Change in policy needed to help Africa help itself

Date: 27.01.05

The European Union must protect African economies from unequal, unfair and aggressive competition, says Fritjof Schmidt

To understand why Africa continues to fail despite EU aid, we have to look at the various reasons for the deteriorating economic, social, environmental and political situation.

The first thing we should ask is whether the EU's policies help African countries to improve the living standard of its population? The answer, alas, is not conclusive. Africa has implemented structural adjustment programmes, privatised public enterprises and opened its market with far from satisfactory results. The population has become more impoverished, there has been an exacerbation of social tension leading to violent conflict. Africa's dependency on foreign aid is increasing.

If the objective of the EU's development co-operation policy is to help poor African countries and reverse the current situation, then we must make a shift from economically motivated co-operation to development-oriented strategies. Above all, we must protect African economies from unequal, unfair and aggressive competition.

The EU's trade policy has a devastating impact on Africa. European frozen chicken exports to the continent is one example among many, which has recently thrown thousands of farmers out of a job. Exports into Cameroon increased by 2,100% over the last six years and evicted poultry farmers from their local markets, according to a Cameroon-based non-governmental organisation. Yet this is not an isolated case. Increased food exports from the EU to African countries are continuing to undermine the livelihoods of millions of small producers who face unfair and aggressive competition in their own market.

According to the 2002 report of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the number of people living in extreme poverty in the least developed countries (most of which are African) doubled in 1960-90, rising from 138 million to 307m in just 30 years. If the current trend continues, the number of people living on less than one dollar per day will increase from 307m to 420m by 2015.

The West encourages Africa to integrate into the world market without taking into account the impact this is having on local economies. This sub-ordinated integration leaves no room for autonomous decisions on development strategies. EU export subsidies - particularly those administered under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) - enable Europe's farmers to sell their products at low prices on the world markets. This practice seriously undermines the development of local and regional markets in southern countries in general and Africa in particular.

African countries have been forced to abolish all forms of aid for local farmers in order to meet loan conditions imposed by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank - institutions in which EU member states play a key role. The burden of debt on African economies is still increasing. Africa now owes €231 billion to foreign creditors, which has a devastating impact on local economies and cripples governments' abilities to provide basic social services. African governments spend four times more on repaying debts to rich countries than they spend on health, education and other social sectors. Meeting the targets of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals requires courageous policy changes in the North as well as in the South. The CAP and commercial fisheries agreements need to be reformed. Export subsidies that harm local markets and production must also be brought to an end.

Europe cannot continue to pursue the two-faced strategy of promoting the objective of poverty eradication on one hand and pressurising African countries to open up their markets to our goods on the other. It is imperative that the EU thoroughly evaluates the impact of trade liberalisation on African economies before any new trade deal with the African, Caribbean and Pacific countries takes place under the Cotonou agreement. Africa continues to fail despite the EU's aid, but our policies are not doing everything they can to help it succeed and this we must change.

• Frithjof Schmidt is a Green MEP for Germany, a member of the development committee and substitute on the delegation to the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly.

African revival depends on aid being concentrated on the self-supporting power of the people, argues Max van den Berg

Fifty years of development assistance towards Africa does not seem to have lived up to expectations. On the contrary: large parts of the African continent are still under threat of being marginalised on the world stage. Poverty is widespread, more than 300 million people live on less than a dollar a day and the continent is torn by conflict and millions of people are infected with HIV/AIDS.

European aid for Africa has always been substantial and has, through the combined efforts of the European Commission, the member states and NGOs, always contributed extensively towards stability and reconstruction in countries like Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Mozambique and South Africa. That is, of course, something that was achieved by the peoples of the countries themselves. With an external, top-down approach we cannot bring about any development. It is only by working together with national governments, civil society organisations and the private sector, and by promoting local ownership that community aid can become effective.

But even the most successful countries in Africa are hindered by the fact that the continent accounts for only about 1% of world trade. That is partly because there are no functioning regional markets, but it is mostly due to barriers to market access in the US and Europe. To make the situation even worse, food exports and the dumping of EU agricultural products still make up the most harrowing examples of unfair trade. If the EU sold its sugar at the regular world market price, a country like Mozambique would be able to earn as much money with sugar exports as it currently receives in foreign aid. Unfortunately, the powerful agricultural lobby in Europe keeps frustrating all proposals of the European Commission to reform Europe's agricultural policy.

Another factor that hinders development is the burden of debt which forces governments to spend more money on debt payments than on education and healthcare. It is this situation that makes a society extremely vulnerable to diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS, while there is no purchasing power to buy the expensive medications that are needed to cure these diseases. Because of the lack of purchasing power in these countries, the pharmaceutical industry is hardly interested in investing in research and development of new medicines for these poverty-related diseases. To tackle this problem, we have gone to great lengths to introduce within the World Trade Organization the possibility for developing countries to import generic drugs that are less expensive because they are non-branded. The effective implementation of this decision is an essential part of the fight against these diseases. Another factor that has undermined development in many African countries until today has been the endless, devastating wars that seem to go on till all available blood has been spilled. Congo, Sudan, Liberia, Somalia, Angola. Have they really come to an end and will we really start to work towards peace? Will the African Union finally get on track, including the New Partnership for Africa's Development? Will Robert Mugabe finally be pressured by the South African and Nigerian leaders Thabo Mbeki and Olusegun Obesanjo to improve democracy in Zimbabwe? Or will Africa remain without the capacity to tackle its own problems? Community aid is channelled through the European budget and through the European Development Fund. But in both cases too little money is spent on basic facilities like health and education, as pledged in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Too much money is spent every year on infrastructure: roads that lead from anywhere to nowhere. This should be changed. Access to health and education, especially for women and girls, is the basis for any further development. Only if all European aid is concentrated towards the MDGs and towards the self-supporting power of the population, is there a chance for African revival. That should be the goal of an effective European partnership in the field of development co-operation and poverty reduction.

• Dutch Socialist MEP Max van den Berg is vice-chair of the European Parliament's development committee.

Two MEPs discuss the EU's policy on aid to Africa.