Conference critical of donor commitment

2002-10-19 22:10

Johannesburg - An African finance ministers conference was critical on Saturday of the international community's commitment to the continent's development, asking for reforms in policies on debt relief and aid.

For his part, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said developed countries should ensure that aid was predictable, untied, and supportive of the development strategies of recipient counties.

He also called for the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative to be carried out faster.

As the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) takes shape, Africa's development partners might be required to augment the current resources earmarked for the continent, the minister said.

"These actions will be consistent with the new partnership that was forged in Monterrey (the UN Conference on Financing for Development in February) namely that of mutual accountability and responsibility."

The three-day Sandton conference was expected to discuss concrete ways of getting Nepad off the ground. Among issues up for discussion were debt relief and development assistance, and a new good governance peer review system.

Speakers at the opening ceremony stressed the importance of boosting the African economy by means of eradicating conflicts, increasing domestic resource mobilisation, create an environment conducive to private sector participation, and promoting good governance.

"Forums such as this meeting today have an important role to play in defining our responsibilities, deciding on actions to be taken, and finding effective implementation mechanisms to take charge of our own destiny," Manuel said. He was speaking in the place of President Thabo Mbeki.

"The time has arrived to put our deeds into action and the focus must be on implementation."

Manuel stressed that the peer review system would not be just another set of conditions. It would be owned and driven by Africans themselves. It would seek to foster sound policies, standards and practices, without being punitive.

Amara Essy, interim chairman of the commission of the African Union, said solutions to the continent's foreign debt problem were mostly developed elsewhere, "in ivory towers without the least involvement of African experts".

This resulted in time being wasted and debt servicing going up, he told the opening session of a conference of African ministers of finance, planning and economic development on the Nepad at the Sandton Convention Centre.

He welcomed a continental initiative to take stock of Africa's debt and develop strategies for debt eradication.

Essy also criticised what he described as the poor commitment and "dilly-dallying" of some international conferences, and the failure of developing countries to honour promises to Africa. This required African countries to unite and solve their own problems.

"It is up to us to take over control of the future of our continent," he told the delegates.

The executive secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, KY Amoako, said as Africa was getting its systems and peer review process in order, it became time for donors to keep pace with their own reforms.

"There have indeed been donor experiments at reform, but now it is time for more systemic reforms, some of which are being considered by only a few donors.

"The issue before us is how can we help accelerate donor reforms of aid. Added to this question of quality, of course, is the question of quantity."

On debt relief, Amoako said it was clear the World Bank's HIPC initiative was not working well enough. African countries themselves had to come up with proposals for a resolution to the debt problem in a bid to free up more resources for development.

Such proposals could be discussed at the weekend conference and reflected in a ministerial statement at the end, he suggested.

Amoako said there were several myths about Nepad, including that its envisaged peer review system would result in unwanted intrusions.

"This is a myth because the process can only take place when a country volunteers to be peer reviewed," he said.

Other myths were that Nepad was an intrusion on national sovereignty, that it would be an elite club, and that it could only succeed with donor support.

Essy said the first century of the new millennium should undoubtedly belong to Africa.

"We must take all the necessary measures to make sure this vision comes to life," he told the delegates.

The conference ends on Monday.

- SAPA