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governance and history are key to helping Africa move forwardWith the fall of the Roman Empire, life in England descended back into the Dark Ages. During the long occupation of the country from AD 43 until AD 410, Rome brought organisation and discipline to a land made up of fractious tribes. Every time new territory was conquered the Romans set about constructing roads to ensure good communications for the military and for trade. They built towns and military camps with brick and stone. Crop growing areas were extended by draining marshes. In order to ensure a continuing supply of fresh water they constructed aqueducts to transport water from lakes and rivers, often miles away. They also ensured a healthy environment by creating a system of drains and sewers to remove waste water, whilst laundries were available where clothes could be washed and ironed. Romans also had central heating. The Roman legal and administrative systems linked the provinces together, and each nation to Rome where a common language, Latin, was used throughout. All over the Empire, too, the same coins (the first Euro zone!), and weights and measures were used. In total this was a sophisticated way of life. However, this all fell apart when the legions were recalled back to Rome to deal with the barbarian invasions. And, as little or no Roman knowledge or expertise had been passed on to the local population, with the fall of Rome, England descended back into the Dark Ages. That is almost exactly what happened in Africa after the end of colonial rule in the 1950's and 1960's. Lacking the people with skills, organisation and discipline to move them forward, African nations fell by the wayside, tribalism reasserted itself and, for the most part, African governments have struggled ever since. Take the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) which was a Belgian colony. In his book Blood River, Tim Butcher writes 'in the 1950's there was nothing out of the ordinary about Congo. It was integrated not just with the rest of Africa but also the wider world. The capital, Leopoldville, was the hub of one of Africa's largest airline networks and the country's main port, Matadi, was served by a fleet of ocean-going liners. Ferries moved across Lake Tanganyika and railways criss-crossed the country. There were bus links with Rhodesia. In the 1950's motors moved freely along an estimated 112,000 kilometres of roads which were kept in good condition by an 'army' of workmen who were paid a monthly retainer to keep the roads free from the ever advancing jungle, the culverts clear of debris, and the bridges in good repair. In the years after independence in 1960, with the withdrawal of Belgian know how, everything started to fall apart as the country reverted back to tribalism and subsistence survival. And today it is estimated that just 1% of old road network is still passable. It was a similar situation in Tanganyika (now Tanzania) where the British had made little effort to prepare the country for nationhood in 1961. At that time, the country with a population of 9 million people, could only lay claim to two lawyers, two engineers and twelve doctors. This, then, has to be the starting point in setting out to tackle the problems facing Africa. For even today, 50 years on, with many more trained people, the majority of which prefer to work overseas for greater reward, coupled with governments which often lack the energy and determination to succeed, the majority of Africans are still as poor and as vulnerable as ever. Just look at the stats on the basics of life there today:- 34% of people go to bed hungry every night and hunger kills more people than all the continent's infectious diseases put together 50% of the population live on less than US$1 (£0.62) per day only 55% of people have access to safe drinking water; just 33% have proper sanitation; only 3% of Africa's water resources are developed 33% of children are out of school average life expectancy is 53 years; only 1 in 3 people have access to medical facilities only 12% of roads are paved 90% of power is generated by paraffin, wood or dung The time has come, then, for more constructive thinking on Africa if the majority of people there are to start to access even the basics of life which we in the first world have long taken for granted. And the radical thinking that springs to mind here is encapsulated in just one word - PARTNERSHIP. A partnership with obligations on both sides which would see governments in the first and third world working closely together to bring about lasting change. That surely must be way to deliver real and sustainable progress in Africa. As the best chance for success here will come from a partnership of the willing, the starting position then should be to seek out those African governments that are already trying to lay the foundations for improving the lives of their people: and then for governments in the first world to step in and offer to support their development plans. But this time, as there are major skill shortages throughout Africa, rich countries should move away from giving support in financial terms towards more practical based help. By sending engineers, scientists, agronomists, hydrologists, accountants and administrators, development should be speeded up, it would be more evenly balanced and, there should be less chance of money going missing. At the same time, whilst helping to deliver on these projects, nationals of each recipient country could be employed and trained in the various skills relating to the jobs. And this Western co-operation would carry on as long as recipient governments continue their progressive policies. A kind of partnership along these lines is actually already in existence and being delivered through the Africa Governance Initiative (AGI) set up in 2008 by former UK prime minister Tony Blair. AGI embeds teams of highly trained and motivated people from the UK public and private sectors within the heart of partner governments working alongside their counterparts to build the capacity and systems necessary to effect government policies. These kind of practical measures have also been strongly recommended by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in a recent report entitled Population: One planet, too many people?
Progress in all of the above areas are vital for a nation to advance both economically and socially. At the same time, because they cost little to implement, the position of each country in the league table is not dependent on how wealthy it is or even its position in the latest UNDP Human Development Index. Thus, if any government is serious in laying sound foundations for its people to progress there is no reason why even the poorest country should not figure prominently in this league table. In order to compile this league table, the various scores given to a country in each survey have been converted to a mark out of 10 and then all 4 added together to reach an individual total for each nation (max. score 40). The figures used are all based on surveys for 2011 and in order to compare the progress in each country (or the lack of it) since the AU was set up in 2002, each country's score in that year is also recorded. league table
TABLE OF TRUTH
This 'Table of Truth' shows how far each government in sub-Saharan Africa has reached in efforts to unlock their country's potential. In so doing, it opens the curtain on the dark continent shining light on those few African governments which are working to put in place policies which encourage progress whilst, at the same time, flagging up the all too many governments which are flagrantly disregarding the needs of their peoples. And this wide range of performance requires to be taken on board not only by Western governments but also all in the international community - international NGO's, promoters of the Make Poverty History campaign, rock stars, church leaders and those who long to see justice for the world's poor - so that the reason for the enduring poverty in Africa is better understood and can be tackled.
As well as passing on expertise and knowledge in this way, supporting good governance must be the right way forward for it has been proved to yield a much greater return. According to figures produced by the World Bank, US$10bn given in aid to better governed poor countries would lift 25 million people out of poverty; spread across a broad range of governments US$10bn would lift only 7 million people out of poverty. So adopting this method alone in aid disbursement is constructive, potentially delivering 3.5 times more people out of poverty. The new dynamic approach to effective use of overseas aid should be guaranteed for several years and certainly until all major projects are completed as long as individual African governments continue to keep on with positive reforms. This method of distributing bilateral overseas aid accentuates the positive in a win/win situation for poor people - African governments working to help their people to advance are encouraged to carry on reforming by the guarantee of continuing practical Western support. And by making it clear that sound policies will be an essential element in deciding which countries will receive future aid investment, Western governments will also be sending out a strong message to poorly performing governments that it is time for them to start to take more interest in the needs of their people, or lose out. At the same time, knowing that the international community is backing more open and effective government, civil society groups in sub-Saharan Africa will gain strength in their efforts to hold their own governments to account, as is currently happening in North Africa and the Middle East. In short overseas aid given in this way, with apologies to Bob Geldof, could be termed 'live aid', in contrast to 'dead aid', this time with apologies to Dambisa Moyo who wrote a book of the same name, which still is all too regularly given by Western nations, which should know better, in what can only be guessed at as an attempt to buy political favours. So how would this new method of distributing bilateral overseas aid affect the UK's Department for International Development (DfID)? In 2010/11 six sub-Saharan African countries featured in the top ten recipients of UK bilateral aid (£m):- Ethiopia £245, Tanzania £144, Nigeria £142, Uganda £94, Mozambique £94, Rwanda £90. Using the formula suggested above, Ethiopia and Uganda would NOT deserve to receive bilateral aid and DfID should be seriously challenged as to why it is giving assistance to governments which show little sign of unlocking the potential of their people. At the same time DfID intends to reduce the number of poor countries receiving bilateral aid from 43 in 2010 to 27 by 2013. This is a step in the right direction but if the UK really wanted to make a real impression on poverty, it should reduce that number of countries to no more than 5. This should lead to better and more concrete results whilst reducing bureaucracy, costs and manpower. (China is also playing a supporting role in development in completing numerous construction projects in many African countries as part payment for the purchase of natural resources. However, even though China may not pick and choose which regimes it deals with, this should not be used by Western governments as an excuse for not supporting good governance.) Perhaps international NGO's like Oxfam and Save the Children etc. should also consider starting new projects only in countries where governance is progressive. In doing so they should not walk away from current ventures but should seek to maximise the value of future projects through 'buying into' the policies of more enterprising governments and so help lift many more people out of poverty. Individuals like you and me should also consider specifying where our money should go when we give to international charities. This may mean more work for charity treasurers but it will mean that we, too, can have the satisfaction of making our contributions work twice - directly and indirectly - whilst at the same time making the charity aware of its larger responsibilities. (Relief/humanitarian aid for victims of famine, conflict and natural disasters etc. would continue to be given to ALL countries whenever it was needed directly and/or through UN agencies and NGO's)
Revenues from oil, mining and timber in the form of taxes, royalties etc. should be an important engine in economic growth and social development in poor countries. But lack of accountability and openness in these payments often leads to inept government, corruption and conflict in the developing world. According to the World Bank overall living standards in countries with abundant natural resources, given their per capita income, are exceptionally low. This has come about because hundreds of millions of dollars in payments from international companies involved in extracting natural resources go straight to governments or government-owned entities in these countries and a lack of accountability and transparency has enabled large amounts to be redirected elsewhere. In order, then, for people in poor countries to be better able to hold their governments to account, all international companies with extraction interests in the developing world should adopt EITI and publish in the main national newspapers of each country the amount paid to that country's government in royalties on a project-by-project basis. The Obama administration in the US is leading the way here and every extractive company listed on American stock markets will have to comply. At the same time, it would be useful, if these international companies also listed the amounts paid every year to each country in the developing world in their annual report to shareholders.
By changing the way bilateral overseas aid is currently given through helping to physically deliver development plans in countries with progressive governments, would be a major boost for the world's poor and, it would show international co-operation at its best. And by 'getting their hands dirty' in this way, both sides would cement new relationships whilst, at the same time, helping the nations of sub-Saharan Africa to progress further towards the UN Millennium Development Goals set to be achieved by 2015. (see GLOBALISATION) For far too long the lives of the majority of Africans have been made miserable by the poverty of leadership shown by too many governments on that continent which the outside world has ignored. And if the people of countries from Angola to Zimbabwe are sooner, rather than later, to put the debilitating effects of famine, disease, lack of clean water and misery behind them, all of us in the international community - governments, multinational corporations, IFI's, international NGO's, churches, poverty campaigners, you, me - should now play our part in helping to deliver better leadership. For, at the end of the day, the combination of good governance and the constructive delivery of overseas aid are essential if the people of Africa are to make poverty history. ================================================= *SURVEYS for POLITICAL RIGHTS/ CIVIL LIBERTIES we have used the 2 surveys produced under these headings by Freedom House and taken the average. They can be found at www.freedomhouse.org for ECONOMIC FREEDOM we have used the survey by World Bank on 'regulatory quality' at http://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi/sc_country.asp for CORRUPTION PERCEPTIONS we have used the survey by Transparency International which is found at www.transparency.org for MEDIA FREEDOM we have again used the survey found at www.freedomhouse.org **CRITERIA
Along with political rights, civil liberties will measure progress towards freedom of speech, free trade unions, free religious expression and gender equality. And these human rights should be enshrined in the rule of law which should be upheld by an independent judiciary and police force. Strong independent institutions like universities should also be encouraged.
Cutting red tape is also paramount. For example, it takes 3 days to incorporate a business in Rwanda but 7 months in Guinea; in Democratic Republic of Congo 400% of average income is needed whilst in Denmark it costs nothing; in Ethiopia an entrepreneur must deposit the equivalent of 18 years average income in a bank account which is then frozen in order to register his own company and in Nigeria just to sell a property involves 21 procedures and takes 9 months. All of this red tape hampers inward investment and the creation of employment on a continent where it is estimated that every job supports from between 6-10 people. Other factors furthering the goal of economic freedom would include the independence of the central bank whose dual mandate would be to set interest rates appropriate for controlling inflation whilst laying the conditions for fast economic growth. Governments should also aim to establish fair taxation and to balance the budget.
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This joint endeavour can best deliver success by rich nations seeking
out governments in sub-Saharan Africa that are already attempting to lay
the foundations for their people to advance. To this end just1WORLD has
constructed a league table based on independent international *surveys
on four **criteria which could be collectively categorised as essential
elements for development, and all of which are strongly advocated in the
constitution of the African Union(AU):-
With this information to hand, Western governments should get behind the
more progressive governments - those which score say 20 or better - by
offering practical support towards their development plans. At the same
time, consideration could also be given to allocating some resources to
those countries which score under 20 as long as their annual score continues
to improve year on year e.g. Rwanda, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Kenya.