PRESS CONFERENCE BY ECONOMIC COMMISSION FOR AFRICA

 

With a mid-term assessment of global efforts to reach the Millennium Development Goals just months away and with many of the world’s richest countries pledging to help Africa accelerate growth and make lasting gains against poverty, the head of the United Nations Economic Commission for that troubled continent today previewed an upcoming study on the impact of HIV/AIDS on key areas of governance and economic development.

“2005 will be a pivotal year for Africa”, said K.Y. Amoako, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), briefing correspondents in New York today on the development challenges facing the continent and the recommendations in the recently released Millennium Project Report on what must be done to keep Africa from falling behind in its efforts to reach social development and poverty alleviation targets.

Established in 1958, the Addis-Ababa-based ECA is one of five regional United Nations commissions.  As the world body’s regional arm in Africa, it is mandated to support the economic and social development of its 53 member States, foster regional integration, and promote international cooperation for Africa’s development.  It reports to the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

Mr. Amoaka said that the Commission’s focus ahead of the General Assembly’s high-level review of the Millennium Development Goals –- scheduled for this coming September -- would be on aid flows, debt relief and trade issues, as well as on the links between governance and development and enhancing Africa’s governance capacities.  He added that the Commission would not only call for increased aid, but enhanced quality of that aid.

The Commission would also be discussing total improvement of global aid relationships, as well as mutual accountability and coherence, improved management and governance from Africa, and better quality and more consistent aid from donor countries.  He added that the ECA was working with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on a “mutual review” report that would examine Africa’s home-grown commitments to spur growth, and the commitments of donor and development partners to help, particularly in light of the objectives of New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).

Thus far, he continued, not enough attention had been paid to the overall -- and devastating -- long-term impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic on governance and institutions.  Africa was losing teachers at twice the rate they were being produced, health systems were collapsing and there was a 30 to 40 per cent infection rate in the military continent-wide.  Mr. Amoako chairs the ECA’s Commission on HIV/AIDS and Governance in Africa, which is due later this year to report on the situation and recommend the most urgent measures required to avoid a collapse continent-wide.

Responding to questions, he said that British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s special panel for Africa’s development would provide an opportunity to move from rhetoric to action, for both Africa and the Group of Eight (G-8) industrialized nations.  That was particularly important ahead of the July Summit in Davos, Switzerland, where Africa and the challenge of finding the financing for development, would be at the top of the agenda.

He told correspondents that, while many of the world’s rich countries had pledged to wipe out the debt of poor African nations, the issue was more complicated than that.  The debt for most Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) and least developed countries, or bilateral debt, had already been cancelled.  The issue was multilateral debt owed to the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the African Development Bank.  As yet, there was no real consensus, but he said he was encouraged that the argument was moving forward and that the principle to work out some sort of debt cancellation plan had been agreed.

On the current situation in Africa, he said that the good news was that a recent study of 28 African countries had shown that significant improvements had been seen in democratic governance, and that legislatures and judiciaries were becoming more independent, despite capacity constraints.  Private media were expanding, but civil services were weak and too often performed poorly.  Capacities needed to be scaled up in order to ensure that Africa’s gains were not reversed.

* *** *