Copyright 2000 InterPress Service, all rights reserved.
Worldwide distribution via the APC networks.
*** 31-May-0* ***
Title: ECONOMY-AFRICA: Continent Can Reverse the Cycle of Poverty, Says
World Bank
By Gumisai Mutume
WASHINGTON, May 31 (IPS) - All is not lost for Africa, and given
fundamental policy changes the continent can end the cycle of
missed opportunities and conflict, says a new World Bank report on
the Africa's prospects for the new century.
The report, "Can Africa claim the 21st century?" released here
this week urges the continent to resolve conflict, improve
governance, promote gender equality, invest in its people and
diversify its economies.
"All five partners in this research share the confidence that
Africa is moving in the right direction despite the fact that the
first few months of the new century have been deeply troubling,"
says Callisto Madavo, Vice-President of the World Bank Africa
Region.
The study was jointly compiled by the African Development Bank
(AfDB), the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC), Global
Coalition on Africa (GCA), U N Economic Commission on Africa and
the World Bank.
Madavo says that although 20 percent of Africans are affected by
conflict, 80 percent of the continent's people are fighting
poverty, rather than each other.
"We tend to focus on the 20 percent and tend to overlook the other
80 percent," he says.
Nigeria is rebuilding its economy and political system after
decades of military misrule, private investment on the continent
is picking up and large projects, such as the Maputo Corridor
(between Mozambique and South Africa), are offering some solutions
to Africa's pressing infrastructure needs.
The report says that while there is continuing military
uncertainty in Sierra Leone, rising political tensions in Zimbabwe
and fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a more complex
and encouraging reality is also unfolding.
Since the early 1990s, 42 out of 48 sub-Saharan states have held
multiparty presidential or parliamentary elections as Africans
demand greater accountability.
The report points to Uganda, Mozambique and Ghana as countries
that have made key economic reforms improving economic management,
liberalising markets and trade and promoting private sector growth
with the result that personal incomes have increased.
Mozambique, one of the world's poorest countries is an interesting
example of successful conflict resolution and has been growing at
about 10 percent a year for the last several years following a
1992 peace accord that halted nearly two decades of civil war.
To claim the 21st century, the continent will have to depend less
on its fast depleting natural resources and more on its labour
skills. African women provide this hidden growth reserve, the
report says.
It is noted that African women work much longer hours than African
men, especially in agriculture, yet due to local customs and legal
restrictions, they have less access to resources such as land, and
assets such as credit, fertilisers and education.
Between 1960 and 1990, average schooling for African women
increased by only 1.2 years - the lowest gain of any region.
Studies suggest that if African women were given equal access to
education and other productive resources, national growth rates
could be as much as 0.8 percentage points higher.
The region needs to grow by five percent a year just to keep the
number of poor from rising. If the percentage living in dire
poverty is to be halved by 2015, annual growth will have to exceed
seven percent the report says. An average country on the continent
is growing at 4 percent.
The continent will also benefit from improved efficiency -- an
efficient Nacala railway line and port, for instance, could save
Malawi 3 percent of GDP while in Uganda, firms lose an average 91
days because of power cuts the report states. International
telephone charges and Internet connections in Africa are among the
world's most costly.
Another challenge facing Africa is how to raise incomes. The
continent's total income is not much more than Belgium's, and is
divided among 48 countries with a median gross domestic product of
just more than 2 billion dollars - about the output of a town of
60,000 in a rich country, the report notes. Africa accounts for
barely one percent of global GDP and only about two percent of
world trade.
One way to raise incomes is by improving the continent's access to
markets in developed countries and, the report welcomes the recent
passage of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act in the United
States to open the US market to African products.
But on the whole, industrialised countries continue to shut out
African produce. Agricultural subsidies in Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries are running
at about 300 billion a year, which is equal to Africa's entire
GDP.
"Africa's loss of trade share since the 1960s is almost 70 billion
dollars, which is the equivalent to about 20 percent of GDP," says
Alan Gelb, Chief Economist for the World Bank's Africa Region. "To
reverse marginalisation of Africa, it is very important to reverse
its marginalisation in world trade." (END/IPS/EF/gm/da/00)
Origin: SJAAMEX/ECONOMY-AFRICA/
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