- ATD Fourth World

Speech by Mr Azzédine Abdelmadjid

Vice-President of the African Coordination of Human Rights NGOs, President of the Algerian Committee of Peoples and Human Rights 

I have divided my speech into three parts. In the first part, I will present the characteristics of the situation in Africa and an evaluation of the elements that have contributed to the present development of the continent. In the second, I will cover the objectives, methods and concept of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), which is a new initiative for Africa's development that was adopted by a number of African Heads of State a year or two ago. In the third part I will then go on to explain some of the proposals put forward specifically by NEPAD.

However, before I do this, I would like to make three comments. Firstly, I am giving this speech in a spirit of cooperation and partnership, not because I want to be honoured. Secondly, to avoid any misunderstandings, I would like to point out that I will be using some terms associated with historical events, such as 'colonialism' and 'proslavery' and I would ask you not to seek any hidden meanings behind my words because no such meanings were intended. I would also ask you not to misinterpret the final proposals I wish to make, which should in no way be taken as demands on my part. Finally, my third introductory comment is that my speech is made in connection with NEPAD, the new partnership for Africa's development.

The statistics I will present during my speech concerning the situation in Africa are not just figures; they are a reflection of the daily reality that is life in Africa, including its tragedies, and should therefore not be considered as a mere list of impersonal numbers. My hope in sharing these statistics with you is that it will help you gain a better understanding of the magnitude and gravity of the situation. You will undoubtedly already be familiar with them, but I think it is useful nonetheless to refresh our memories and bear them in mind for reference purposes.
There are three main areas of concern in Africa: Firstly, there are different types of conflict, namely the run-ups to conflicts; the tensions, the violence and civil wars. Secondly, there are phenomena such as poverty, misery and illiteracy. And thirdly, there are the difficulties of establishing and applying democracy, e.g. via the rule of law and respect for human rights. The issue of good governance and the havoc wreaked by corruption will also be mentioned in connection with this third area of concern.
As far as conflicts are concerned, Africa has experienced 30 wars during the last 30 years. In 1989 two-thirds casualties from war were of African origin. Today, three-quarters of African countries are having to endure wars, conflicts or violence of some kind. At present, Africa alone is home to 10 million refugees, repatriated settlers and displaced persons. Some studies forecast that within the next 10 years, between 150 and 200 million people will be living in countries that may experience civil war if nothing specific is done to halt this alarming trend.
I would now like to remind you of a few statistics associated with poverty, even though you will no doubt be aware of the situation:

• Some 340 million people, i.e. 50% of the population of Africa, live on less than $1 a day;

• the mortality rate for children under five years of age is 140 deaths in every 1,000 infants;

• life expectancy is just 54 years; 

• 50% of the population of Africa live without drinking water;

• the rate of illiteracy amongst children under 15 years of age is 41%;

• for every 1,000 inhabitants there are just 18 telephone lines, compared with 567 lines in industrialised countries;

• for every 100,000 inhabitants there are only 16 doctors, compared with 253 doctors in industrialised countries.

This small selection of figures still does not truly reflect just how critical the situation in Africa is.
As well as issues of conflict and poverty, Africa is also experiencing equally serious problems with regard to democracy, such as the delay in introducing democratic governments, governance problems with respect to establishing the rule of law, the failure to apply human rights, corruption, and a lack of control over the implementation of democratic measures.
Africa has established a foothold for itself in the world economy as a provider of workers and raw materials, but is not involved in any other economic and social sectors, in other words its exclusion from global development.
Another characteristic is that Africa's development policy is mainly based on a combination of aid and loans.  As you are well aware, external aid, from both public and private sources, has diminished considerably. It had been fixed at 0.7% of GNP, but now stands at 0.01 or 0.02 %, and there are just five countries in the world - the Scandinavian countries and the Netherlands, I believe - which continue to contribute the agreed rate of 0.7% of GNP.
As for loans, we all know perfectly well that in the end they just create more debts to pay, debts that have already been reimbursed in full, whereas the interest is still being paid off several times over.

Now let's turn to the factors that have contributed to the dramatic situation in Africa and which affect the economic, social and political sectors. I shall distinguish between two historical periods, namely the periods before and after independence.
By the time the various African countries gained their independence, proslavery and colonialism had had serious consequences.
Proslavery destroyed the foundations of the various societies in Africa, preventing them from evolving in a natural and harmonious way, which meant that the modern configuration of nations we know today was a long time coming.
Colonialism, which effectively extended the master/slave relationship, introduced a further major divisive element, deliberately ignoring the natural geographical distribution of ethnic populations and imposing new territorial borders. We are now seeing the consequences of these 'time bombs' primed in the colonial era, and are paying dearly for them today. I'm sure that you are well aware of the situation in Rwanda and Burundi, with  the violent conflict between the two ethnic groups, Hutu and Tutsi. We would have been grateful if the colonial governments had decided to divide the country along ethnic lines, giving each ethnic group their own territory, instead of 'carving up Africa' and implementing a policy of divide and rule. Perhaps all these massacres could then have been avoided.
I would like to emphasise once again that my remarks are not intended to put proslavery and colonialism on the stand. We are al capable of distinguishing between the proslavery system, the colonial system and the peoples of Europe. We regard the peoples of Europe as friends who have helped us by supporting us in our fight for freedom and independence. In the spirit of solidarity, they cooperated to put an end to colonialism. So we do differentiate between the system and the people, and European people are our friends. Furthermore, we do not find it useful to play the 'blame game' because, at the end of the day, who should we say is to blame? The children, babies and great-grandchildren of those who had the power to make decisions at a given time in Africa's history? No. The aim of my speech is simply to try and present some historical facts.

If we now move on to consider the post-independence period, we could say that the dictatorships which subsequently sprung up were even worse than the regimes they replaced. During this period Africa was burdened by two highly negative elements, i.e. the worst legacies of colonialism and a grotesque form of administration.
Numerous strategic errors were committed with regard to both the economy and development, as well as ideologically and in connection with the establishment of democracies. These errors had many consequences,  such as the emergence of dictators, very serious attacks on human rights, and the spread of corruption which badly hampered Africa's development. African leaders perpetuated the principle of 'dividing to rule better',  but at the same time stepped it up a gear and applied it more systematically. Some leaders would end up equating democracy with the creation of more than one political party. In Congo, for example, the authorities tolerated representatives of 250 political parties. Each political party is associated with a certain ethic group or subgroup, or tribe or sub-tribe. This representative hierarchical organisation of so-called 'democracy' has given rise to serious conflicts because of the large number of ethnic and tribal divisions.
The second major element during the post-independence era concerns the consequences of applying structural adjustment plans. These proved disastrous for many African countries, and the international community would only now appear to be beginning to recognise that ultimately the remedy did more harm than the disease.
Structural adjustment plans were meant to resolve the problems faced by many developing countries when trying to obtain loans from international financial institutions. Any country that wanted a loan to finance its development  agreed to put in place various restrictive measures designed to stabilise its budget and regain  some credibility from their backers.
But unfortunately the plans were based on macroeconomic figures that had not been adapted to take account of the specific situation of the country and failed to take account of the social consequences. The main aim, after all, was to reschedule the country's debt repayments.

Due to the dramatic impact of these plans at national level, in 1999 several countries - led by Algeria, South Africa and Nigeria - decided to get together to discuss the issue. Having assessed the situation in Africa, they felt that they would have to take their future into their own hands and learn to deal with reality head on by recognising where they had gone wrong, rather than just blaming others.
It was then that the idea of having a programme for Africa set up by Africans started to emerge.
The appraisal of the situation in Africa is still going on today, and has now given rise to the new partnership for Africa's development, called NEPAD. NEPAD is the logical result of two lines of thought. Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade put forward the OMEGA plan, which is much more sector-based than the other development plans proposed. At the latest summit in Lusaka (Zambia), the two plans submitted were merged and all African countries embraced NEPAD, the New Partnership for Africa's Development.
This new development programme is solidly supported by the European Commission, which accepts that this really is a top-quality development plan for Africa. The Commission is in touch with the people running NEPAD, which has its headquarters in Johannesburg. The United States and Japan are also backing the initiative to the hilt. The G8 has  invited NEPAD to its next meeting, which will be held in Canada.
NEPAD has three main concerns, forming a threefold challenge: peace, democracy and development, which are the reverse sides of the coins of conflict, poverty, and bad governance combined with the violation of human rights.
These three elements - peace, democracy and development - have always been tackled separately, and the objectives set dealt invariably with just one or two of these elements, whereas all three are inextricably linked.
This is the first time that these three elements have been simultaneously integrated into a single plan.
NEPAD takes account of three levels of application, the national, continental and international levels. At national level, the aim is to involve all players in civil society - the state and political actors, local authorities, public services and the private sector. In the past, each of these players tended to be concentrated and confined to their own sphere of influence.
The second level, which is regional or even sub-regional, is situated between the various countries in Africa. A road 6,500 km long is currently under construction, to link up Algeria, Nigeria and Mali. A substantial section of the road (4,000 km) has already been built. There are plans to build an oil and gas pipeline, starting in Nigeria and crossing Niger, Mali and Algeria - which will all benefit from it - to end in Europe. Several projects, one of which involves South Africa and other countries in the southern part of the continent, are under consideration. Moreover, feasibility studies on the development of optical fibre networks are also being carried out.
NEPAD emphasises that there are several priorities to be dealt with, the first of which being the restoration of peace. Let me briefly quote the various proposals made on the subject of peace. The idea is to provide material and technical support for mechanisms and procedures designed to avert, manage and resolve  conflicts and to peace initiatives. One example is more intensive cooperation in the fight against terrorism. Some countries, especially in Europe, have already helped us a great deal. France, for example, became involved in settling the conflict of the Tuaregs in northern Mali, and the United States stepped in to resolve the conflict between Eritrea and Ethiopia.
We would like to see Europe provide more support for conflict management.

The second priority is "to win back our identity" or rather find out "who we are".
Individualism has started to emerge in Africa, a continent which has traditions that are deeply-rooted in solidarity between its various communities. Indeed, this spirit of solidarity has, on occasion, enabled communities to assist each other in the past and resolve actually rather difficult situations. What we need to do now is rekindle this somewhat diminished solidarity-based mindset.
Africa also had a reputation as a continent that valued words, as summed up by the proverb "words heal". Unfortunately, in recent years many words have been fuelled by hatred, triggering murders rather than words of wisdom. We must therefore reactivate this mindset, highlighting the importance of dialogue and consultation.

The third priority, which is a prerequisite for development, is good governance. If necessary, institutions must undergo changes to enable them to fight corruption effectively and introduce a way of running things that is both legal and transparent. If the emphasis were placed on reforms designed to achieve good governance, the multilateral financial institutions would have to take better account of the real needs of African countries.

Here are some proposals for development: provide appropriate support for the strategies used to combat poverty. By setting a target of attaining sustainable development, these strategies would genuinely help the poor and give them the chance to participate in devising, implementing and assessing the relevant measures. We should also accelerate steps to scale back the debts owed by impoverished countries and combine them with more efficient programmes designed to combat poverty.
To achieve growth of 7%, Africa needs to make up an annual deficit of 12% in its GNP, i.e. 64 billion Dollars. We must bear this in mind in the international objectives for development, especially if we hope to see a 50% reduction in instances of poverty in Africa between now and 2015.
Internal mobilisation is also necessary, especially where two major points are concerned, namely increasing  domestic savings and improving tax revenue.
Europe's external support and input would be a great help in our endeavour to achieve the desired 7% growth. Reducing debt and increasing development aid would be key factors in bringing this about. Africa must meet several conditions, such as political stability, if it is to attract capital investments stemming from the private sector. It is essential that the private sector has confidence in Africa's development and invests more in Africa's development, even if some risks remain.
The various actors in the health sector must make a huge effort to work together with each other. Labs and the pharmaceutical industry should gear their research towards the production of affordable remedies, and civil society could do more to conduct a campaign in favour of greater financial support from the respective countries to, say, combat AIDS, that rampant scourge of Africa.

We also need to set up true partnerships between civil society and poor people. In the past we have come up with pre-set programmes in which poor people only played a very minor role. We have been greatly inspired by our experience of the ATD Fourth World Movement, and today we understand that poor people must also be involved in the projects from the very beginning, both with regard to projects' design and their final evaluation.
Other areas, such as large-scale agricultural projects, would also appear to require new partnership schemes, especially with a view to preventing the phenomenon of 'sponsor fatigue'. These projects could include opening up European markets to food products, such as processed agricultural products, or providing support for research into the storage and conservation of high-yield crops.
We need both to develop partnerships between institutions and the professional world, and engage in an exchange of information and advice between African and European companies with regard to joint-venture contracts and subcontracting agreements, or to fostering development projects and the spirit of enterprise. Still on the economic front, we need to contribute, by providing technical assistance, towards the implementation of an appropriate regulatory framework for promoting SMEs and micro-financing in Africa's private sector.
To resolve the 'brain drain' problem, we should set up a reliable database, both to determine the scale of the problem and to promote networking and cooperation between those who have stayed in Africa and those who have left. We should also make sure that African experts residing in industrialised countries are sought out for participation in projects involving Europe and Africa.
Cooperation is also essential in the fight against corruption, which exists not only because there are plenty of corrupt people in Africa, but also because of those who engage in bribery from within Europe. What I find most astonishing of all is that one form of corruption is, as it were, recognised and legitimised by Europe, namely the 'commission' paid to clinch certain deals. The actual procedure may be rather hush-hush, but the practice itself appears to be tolerated by finance ministers, because no tax is levied on the payments involved. However, the most serious aspect apart from the corruption itself, its disastrous effects on the economy and its betrayal of ethical integrity, is the way it undermines democratic institutions, values and even principles.
In Africa we are having to face up to the situation and combat this endemic corruption. And although I would like to stress Europe's responsibility vis-à-vis this phenomenon, I do so not because I am sitting in judgment, but rather in an effort to highlight the fact that corruption is a source of evil that is blighting both continents and undermining projects involving cooperation.
For all the reasons I have stated, it is absolutely vital that Europe and Africa work together in the fight against corruption.

Other priorities for development in the areas of education, health, agriculture, networks and infrastructure have also been put forward in the plan. The New Partnership for Africa's Development would merit a speech all to itself, because it is a genuine plan comprising several different parts. Let us remember, the aim is not to come up with a list of ready-made solutions. In the past we have often been regarded as idealists, sometimes with due cause. Today, we aim to be totally pragmatic and realistic for presenting this development plan. In conclusion I would like to reiterate just how important full-scale cooperation between the continents of Europe and Africa is if we really want this development plan to achieve all the objectives it sets itself.