Ethiopia’s Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, will be in London for the G20 summit on Thursday (2nd). As chair of NEPAD he will be representing the interests of Africa and highlighting the issues that must be addressed to ensure Africa remains on the path to development.Extract from PM Meles’ speech to the AU, February 2009 (full speech available)
[ Africa ] is already facing balance of payments problems because of reduction in commodity prices, reduction in remittances; and there is also a risk that development aid may be reduced. The upcoming summit of the G 20 affords us an opportunity to limit the damage. As the G-20 is expected to discuss, among other things, the revitalization of the global financial situation, we should try to impress on the G-20 the following points.
(1) As the international financial institutions are reformed to better manage economic shocks, they should also be reformed in a manner that enhances predictability of resource flows to our continent and to improve the effectiveness of aid. Aid effectiveness cannot be improved so long as aid to Africa is wrapped up in innumerable conditionalities many of which reflect dogmas that have now in practice been declared bankrupt by the response of governments to the economic crisis. Resource flows from these institutions to Africa cannot be predictable as long as they are structured to exercise total, and in many instances, arbitrary power over who gets what and when. We have to demand that Africa should be given a real voice and not the token one we currently have, and that the institutions should be reformed to limit conditionalities based on dogmas and arbitrary exercise of power in determining resource flows.
(2) We should also insist that there should be no cut in development assistance. It used to be argued that development assistance could not increase because the developed countries have resource and budget constraints. I must admit that until recently I thought that this argument was at least partly true and reasonable. I am now convinced that this is not the case. The current crisis has disproved and invalidated this myth. Recent data shows that the major countries and their national banks have allocated no less that 7 trillion dollars of new money to address the crisis. Banks facing difficulties are being given assistance of tens or even hundreds of billions of dollars. A bank in these countries which is deemed too important to fail is getting more assistance than the whole continent of Africa . We have to insist that Africa is at least as important to the global economy as the individual banks in the developed countries.
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For a news update on Haiti listen to Margaret Prescodon Sojourner Truth, Pacifica Radio’s KPFK 90.7 FM in Southern California archive.kpfk.org/parchive/xml/sojourner.xml
Click on 31 March 2009 for an enlightening interview with Ronique, a grassroots woman activist in Port au Prince. Ronique speaks the increase in kidnappings and other violence since the US backed coup in 2004, rape and sexual assault by the UN forces which have been occupying Haiti since then, and the role of the many NGOs which, working with Haiti’s elite, “take care of their personal business” instead of addressing the needs of women who are struggling to keep families and communities alive in the face of starvation and environmental devastation.
Click on 17 March 2009 for an interview with Mario Joseph, Haiti’s most prominent human rights lawyer, and Brian Concannon director of the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti.
As the G20 gathers in London, we call on the US, France and Canada who are responsible for the coup against democratically elected and hugely popular President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to END THE OCCUPATION OF HAITI & RETURN DISAPPEARED HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST LOVINSKY PIERRE-ANTOINE
