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Last Updated: Oct 11, 2008 - 8:43:08 AM |
AU Chairman Kikwete said at a press conference in the Malagasy capital
that Africa now urged donor nations not to cut back aid for Africa.
"Our appeal to our development partners is that they should not cut aid
to the developing countries" now that America and Europe were
experiencing a financial crisis, he said. He added the AU remained
hopeful the crisis would "not impact negatively on development
assistance to Africa."
Madagascar's President Marc Ravalomanana, hosting a meeting with Mr
Kikwete, at the same occasion added that donors should at least stick
to the pledges given untill now, despite the expected economic turndown
in their countries. Being realistic, he however urged his fellow
African to act fast to become more independent from international aid,
especially focusing on agricultural development to safeguard food
security.
The fear of donors retreating from Africa had been one of the major
issued discussed between Presidents Kikwete and Ravalomanana in a
meeting that otherwise focused on the preparation on the 2009 AU Summit
in Antananarivo. Tanzania has special reasons to fear a lower donor
engagement, being one of the countries worldwide depending most on
foreign aid. Aid makes up an estimated 20 percent of Tanzania's budget
and 10 percent of its GDP.
The AU Chairman's fears are well founded. According to Oxfam's
Elizabeth Stuart, during the last globally financial downturn, from
1990 to 1993, "we saw donors cut aid by 25 percent," she told 'VOA'. Ms
Stuart warns if this were to happen again during the upcoming crisis,
at a time when poor countries are also being hit by their own food
price crisis as well, this could "really spell disaster for developing
countries, so this absolutely needs to be the very last thing that they
do."
But the trend of cutting in aid to Africa to address urgent problems in
donor countries is already established. The first major donor country
to reduce its development aid pledges was Spain; the European country
worst hit by the collapse in the property market and now experiencing a
spiralling unemployment rate. Ireland was the second big donor to
follow, also following a national economic recession. These two
European countries are headed by governments sincerely dedicated to
Africa's development and international solidarity.
Observers fear that other donor countries are set to follow, from the
small donor Iceland, which is hardest struck by the financial crisis,
to giant donors like the US, the UK and Germany. These top-three donors
do have a tradition of cutting back their aid when times get tough
domestically. There is thus little comfort in the fact that
medium-sized donor Norway this week announced an increase in its aid
budget for 2009, most of it however going to environmental projects in
the Amazon.
According to an analysis in the monthly development magazine 'African
Future', "there are therefore few signs that Western nations will
fulfil their pledges to aid Africa to reach the Millennium Development
Goals - pledges that have be postponed several times and were only
expected to reach their full size by 2009-10." Malagasy President
Ravalomanana therefore might be right urging African leaders to start
looking for alternatives for self-sufficiency rather now than later.
Source:Ocnus.net 2008
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