Julio Godoy
Inter Press ServiceMay 30, 2003
Non-governmental organisations are holding a summit in the surroundings of the French city of Evian through Sunday, focusing on development, health, and environmental issues. The NGO conference under the motto 'Another world is possible' is a counter-summit to the G8 meeting, June 1-3 in Evian. Participants are the heads of state and government of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United States and the Russian Federation. The G8 meeting will be joined on the sidelines by the leaders of 12 countries, from Africa, Asia and Latin America, who have been invited by French president Jacques Chirac.
The NGO gathering in Annemasse, some 40 kilometres southwest of Evian, is casting a critical look not only at the New Partnership for the African Development (NEPAD) but also at interaction between trade and development, the effects of globalisation on the countries of the South, the HIV/AIDS crisis, and corporate social and environmental responsibility. Other subjects are anti-terrorism, arms exports and human rights, as well as the possibility of levying taxes on financial transactions around the world to pay for development. The NGOs want to pinpoint the wide chasm between the radical market economy perceptions of the G8 leaders, and those of the people. Their objective is to highlight the lack of legitimacy of the G8 summiteers to rule world affairs.
"The G8 is undemocratic, the heads of government of those countries don't represent the world, and therefore shouldn't be talking of world affairs in the way they do," José Bové, leader of French alternative farmers, said during the demonstrations on Thursday. Bové recalled that the U.S. government launched with its war against Iraq a campaign to debilitate the United Nations, "the real democratic world forum". He added: "How can (U.S. president) George Bush come to the G8 meeting and talk democracy after having undermined the role of the UN during the Iraqi crisis?" This week, numerous NGOs also denounced that the G8 agenda in Evian will focus only on further increasing the power of private corporate interests in issues concerning health, water, and development in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
Bruno Rebelle, director of the French section of the environmental organisation Greenpeace, pointed in a press conference to "three simple economic indicators showing the absurd present state of our world." "One third of human population, that is, more than two billion people, must subsist with one dollar per day," Rebelle said. "In contrast the European Union gives out through its subsidies for agriculture two dollars per day for one cow." The disparity is more marked when military spending in the United States is taken into account. "Every citizen of the United States pays three dollars per day to finance the U.S. military machine," he said.
Other activists participating in the counter-summit denounced the huge economic burden foreign debt embodies for the poorest countries of the world. Nicolas Guihard, of the French NGO Agir Ici! (Act here!), pointed out that despite all measures taken to reduce the debt burden in recent years, these countries are being crushed by over 2,500 billion dollars in foreign liabilities. "Every year, African, Latin American and some Asian countries transfer more than 400 billion dollars to the Northern Hemisphere, only to pay the interests on the debt," Guihard, who is participating in the counter-summit, told IPS. "It's about time that this situation ends for good."
Demba Moussa Dembele, a Senegalese activist campaigning for the cancellation of foreign debt, accused the G8 governments of cheating the peoples and governments of the countries of the South. "It is seven years now since the G8 started to pretend engaging themselves in discussions about the cancellation of developing country debt," Moussa, who is participating in the NGO counter-summit, told IPS. "But the governments of the richest countries of the world are only trying to dupe us."
NEPAD also came in for criticism. The program was first announced two years ago, and officially presented in Paris in February 2002. So far, critics say, the program has not surpassed the state of a working paper. Officially, the NEPAD should promote peace and security in Africa, reinforce good governance and institutions, and stimulate trade, investments, and sustainable economic development, as well as a substantial reduction of foreign debt. NEPAD also defends the democratisation of Africa, and calls for improving health, water management, and agricultural productivity. However, none of these objectives has been advanced so far. The French newspaper Liberation claimed in a critical appraisal of NEPAD on Friday, that the program had not brought anything about but "promises". Liberation recalled that a recent meeting in Senegal to analyse how to finance the NEPAD appeared a "as summit of private U.S. operators charming African officials". The newspaper claims that only Canada has allocated some 290 million dollars for a 'Fund for Africa'. No other country belonging to the G8 has made similar efforts, despite their promises, the newspaper said. The African countries expected to receive 65 billion dollars.
Nicolas Guihard of the French NGO Agir Ici! took a similarly dismal view. "Only six percent of the world's foreign investments go to Africa, and of that small sum, 80 percent concentrate in three countries, especially in South Africa," Guihard told IPS. Other economic indicators also suggest that the NEPAD objective of reducing poverty by half by the year 2015, are only illusions.To achieve that objective, Africa needs an economic growth of 7 percent yearly. The International Monetary Fund estimates a growth of 4 percent this year, and forecasts a lower growth for the years to come. Additionally, to boost African exports, it would be necessary that the G8 countries eliminate their subsidies for agricultural production, especially in Europe. According to the IMF, the abolition of subsidies for farmers in Europe and North America would increase African gross domestic productby 0.6 percent per year." However, French President Jacques Chirac, who promised the elimination of subsidies during the presentation of NEPAD, later defended the European governments' financial assistance for French farmers.
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