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Film in Africa, Africa in Film:Challenging Stereotypes
By Balufu Bakupa-Kanyinda
UNESCO Photo/A. Vorontzoff
To make a film means to be a producer, requiring a combination of the art and technique of film narration and the tricks of finance. Being a producer is also about giving adequate answers to questions that underlie the desire and reasons for producing: What to produce? Why? How? Both objectively and subjectively, these questions determine the entire cultural or commercial vision, the strategy behind any movie or video production.
If one is concerned about the alienation of Africa, which is currently saturated with foreign and strange images produced elsewhere, then production issues are not limited only to financial support, technical expertise or artistic passion. Financial success at the box office or in the bank is not the only goal of production. Television and the movies are the best means of conveying memory and popular culture.
To produce a film in Africa is an act of resistance. It is about looking at the world's stories and giving one's opinion about them, capturing and inquiring about collective memory, attracting, entertaining and informing. It is also about making Africans realize that cinema is a powerful tool for development.
Since cinematography was invented, the stereotypical African has been portrayed all over the world as a debased individual. Africans have been the victims of false historical and cultural ideology, whose best propaganda is cinema (and its by-product, television). On every screen in the continent, big or small, western movies prevail. Cinema is wonderfully subversive under its beautiful lights of entertainment.
Africa, without its own "mirror", does not know who it is anymore. Children's heroes are no longer Mandela, Biko, Lumumba, Nkrumah or Sankara, but blonde women and men with blue or green eyes. In Hollywood, Egypt is not even considered to be in Africa! Where are the African movies that truly reflect African culture? Africa produces an average of ten movies per year and broadcasting is still a difficult problem there. Why would a peasant in Kasai, Democratic Republic of the Congo, grow a product that is not consumed? Most African TV stations are not interested in African movies. When they finally agree to broadcast some, it is often because a western institution helped to produce them. "I do not know what my song is for, but I can bury it", says the poet Xavier Ramilla.
What are African movies about? Is it a peacefully exotic, comically fatalist or pathetic Africa? Are they about a contemplative world of staggering beauty, with the African as a hungry shadow? This is the Africa often filmed and narrated through "tales" with ineffective nostalgia.
Then there is the Africa affected by AIDS and poverty—would this poverty be truly absolute even in the imagination? African history is sometimes so different from the stories that appear in African movies. During the last two years, I have travelled the continent, seeing locally produced films. I have met producers, technicians, actors, moviegoers, theatre owners, broadcasters and unscrupulous businessmen involved in African cinema. These meetings helped me in many ways, especially in better understanding African cinematic production.
Filming in Africa is a political undertaking, challenging directors. In 2002, a Central African filmmaker had proudly co-directed the "first Central African movie" after 42 years as an independent country. However, Equatorial Guinea has no film production, although its neighbour Gabon has an active cinema centre and co-produced several African films. Angola and Congo-Kinshasa should have played important roles in African filmmaking. However, the former has suffered 25 years of civil war and the latter has danced a self-destructive soukous for four decades. In the 1970s and 1980s, during the Mobutu years, Zaire had a full cinema infrastructure, but the movies that were produced were all about one subject—the all-powerful Mobutu and his evil counter-revolution. Today, filmmaking there is non-existent.
In South Africa, white filmmakers, ignoring the movies of Sembene Ousmane and influenced by Hollywood and Europe, make commercials and movies using the beautiful natural settings the country has to offer. The films they want to make implicitly carry the old perception of their black "fellow countrymen". Some South African directors, despite the creation of the National Film and Video Foundation and a new generation of better-trained directors, only want to fight with the other side, whom they accuse of monopolizing all the resources, as during apartheid. "In the rainbow, there is no colour black", underlines Ramadan Suleman, the talented and uncompromising director of "Fools", who is trying to find his place in this paranoid world of the South African white-black relationship.
Film production in Senegal, Mali and Burkina Faso is healthy. In Ghana and Nigeria, cola nut merchants, whose recent acquisition of the camcorder allows them to saturate the market with popular cheap productions, overshadow the efforts of serious directors. Filmed in a hurry, their stories lack basic narrative structure. These producers of "video photo stories", inspired by "journal photo roman", don't care about the mediocrity of their stories on witchcraft, fetishism, gangsters, sects, etc. And why not? The stories provide laughter and pleasure to the viewer. In Lagos and Accra, thousands of these videos are produced each year. Sometimes VHS cassette sales reach 200,000. Perhaps there will be "Lagoswood", just like India's "Bollywood".
In Jos, Nigeria, some studios are fully equipped with a film laboratory—yet nothing is produced there. Is filmmaking in Africa excluded from the world of art and cinema? Would the meaning of the art of cinema be contrary to the one of history? While the political and economic history of Africa was shaped beyond its control during the last five centuries by foreign forces, African cinema was born out of the African's freedom, out of his own fully personal creation, out of his choices.
Why wouldn't a serious director cooperate with a successful video producer? To film in Africa is also to be freed from the illusions of our contradictions—these pseudo-elitist confusions. Some African directors despise documentaries, which they know will not land them on the red carpet in Cannes, becoming the "first Negro" to receive the Palm d'Or, even though Africa needs documentaries to give its own view of the continent. To others, anything not shot on 35mm film is not considered cinema.
What is an African film? Who defines it and by what criteria? Some films representing Africa in prestigious festivals have been made, thanks to generous grants from France, the European Union and other foreign patrons. Many African Governments ignore the real economic and cultural stakes of cinema. They are sufficiently satisfied with Hollywood movies!
In 2002, I finished a documentary called "afro@digital". It is a "manifesto" of the African digital mind. With a small digital camera, I travelled across Africa, from Dakar, Gorée Island, Ouagadougou, Bobo Diaoulasso, Abidjan, Cotonou, Lagos, Johannesburg and Cape Town to Robben Island. I examined the promise that digital technology would give to the creator of the African "video photo story". Now Inteleki, an old Greek word meaning "how to blow life into inanimate matter", is central for African directors. "Take a bone", says John Akomfrah, a Ghanaian director. "You know by using it a certain way, the bone can become a weapon."
With digital technology, it becomes possible to boost creativity, to produce more without sacrificing quality, to inquire again about African memory and enrich it. A new world opens up for cinema: capturing and re-mapping the image of Africa by reducing the high expense of analogue technology. But an African director still needs to know what he is doing and needs to have a story to tell in order not to suppress his song, his part of African history.
Biography
Balufu Bakupa-Kanyinda, of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, directed "Afro@digital", a documentary on the digital revolution in Africa, produced by UNESCO in 2002. His best-known films, "The Draughtsmen Clash" and "Article 15A", are both award-winners. He is also a poet, novelist, screenwriter and producer.
From Africa Recovery, Vol.17 #2 (July 2003), page 1
Reversing Africa's 'brain drain'
New initiatives tap skills of African expatriates
By Gumisai Mutume
For thousands of Africans living overseas and seeking ways to contribute to the development of the continent, initiatives aimed at staunching the outflow of professional expertise are offering new possibilities. Now, more than ever before, there exists "a major opportunity to transform the historical brain drain ... into a new African 'brain trust'," notes Mr. John Sarpong of the Digital Diaspora Network Africa.
He was among 130 heads of technology firms, non-profit organizations and UN agencies who launched the network in July 2002 as part of a resurgence of initiatives to reverse the loss of professional skills from Africa. Among those being targeted are scientists, medical doctors, engineers, university lecturers, economists, information technologists and other highly skilled people in short supply on the continent.
Some initiatives use the Internet to attract skilled workers -- like the thousands of South African doctors living in Canada -- and make it easier for them to provide services to patients back home. Other programmes hope to entice skilled professionals to actually return to Africa.
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Photo : ©AfricaPhotos.com
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African professionals tend to migrate to Western Europe and North America. Many are dissuaded from returning home by the economic and political crises that have bedevilled the continent over the last few decades. Failing economies, high unemployment rates, human rights abuses, armed conflict and the lack of adequate social services, such as health and education, are some of these factors.
The UN Economic Commission for Africa and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimate that 27,000 Africans left the continent for industrialized countries between 1960 and 1975. During the period 1975 to 1984, the figure rose to 40,000. It is estimated that since 1990 at least 20,000 people leave the continent annually.
A brain drain is said to occur when a country becomes short of skills when people with such expertise emigrate. The UN Development Programme (UNDP) notes that in Africa, the loss of medical doctors has been the most striking. At least 60 per cent of doctors trained in Ghana during the 1980s have left the country.
The phenomenon "is putting a huge strain on the continent," notes IOM Deputy Director-General Ndioro Ndiaye. To fill the gap created by the skills shortage, African countries spend an estimated $4 bn annually to employ about 100,000 non-African expatriates. "It is high time programmes and policies are put in place to reverse the devastating effects of the brain drain," she says.
How to redress it
Experts on the continent are increasingly engaged in strategies and programmes to reverse the brain drain or retain skilled professionals at home. They include restrictive policies aimed at delaying emigration, such as adding extra years to medical students' training. Various tax proposals have been put forward as governments realize that the large numbers of citizens living outside their borders are a potential economic resource. Proposals range from one-time exit taxes to bilateral tax arrangements, which would require the receiving nation to tax citizens of another and remunerate the home country.
Another strategy is the adoption of international agreements by industrial and developing nations under which wealthy countries pledge not to recruit skilled people from developing states. However, the two most popular strategies involve transferring skills through networks of professionals and intellectuals and the time-tested approach of repatriation.
Building networks
Because many people are reluctant to return to politically or economically unstable countries, some countries are now trying to find other ways to tap the knowledge and skills of their professionals based overseas. This approach is popular because it does not require participants to relocate to their home countries.
The South African Network of Skills Abroad (SANSA) is an example. Through its website, it invites professional South Africans to sign up. It reports that at least 22,000 graduates from five major South African universities resident abroad remain in touch with the universities. SANSA estimates that about 60 per cent of the country's expatriate graduates are located in six countries, with Australia, the UK and the US accounting for more than half of them. Looking at the nature of their skills, the group estimates that about 30 per cent of the University of Cape Town's contactable doctoral graduates are living overseas. They comprise significant proportions of the university's graduates in medicine, commerce, education and engineering, all areas in which South Africa has an acute shortage of skills.
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Failing economies, high unemployment, human rights abuses, armed conflict and inadequate social services contribute to the outward migration of African professionals.
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Once professionals join SANSA, they may offer to train their South African counterparts or assist them to conduct research. They could facilitate business contacts and transmit information on research results not available in South Africa. SANSA members may also help to transfer technology to their home country, such as providing computers and software. This is already being done in other African countries. The Africast Foundation, for instance, collects and refurbishes "retired" computers in the US for use in schools and poor communities in Ghana.
Wealth of talent
Rather than blame departing professionals for the shortage of skills on the continent, SANSA views "these highly skilled South Africans located abroad as a potential asset," note Mr. David Kaplan and Mr. Jean-Baptiste Meyer. In a report for SANSA, they however stress that the success of networks depends largely on the commitment of expatriates.
The willingness of these experts to share their knowledge and financial resources would be "a powerful demonstration of their commitment to making a difference in women's lives," noted Ms. Noeleen Heyzer, executive director of the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). "There is a wealth of untapped expertise among Africans in the diaspora, especially in the private sector," she told a meeting in Uganda in May, to launch the Digital Diaspora Initiative. UNIFEM is among a number of international agencies participating in the initiative, which is specifically targeted at improving the lives of women in Africa through the use of new information technologies and the expertise of Africans living abroad. Under the programme, African experts will be encouraged to contribute to policy formulation and financing information technology programmes with the aim of taking advantage of the sector's growth.
Relocating African expatriates
Other programmes to counter the brain drain involve the physical relocation of expatriate Africans either to their home countries or elsewhere on the continent. A major limitation, however, is that such operations require large sums of money. Some expatriates may wish to be repatriated with their entire families. Others may request salaries comparable to what they earn in their host countries, along with up-to-date technological resources. Another limitation is that repatriation only allows for the return of the individual expatriate and not the knowledge networks to which he or she may belong.
Despite such challenges, the Kenya-based Research and Development Forum for Science-Led Development in Africa (RANDFORUM) has been exploring ways to repatriate African professionals and intellectuals, as requested in 1999 by the Presidential Forum on the Management of Science and Technology in Africa, a grouping of African heads of state. That year, a taskforce led by a former Zambian president, Mr. Kenneth Kaunda, recommended that RANDFORUM and its sister organization, the African Foundation for Research and Development, identify overseas-based Africans interested in returning home to offer their skills. Another RANDFORUM project aims to relocate professionals from "distressed countries" -- those that are faltering economically or politically, such as Liberia or Somalia -- to where they can be productive. Rather than confine professionals and intellectuals from such countries to refugee camps, they are utilized elsewhere and returned once the situation in their countries normalizes.
Adapting to changing needs
Organizations involved in repatriation face the challenge of attracting larger numbers of participants. IOM's Reintegration of Qualified African Nationals Programme, which ran from 1983 to 1999, only managed to relocate about 2,000 nationals to 11 participating countries. Immigration regulations are cited as one of the concerns of potential returnees, notes Mr. Chernor Jalloh of IOM. People are concerned, for example, about whether they would be able to return to their adopted country once they leave. Immigration laws in some industrialized nations require migrants to remain in the country for a specified period or risk losing their residence status. On the other hand, those who have been naturalized in their new country often have to make a choice between that or their home state, as some African countries do not recognize dual citizenship.
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At least 20,000 highly skilled Africans leave the continent each year.
Photo : ©AfricaPhotos.com
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While past IOM programmes focused on permanent relocations, they are now evolving to cater for the needs of those Africans who prefer to remain in their new countries. Instead of permanent relocations, "we now use sequenced visits," says Mr. Jalloh, describing some aspects of the newly established Migration for Development in Africa programme. These may be short stays, on a number of occasions to service a particular need, for example, "a request for a specialist doctor in a remote part of Sierra Leone," Mr. Jalloh told Africa Recovery. The doctor continues to live abroad, returning when needed to complement the work of teams in the African country.
UNDP notes that the attitude of Africans abroad towards returning is likely to change as their countries develop and prospects and opportunities there improve. "Timing and chance play a part in this," reports UNDP. But in the end, the utilization of skills abroad can be effective "only when countries get their houses in order."
Growing political will
Until recently, African governments had expressed little concern about the loss of skilled people, while development lending agencies often compounded the problem by obliging recipient countries to hire foreign expatriates, as part of the conditions attached to those loans. Moreover, politicians often portrayed countrymen who opted to work and live abroad as unpatriotic. But the sharp rise in skilled emigration and the serious human resource constraints facing the continent have forced many to rethink their views.
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo is one of the leaders actively attempting to address the challenges of the brain drain. On his trips abroad, President Obasanjo often meets professionals and intellectuals who have left Nigeria to ask them how they can contribute to their country's development. President Obasanjo also is one of the architects of the continent's new development framework, the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD).
The New Partnership calls for the establishment of a reliable, continental database to determine the magnitude of the problem and promote collaboration between Africans abroad and those at home. An important NEPAD priority is to develop Africa's human resources and reverse the brain drain. Under NEPAD, African leaders explicitly call for the creation of the "necessary political, social and economic conditions that would serve as incentives to curb the brain drain...."
Dealing with the push factors
But these statements of intent must be transformed into action and deeper issues resolved before the brain drain can be curbed. Many Africans long to return home and participate in development, but their aspirations are "vigorously thwarted by negligent governments whose priorities ... ignore national welfare," says Mr. Kwaku Asante Darko, a lecturer at the National University of Lesotho. Mr. Darko, a Ghanaian, stresses that until the factors that lead to migration are dealt with, it "would be catastrophic" to expect to solve the continent's manpower shortages through an immediate return of skilled Africans. In addition, the continent needs to provide "a conducive environment which is amenable to positive criticism, free of harassment and persecution," says Mr. Rohey Wadda of Gambia's Strategy for Poverty Alleviation Coordinating Office, a national body that oversees development programmes. African countries must be made "more politically, economically and socially attractive to their citizens."
Sometimes, trained professionals are frustrated by donor policies that have the unintended effect of over-emphasizing reliance on foreign technical experts at the expense of trained nationals. In a 1993 report on the effectiveness of technical cooperation, UNDP noted growing concern among African development experts about the persistent reliance on expatriate technical personnel decades after independence and despite major efforts to train nationals. In Burkina Faso, UNDP noted, 800 foreigners with university degrees were employed in the country in 1990, while an equivalent number of Burkinabè nationals with university degrees were jobless. African governments and donors are at times "too quick to bring outside expertise without exploring the capabilities available at home or that could be attracted to return," UNDP reported.
Daunting challenges
The challenges of establishing the necessary political conditions to retain and re-attract skilled personnel are daunting. While on one hand some countries are beginning to recover, on the other, some are engulfed in renewed crises. In Kenya, the recent election of a new president, Mr. Mwai Kibaki, has spawned a period of euphoria and a wave of returns by exiles hoping to rebuild a country that had all but collapsed under the weight of 24 years of rule by former President Daniel arap Moi. President Kibaki has been quick to invite Kenyans "who have been hounded out of our shores by repressive policies of our predecessors to come back home and join us in nation-building." He notes that the country desperately needs "the genius of its citizens wherever they are. It's time for healing and we need every hand on deck."
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Video training in Niger: To develop, Africa needs a wide variety of skills and expertise.
Photo : ©United Nations Capital Development Fund / Adam Rogers
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On the other hand, Cote d'Ivoire, once a migrant's haven in West Africa, has recently been embroiled in civil war. Another of the continent's better-managed economies, Zimbabwe, which also used to draw African immigrants in search of opportunities, is seeing a mass exodus of professionals under the current economic and political crisis. The Zimbabwe National Association of Social Workers estimates that 1,500 of the country's 3,000 trained social workers left for the UK during the last 10 years.
Going back to a job
Returning professionals also need to find a place to work. Until a few years ago, the Gambia did not have a university and had to spend a significant proportion of state funds to train and educate its professionals abroad. Those who became professors could not return, as they had nowhere to ply their trade. In many other African countries, educational institutions are poorly funded and resourced, while there are few private sector jobs. Although they promise to redress such shortcomings, governments still spend very little on specialized areas such as science and technology. The continent's share of investment in research and development is only 0.5 per cent of the global total and it spends 0.8 per cent of the world total on scientific publications. Also, Africa desperately needs universities devoted primarily to research.
Africa's problems are further aggravated by the under-utilization of those skills it already possesses, notes UN Economic Commission for Africa Deputy Executive Secretary Lalla Ben Barka. "In every African country," she says, "there is a paradox of high rates of unemployment and under-employment among school leavers, including university graduates -- even scientists and engineers."
An international problem
Given the international nature of the brain drain and the covert support it receives from developed countries in need of skilled personnel, measures in African countries to contain it will only succeed with the support of destination countries, notes the Union for African Population Studies, a scientific, pan-African non-profit organization. It says that the international community needs to put pressure on developed nations to modify existing policies on the immigration of professionals from developing countries.
Industrialized countries are in growing need of two types of immigrant labour -- those willing to do poorly paid, dirty and dangerous jobs that their own nationals scorn, and highly specialized professionals, such as software specialists, engineers, doctors and nurses. The US has 126,000 fewer nurses than it needs and government figures show that the country could face a shortage of 800,000 registered nurses by 2020. Because of such shortages, industrialized nations have embarked on massive international recruitment drives. South Africa recently had to appeal to the government of Canada to desist from recruiting its medical professionals. In the rural province of Saskatchewan, Canada, more than 50 per cent of doctors are foreign trained and at least 1 in 5 of the 1,530 doctors there earned their first medical degree in South Africa.
However, it may become even tougher to stem the outward flow of skilled professionals from developing countries in future. With falling birth rates and aging populations, demand for labour in Northern countries is forecast to grow, as younger people are needed to maintain productivity. In poorer countries, millions will continue to seek opportunities in richer countries to find better paying jobs and raise their standards of living. And in a globalizing world, where the dominant economic paradigm promotes the free movement of capital, it will become increasingly difficult to restrict the free movement of skilled labour.
According to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, there is a clear need for international cooperation. "There are no easy choices or simple solutions," he says.
Engaging the African diaspora
For the first time, the African Union has invited Africa's diaspora (those who trace their roots back to the continent) to actively take part in the region's development. Heads of state who met for the African Union extraordinary summit in February agreed to amend the organization's charter to "encourage the full participation of the African diaspora as an important part of the continent...." This followed active lobbying by members of the diaspora seeking recognition as agents for the continent's development.
Absent formal structures, African diaspora groups have generally relied on ad-hoc, disparate and small-scale programmes to assist in the development of the continent. Despite this, many have been able to help build schools, hospitals and roads, run training programmes, supply books and computers to deprived schools and establish scholarships to assist students.
But they operate outside the sphere of mainstream development agencies, even though they may be working towards the same ends. "Africa must develop a collective strategy for engaging the diaspora," noted US Ambassador to Nigeria Howard Jeter. He said there have been no meaningful attempts to engage the diaspora and no institutional connections exist. "Few African-Americans know about NEPAD. Why should that be?" asked Ambassador Jeter, in an address to the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs in November. He observed that Africa is not utilizing African-Americans as a primary political constituency in the US. "Are African-Americans really being encouraged to do business with Africa? I don't think so." As Africa begins to map out a strategy to engage those in the diaspora, such questions need to be asked, he said.
Africa Recovery New Releases, 30 July 2003
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Excerpts from the Report
Economic Report on Africa 2003 'African economic growth falters'
United Nations, New York, 30 July 2003 -- Reflecting the weaker global economy, the negative effects of low commodity prices in 2001, drought in East and Southern Africa and armed conflict in several countries, the performance of African economies fell short of expectations in 2002. External factors, such as the decision by the US to increase agricultural subsidies and the stalled World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations on reforming farm trade, do not bode well for the continent, notes the Economic Report on Africa 2003, released 30 July in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, by the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).
Gross domestic product (GDP) growth averaged 3.2% in 2002, down from 4.3% the previous year, the Commission's annual report notes. Since 2000, the performance of agriculture, the mainstay of African economies, has been weak. This has been attributed to severe flooding in Algeria, Kenya and Senegal and to drought and dry conditions in Botswana, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritania, Namibia, Niger, Swaziland, Tunisia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Agriculture grew a meagre 0.8% in sub-Saharan Africa (excluding South Africa), far below the sector's average of 3.9% in 1992-96, the report states.
"The US decision in May 2002 to introduce a six year $51.7 bn farm bill boosting crop and dairy subsidies by 67% doesn't help Africa's prospects," the Economic Report on Africa 2003 notes. "The subsidy will reduce agricultural prices making it difficult for small African countries to compete," states ECA, adding its voice to growing pressure on industrial countries to eliminate trade-distorting subsidies. In 2001, countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development spent $311 bn on agricultural subsidies, more than sub-Saharan Africa's $301 bn GDP for that year. According to the Commission, failure to achieve significant progress at the WTO negotiations on farm trade -- by far the most important issue for developing countries -- further weakens Africa's prospects.
Regional Powerhouses
Africa's lower overall growth rate also reflects the poor performance of four of the region's five largest economies -- Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Nigeria. Algeria registered a decline from 5% in 2001 to 2.7% in 2002 due to floods, political and religious tensions, and weak competitiveness in the industrial sector, ECA reports.
Egypt's economy grew by 3%, down from 3.5% the previous year due to higher domestic interest rates, sluggish private sector growth, "regional insecurity, and a lack of political will by the government to implement far-reaching economic and social reforms" such as privatization and trade liberalization, the report states. Morocco registered a decline in growth from 6.5% to 4.3% and Nigeria's economy was down from 4% to 2.6%.
South Africa, which accounts for 35% of the GDP of the continent's five largest economies, grew by 3% in 2002 up from 2.5%. However, economic growth was hampered by sluggish performance in the euro area, an important market for South Africa, and by the appreciation in the value of the rand against the dollar, reducing the competitiveness of the country's exports.
Only five of the continent's 53 countries achieved 7% growth, the level required to achieve the international community's target for reducing poverty, known as the United Nations Millennium Development Goal. The five are Angola, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique and Rwanda. Another five countries -- Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Madagascar, Malawi and Zimbabwe -- registered negative growth in 2002. The report contains in-depth country analyses for Egypt, Gabon, Ghana, Mauritius, Mozambique, Rwanda and Uganda.
Released shortly after US President George W. Bush's first official visit to Africa where he pledged his country's support, the report urges donor countries to live up to commitments to increase official development assistance to the continent.
The US has pledged an extra $12 bn a year in aid to developing countries beginning in 2006. Canada announced last year that it would commit an additional CAN$66 bn to Africa over five years. Members of the European Union have announced they will meet or exceed their current average commitment of 0.33% of gross national income to aid by 2006. "The challenge is to ensure that these commitments actually become available and are deployed more effectively than in the past," the report notes.
Strong performance
While 2001 was a tough year globally for tourism, Africa performed strongly. Tourist arrivals fell by 0.6% worldwide, but the continent saw an 8.1% increase during the first eight months of 2001. Overall, arrivals grew by 4% in 2001 while tourism receipts rose by 8.8% in Africa as the sector continued a decade-long strong growth pattern. Between 1990 and 2000, African tourism grew at an annual rate of 6.2% compared to the world average of 4.3%.
The ECA report states that monetary policy in Africa has been relatively sound. Inflation has been reduced to single digits in several countries. The number of African countries with double digit inflation fell from 30 in 1995 to 11 in 2002 and 26 countries achieved inflation rates of less than 5%.
Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Djibouti, Egypt, Gabon, Kenya, Mali, Morocco, Niger and Rwanda had less than 3% inflation, while Ethiopia and Uganda had negative inflation rates. At the other extreme, the Democratic Republic of Congo registered 27.7% inflation, Angola 108.5% and Zimbabwe 137.2%. All three countries were in the midst of political or armed conflict.
Modest Outlook
A number of economic and political factors have encouraged the ECA to forecast an improvement in economic performance in 2003. Growth is expected to reach 4.2%. Factors include:
-- A reduction in conflict on the continent. A ceasefire was declared in Angola after the death of rebel leader Jonas Savimbi of UNITA. Peace has returned to the Horn of Africa with cessation of hostilities between Ethiopia and Eritrea. And the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda signed a peace agreement in July 2002.
-- An increase in the number of countries receiving debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative, freeing up resources for social spending.
-- A "bottoming out" of the global slowdown. Economic growth is expected to improve in the major regions of the world by the third quarter of 2003, spurring economic activity in Africa through increased trade and aid.
-- A decision by six West African countries to form a monetary union in 2005, a decision likely to improve macroeconomic policies in the region.
-- A significant recovery in commodity prices since 2002. The World Bank price index for petroleum rose from 84.4 in the last quarter of 2001 to 117.7 in the third quarter of 2002. The index for non-energy commodities increased from 75 to 84.9 during the same period.
On the other hand, the report points to several factors that may pose risks for improved economic growth in the region:
-- The deteriorating situation in Cote d'Ivoire and Zimbabwe.
-- The US decision to increase agricultural subsidies.
-- Inflationary pressure in the major economies of South Africa and Nigeria.
-- Renewed incidents of flooding and drought in some parts of the continent.
-- The high probability of an El Niño phenomenon in 2003.
The full report is available online: www.uneca.org/era2003
From Africa Recovery, Vol.17 #2 (July 2003), page 12
Foreign investment on Africa's agenda
NEPAD aims to attract a larger share of global capital flows
By Ernest Harsch
For African economies to grow and prosper, "capital markets are essential," says Ghanaian Minister of Finance Yaw Osafo-Maafo. "The lack of capital is one of Africa's major stumbling blocks."
That view -- presented at an April forum of hundreds of African business executives and stock market officials -- is increasingly common among African leaders. Until just a few years ago, when they spoke of financing for Africa's development, they usually meant government spending, donor assistance, official lending or other sources of public funds. But the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), adopted in 2001 as the main development framework for the continent, has added a strong emphasis on increasing private flows to Africa as one way to help overcome the region's resource gap.
Some African countries already offer attractive opportunities for prospective investors, and as a result, Africa has seen a modest rise in foreign capital inflows over the past decade. But up to now, high levels of poverty, poor infrastructure, bureaucratic red tape, corruption and fears of political instability have led most investors to steer clear of the continent. The challenge facing African governments is how to draw them in.
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Mercedes Benz factory in South Africa: Foreign investors look for political stability and good infrastructure.
Photo : ©Eric Miller / iAfrika.com
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Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, one of NEPAD's most active proponents, has often maintained that no country in the world has managed to develop itself with just foreign aid or borrowing. Those countries that have been successful have also utilized private capital, both domestic and foreign. "We are convinced," President Wade said during a visit to Tokyo in mid-May, "that the private sector can play the same role [in Africa] that it has played in Japan." Therefore, he said, it is necessary "to create the conditions for private capital to be able to invest in African countries."
However, President Wade has also cautioned that "growth generated by private investments does not automatically translate into an improvement in the people's well-being." For that to happen, governments cannot leave everything to the market, but also must play a strategic role. Mr. Zéphirin Diabré, associate administrator of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), similarly told Africa Recovery that "the role of government is critical to ensure that there is good distribution of the wealth that has been created" (see interview "Zéphirin Diabré: It's time to act on investment").
A yawning gap
As recently as the 1980s, an African government's openness to foreign investment was largely a reflection of political or ideological orientation. But with the end of the Cold War and the further worsening of Africa's economic predicament, foreign investment now is seen more as a matter of practical necessity.
Economic growth in Africa has averaged about 3.5 per cent annually over the last five years, notes African Development Bank (ADB) President Omar Kabbaj. He points out that this is far below the NEPAD estimate of 6-8 per cent needed in Africa to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. (The MDGs were adopted by world leaders in 2000, and include reducing by half the proportion of people living on less than $1 a day by the year 2015.)
Achieving faster economic growth requires significantly higher investment rates, Mr. Kabbaj argues. These now are generally low, ranging from 16-22 per cent of gross domestic product, compared with the 30 per cent generally needed for high growth. Yet there are severe constraints on quickly increasing domestic investment rates, he continues, "given the widespread poverty and the low level of savings" that are prevalent in many poor African countries. Therefore, some form of external financing is essential.
-------------------------------------------------------"The first reflex of a foreign investor arriving in an African country is to see how the local private sector is behaving . . . to see which sectors are working and to know whether local people are investing in them."-- Nigerian President Obasanjo
-------------------------------------------------------Studies by the ADB suggest that aid flows to African countries would need to increase by between 50 and 100 per cent to help them attain levels of economic growth that would make possible significant reductions in poverty. But that is doubtful in today's aid climate. Over the past decade, official development assistance to Africa has been in sharp decline, falling by around 35 per cent between 1992 and 2001.
Even if that decline can be reversed -- and a number of key donors are in fact pledging to boost their assistance to Africa -- aid flows are not likely to grow enough to fully finance NEPAD's ambitious goals. Nor will prevailing levels of debt relief generate sufficient savings to bridge the gap. Increased export earnings could be another source of external resources, but low world prices for Africa's primary commodity exports and serious difficulties in gaining access to Northern markets put severe limits on the continent's trade prospects.
Despite the evident difficulties, African leaders are calling on their external partners to take action on all these fronts. Simultaneously, they are appealing to private investors to make their own contribution. Hundreds of business executives expressed interest during a forum on private sector financing for NEPAD held in Dakar, Senegal, in April 2002, the first of a number of such conferences around the continent.
So far, the record of success in actually attracting foreign investment to Africa has been mixed. In the early 1990s, inflows of foreign direct investment (FDI) to Africa averaged only around $2-3 bn per year. This more than doubled by the latter half of that decade, and reached a record peak of $13.8 bn in 2001 (see graph). Last year, however, net FDI inflows to Africa were estimated to have dropped to just $7 bn, reflecting the depressed world investment climate. Flows will likely remain at that level in 2003, according to World Bank forecasts, although most will go to just a few African countries, mainly in oil or minerals.
In relation to the small size of most African economies, even such modest FDI inflows are becoming significant. In 2001, for example, gross FDI in sub-Saharan Africa was equivalent to 8.1 per cent of the region's total GDP (compared with just 1 per cent in 1990). That ratio was higher than for any other developing region, notably surpassing both East Asia and the Pacific (4.6 per cent) and Latin America and the Caribbean (4.4 per cent).
Yet in comparison with total foreign investment, which has grown spectacularly over the past decade, the flows to Africa still remain small. In 2001, sub-Saharan Africa attracted only 8 per cent of total FDI flows to the developing world.
'Painstaking reforms'
According to Mr. Osafo-Maafo, the Ghanaian finance minister, Africa has the potential to become "the next global investment horizon." Similar optimism was expressed by many of the other officials, executives and investors who attended the 14-15 April "African Capital Markets Development Forum," organized jointly in New York by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the New York Stock Exchange and the African Stock Exchanges Association (ASEA).
As Ms. Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke, chairperson of the ASEA, pointed out, Africa offers some of the highest profit rates in the world. According to studies by the UN Conference on Trade and Development, foreign companies gained average returns of 29 per cent on their investments in Africa during the 1990s, much higher than in most other regions. But profitability is only one factor that potential investors take into account.
Mr. Osafo-Maafo noted that Ghana is now considered a relatively attractive destination for foreign investment in Africa, not only because of the high rates of return that are possible there, but also because of the country's political reforms, measures to combat corruption and improvements in the way the private sector is able to conduct business. That outcome, he said, is "not a miracle, but a result of painstaking reforms."
From the perspective of the foreign investor, most African countries present enormous hurdles, Mr. Alan Patricof,
vice-chairman of Apax Partners investment house in the US, told the participants at the New York forum. He highlighted
numerous difficulties, including:
1. corruption and bureaucratic red-tape
2. weak legal systems
3. poor infrastructure
4. shortages of skilled labour.
To reduce corruption and red-tape, Mr. Patricof recommended that African countries set up "one-stop" centres at which investors could obtain all their necessary licences and other forms of approval, rather than having to deal with a plethora of separate administrative "tollgates" that take time and give local officials opportunities to exact kickbacks or other personal benefits.
Not all problems lie with excessive government involvement, Mr. Patricof added, but also with the absence of appropriate regulation. In much of Africa, rules of corporate governance "practically don't exist," he said. That makes it possible for both domestic and foreign companies to avoid full disclosure of their accounts, enabling them to evade their tax obligations.
Lesotho's Minister of Finance Timothy Thahane pointed to the importance of financial sector reforms, including the development of regulatory frameworks for banks, insurance companies and other institutions. Stronger and more diversified financial systems, he said, will encourage both investment and savings.
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Stock exchange in Harare: most African exchanges are small, but they offer high returns.
-------------------------------------------------------Many participants observed that conflict and political instability tend to discourage investors from coming to Africa. Even countries far from current conflict zones are affected by this negative image, since investors often view an entire region, and even the continent as a whole, through a single lens. Therefore, they noted, NEPAD's emphasis on achieving peace and security is essential for helping make Africa a more attractive outlet for investments over the long term.
US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Walter Kansteiner pointed out that there also are short-term remedies. The US government's Overseas Private Investment Corporation, for example, helps finance political risk insurance schemes in Africa. He also supported African proposals for greater regional integration among neighbouring countries, so as to develop larger and more attractive markets.
In addition, a number of investment analysts have noted that it is very hard to draw in foreign investors when a country's economic climate is not conducive to domestic investment. At the NEPAD financing conference in Dakar last year, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo emphasized, "The first reflex of a foreign investor arriving in an African country is to see how the local private sector is behaving . . . to see which sectors are working and to know whether local people are investing in them."
For African countries, the type of foreign investment they try to attract can be an important consideration for their future development, notes Mr. Kenneth Kwaku of the World Bank's Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, which provides risk insurance to investors and lenders active in developing countries. Much foreign investment in Africa today is based on the extraction of oil, minerals and other natural resources, with little local processing. Attracting investments that add value and stimulate economic development, he says, will require "no longer relying on our natural resources, but on skills and knowledge." To get companies to become more active in such areas, he adds, will mean stemming the tendency of African professionals and skilled workers to leave the continent (see article "Reversing Africa's 'brain drain: new initiatives tap skills of African expatriates").
Stock markets gear up
In addition to foreign direct investment, some flows to Africa are in the form of equity investments -- trading company shares, government bonds and similar financial instruments. For sub-Saharan Africa, such portfolio equity inflows increased from $2.9 bn in 1995 to $8.9 bn in 1999. They then fell to $4 bn in 2000 and virtually collapsed the following two years, as global stock market activity suffered severe turbulence and decline (see graph, page 13).
For the largest African companies, major world stock markets provide a good "platform for accessing international capital markets," New York Stock Exchange Vice-President Bryant W. Seaman told the April forum. The NYSE itself now lists seven African companies, with a total capitalization of $26 bn. Reflecting a growing interest in Africa, trading in their shares leaped by 700 per cent between 1999 and the early months of 2003, Mr. Seaman noted.
By contrast, most African stock markets are very small -- "frontier" markets in the vernacular of international investors -- with the exception of South Africa's Johannesburg Stock Exchange and the markets in Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia. Their combined capitalization reached $245 bn in 2002 (with the JSE share accounting for $183 bn). This was barely a tenth of the total capitalization for all "emerging market" exchanges, and less then 1 per cent of the world total.
The number of African stock markets has been growing however, from 10 about a decade ago to 18 active exchanges today. And while they may be small, says Ms. Okereke-Onyiuke, they represent a "virile" force that should attract greater international interest in the years ahead.
The stock exchange in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, which lists companies from six francophone countries in West Africa, is one of the few regional stock markets in the world. Plans are under way to also set up a second regional exchange in East Africa.
Many of the companies listed on these African exchanges -- more than 2,200 in 2002 -- generate high returns for their shareholders. In 2002, for example, the JSE index showed an average return of 27.9 per cent (calculated in US dollars), while the Abidjan exchange reached 27.4 per cent, Ghana 33.3 per cent and Botswana 41.4 per cent. By contrast, that same year, the US's Standard and Poors 500 index registered a 22.4 per cent loss, while the combined index for all emerging markets fell by 7.5 per cent. One reason for Africa's high profitability, notes Ms. Okereke-Onyiuke, is that most African companies are still "in their growth stage," that is, they are relatively new ventures with considerable room for expansion.
Yet many investors simply do not know about these opportunities. Most African exchanges are not included in the main equity market indices and therefore attract few portfolio funds targeted toward global emerging markets. For potential investors who are knowledgeable, the high profitability of these African companies is counterbalanced by uncertainties about their long-term performance, in addition to concerns about the stability of most African economies.
This lack of a strong, positive image is one reason why African stock markets have shown an interest in forging closer ties with the highly developed exchanges of New York, London and other global commercial centres, to gain better international exposure. "We need support from grown-up exchanges," Mr. Osafo-Maafo said to his colleagues at the NYSE, "to learn from your experiences."
At the same time, he added, African countries can do much to make their economies more viable and attractive targets for potential investors. "Africa, properly managed, could be the future of portfolio investment."
Website: www.africarecovery.org
From Africa Recovery, Vol.17 #2 (July 2003), page 14
"By mobilizing private capital, Africa can promote the economic growth needed to reduce poverty," Mr. Zéphirin Diabré writes in the foreword to the new Africa Stock Markets Handbook, published by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in April. Following a career in both business and government (including as minister of finance) in his native Burkina Faso, Mr. Diabré joined UNDP in 1999 as associate administrator, the agency's second-highest position. He spoke with Africa Recovery at the close of the 14-15 April "African Capital Markets Development Forum," organized by UNDP in collaboration with the New York Stock Exchange and the African Stock Exchanges Association.
It's time to act on investment
Africa needs more reforms, says UNDP's Zéphirin Diabré
The New Partnership for Africa's Development stresses resource mobilization, both domestic and external. Compared with previous African plans, the external component is not just foreign aid, but also an explicit focus on attracting foreign investment. What does this shift in emphasis reflect?
Diabré:: It reflects an adaptation to the prevailing trend in the world. It is also a way of drawing lessons from past experience. As President Wade has so eloquently said, history has never shown an example of a country which has been able to lift itself out of poverty by relying solely on foreign assistance. Official development assistance resources are very important because they are a way of expressing solidarity between rich and poor countries, and they can help fund public goods, from health to education to environmental protection, and so on. But for an economy to grow, it needs a different type of resource. The same way the private sector has been the engine of growth in developed countries, it's time now that we realize the private sector should be the engine of growth in our countries in Africa.
What are the challenges facing African countries in actually drawing in foreign investors? What do they have to do?
Diabré: We know the gospel, most of the time. Why does someone go and invest somewhere else? He goes because first he is seeking a certain return on his money. And second he is going because he feels comfortable that it's a place where it is secure to do business. I do believe that a high return is there in Africa. What is lacking, according to potential investors, is that the environment sometimes is not 100 per cent conducive to promoting the private sector. They don't always feel secure that their investment will be protected against political or social upheaval. They're not sure that the law will be applied properly if there is a dispute to settle. African leaders are, in a certain way, aware of this problem. It's time now for them to start acting.
You are from Burkina Faso. How do you convince investors to come when a neighbouring country like Côte d'Ivoire, once considered very stable, is suddenly thrown into conflict?
Diabré: This is why we need to put in place in these African countries some sustainable institutions that can guarantee long-term stability. I definitely agree that what is happening in Côte d'Ivoire is a strong deterrent for anybody to come and put his money in Africa today.
Recently, there has been more discussion of using stock markets in Africa to attract portfolio investments. In light of the financial crises in Asia, Argentina and other countries in recent years, are there more risks for Africa in bringing in such short-term capital than in trying to attract longer-term foreign direct investment (FDI)?
Diabré: It depends on what side you're looking from. From the investor's perspective, and contrary to what some people believe for Africa, FDI is seen as more risky than portfolio investment, for one simple reason. FDI is a long-term commitment, and a fairly physical one. An investor doesn't always have a clear exit strategy in case of trouble. But portfolio investment doesn't translate into a physical presence or a long-term commitment. You can exit any time, by just selling your stocks and bonds. So for somebody in a developed country who is not willing to take the risk of being physically present, portfolio investment is an appropriate way to do business.
Of course, for the country, there is the risk of a sudden withdrawal [of capital] that can make the bubble collapse. But that is part of economics. It shouldn't be a deterrent. Most of the time such a withdrawal of investors is due to the absence of proper regulation of the financial system. The main issue is for a country to be able to attract the resources and manage them appropriately for its own economic growth.
There have been studies indicating that increased flows of official development assistance may encourage greater foreign investment.
Diabré: Definitely. Some things cannot be done by the private sector. The private sector likes to come to places where certain parameters have been put in place already. After the Second World War, the Marshall Plan provided that for many European countries, before the private sector would step in. I will venture to make the same comparison for Africa.
Some proponents of foreign investment seem to believe that its benefits will "trickle down," and in that way reduce poverty and spur development. Is that enough, or does something else need to be done?
Diabré: Attracting foreign investment can boost the growth of the economy. But that by itself is not sufficient to be able to alleviate poverty. You have to take appropriate measures to make sure that all segments of the population are benefiting. And that is where the role of government is critical, to ensure that there is good distribution of the wealth that has been created.
And the mobilization of domestic capital as well ...
Diabré: Definitely. That's very important too. Actually, foreign investors basically come when domestic ones already are active. If the citizens of a given country are themselves not confident enough to invest in their own country, why ask somebody from outside to come and do it for them?
What do African public sectors need to do to encourage investment?
Diabré: They have to be more efficient, and make sure that the regulation of the economy is smooth and well managed. They have to fight corruption, because that is one of the reasons why there is the flight of capital. The issue is the functioning of the state and those key mechanisms that an economy needs: a banking sector which is well regulated, a judicial system which is applying the law appropriately, some basic infrastructure - the whole set of parameters which a modern economy needs to be able to operate. These are areas in which sometimes states in Africa are not able to deliver, and in which we need deeper and stronger reform.
From Africa Recovery, Vol.17 #2 (July 2003), page 15
Senegal attracts investors, but slowly
Misperceptions, red tape and banking weaknesses hinder promotion efforts
By Laura Hildebrandt
Senegal should be a great place for foreign investors. Situated on the western-most point of Africa, it is within easy reach of US and European markets from the natural port of Dakar. The country has an abundance of labour, relatively good infrastructure and a well-educated elite. It has a history of political stability and secular democracy, with decidedly pro-market leanings, particularly since the election in 2000 of President Abdoulaye Wade. Senegal has undergone two decades of structural adjustment programmes under the direction of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank. In short, it meets most of the standard criteria that investors consider critical.
The Senegalese government seems to agree. It forecasts high levels of growth in investment over the next few years. Although the last two years have seen some increases, the results were skewed by a few large one-time investments. Some analysts predict that the pace is not sustainable. The IMF also believes the government's expectations are overly optimistic. Why are more investors not taking advantage of the opportunities Senegal has to offer?
One answer, according to Mr. Alan Patricof, vice-chairman of Apax Partners investment house in the US, is that foreign investors tend to lump countries together in regions, without making much distinction among individual countries. By that logic, Senegal's reputation for stability may be offset by conflicts elsewhere in the region, such as Côte d'Ivoire.
Regulations and courts
For those investors who have chosen Senegal, there still are numerous regulatory obstacles, despite progress during years of reform. These barriers for starting up a business or acquiring land can cause significant delays for investors.
Mr. Mbaye Khouma, marketing director of the Senegalese investment promotion agency, offered an anecdote. A foreign firm was planning to set up a factory in Dakar. The company made a bid for an existing government-owned building. But land ownership regulations required that before the government could transfer the building to the company, it had to consider at least two competing bids. No other bids were made for the space, and after several months of waiting the company eventually decided to move to another country.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tyre factory in Dakar: Senegal holds many advantages for investors, but problems persist.
---------------------------------
Businesses and banks operating in Senegal also often face difficulties in trying to enforce contracts in courts. Last year, a joint IMF-World Bank assessment of Senegal's financial sector found that the judicial system lacks sufficient technical capacity to handle financial matters. Cases may take many months.
Mr. Gabriel Fall, a member of President Wade's advisory committee on investment, offers another explanation for investor reticence: the highly informal nature of much of Senegal's economy. As masses of people move from the countryside to the cities in search of higher incomes, many enter the informal sector, selling cheap consumer imports from Asia on the street. Mr. Fall maintains that this trend causes licensed shops to close and prevents new investment in nearly all sectors.
Access to capital
Even when an entrepreneur has identified a solid opportunity and has decided to invest in an enterprise, there is the additional problem of inadequate access to capital through the local financial system. In Senegal, money is generally available for large enterprises and projects, as well as for very small ones, but not those in the middle. The West African Development Bank, for example, provides loans for projects over $10 mn, while at the other end of the spectrum, some of the most generous micro-credit institutions have a loan ceiling of just $20,000, often not enough for small-scale entrepreneurs.
For small domestic or foreign businesses, particularly start-ups, it can be extremely difficult to get loans from the banks, which are hesitant to lend to a company that has not yet proved itself. "Trust is a big barrier for banks," Mr. Fall explains.
Banks are especially conservative in lending to new sectors, such as information and communications technologies. As Mr. Christophe Aguessy of the West African Development Bank in Dakar explains, banks often lack the knowledge or capacity to reliably evaluate projects, particularly in high-tech sectors.
Recognizing some of the problems that hamper Senegal's ability to attract private investors, the World Bank in May approved a new $46 mn credit to help the government improve the investment climate, promote greater private involvement in economic activities and carry out further policy reforms.
Another avenue to attract more capital for investment would be to tap into Senegal's diaspora living abroad. At an investment forum held in Dakar in late May, Prime Minister Idrissa Seck noted that migrants in Europe and North America sent back to Senegal some CFA160 bn ($218 mn) in 2001. Unlike other external investors, these members of the Senegalese diaspora know the country well and have informal contacts to help them overcome the complex regulatory environment. They also have personal incentives to invest their savings back home, provided good investment opportunities are available.
From Africa Recovery, Vol.17 #2 (July 2003), page 23
Africa Books
**PLEASE NOTE: BOOKS ARE NOT AVAILABLE FROM AFRICA RECOVERY, THEY MUST BE OBTAINED DIRECTLY FROM THE PUBLISHERS**
1. Imagine There's No Country: Poverty, Inequality, and Growth in the Era of Globalization by Surjit S. Bhalla (Institute for International Economics, Washington, DC, 2002; pb $28)
2. Etat et acteurs emergents en Afrique by Yann Lebeau, Boubacar Niane, Anne Piriou and Monique de Saint Martin (Editions Karthala, Paris, 2003; 352 pp; 26 euros)
3. The African Studies Companion: A Guide to Information Resources, ed. Hans M. Zell (Hans Zell Publishing Consultants, Glais Bheinn, Scotland, UK, 2003; £98.50; 158 euros; $170, combined print and online version)
4. The Road to a New Africa: An Essay to the African People by Papa Yalae (Random House Ventures, New York, 2003; 657 pp; pb $24.64)
5. Popularisation of Science and Technology from Africa, eds. Mike Savage and Prem Naidoo (Commonwealth Secretariat, London, UK, 2002; 267 pp; pb £13.90)
6. Better Governance and Public Policy, eds. Dele Olowu and Soumana Sako (Kumarian Press, Bloomfield, CT, US, 2003; 288 pp; pb $26.95; hb $65)
7. Bouleversements fonciers en Méditerranée by Mohamed Elloumi and Anne-Marie Jouve (Editions Karthala, Paris, 2003; 384 pp; 28 euros)
8. Shifting Burdens: Gender and Agrarian Change Under Neoliberalism, ed. Shahra Razavi (Kumarian Press, Bloomfield, CT, US, 2002; 288 pp; pb $29.95)
9. Continent of Mothers, Continent of Hope: Understanding and Promoting Development in Africa Today by Torild Skard (Zed Books, London, 2003; 256 pp; pb £14.95, $22.50; hb £45.00, $65.00)
10. Agrarian Studies: Essays on Agrarian Relations in Less-Developed Countries, eds. V.K. Ramachandran and Mandhura Swaminathan (Zed Books, London, 2003; 600 pp; pb £19.95, $29.50; hb £55.00, $75.00)
11. Capacity Building for a Reforming African Power Sector, eds. Mengistu Tefferra and Stephan Karekezi (Zed Books, London, 2003; 320 pp; pb £15.95, $25.00; hb £49.95, $75.00)
12. Hostels, Sexuality and the Apartheid Legacy: Malevolent Geographics by Glen S. Elder (Ohio University Press, Athens, Ohio, US, 2003; 192 pp; hb $49.95; pb $24.95)
13. Gender Budgets Make More Cents: Country Studies and Good Practices, eds. Debbie Budlender and Guy Hewitt (Commonwealth Secretariat, London, 2002; 150 pp; $16.95)
14. The Human Rights of Women: International Instruments and African Experiences, eds. Wolfgang Benedeck, Esther M. Kisaakye and Gerd Oberleitner (Zed Books, London, 2002; 336 pp; $29.95)
15. Music as Instrument of Diversity and Unity: Notes on a Namibian Landscape by Minette Mans (Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Uppsala, Sweden, 2003; 55 pp; SEK100)
16. Afrique 2025 by Futurs africains (Editions Karthala, Paris, 2003; 200 pp;18 euros)
17. Multi-Habitation: Urban Housing and Everyday Life in Chitungwiza, Zimbabwe by Ann Schlyter (Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Uppsala, Sweden, 2003; 55 pp; SEK100, £7.95, $12.95)
18. African Political Parties: Evolution, Institutionalisation and Governance, ed. M.A. Mohamed Salih (Pluto Press, Sterling, VA, US, 2003; 372 pp; hb $75.00; pb $24.95)
19. International Trade and Political Conflict: Commerce, Coalitions and Mobility by Michael J. Hiscox (Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, US, 2002; 224 pp; hb $18.95, £13.95; pb $49.50, £35.00)
20. Ethiopia Since the Derg: A Decade of Democratic Pretension and Performance, eds. Siegfried Pausewang, Kjetil Tronvoll, Lovise Aalen (Zed Books, London, UK, 2003; 288 pp; pb £16.95, $29.95; hb £45.00, $75.00)
21. Islam, Sectarianism and Politics in Sudan since Mahdiyya by Warburg Gabriel (Hurst & Co, London, 2003; 252 pp; £16.95)
22. Reconstructing Health Services: Experiences of Health Care Reform in a Changing Policy Environment, ed. Kasturi Sen (Zed Books, London, 2003; 256 pp; pb £14.95, $22.50; hb £45.00, $55.00)
23. International Trade, Growth and Development by Pranab Bardhan (Blackwell Publishing, Malden, MA, US, 2002; 320 pp; hb $74.95; pb $39.95)
24. Tunisie, le delitement de la cité by Sadri Khiari (Editions Karthala, Paris, 2003; 208 pp;18 euros)
From Africa Recovery, Vol.17 #1 (May 2003), page 1
Africa beyond famine
New strategies needed to combat hunger, disease and rural poverty
By Ernest Harsch
Africa today suffers from a "deadly triad" of interrelated burdens -- food insecurity, HIV/AIDS and a reduced capacity to govern and provide basic services -- says UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Therefore, a "new, integrated response from both the governments of Africa and the international community" is needed, he told the Group of 8 (G-8) industrialized countries in early March. That means taking long-term development measures at the same time as giving immediate relief to people suffering from famine, he said.
At the beginning of the year, some 25 million Africans required emergency food aid, but quick relief shipments have since eased the threat of starvation in most countries of Southern Africa.
(Photo : ©World Bank / Ray Witlin)
To many around the world, the image of famine in Africa is closely linked to drought and, in some countries, war. But even when there is no drought or other acute crisis, about 200 million Africans suffer from chronic hunger, UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Director-General Jacques Diouf noted during a recent visit to Senegal. The reasons are multiple: low farm productivity, grinding poverty, the ravages of HIV/AIDS and unstable domestic and international agricultural markets.
"Food insecurity in Africa has structural causes," Mr. Annan emphasizes. "Most African farmers cultivate small plots of land that do not produce enough to meet the needs of their families. The problem is compounded by the farmers' lack of bargaining power and lack of access to land, finance and technology." Because small-scale farmers and other rural Africans have so few food stocks and little income, a period of drought can quickly trigger famine conditions. This is especially true for rural women, who are among the poorest of the poor and who account for the bulk of food production in Africa.
Some African countries, such as Senegal, are beginning to address the need to "modernize" agriculture (see article "Senegal: to fight hunger, modernize farming"). This means giving poor farmers security, essential infrastructure such as rural roads and greater access to credit, water and appropriate technologies. With improved seeds, fertilizer, irrigation and use of draught animals, the average African farmer can multiply her output many times over.
But the challenges are daunting. HIV/AIDS is seriously debilitating the rural labour force in countries with the highest infection rates, further undermining agricultural production and productivity (see article "Famine and AIDS: a lethal mixture"). Livestock disease is a big obstacle to better integrating the use of draught animals into farming practices (see article "Eradicating tsetse flies from Africa"). In rural Africa, markets often do not function well, tend to marginalize the very poor and can be disrupted by the sudden withdrawal of government support resulting from economic liberalization policies.
External constraints
African governments, often bound by the policy conditions of external financing agencies, have limited scope for devising agricultural policies that benefit poorer food farmers. They also have few financial resources of their own for significant agricultural investment. So increasing such investment, Mr. Annan notes, will require "reversing the alarming decline in development assistance for African agriculture," which fell from an annual average of $4 bn to $2.6 bn during the 1990s.
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Agricultural research laboratory in Mauritania: More financing is needed to develop higher-yielding crops and other farming improvements.
Photo : ©FAO
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In addition, many African producers of export crops are seriously hampered by unfavourable -- and inequitable -- international markets and trading arrangements, issues that have seen very little progress in the current World Trade Organization negotiations (see article "Global agricultural trade talks stall"). Especially debilitating for African agriculture have been the large subsidies that rich countries provide their own farmers, which have the effect of pushing down world market prices for cotton, sugar and other African farm exports (see article "Mounting opposition to Northern farm subsidies"). Therefore, the UN Secretary-General says, increasing resources for agriculture in Africa will require "dismantling the agricultural subsidies from rich countries," which currently total more than $300 bn per year. "Only then will Africa be able to achieve truly sustainable agricultural production."
A comprehensive approach
Since the solutions to Africa's food insecurity and rural poverty do not lie within agriculture alone, Mr. Annan points out, African countries and the international community must take action on a number of different fronts. These include:
-- Doing more to integrate into short-term emergency programmes actions that also address the structural causes of famine. This includes correcting the drastic shortfalls in non-food items in emergency situations, such as seeds and tools, support for orphans, education and HIV services.
-- Strengthening a multi-sectoral approach to combating HIV/AIDS, including by improving efforts to prevent infection and treating those already infected.
-- Ensuring that the 40 million African children who are not receiving an education are able to get into school -- and ensuring that those who are in school, especially girls, are not pulled out when drought or HIV strikes a household.
-- Empowering Africa's small farmers, with a special focus on women, who are both the key food providers and crucial to fighting AIDS.
-- Working with rural communities to develop new labour-saving agricultural and natural resource management technologies, appropriate to a depleted workforce.
-- Reversing the dramatic decline in publicly funded agricultural research and strengthening Africa's scientific institutions, to achieve progress in such areas as soil nutrition, water management and new, higher-yielding crops adapted to African conditions.
-- Focusing on critical physical infrastructure, including transport, support services and irrigation.
-- Building markets that work and respond to the needs of Africa's poor.
To make progress in all these areas, Mr. Annan adds, it will be essential to help African governments strengthen governance, "by rebuilding the capacity of the state to provide essential public services. Where once we spoke of capacity building, today we speak of capacity replenishment."
This broad approach is consistent with the goals of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), the long-term development framework adopted by Africa in 2001 and endorsed unanimously the following year by the UN General Assembly. NEPAD also emphasizes addressing agriculture's structural constraints, noting further that improved agricultural performance is not only essential for food security and rural advancement, but also a "prerequisite of economic development," given agriculture's importance in most African economies.
To bear fruit, the UN Secretary-General concludes, a systematic, comprehensive and targeted approach to rural development will need to be sustained for years. And it will require that African countries and the international community, including the richest nations of the G-8, work together. Developing and implementing such an approach, he says, will be a "crucial test" for NEPAD.
***See also:***
Famine and AIDS: a lethal mixture <
http://www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/afrec/vol17no1/171agri4.htm>;
Senegal: to fight hunger, modernize farming <
http://www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/afrec/vol17no1/171food2.htm>;
Eradicating tsetse flies from Africa <
http://www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/afrec/vol17no1/171agri3.htm>;
Mounting opposition to Northern farm subsidies <
http://www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/afrec/vol17no1/171agri4.htm>;
Africa seeks own solutions to conflict <
http://www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/afrec/vol17no1/171peack.htm>;
Changing tradition to safeguard women <
http://www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/afrec/vol17no1/171wm1.htm>;
International action against female genital mutilation
Victory over river blindness <
http://www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/afrec/vol17no1/171heal1.htm>;
Dr. Ebrahim Samba: 'You can tackle anything'
NEPAD Watch
Obasanjo: New Partnership making progress <
http://www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/afrec/vol17no1/171nepad.htm>;
From Davos to Brazil, Africa makes its case <
http://www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/afrec/vol17no1/171nepd2.htm>;
WTO Watch: Global agricultural trade talks stall <
http://www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/afrec/vol17no1/171wto.htm>; Development agenda 'just a slogan'?