World Bank sees Africa progress

[Cara.]

Fewer conflicts and increased economic growth has made 2005 - dubbed "The Year of Africa" - a turning point for the continent, the World Bank has said.

 

Its annual study of the continent found that 16 African states had managed to maintain annual economic growth of more than 4.5% since the 1990s.

 

This had enabled them to lift more of their citizens above the poverty line.

 

Meanwhile, the number of African conflicts had fallen from a peak of 16 in 2002 to five in 2005.

 

Mixed results

 

"Africa today is a continent on the move, making tangible progress on delivering better health, education, growth, trade and poverty-reduction outcomes," said Gobind Nankani, the World Bank vice-president for the Africa region.

 

The bank's African Development Indicators report highlighted the extreme diversity of economic achievement in Africa.

 

On one hand, Zimbabwe's economy shrunk by 2.4% in 2004 - while Equatorial Guinea's economy surged 20.9%.

 

But the report also noted that inflation on the continent was down to historic lows, and that the region had managed to weather the impact of higher oil prices in recent years.

 

On a more negative note, the bank said foreign investment in the continent was just $10.1bn in 2004 - only 1.6% of global foreign investment - and that more than 50% of the funds were spent in Nigeria and Sudan.

 

The report also highlighted the difficulty of starting a business in many parts of Africa - taking, across the continent, an average of 64 days.

 

Millennium Development Goals

 

In more positive vein, the bank's report said that countries including Senegal, Mozambique, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Uganda and Ghana were on course to meet the target of halving poverty by 2010 - five years ahead of schedule.

 

The eradication of extreme poverty and hunger is one of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) agreed by 189 countries in New York in 2000 with a target date of 2015.

 

Each MDG also includes a number of indicators designed to measure its progress, which are intended to be tracked and updated regularly by UN member governments and international governing bodies such as the World Bank.

 

The year 2005 saw a particular focus on Africa and the MDG's - it was a key focus of the G8 summit in Gleneagles and saw the publication of reports from the UN Millennium Project and UK's Commission for Africa.

 

Prospects

 

In its latest Africa report, the World Bank said that many countries had made good progress in meeting some of the other MDGs, such as getting more young children into primary education and improving child mortality.

 

Looking forward, it said improved governance and management of natural resources was a key requirement, particularly with African nations due to receive a $200bn windfall from oil revenues between 2000 and 2010.

 

It said it was seeing signs that African leaders were taking more responsibility for improving governance and assisting the private sector in attracting foreign investment and boosting trade with growing markets like those in China and India.

 

Source

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

Intee jiraan Bankiga Adduunka, Keydka Maalgelinta ee Caalamka [iMF] iyo Ururka Ganacsiga ee Caalamka [WTO], Afrika, some parts of Aasiya iyo Laatiin Ameerika meel ma gaarayaan because the rules of these organizations fair ma'aha, was made for and by Galbeedka.

[Naden]

I remember seeing a news report about a year ago that echoed some of the points in this report. Both the world bank and the IMF make me want to spit nails with their hegemonic policies and I think these positive economic changes in some African countries are happening despite their interventions.

 

Serious curtailing of NGOs and arms traders from the US and Europe would improve African countries' political and economic stability.

 

Sidenote: Whatever happened to John Githongo?

[Ms DD]

Githongo moved to the UK to live in exile after claiming that there have been threats to his life, but is considering returning to Kenya to testify to the corruption committee. He took up a post at an Oxford college.

 

With regards to World bank and similar institutions, they have never been fair to Africa with their harmful policies. They continue to impose unfair conditions on Africa’s economies.

 

As MMA said, it is for the west and by the west.

 

I don't expect much from the WTO, what I know for sure is that they will bring up policies that will make Africans poorer. i.e. Ghana sends cocoa to the developed world, then it comes back as chocolate, more expensive than the cocoa itself. This only makes the rich countries richer.

 

If Africa have any sense, they would leave conflicts behind and they should just increase trade among themselves and remove trade and travel barriers among it's people and forget about help from the West, and finally we should stop exporting raw materials and start selling finished products.

[Cara.]

Originally posted by Cambarro:

If Africa have any sense, they would leave conflicts behind and they should just increase trade among themselves and remove trade and travel barriers among it's people and forget about help from the West, and finally we should stop exporting raw materials and start selling finished products.

Very true. But finished products require skilled labour, which requires a healthy and educated populance, which requires infrastructures most African nations can't or won't create, so NGOs step in, which creates dependence and skews national priorities and makes international aid ever more necessary. It's a vicious circle we are only slowly getting out of. I think there's real progress being made, and a certain pan-African consciousness (a return to the spirit of the Africa of the 50's and 60's) that will make this century one in which nations improve by leaps and bounds.