Africa Report Sees Peace Before Prosperity
By ANTHONY MITCHELL, Associated Press Writer ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - Wealthy nations can and should give Africa more money and opportunity, but outside help will have little effect unless there is more progress toward democracy, better governance and peace, according to a new study of the continent's crises.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites) hopes to use the report, which calls for an immediate doubling of foreign aid to Africa to $50 billion, to spur global action. He has made helping Africa a key priority for Britain's presidencies of both the powerful Group of Eight wealthiest nations and the European Union (news - web sites) this year.
A final report by Blair's Commission for Africa to be released Friday was said to differ little from a late draft obtained by The Associated Press.
Blair's 17 commissioners, who include Live Aid activist and musician Bob Geldof and Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, presented a wide range of solutions for Africa, saying they wanted a comprehensive approach and criticizing current efforts as scattered and ineffective.
Acknowledging previous high-profile efforts to rescue Africa have foundered, the draft report included a call for an independent body to monitor, and presumably push for, progress toward the goals they set. The report added new opportunities for change have been created by the end of the Cold War � and with it political excuses for powerful nations to back corrupt regimes in the developing world � and by the post-Sept. 11 realization that poverty and frustration breed terrorism.
"In my view this is a major achievement for Africa," Zenawi said of the report, speaking to reporters late Wednesday. "There is bound to be a lot in the report that has been said before because the report takes the best in development thinking over the past decades and combines it in a unique way to come up with new, fresh thinking on the way forward."
The commissioners, according to the draft of their report, said Africa has made strides, particularly toward democratization. The draft cited regional groups like the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States pushing for reform.
But "there are still oppressive regimes in Africa. Corruption and the looting of the state remain pervasive," the draft said.
Unless Africa "makes a concerted effort to improve governance," fair trade, debt forgiveness and increased aid "will have only limited impact."
The draft places conflict at the heart of increasing poverty, disease and hunger on the world's poorest continent.
In the draft, commissioners called for $3 billion a year in international aid for peace operations on the continent and for international support for African Union peacekeeping efforts. It also called on the industrialized world to stem the flow of arms to Africa.
It said international action has focused on reacting to conflicts rather than trying to prevent them from breaking out, citing Rwanda's 1994 genocide as "the most notorious example of this."
The commissioners argue in their draft report that durable peace in Africa will only come when the continent itself, through more responsive and less-corrupt governments and more robust regional groups, can manage and quell conflict.
In other areas, according to the draft, commissioners:
_ Concluded Africa needed a tripling of aid, not the doubling they recommended, but was not yet capable of using more money efficiently.
_ Described AIDS (news - web sites) as an emergency to which donors should respond beyond normal levels of aid.
_ Urged rich nations to drop "politically antiquated, economically illiterate, environmentally destructive and ethically indefensible" trade barriers that hurt poor countries, but also said African countries needed to drop barriers that retard intra-continental trade.
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