January 2005

Sustainable Africa

On the eve of the UK presidency of the G8, Gordon Brown has promised to make the economic and social catastrophes unfolding in Africa the central theme of the UK presidency campaign.

Nersi Salehi, Managing Director of Pro Enviro, examines the reasons behind Gordon Brown's drive to force a more sustainable foreign policy towards Africa by the rich nations of the world.

Is this another vote winning political manoeuvre to counteract the serious loss of public confidence over their handling of the conflicts in the Middle East, especially the unpopular war in Iraq, or are we entering a new phase in this Government's attempt to develop a more coherent, compassionate and sustainable foreign policy starting in Africa?

The answer could be found, in part, in the statistical analysis of the recently published report from the UN children agency, Unicef, on the great catastrophe unfolding in Africa. This is the direct result of the devastating effects of AIDS that is gradually destroying the fabric of society in Central and Southern Africa, the death toll attributed to malaria and the infant mortality rate due to starvation and conflicts. It is estimated that;

One in six children in Africa is severely hungry
One in seven children has no access to health care
One in five has no access to safe water, and,
One in three has no toilet or sanitation facility at home.
Over 640m children live in dwellings with mud floors or extreme overcrowding
Over 120m children have no access to any education at primary level
180m children work as slave labourers in appalling conditions
1.2m children are trafficked each year
2m children, mostly young girls, are exploited in the sex industry, and,
Nearly half of the 3.6m people killed in conflicts across Africa were children.

The report points to the fact that the HIV/AIDS pandemic is the worst catastrophe in the history of mankind and is blighting childhood across the developing world, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. The disease is destroying the infrastructural advances achieved in the last 30 years for one billion children across the world and hampering their right to develop and grow. The State of the World's Children 2005 report paints a bleak picture of sub-Saharan Africa slipping further behind developing regions such as South America, South East Asia and the Caribbean.

The report concludes that unless action is taken swiftly and decisively to reverse the devastating effects of the infection and human loss by 2010, it is estimated that over 18m African children will lose either one or both parents to HIV/AIDS.

It is estimated that only 2% of the Africans infected by the AIDS virus had access to antiretroviral drugs by the end of 2003. The effect of this neglect has been a severe reduction in the average life expectancy to 46 years while the rate of infant mortality is nearly twice the world average at 104 deaths in 1000 live births (2003 figures).

Social indicators in many parts of Africa point to the fact that more than half of the children in this continent live in poverty. The per capita income of an African in 2003 was estimated to be less than 10% of the world average at only $496. Poverty is believed to be the route cause of the disintegration of the fabric of the African societies at the start of the 21st century. Therefore, unless the leaders of the industrial nations address the inequalities in the distribution of wealth between the developed and the developing world, Africa cannot start down the road to building a more sustainable future for the children. It is estimated that by the end of 2004, the top 400 richest Americans had amassed a total wealth of over one trillion US dollars whilst the average income of most Africans is less than one US dollar per day.

Tony Blair and Gordon Brown's plans to write off African debt as well as providing international assistance for tackling the AIDS crises, as the core elements of the UK presidency of the G8, will only have the desired effect if this strategy is whole heartedly supported by the rest of the G8 member states. In order to succeed they must also insist that artificial barriers to open and honest trade with Africa are removed to provide the African farmers and miners equal and fair access to the markets of the G8 nations.

This policy might be in conflict with the interests of the multinational corporations who have enjoyed a century of free access to cheap land, cheap labour and a low cost economy for their farming and mining activities in Africa; opposition to these more sustainable policies is inevitable.

However, unless the wellbeing of the "children of Africa" is put ahead of the old colonial and semi-colonial interests of the richer nations, then Gordon Brown's attempts to tackle poverty and AIDS in Africa will be remembered as no more than another round of political manoeuvring and empty promises for the home voters in this election year; if nothing is done the children of Africa will continue to die needlessly in their millions.