Global Policy Forum

By Scott Hartmann

WASHINGTON – At a seminar last night at the Center for Global Development here, U.N. special rapporteur on structural adjustment programs and foreign debt Fantu Cheru outlined the problems globalization poses for Africa, countering the view that market solutions alone can solve the continent's low level of development.

"How did we get into this mess?" Cheru asked, describing his visit to a camp in Sierra Leone that was full of amputees. "What have we done to ourselves?"

Cheru said that without a foreign presence, Sierra Leone could collapse into chaos in two weeks. He rejected a completely pessimistic view of Africa, though, saying, "In spite of all the problems, Africa really works; it just works in a manner that we don't understand."

In a presentation of his new book, African Renaissance: Roadmaps to the Challenges of Globalization, Cheru said that while much of the rest of the world has benefited from economic globalization, the gains have passed Africa by, and the current wave of globalization, like the one that took place during the colonial period, instead threatens to have a negative impact on the continent.

While the early 1990s brought new hopes for democracy on the continent, African countries have seen few gains, and much of sub-Saharan Africa remains marginalized in the world. Rejecting the notion of an African renaissance based on the "neoliberal" economic reforms advocated by countries such as South Africa and international officials such as former International Monetary Fund head Michael Camdessus, Cheru called for a more indigenous, "common-sense" approach that incorporates both market and state approaches to reverse what he characterizes in his book as a slide "toward anarchy and self-destruction."

"Development is not ... what experts claim it to be," Cheru said last night. "It is what poor people do to themselves."

Cheru writes in the book that any real renaissance on the continent must be based on several pillars. Building on the process of democratization that followed the end of the Cold War, African countries need to renew democracy and improve governance, Cheru writes, calling for social reform and decentralization of political power and decision-making, accompanied by the strengthening of government institutions. More must also be done to build peace, according to Cheru, who says one of the primary focuses of outside involvement in Africa should be to prevent and resolve conflict.

Cheru also highlights the importance of Africa's becoming more assertive in international trade negotiations and of strengthening regional cooperation mechanisms. He warns, however, that ambitious market integration projects will not work owing to a lack of technical and managerial expertise in African countries.

According to Cheru, the most important pillar is educational reform, especially in light of the fact that average spending per child is less today than it was two decades ago. Cheru says the revitalization of agriculture on a continent that has the potential but lacks the productivity to feed many of its own citizens should also be a priority, and should include investment in agricultural research, transport and communications, as well as securing land tenure for farmers and providing government guaranteed prices. In light of the rapid growth of many cities in Africa, Cheru says, urban management must become a top priority and not a "peripheral issue."

The "decolonization" of the African mind-set is also crucial if Africa is ever to cease being dependent on aid, Cheru writes.

"Foreign aid from the West has done more to keep Africa down and to disempower her peoples," he writes in his book. "The beggar mentality of the elites, the almost holy worship and adulation of Europeans, no matter what rank and level of education, the elite's rejection of anything African -- from locally produced consumer products to doctors and African professors -- are all testimonies of how deeply ingrained the 'dependency' mentality is," he writes.

"Reversing this colonial mental trap is the first and most important step towards the full emancipation of the continent," he says, adding that denying the potential for self-transformation confirms the widely held Western view that Africans are incapable of democracy and progress.

Cheru, Carnegie Associate Criticize NEPAD, AGOA

Cheru said the New Partnership for Africa's Development, which promises more aid in exchange for "good government" and other measures can have a positive effect on Africa's development but that some governments are overly preoccupied with fulfilling NEPAD's conditions to the detriment of state- and capacity-building.

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Senior Associate Marina Ottaway added that beneficiaries of the African Growth and Opportunity Act have been relatively few and that countries must have viable state institutions and a certain administrative capacity to be able to take advantage of increased trade. According to Ottaway, increased trade opportunities are less important than the strengthening of viable state structures that are capable of developing and implementing policies and providing services.

Copyright, National Journal Group, 2003

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