Western Media Helps Cause African Poverty - World Bank
African Eye News Service (South Africa)
June 5, 2000
by Ongeri John
Dar Es Salaam (Tanzania) - The Word Bank on Monday blamed low levels of direct foreign investment in Africa on the constant negative reporting by Western media that portrayed the continent as a "centre of misery and conflict".
World Bank African chief economist Alan Gelb told African Eye News Service (South Africa) that the region's growing economic reconstruction and reconciliation programmes were ignored by the Western media in favour of superficial reports on local wars, Aids and other epidemics.
"It is a pity that the Western media's reports on Africa are often far more sensational than the problems on the ground," said Gelb while launching the Bank's "Can Africa Claim the 21st Century?" report.
Pointing out that some African countries had achieved economic growth rates that exceeded their national population growths, Gelb said the Western media appeared to misunderstand the significance of the continent's economic and political rebirth.
A significant number of African countries, he said, had also succeeded in diversifying their exports through increased sales of non-traditional commodities. This has already enhanced Africa's share in world trade volumes.
Tanzania, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Zambia and Zimbabwe are cited in the 52-page report prepared by the bank in collaboration with four other economic institutions in Africa as countries that have successfully diversified their export economies by expanding horticulture and floriculture.
Africa will, however, have to achieve an average national growth rate of 7% if it hopes to cut current poverty levels by half by 2015.
Gelb said that roughly 300 million of Africa's 600 million residents currently lived on just US$0.65 dollars per day.
This can only be improved, Gelb's report says, through the recapitalisation of production sectors such as agriculture and tourism and significant increases in investment in rural infrastructure where, majority of the continent's residents live.
The World Bank report also calls for increased spending to curb the spread and impact of HIV/AIDS, with improved education and drive to give women land ownership as priorities.
African women, Gelb said, work for an average of 13 hours a day compared to their male counterparts who only labour an average of seven hours per day.
"The productivity potential of African women is not yet fully exploited because they are not allowed to own land in vast parts of the continent," he said.
The report was jointly prepared by African Development Bank, African Research Consortium, Global Coalition for Africa, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and the World Bank
Aziz.
culled from 2000 African Eye News Service.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright (c) 2000 African Eye News Service. Distributed via Africa News Online (www.africanews.org). For information about the content or for permission to redistribute, publish or use for broadcast, contact the publisher
---------------------------------------------------
Get free personalized email at http://www.iname.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
