. Ten countries have ratified the Protocol to date, these being the Comoros, Libya, Rwanda, Namibia, Lesotho, South Africa, Senegal, Nigeria, Mali and Djibouti. Thirty-six other countries have signed, of which three are engaged in finalizing the ratification procedures at a national level. As we celebrate the IWD we continue to urge member states of the African Union to urgently ratify this Protocol to enable women to enjoy their rights. We also urge governments to repeal laws that discriminate against women so that these conform to their Constitutions.

And yes, we dare celebrate the ordinary women who on the day, as their counterparts did in 1917 and before, stand against the ordinary discriminatory practices so as to make nondiscrimination an ordinary way of life. In so doing they became extraordinary. We celebrate the African woman who, unlike the man, toils day and night amidst grinding poverty on the continent and faces up to harsh cultural, traditional and societal prejudices yet still manages to achieve much.

In the past year the most extraordinary of these ordinary African women that we must name as we celebrate is Professor Wangari Muta Maathai, the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace. At the ongoing CSW Professor Maathai dedicated her Nobel Peace Prize to all women and called on developing countries to cancel debts owed by Third World Countries, noting that servicing debts continued to impoverish the already poor countries. She further noted that this amounted to punishing poor countries and women. Reflecting on the slow progress made since the agenda on issues affecting women was set thirty years ago, the Nobel Laureate said that the burden of debt under which the continent was submerged made it impossible for governments to address pertinent issues of basic provision affecting women already highlighted in the foregoing. We can only add our voice to her call.

* Caroline Ageng’o is Programme Officer for Equality Now, Africa Regional Office, Nairobi

* Please send comments to

The AMREF Directorate of Learning Systems is pleased to announce the Malaria Prevention, Control and Management Course. The main objective of this course is to provide an up-date in clinical management, prevention and control of Malaria through the acquisition of knowledge and practical skills.

Established in 1988, the Reebok Human Rights Award honors young people from the United States and around the world who have made significant contributions to the cause of human rights, often against great odds. The purpose of the Award is to shine a positive, international light on the awardees and to support their work in human rights. A $50,000 grant is given to further the work of each Award recipient. Please click on the link below for full details. French readers can click on the link www.reebok.com/humanrights

Although there is overwhelming evidence of the iniquitous nature of the IMF and WTO, there are continuous revelations that are just unbelievable in their inhumanity - the latest being the item about the number of teachers in Mozambique being restricted by the IMF. The same effect must be felt in the health professions, nurses and doctors and workers in the HIV/AIDS battle. Are these also restricted by this IMF clause? How does that 7% of GDP compare with the same expenditure in overdeveloped countries? This is total proof, if we didn't already have it, that the IMF programmes are nothing but a trap to maintain underdevelopment because it suits the powerful. Please keep us informed on this and related research and action to stop this appalling situation.

A new service is starting development to support the rapidly emerging movement towards Open Access to research information. The new service, called DOAR - the Directory of Open Access Repositories - will categorise and list the wide variety of Open Access research archives that have grown up around the world.

While many Africans may have never even surfed the web before, a new technology being launched predicts that this can change by the ability to bring internet access via mobile phones. "This is an opportunity to bring Africa into the information age," said Karel Pienaar, chief technology officer at Africa's biggest cell phone operator MTN, which aims to launch 3G in South Africa in June. Further, there are some innovative examples of Africans using technology to tackle the continent's myriad problems: Rural HIV/Aids sufferers in South Africa are monitored by SMS; fishermen in Senegal get tip-offs on which local market is offering the best price for a haul. But these are usually the exception than the rule.

In connection with a Danida project about the use of Internet in university libraries, an investigation into African researchers' and librarians' expectations of the Internet was conducted. The investigation, situated in Ghana and South Africa, indicates that the Internet has a large potential to improve access to information and break down the isolation that the countries experience. Another aim of the investigation was to look into the possibilities of proving a direct connection between access to the Internet and the traditional methods of measuring a country's development process.

SAARDHE 2005 is being held at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Howard College Campus, Durban, South Africa from 27-29 June 2005. The organisers encourage any participants who :
- is involved in research project links to other African countries
- is supervising postgraduates from the rest of Africa
- is re-curriculating teaching programmes for African issues/knowledge
- is engaged in African Language or Culture Programmes
- is interested in comparative governance of Higher Education Institutions
One of the Keynote Speakers is Adebayo Olukoshi who is a co-editor of the new Journal of Higher Education in Africa. We will also be looking for and planning other publication outlets for selected papers.

Amnesty International South Africa and CIVICUS together with partner NGO's are organising The Zimbabwe Solidarity Rally which will be held on the 12 & 13th of March 2005 in which thousands of people and organisations will be marching to the main border posts of Zimbabwe in the neighbouring countries of Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa and Zambia. This demonstration is part of a series of civil society activities and events aimed at putting an end to ongoing human rights violations in Zimbabwe.

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank team visited Zambia in February and declared that the country had reached the completion of its Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) initiative, which seeks to provide debt relief to poor nations that adhere to IMF conditions. The team declared that they would make a final decision within the next few months as to whether Zambia would qualify for about $3.8 billion of its $6.8 billion debt to be written off.

The IMF and Bank team declared: "IMF and World Bank staff have reviewed progress made in meeting the steps required for reaching the completion point under the HIPC initiative. Information received indicates that all triggers relating to poverty reduction and social sectors have been met.”

Zambia is one of the poorest countries in the world. Poverty rates are up, life expectancy is down, infant mortality has more than doubled since 1990 and malnutrition is common. Debt looms large as one of the reasons why the country has failed to escape the poverty trap. According to figures available from the website of the African Forum for Debt and Development (Afrodad), Zambia spends US$14 per capita on health compared to an average of US$2 500 for high income countries. Spending on debt servicing is 6.4 percent of GNP, more than on health and education combined.

In the essay ‘The Politics of Debt Relief and Poverty Alleviation in Zambia’, Bertha Osei-Hwedie states: “Allocation of the bulk of resources to debt service and government cuts in social expenditure have deprived the majority of the population of access to education, health facilities, clean water and housing, and employment opportunities, making their livelihood hard. Zambia spends 40 percent of new aid money on the repayment of multilateral loans, especially of the IMF and World Bank, instead of on poverty alleviation.” This is despite an HIV/AIDS epidemic, and high infant and maternal mortality.

According to a 2004 World Development Movement report, Zambia turned to the IMF and World Bank for loans in the 1970s after the oil crisis and commodity price collapse. After these external economic shocks in the early 1970s, says the WDM report, Zambia's total external debt rose from US$814 million to US$3,244 million by the end of the decade. The situation then further deteriorated with Zambia's external debt more than doubling to US$6,916 million by the end of the 1980s. “By the late 1990s the debt crisis in countries such as Zambia led to the creation of the much vaunted Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative.” By the start of 2003, Zambia had received only 5 per cent of the debt service reduction committed to it under HIPC, says the WDM.

In getting to the latest HIPC completion point where it can be considered for a $3.8 billion debt write-off, Zambia has had a rocky relationship with the IMF and World Bank. In order to qualify for HIPC write-offs she has had to adopt stringent conditions including tight controls on government spending, privatizing public utilities, removing subsidies, deregulating its markets and opening its doors to foreign imports.

Under the HIPC, Zambia has had to adopt a Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP). The PRSP process has been compared by Jubilee Zambia with the earlier Structural Adjustment Programmes and criticized for its market-based growth at the expense of social and economic development of the more vulnerable groups within the country. Like SAPs, states Jubilee Zambia, the PRSP process had an over reliance on the trickle down effect; failed to recognise the cost of growth in terms of the reduction in the social capital and set targets that were heavily influenced by external funders and insufficiently influenced by the results of public participation.

After years of SAPs and PRSPs in 2004, says Make Poverty History, Zambia spent $377 million repaying its debt, an amount twice what it spends on education. If the country does indeed receive a $3.8billion write-off it would still have a debt of $3billion, an amount that would still consume 3-4% of its GDP in servicing, or roughly the same amount as that spent on education. Whether this will be enough to free the country from the chains of debt and whether the price paid was worth it remains to be seen.

SOURCES:
http://www.jctr.org.zm/downloads/prpscrtiq.pdf
http://www.makepovertyhistory.org/aim2.html
http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__...
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=45518
http://www.afrodad.org/debt/zambia.htm
http://www.wdm.org.uk/campaigns/cambriefs/debt/zambia/zambia.pdf

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour has told the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination that it was uniquely qualified to clarify governing principles and offer guidance to States on all measures necessary to ensure the elimination of racial discrimination in the administration of justice. Mrs. Arbour said that racial discrimination persisted in the functioning of the penal system and in the application of the law in some States, as well as in the actions and attitudes of institutions and individuals responsible for law enforcement.

New eyewitness accounts from Darfur of rapes, torture and mutilation by government-backed militias underscore how the U.N. Security Council must take urgent action to protect civilians and punish the perpetrators, Human Rights Watch says. Last week, eyewitnesses in South Darfur told Human Rights Watch how government-backed Janjaweed militia attacked villages in the Labado area in December and January, and singled out young women and girls for rape. Male relatives who protested were beaten, stripped naked, tied to trees and forced to watch the rape of the women and girls. In some cases, the men were then branded with a hot knife as a mark of their humiliation.

YouthNet invites you to participate in an online discussion,"Youth Forum on Pregnancy Prevention in a Time of AIDS," to be held March 15 - April 15, 2005. You can share your experiences and lessons learned, along with guest experts from the United Nations and other international agencies.

The "digital divide" between rich and poor nations is narrowing fast, according to a World Bank report. The World Bank questioned a United Nation's campaign to increase usage and access to technology in poorer nations."People in the developing world are getting more access at an incredible rate - far faster than... in the past," said the report.

Acknowledging the need for a monitoring and reporting mechanism to track the recruitment of child soldiers and other children's rights violations, the United Nations Security Council said last week it has started considering the proposal for such an instrument from Secretary-General Kofi Annan. In a statement read by Foreign Minister Rogatien Biaou of Benin, which holds the Council presidency for February, at the end of a day-long debate the 15-member body said it was working on a new resolution to "take forward the implementation of its previous resolutions." Link to UN press release at http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2005/sc8319.doc.htm

The Symposium is anticipated to draw developmental workers, gender, humanitarian empowerment and HIV/AIDS experts and activists, representatives of FBOs, NGOs, CBOs, UN Agencies, SADC bodies and groups/organisations of PLWHA, among other key stakeholders, to identify gaps needing urgent redress in HIV and AIDS related gender mainstreaming efforts in policy and programming initiatives in the region, and facilitate subsequent countering strategy development.

Family Health International works closely with senior research staff to develop, implement, monitor, manage and/or analyze complex and other research studies; and designs research management systems. Visit http://www.fhi.org or email [email protected] for more information.

The overall aims of this discussion is to share experiences and raise awareness about the issues of mobile populations and HIV/AIDS, particularly in the Southern African region. This discussion will take place on the AF-AIDS eForum between February and June 2005. To join the eForum, send an email to: [email protected]

I congratulate you for a wonderful issue - 'The dilemma of the inevitable'. It provided me with answers and filled in the gaps that I had. I am involved in community development and I am certainly very informed about issues of HIV/AIDS - I facilitate workhsops on the impact of HIV/AIDS in the  workplace. But when my friend died of the disease in 2003 I fell apart, I felt hopeless and helpless.

Now I know why and I feel very empowered about Kiiza's experience in Nigeria and I think we should really consider talking the language that's understandable and also look at HIV/AIDS holistically, not only as a sexual and a moral issue.

Thank you very much - Keep up your good work!!