Archive for June, 2009
Witney W. Schneidman, former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary Of State For African Affairs In The Clinton Administration, and friend to ONE, published this important article about aid in the July 13, 2009, issue of Newsweek.
The beginning of his article is below, the full piece is on the Newsweek site. If you have questions, Schneidman will be available to answer some comments on this post.
Newsweek–Helping Africa Save Itself
Witney W. Schneidman
In DEAD AID, Dambisa Moyo, a Zambian-born economist, lays out a brash argument: that the more than $1 trillion in foreign assistance given to Africa over the past 50 years is the root cause of the continent’s enduring poverty, widespread corruption, civil wars, and isolation from the global economy. Following this logic to its conclusion, Moyo argues that the best way donors could help Africa today would be to phone officials there and tell them all aid will be cut off within five years. Given recent calls by Bono, the economist Jeffrey Sachs, and others to increase aid, Moyo’s thesis is controversial, to put it mildly. And it’s also misleading in several key ways. But it’s worth taking seriously, for it’s already caused a huge sensation in the donor community and among Africans frustrated by the slow pace of development-and eager for ways to speed the process.
There is no question that outsiders have been complicit, wittingly and otherwise, in compounding Africa’s problems over the years, especially during the Cold War. But aid is not always as harmful as Moyo claims. True, in some cases-like U.S. support for Zaire’s Mobutu Sese Seko-it has abetted bad governance, and in others it has fed conflict. But this is overly simplistic. Take Angola, Mozambique, and Somalia. It was outside military assistance, not foreign aid per se, that helped fuel the long-running civil wars in the first two. And to say that the conflict in Somalia is primarily a competition for control of large-scale food aid-as Moyo does-is a selective, if not facile, reading of the complex dynamics driving the chaos there….”
Read the full piece here.
Women pack up their businesses at the end of the day at the crowded Grand Marche market in Kinshasa, Congo
The Grand Marche market in Kinshasa brims with tens of thousands of vendors. To the untrained eye, the market is full of chaos and confusion. To those who dare to look past the sea of people, however, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s largest market is an organized, catalogued, and thriving economic system.
Delegates from Opportunity International on a recent trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo soon discovered that there was more to the story than met the western-trained eye. Visitors are required to gain permission from the Queen of the Market (a title of true honor) to wander around the winding pathways between tightly-packed stalls. The Mayor of the Market lists the vendors present and their businesses as he proudly shows off his domain. The infrastructure is unexpected, and looks different than traditional infrastructure, but it works.
In a market like this it is hard to believe that only 1% of the DRC’s 66.5 million people have bank accounts.
Without access to formal financial services, the vendors in this marketplace are unable to get a loan that will help them to grow their business. They cannot safely save the profits that they make. They do not have the ability to take out insurance to keep them from losing their business if a fire devastated the market. They cannot gain additional structured training.
Opportunity International, a ONE partner organization, has plans to open a formal financial institution (or FFI) in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Ultimately, the organization’s goal is to bring loans, savings, insurance, and training to those who are living on less than $2 per day. With 99% of the population in need of banking services, Opportunity is poised to enter a market with much potential.
In this country roughly the geographical size of Europe, plagued by war, economic instability, and corruption, an Opportunity International formal financial institution can help to make the difference between families being able to afford only three meals per week to families being able to afford three meals per day.
To learn more about Opportunity’s commitment to providing microfinance solutions to the working poor in almost 30 countries, visit www.opportunity.org.
-Sonja Egeland Kelly, Opportunity International
I recently met with the President of the US Africa Sister Cities Foundation (USACF), Shirley Rivens Smith. She told me that the Foundation is an arm of Sister Cities International which creates partnerships between cities around the globe. The purpose of sister city relationships is to promote friendship and mutual understanding between two cities and their citizens, based upon the principals of mutual respect, mutual benefit, and cooperation. USACF exists to create greater awareness of the 97 sister cities in Africa, address issues that affect Africans, and promote public awareness through African Sister Cities relationships.
I was really impressed to learn from Shirley that USACF has a network of 4500 individuals, including mayors, who receive periodic updates from her. When I told her about the Senator Paul Simon Water for the World Act of 2009, she offered to send around the petition to USACF members. I’m certain that without the actions of people like Shirley, we couldn’t have reached our goal of 100,000 signers! We owe a big thanks to USACF and all the other organizations and individuals who helped spread the word! Thank you!
-Ranna Lanagan
Reuters: Oxfam Calls on G8 to Increase Aid to Poor Farmers
Oxfam said today that leaders from the world’s industrialized economies should commit to increasing investment in agriculture in poor countries when they meet in Italy next week. It has released a report which finds that agricultural assistance by Group of Eight donor countries has fallen sharply, to around $5 billion a year in 2007 from $20 billion in the 1980s. The report says that investment by donors, national governments and the private sector in poor countries should target women and help improve knowledge about environmentally-sustainable farming methods in the wake of climate changes.
Financial Times: African Plan to Keep Vulture Funds at Bay
The African Development Bank has launched a legal support organization designed to level the playing field for cash-strapped African states negotiating complex commercial transactions or facing litigation by vulture funds. Vulture funds have provoked growing international criticism by launching lawsuits to force repayment of poor country debt they bought at heavily discounted prices on world markets. The World Bank estimated in 2007 that 38 creditors had won $1bn from lawsuits against countries in its debt relief program, many of which are African nations. The Africa Legal Support facility will provide funding and advice so that African governments are not at a disadvantage for lack of top level legal representation when facing the predatory debt claims.
Reuters: Crops Face Toxic Time Bomb in Warmer World
A new study says that staple crops on which millions of people depend are becoming more toxic and producing much smaller yields because of the world’s higher carbon dioxide levels and greater drought. A team of Australian scientists tested crops under a series of climate change scenarios to obtain the results. They say the findings underscore the need to develop climate change-resistant cultivars to feed rapidly growing human populations. The main crop tested – cassava – is a staple relied upon by 750 million people across the world, including many in Africa.
New York Times (A1): Constant Fear and Mob Rule in South African Slum
The New York Times today examines violent crime in South Africa, focusing on a slum called Diepsloot. The front page story says that though crime in South Africa is commonly portrayed as an onslaught against the wealthy, it is actually the poor who are most vulnerable. Experts highlight the particularly brutal nature of crime in South Africa: the country has an unusually high number of rapes, hijackings and armed robberies. The murder rate is about eight times higher than in the United States. Most areas are unprotected by the police, and even the new President, Jacob Zuma, says that citizens cannot be “blamed if they take the law into their own hands.”
Reuters: Why the BRICs Like Africa
Reuters’ ‘MacroScope Blog’ writes that the BRICS – Brazil, Russia, India and China – have become big players in Africa. A new report investigates each country’s particular interests in the continent.
Xinhua: 13th AU Summit Expects to Focus on Agricultural Investment, Food Security
The 13th African Union summit, which opens Wednesday in Libya, is expected to focus on agricultural investment and food security, as well as African peace and security in general. The recent sharp increases in the prices of food, especially cereals and oilseeds, has created hardships for consumers in the region, and participants in the summit will discuss how to increase Africa’s agricultural investment.
-Grace Lamb-Atkinson
I wanted to report back on another interesting session that I attended during last week’s UN Conference. It was titled “Recovering from Global Crisis: Towards an Action plan for Africa and the Least Developed Countries” and included Dr Dipu Moni, the Foreign Minister of Bangladesh; Dr Asha-Rose Migiro, UN Deputy Secretary-General; and Mr Cheick Sidi Diarra, UN Under-Secretary-General, Special Adviser for Africa and High Representative for the Least Developed Countries (as represented left-to-right in the photo).
At the start of the session, Mr Cheick Sidi Diarra stated that Africa and the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) will likely be hit hardest by the global financial crisis. Many of these countries lack the “fiscal space” to pursue countercyclical measures to protect their industries (think “bail outs”) and to fund social safety net programs (think healthcare, education and social services). He warned that a reduction in Official Development Assistance (ODA) would make the prospect of meeting the MDGs even more remote and urged donor governments to: 1) deliver on the commitments they made at Gleneagles in 2005 as well as the recent G20 meeting; 2) resist protectionist trade policies; 3) finalize the Doha trade agreements; and 4) pursue reforming the global financial system, as to protect against instabilities and guard against future collapses. As he said, these steps are critical “to laying the foundation for future growth and sustainable development.”
Dr Asha-Rose Migiro echoed the call for G8 countries to meet their 2005 Gleneagles commitments, mentioning that aid to Africa is about $20 billion short of the 2010 target of $50 billion per year. As she stated, “there is abundant evidence that aid can help transform lives and must remain a central part of the global development agenda.” She outlined what the UN considers their highest funding priorities, which are: 1) to close the funding gap for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations; 2) to provide agricultural development, including that for subsistence farmers; 3) to improve health systems and infrastructure for the world’s poor; 4) to ensure universal access to education, in support of the Education for All’s Fast Track Initiative; 5) to improve water and sanitation systems; and 6) to meet the gap for clean energy development. That being said, she said that we all must recognize that aid works best in conjunction with market forces.
Dr Dipu Moni picked up on this statement, arguing that trade ¬can be the engine for growth and calling for the conclusion of the Doha Development Round, which could boost the global economy by at least $150 billion and would help fulfill its development mandate. She pointed out that even though the G20 countries pledged not to turn inward, at least 17 of them have already broken their promises and have instituted protectionist and nationalistic trade policies, such as tariffs, trade-distorting subsidies and buy national requirements that favor domestic goods. She said that the current crisis will have a serious impact on trade and that the outlook for 2009 is pessimistic, with the World Trade Organization (WTO) estimating that global trade volumes will fall by 9% in 2009, the largest decline since World War II.
Dr Asha-Rose Migiro ended the session by calling Member States to build upon the Conference to forge a new multilateralism and stronger global collaboration so that we can enter 2010 and the decade beyond with the global financial crisis behind us, a climate change plan in hand and working towards the achievement of the MDGs.
-Margaret McDonnell
Jun 29th, 2009 5:54 PM UTC
By Field
Last Thursday ONE members met with representatives from the Des Moines offices of Senators Tom Harkin and Charles Grassley to discuss the importance of combating extreme poverty across the globe. The representatives were encouraged to support President Obama’s 1.4 billion dollar request for global agricultural efforts. We also discussed the decline of developmental assistance in agriculture in the last 25 years and how last year’s global food crisis pushed over 40 million people into hunger.
ONE members also told them about the Water for the World Act, which seemed to win praise from everyone at the meeting. At the meeting’s conclusion, the state office reps agreed to jump in for a photo with the ONE members and were open to more meetings in the future!
-Nicholas Webb, IA ONE member
Update! We are now within just a few hundred signers of our 100,000 goal. If you’ve not already done so, please sign our petition in support of the Water for the World Act. On that same topic, check out this great post from John Sauer and Katryn Bowe of Water Advocates:
More than 99,000 Americans have signed an unprecedented petition to the Senate in support of global access to clean water and sanitation. The petition calls for more Senators to join Sen. Durbin and Sen. Corker to sponsor the Senator Paul Simon Water for the World Act of 2009 (S.624), a landmark bill that would commit the United States to providing 100 million people with first-time, sustainable access to clean water and sanitation by 2015.
The advocacy organization ONE galvanized the campaign with the help of Matt Damon, a clean water champion. “Water is one of the smartest poverty fighting investments we can make,” wrote Damon.
The outpouring of support reveals the growing momentum for solving this global crisis. More journalists, universities, and politicians than ever are beginning to recognize how shameful it is that the United States has not done more on behalf of this preventable issue. And they are acting – louder than in recent memory – to do something about it.
884 million people in the world lack access to safe water, and 2.4 billion people do not even have a proper latrine to dispose of their human waste. This creates a catastrophic burden on women in developing countries (who must walk miles to fetch water), causes 1.6 million children to die of diarrhea yearly and chokes economic growth.
The solutions are known and affordable– but will only be used if there is enough political commitment to funding them. Universal access to water and sanitation is still a pipe dream for many poorer countries, especially nations in Africa. At the current rate the African continent will not even cut in half the proportion of those living without access to sanitation until 2076. This is an international travesty, but the US Government is in a position to kick-start momentum so as to greatly reduce the burden of the international safe drinking water and sanitation crisis.
Already the petition is having an impact. Since the start of the campaign three weeks ago, four Senators have signed on as co-sponsors bringing the total to 10. The petition delivery is scheduled for this week and advocates hope more Senators will sign on. The related bill (H.R.2030) has been introduced in the House by Rep. Blumenauer of Oregon, and has been referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
This bipartisan legislation is critical for the water, sanitation and health community. If the American public and politicians commit to solving the water and sanitation crisis, the Millennium Development Goals would be closer to being reached and a push can be made for universal access to water and sanitation—the ultimate goal.
The legislation builds off of the ground-breaking Senator Paul Simon Water for the Poor Act of 2005, which made addressing the water and sanitation challenge a priority of US international development policy.
We all saw how public support for AIDS was a catalyst for life-saving action. Now the same might be done for water and sanitation.
-John Sauer and Katryn Bowe, Water Advocates
