Danger money? Why Louis Michel wants to arm Africa’s peace corps

Date: 10/03/05

Louis Michel, the European commissioner for development and humanitarian affairs, has big plans for raising the profile of his portfolio. The former Belgian foreign minister is devising the EU's first all-encompassing development policy and indicates that he will publish a draft of it in the next few months.

A recent Eurobarometer opinion poll showed that there is little knowledge among the general public about key elements of European and international development policy. The survey found that 88% of respondents had never heard of the UN's Millennium Development Goals - which aim to halve the rate of abject poverty in the world by 2015. Michel is hoping that his policy will help plug the knowledge gap.

But it is also likely that it will incorporate ideas which many non-governmental organisations find unpalatable.

Last week, Michel raised the possibility that EU development aid could be used to train armies in states recovering from conflicts. Having an effective army would be an "existential condition" for stability in the Democratic Republic of Congo, he maintained. Away from the glare of the media, the one-time Belgian colony has witnessed arguably the deadliest conflict since the end of the Second World War. Last year the New York-based International Rescue Committee put at 6.8 million the number of war-related deaths in Congo in 1998-2004.

Anti-poverty advocates fear that incorporating military assistance within the scope of development aid could see money being diverted from vital health and education projects to buy guns for soldiers.

"Development assistance shouldn't be used for armies," says Simon Stocker from Eurostep, an umbrella group for relief agencies. "If you are providing finance for such purposes, it should come from elsewhere. We feel that unless you tackle injustice and poverty, you will never get security and stability. That is not to say there isn't a need to assure a military capacity [in poor countries]. But that is something different from development."

Sven Grimm from the Overseas Development Institute in London notes that providing funding for armies would not meet the criteria for anti-poverty aid laid down by the development assistance committee of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. "What Louis Michel is talking about is more of an Africa policy than a development policy," he adds. "It might be sensible from an African policy point of view. But from a development policy point of view, I tend to be a purist and think that development assistance should go towards poverty reduction."

The idea mooted by Michel would build on the African Peace Facility, which the EU set up in 2003. Allocated €250m from the European Development Fund, this has been used to support the African Union's peacekeeping efforts in Sudan's war-torn province of Darfur.

While most anti-poverty advocates have lamented the failure of the international community to halt the killings in Darfur, they have also been concerned at the precedent created by siphoning off development aid to security endeavours.

This move comes amid a perceived effort by the European Commission to accord a lower priority to the fight against poverty. MEPs are threatening to reject a blueprint tabled by the EU executive last year to consolidate 16 of the EU's external assistance programmes in order to make them more effective. But the assembly's development committee appears alarmed at how such a step would blend together aid for poor and industrialised countries, fearing that the fight against poverty may lose out to other objectives such as boosting trade between the EU and other rich parts of the world.

ActionAid this week scolded the Commission for its 2007-13 spending plans. According to the charity, these fail to define "development spending", creating the risk that money that ought to be used for raising the living standards of the world's poorest would instead go to a nebulous 'war on terror'.

The UK is making Africa the focal point of its presidencies of both the EU and Group of Eight (G8) leading economic players this year.

Tomorrow (11 March) Tony Blair will publish the report of his 17-member Commission for Africa, which comprises such figures as Ethiopian premier Meles Zenawi, South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel and rock star-campaigner Bob Geldof.

The report will place much emphasis on the need to boost security in Africa. It will urge that the governments of rich countries contribute half of the total budget of the African Union's peacekeeping fund. Although it is supposed to be able to draw on €150m in 2004-07, it has been severely under-resourced.

But the report will also recommend more effective prevention measures, in particular a more robust system to stem the weapons trade.

A separate study by Control Arms campaign estimates that 650 million small arms are circulating in the world today, 60% of them in the hands of private individuals.

With Africa's recent history blighted by wars in Liberia, Sierra Leone and northern Uganda, the continent has suffered immensely from the flimsy controls over their spread.

Analysis feature on EU development policy and the new Commissioner Louis Michel's proposals to use EU development aid to train armies in states recovering from conflicts. Anti-poverty advocates feared that incorporating military assistance within the scope of development aid could see money being diverted from vital health and education projects to buy guns for soldiers.