Formerly ‘Africa Recovery’ United Nations Department of Public Information Vol. 20 No. 1 April 2006 Africa confronts trade challenges

Cotton and textile prospects are dim

WTO ‘development’ promises prove elusive

Also inside:

Preventing genocide

Global anti-AIDS campaign

NEPAD fishing ‘revolution’ Reuters / Thierry Gouegnon United Nations Vol. 20 No. 1 April 2006

FRI UE ENOUVEAU contentsCover articles Africa confronts trade challenges

Trade talks: where is Port in the development? ...... 14 Mozambique: Africa’s export Loss of textile market prospects look dim costs African jobs ...... 18

Also in this Issue Preventing genocide: from rhetoric to action ...... 3 Miller Eric / Bank World

New global anti-AIDS campaign kicks off . . . . 4 ‘Fight. .like .hell’ .for .universal .access, . . says .Stephen .Lewis ...... 5 .

Rwandan women: AIDS therapy beyond drugs ...... 6 Departments Pills, .food .and .seeds ...... 8 Agenda ...... 22 Africa starts a fishing ‘revolution’ ...... 9 Books ...... 22 Tapping women’s Briefs ...... 23 entrepreneurship in Ghana ...... 12 Watch ...... 24

Africa Renewal is published in English and French by the Strategic Communications Division Editor-in-Chief of the United Nations Department of Public Information, with support from UNDP, UNICEF and Julie I. Thompson UNIFEM. Its contents do not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or the pub- lication’s supporting organizations. Material from this magazine may be freely reproduced, Managing Editor Writers Ernest Harsch Gumisai Mutume with attribution, and a clipping would be appreciated. Michael Fleshman Correspondence should be addressed to: The Editor, Africa Renewal Room S-955, United Nations, NY 10017 USA Tel: (212) 963-6857 Fax: (212) 963-4556 Research Assistant Production e-mail: [email protected] Marian Aggrey DPI/GDU

Administrative Assistant Distribution Shelly Edelsburg Atar Markman

Subscribe to Africa Renewal Annual subscriptions are available to individuals for $20 and to institutions for $35. Please Visit our website: send an international money order or make cheques payable in US dollars, drawn on a US bank, to the “United Nations” and send to Circulation at the address shown above. For those www.un.org/AR who lack the means to pay the subscription fee, a limited number of complimentary sub- Features include scriptions are available. Please send a clearly written application to the editor. • New releases • Subject index • Search • Africa and the UN World Summit Africa Renewal is printed on recycled paper. Preventing genocide: from rhetoric to action UN .Special .Adviser .urges .firm .measures .against .Darfur .slaughter

By .Ernest Harsch the Rwanda genocide, n Sudan’s Darfur region, as elsewhere UN Secretary-General Displaced in the world, the international commu- Kofi Annan outlined a viilagers in I nity “must take bold, decisive measures plan of action to pre- Darfur to ensure that genocide does not take vent future genocides. hoping for place,” affirmed the UN’s special adviser It involved five broad tangible on the prevention of genocide, Mr. Juan areas of activity: pre- support to Mendez, on 7 April. Commenting on the venting armed con- halt killings. anniversary of the start of the Rwanda flict, protecting civil- tragedy a dozen years earlier, he added: ians during conflict, “We cannot claim to have learned the ending impunity for those guilty of lessons of the 1994 Rwanda genocide, if perpetrating mass slaughter, ensur- our action in the face of genocidal vio- ing early warnings of situations that lence remains half-hearted.” could escalate into genocide, and tak- Despite obligations and commitments ing swift and decision action — by by world leaders to halt such mass slaugh- national governments, the Security ter, “people continue to be targeted for Council and other bodies — to block violence and murder solely because of the development of genocide or halt it their ethnic origin,” Mr. Mendez noted, if it has begun. “most flagrantly” in Darfur, which he has To help spur movement in Schneider Evan / UN visited twice since his appointment in these areas, the Secretary-General 2004. In addition to urging the Sudanese appointed Mr. Mendez in July 2004. government, African peacekeepers and the A former political prisoner and United Nations to do more to protect civil- prominent human rights activist in ians from murder, rape and displacement, his native Argentina, Mr. Mendez he called on citizens throughout the world bases his work on the 1948 Genocide and the presence of a modest peacekeeping to pressure their leaders “to go beyond Convention, a universally binding legal force, the African Union Mission in Sudan rhetoric and act decisively.” obligation that not only provides for pun- (AMIS), many lives have been saved, ishing genocide, but also for preventing it. Mr. Mendez argued. But drawing on UN 100 days This emphasis on action to prevent reports and his own two visits to Darfur, The Rwanda genocide lasted for some genocide was reinforced at the September the special adviser stressed that “much 100 days, during which approximately 2005 UN World Summit, when the more needs to be done, and urgently.” 800,000 Rwandans were slaughtered. “Outcome Document” unanimously Secretary-General Annan, in a 9 March Although a UN peacekeeping mission adopted by member states agreed that report to the Security Council, further was in Rwanda at the time, its mandate both national governments and the inter- underscored the seriousness of the situ- and numbers were very limited – and the national community have a “responsibility ation. More than 3 million people have UN Security Council decided to reduce it to protect” people from genocide, ethnic been displaced by the conflict, with some even further. The perpetrators of the geno- cleansing, war crimes and crimes against 2 million of them dependent on interna- cide therefore faced little international humanity. tional food and other relief aid. In Western opposition. The killing stopped, in fact, Darfur especially, the situation has in fact only when a rebel group overthrew the Saving lives worsened since the beginning of the year, government. An independent commission In addition to addressing conflicts in Mr. Annan reported. Attacks on humani- set up by the UN later concluded that “the the Democratic Republic of the Congo, tarian workers have deprived some 30,000 responsibility for the failings of the United Côte d’Ivoire and other countries, Mr. people of access to relief aid. Fighting Nations to prevent and stop the genocide Mendez has sought to focus world at- has spread into neighbouring Chad, while in Rwanda” lay with the Secretary-Gen- tention on Darfur. He has noted varying Chadian rebel groups have moved into eral, the Secretariat, the Security Council, and unofficial estimates that “at least Darfur, making an already complex con- the peacekeeping mission in Rwanda and 100,000” have already been killed in flict even more volatile. the member states. Darfur, and perhaps many more.

In 2004, on the 10th anniversary of Thanks to international relief efforts see page 21

APRIL 2006  New global anti-AIDS campaign kicks off Towards .prevention, .care .and .treatment .for .all .by .2010

By .Michael Fleshman governments, civil society organizations, hen Jeanette tested positive for multilateral agencies and bilateral donors HIV at the Kicukiro Health made an unprecedented effort to train staff, W Centre in Kigali, Rwanda, dur- build clinics and laboratories and purchase ing a prenatal check-up two years ago, medications and equipment. “I didn’t cry or shout,” she told UN Although the number of people receiv- Children’s Fund (UNICEF) researcher ing treatment fell short of the target, the Alexia Lewnes. “But I was afraid. I UN’s special envoy for HIV/ thought I was going to die.” Just a few AIDS in Africa, Mr. Stephen Nearly years ago, she would have been right. Lewis, described the cam- 800,000 Only a tiny fraction of the millions of paign as “a breakthrough.” more Africans in need of life-saving anti- “The inertia around the Africans AIDS drugs could afford them, and an pandemic was dreadful, until have HIV diagnosis was a death sentence for this inspired and visionary gained those who could not. intervention,” he told Africa access to But Jeanette was more fortunate. Under Renewal. “Now the treatment ARV a UNICEF-supported maternal and child ethos has taken hold. We have treatment Reuters / Mike Hutchings Mike / Reuters treatment programme at the centre, she an irreversible momentum in in the last was able to obtain life-saving anti-retroviral place . . . and we’re going to two years. drugs (ARVs) for herself and medication get there.” that blocked the transmission of the virus to her baby. Although life remains difficult From 3x5 to universal access for Rwandan women a decade after the The 3x5 effort ended on 31 December genocide (see page 6) and Jeanette fears 2005. Now WHO and its global partners, that she will be ostracized if her condition including the Joint UN Programme on by a global steering committee mandated is discovered, she and her children have HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the US Presi- to help governments overcome obstacles something she thought she did not have dent’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Re- in four areas critical to the rapid expansion that terrible day at the clinic — a future. lief (PEPFAR) and the Global Fund to of HIV/AIDS services: Jeanette and her baby were among Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, • Ensuring greater and more reliable the beneficiaries of an emergency drive, are seeking to build on its success. They financing (including from domes- known as the “3x5” campaign, to provide have kicked off a new global campaign tic sources) and better alignment of ARVs and other medications to 3 mil- to bring HIV/AIDS prevention, care and donor funding with national priori- lion people living with AIDS in devel- treatment to everyone who needs it by ties oping countries by the end of 2005 (see 2010. Termed the “universal access” ini- • Addressing shortcomings in human Africa Renewal, April 2004). Launched tiative, the campaign was launched in resources and health systems in December 2003 by the World Health January 2006 and is intended to bring the • Making available vital goods, such as Organization (WHO), the remarkable same sense of urgency and commitment affordable drugs and condoms, as well effort brought ARVs to almost 1.3 million to HIV prevention and care that the 3x5 as services for testing, monitoring and poor and desperately ill people around the movement did to treatment – combining care world in just two years – an achievement the three responses into an expanded and • Working to achieve gender equity in that many public health officials thought integrated assault on the epidemic. access to HIV/AIDS services and pro- impossible. In 2004, an estimated 6 mil- In contrast to the 3x5 campaign and its moting efforts to end stigma and dis- lion people globally were thought to need global targets, the universal access pro- crimination against people living with ARV treatment, which is prescribed only gramme emphasizes country-level efforts. the virus. for people with advanced AIDS. Some 40 Each country is to develop targets and The need for a rapid and integrated million people are infected with the virus timelines consistent with national AIDS response is clear. Despite the 3x5 drive, worldwide, 25 million of them in Africa. strategies, with greater involvement of increased funding for global AIDS pro- Thanks to the 3x5 campaign, the num- civil society, particularly people living with grammes and encouraging progress in a ber of Africans on ARV treatment jumped HIV and AIDS, in planning and imple- few countries, the global epidemic con- from 50,000 to an estimated 810,000 as mentation. The campaign will be directed tinues to worsen. In 2005, there were an

 APRIL 2006 its numerical goals and time-frames, Mr. ‘Fight like hell’ for universal access, says Stephen Lewis Gonsalves continued, universal access “is Speaking to Africa .Renewal, Mr. Stephen Lewis, the UN Secretary-General’s special entirely too vague.” Leaders of multilateral envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, dismissed as “balderdash” suggestions that the 16-fold health institutions and donor governments, increase in the number of Africans on lifesaving anti-AIDS drugs has come at the he asserted, do not want to take risks. expense of essential prevention programmes. He also rejected the notion that com- “We’re in a 3x5 backlash.” promises have to be made when allocating scarce resources. “There is this constant But Mr. Michel Sidibe, co-chair of feeling that you have to be pushed into a corner and pick treatment over prevention or the campaign steering committee, argued prevention over treatment. People have to absolutely lose that mindset . . . and say, as that targets and timelines are best set by everybody in the world knows, that both are vitally important. You just keep fighting like countries, to account for local conditions hell to get the money you need for everything. You never give up and you don’t accept anything less.” and priorities. “The ownership has to be Before the 3x5 campaign, he recalled, many senior public health and UN officials at country level,” he said from his office believed it was impossible to treat people in poor countries. “They said, ‘They’re going to in Geneva. “They can’t be set outside a die anyway. Let’s use the money for prevention.’ I used to respond not with an appeal to country context, because we don’t have compassion, but by saying that there is no way you can stop 40 million people who are one AIDS pandemic in Africa, we have infected from demanding treatment. So don’t tell me they’re going to die. You’re going to many. Mali has an HIV infection rate of do treatment whether you want to or not. You’re running into the face of history and his- less than 1.5 per cent. You can’t have the tory will run right over you.” same programme for Botswana with a 40 per cent infection rate. Countries are best estimated 5 million new infections and 3 that only three African countries have positioned to allocate resources for the million deaths — the highest number ever. reached, reports UNAIDS. The declaration greatest impact.” Africa continues to bear the brunt of the also called on donors to support national epidemic, accounting for more than 60 per AIDS programmes with coordinated and ‘Mobilization Works’ cent of all people with HIV, 60 per cent of reliable funding to avoid duplication, Mr. Sidibe, the director of country and all new infections and 70 per cent of deaths piecemeal support for favoured projects regional support for UNAIDS, praised last year. Women have been hit hardest, and uneven distribution of resources across the 3x5 campaign for reaching more representing 57 per cent of Africans living geographic and social sectors. than 1 million people globally. “It with HIV and AIDS. The delegates also called for greater proves that mobilization works.” But he regional cooperation against the disease, also noted that this figure was dwarfed Africa embraces new campaign including through bulk purchasing of by the 5 million people newly infected Meeting in Brazzaville in early March medicines, condoms and other supplies, with HIV in 2005. “We need to come under the auspices of the African Union, consolidated training and monitoring with a holistic approach, emphasizing more than 250 representatives from programmes and the promotion of local prevention, care and treatment,” he em- government, civil society and women’s manufacturing of needed goods by the cre- phasized. “We have been using a piece- organizations, as well as people living ation of larger, regional markets. meal approach for 20 years.” with AIDS and youths from 53 African Mr. Sidibe also observed that the uni- countries, embraced the initiative. They Road map or backlash? versal access campaign has drawn inspi- linked it to the continental New Partner- But with time running out for the nearly ration from NEPAD’s innovative African ship for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) 5 million people still unable to obtain Peer Review Mechanism, in which mem- and pledged to “put people at the centre ARVs and other medicines, some activ- ber states monitor and evaluate each other’s of the HIV and AIDS response,” particu- ists are questioning whether the univer- economic and political policies (see Africa larly women, young people and the soar- sal access campaign will lose the focus Renewal, February 2003). The campaign ing number of AIDS orphans. “We are and urgency of its 3x5 predecessor. will similarly involve African govern- ever mindful of the disproportionate share Mr. Gregg Gonsalves, director of pre- ments in assessing each country’s progress and severe impact of the HIV and AIDS vention and treatment advocacy for the in the battle against the virus. By building burden in Africa,” the delegates declared. Gay Men’s Health Crisis in New York, told bridges among governments, civil society, They noted that the pandemic is driven by Africa Renewal that he is concerned about the private sector and the international “deep and persistent poverty, food inse- the lack of numerical targets and timelines community, he concluded, the world can curity, indebtedness . . . gender inequality in the universal access programme. “There finally turn the corner on HIV and AIDS and stigma and discrimination.” are no targets, no road maps, no account- “and do it in a comprehensive and sustain- The Brazzaville Declaration* urged ability mechanisms and no core indicators. able manner.” n African governments to increase domestic The whole global ambition to fight the spending on the pandemic, including by epidemic has been scaled back.” devoting at least 15 per cent of national Where the 3x5 treatment drive stirred * http://data.unaids.org/pub/BaseDocument/20 budgets to health services. That is a goal controversy with its ambitious target and 06/20060317_UA_Brazzaville_en.pdf

APRIL 2006  Rwandan women: AIDS therapy beyond drugs Food .and .hope .are .also .essential .to .survival

By .Stephanie Urdang . the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS access to ARVs is often not a reality for Kigali . (UNAIDS) for 2003 placed the preva- those who are the most marginalized and or Grace and her daughter Juliette, lence rate in the towns at 6.4 per cent and in greatest need of the medicines. the anniversary of the April 1994 in the rural areas at 2.8 per cent. The pro- Poverty means going hungry. Hunger F Rwanda genocide means one thing: gramme’s Global Report for 2004, also leads to malnutrition and a more rapid they have lived with HIV for a dozen using 2003 figures, estimated that some breakdown of the immune system. Social years, and their disease has progressed to 250,000 Rwandan children and adults up stigma against those with the disease means AIDS. Grace was among the estimated to the age of 49 are living with HIV (fig- that many do not get tested in the first 250,000 women who were raped at the ures for adults over 49 were not available). place. And gender inequality puts burdens time and is one of the untold numbers of Of those, 22,000 were estimated to be on women that they cannot shake off on women who were infected with HIV as children under the age of 15. Of particular their own. Those burdens include respon- a result. Juliette, now eight years old, is concern is the high prevalence rate among sibility for caring for children and other also infected. young women between the ages of 15 and family members, ensuring that limited food Until recently Grace was living in 24, five times the rate among young men supplies go first to hungry children and abject poverty, trying to cope with the of the same age group. the risk of abandonment by men when an stigma associated with being HIV-positive status is disclosed. Pivotal to HIV-positive and with the “Even if the [ARV] Wide treatment coverage all these issues is the need for food, a need daily worry that there would drugs were available, The Rwandan government, as urgent as the drugs themselves. be no one to look after Juliette most of the women we with financial support from a after her early death. interviewed were too variety of sources including Food a daily challenge At first, when Grace began poor to afford the food the Global Fund for AIDS, Sister Speciosa, a nurse and nun, is con- to get sick, she found it incon- needed to take the Tuberculosis and Malaria, the fronted with the reality of food every ceivable that she had AIDS. drugs.” World Health Organization, day as she provides treatment, care and Those who carried out the — Ms. Rakiya Omaar, the World Bank, bilateral counselling to AIDS patients at Butare genocide “murdered my hus- director, African Rights donor agencies and private Hospital, two hours drive from Kigali. band and left me to die slowly funds such as the Clinton “It is not only that they need the food from their AIDS,” she said. She Foundation, is able to pro- to take with the medicine and that they found it equally inconceivable that there vide ARV treatment to about 40 per cent need to eat more than they did when were drugs that could fight the disease. of the people in need. Doctors and nurses they were sick to get healthy,” she says. “In my case, only God, who knows that it are being trained, and a growing number “It’s that their appetite increases. Some wasn’t my fault that I caught this sickness, of health clinics are able to treat AIDS of my patients say they don’t want to could perform a miracle and heal me.” patients. The estimated 19,000 people take the medicine because it makes Grace and her daughter, like Josiane, living with AIDS under treatment by De- them so hungry.” Didacienne, Triphonie and other women cember 2005 represented one of the high- Although eligible for free tests and in her situation, have now found that they est coverage rates in sub-Saharan Africa. medication because of their lack of income, do not have to wait for miracles to occur. This is particularly impressive in a coun- many find that the daily circumstances of All have been able to benefit from the try where 66 per cent of the population live their lives make it impossible for them Rwandan government’s commitment to below the poverty line and where the major- to use those services. The lack of food providing anti-retroviral (ARV) therapy to ity of households are unable to produce or money for transport, difficult housing those who need it — and for those who enough to feed themselves, even though conditions, pervasive stigma, the stress cannot afford it, at no cost. 91 per cent rely on agriculture for their of believing they will die without provid- These women are among the estimated livelihoods. Rwanda’s food crisis remains ing for their children’s care — all serve to 6 million Africans living with HIV/AIDS chronic. It is even more severe in the con- accelerate a downward spiral into despair who are in immediate need of anti-retro- text of HIV/AIDS, presenting a challenge and hinder their access to ARV drugs, even viral medicines, out of a total of nearly 26 to the ultimate success of the government’s when those drugs are free. Because women million HIV-positive people in the region. treatment and care programme. are primarily responsible for feeding their Recent data from Rwanda’s 2005 That programme involves not only children and their families, they are most Demographic Health Survey indicates an medical and resource questions, but also deeply affected by this inability. estimated overall adult infection rate of 3 interlocking issues of poverty, stigma and Dr. Anita Asiimwe, coordinator for care per cent nationally. Earlier estimates by gender inequality. Because of these issues, and treatment at the Treatment and Research

 APRIL 2006 AIDS Centre, a government agency, also cited the food question in an interview with Many Africa Renewal. “It is clinically Rwandan established that patients need women to take their drugs with food,” and girls she said. “It’s a dilemma for infected us, as everyone needs food. Is with it right to only provide food for HIV/AIDS those on the drugs? What about are now Associated Press / Karel Prinsloo Karel / Press Associated everyone else who doesn’t have getting enough to eat?” supple- mental She illustrated her point food with with an anecdote about a child their whose mother couldn’t afford medicines. to send her to school. The child, knowing that children of peo- ple living with AIDS had their school expenses covered, asked her mother why she wasn’t HIV-infected so that she could go to school too. our homes and see how we live. Then you They were plagued by high levels of stress, “Would women,” Dr. Asiimwe won- will understand.” not only for these reasons, but because dered aloud, “be encouraged to become they worried about their children when infected in order to feed their children?” Rape survivors they were no longer around, which they At times, she says, she has to try not to be The experiences of Grace, Triphonie, knew was inevitable without ARVs.” despondent about the difficulty of provid- Josiane and Didacienne attest to a criti- What was especially painful to her, ing for all those in need. “I have to remind cal need, not only for the availability she added, was that a number of women myself,” she said, “of how far we have of anti-retrovirals, but for more general cited in the report have already died. Every come, and not despair about how far we support to enable the women to access month she hears of more deaths, even still have to go.” the drugs. They were among some 200 though ARVs are now more available. rape victims who survived the geno- ‘We cannot eat pictures’ cide, many of whom were infected with Little grounds for hope The Ministry of Health’s Nutrition Unit HIV as a result, whose testimonies were Triphonie’s story was typical. She grew is fully aware of the need for a healthy included in a UNIFEM-funded report thinner and sicker and her children went diet for people living with AIDS, published by African Rights in 2004, hungry as she tried to cope with living whether they are being treated with Broken Bodies, Torn Spirits. in a crowded, open army warehouse, ARVs or not. In a recent interview for Ms. Rakiya Omaar, director of African rushing back and forth between her mar- an assessment financed by the UN De- Rights, told Africa Renewal that the most ket stall and her four children to check velopment Fund for Women (UNIFEM) compelling issue that emerged from the on their safety. Her stall was rapidly and undertaken by African Rights, a the testimonies was not only women’s dire failing, exacerbating the hunger. non-governmental organization, the need for anti-retrovirals and medication to Josiane lost four children to the intera- ministry’s secretary-general, Dr. Ben treat opportunistic infections, but the dif- hamwe, the militia force that led the geno- Karenzi, stressed that the government ficulty in accessing them consistently. cide. She has suffered debilitating memory is not oblivious to the importance of “What became very clear to us was loss. She was living in an unprotected nutrition in the fight against HIV/AIDS. that even if the drugs were available, most shack without the means to pay for food or However, he also underscored the huge of the women we interviewed were too transport. Her 11-year-old daughter was a challenge of maintaining an ongoing poor to afford the food needed to take the product of the rape and like her was living food support programme, particularly in drugs,” she said. “If they did get some with AIDS. When her daughter got sick, the absence of adequate funding. food they gave it to their children, as they Josiane would carry her to the hospital on A woman living with AIDS cited in the couldn’t eat when their children were hun- her back. Although her CD-4 count called same assessment highlighted this difficult gry even if it was a matter of their own for them, doctors would not prescribe reality. “They show us pictures of all the life. They also had no money for transport anti-retrovirals for Josiane because of her food we would love to eat, but we cannot to the clinics. They worried incessantly memory. “I was always confused,” she told eat pictures.… We have to have the means about their horrendous living conditions, Africa Renewal. “I did not know the day to purchase or produce the food. Visit us in the desire to send their children to school. of the week or the time of the day.”

APRIL 2006  daughter, healthy on her anti-retrovirals, Pills, food and seeds is attending a nearby school. Juliette was Many health centres in Rwanda were finding that although they were providing found a space in a local high school and ARVs to women who needed them, they were not getting the results they hoped for. Grace has found some work, and all live The women visiting the clinics complained of extreme hunger and were disheart- at home where there is enough food for all ened by their inability to obtain the food they needed. And so seven clinics, funded the family. Didacienne now has transport by the US Agency for International Development and the International Centre for money to go on regular visits to the clinic Tropical Agriculture, have begun an innovative programme. One of these, in Gita- to monitor her disease; she is getting stron- rama Province, has been particularly successful. ger every day. According to African Rights, the first step was to provide fortified SOSOMA (a nutri- Anti-retrovirals generally make an tious mixture of sorghum, soya and maize) to the women to help them regain energy. enormous difference to physical health. The next step was to involve them in growing their own food crops. The project is But without food and other related support, based on the introduction of indigenous vegetables and tuberous seeds, which are they may not make a difference to mental well adapted to Rwanda’s climate and soils. With this comes training in soil fertility, crop diversification and the use of hardy seeds. and emotional health. Women who receive To get women living with AIDS interested in the programme, Mr. Hodali Jean Gatsim- anti-retroviral therapy and food and who banyi, the coordinator, cultivated a demonstration plot next to the health centre. He are able to cover the cost of transport to encouraged the women to harvest the produce for their family’s consumption during the clinics are finding they have the physi- their visits to the centre. Then he distributed seeds to the women for planting in their cal and emotional energy to turn their lives home gardens, passing on tips and monitoring their progress. In order to join the project, around. Most of the women in the African the women were encouraged to form associations, known as amashyirahamwe. The Rights programme, for instance, have project in Gitarama began with 50 women and soon grew to 90 as the results started to opened bank accounts, a sign that they are become evident. planning for their future. Once the project was underway, the centre found that the health of the majority of the The UNIFEM assessment points out participants improved considerably. They gained weight, opportunistic infections have that when women living with AIDS are been reduced and in some cases the participants look healthier then people who are not given food support to relieve their imme- HIV-positive. There is also a spin-off effect in the community. Community members in diate hunger and to regain their energy, general have shown greater interest in acquiring the seeds and cultivating their own plots they then often request assistance for and the women in the programme have been encouraged to impart their new knowledge income-generating activities and skills and skills to non-participants in their villages. to develop alternative livelihood strate- gies or to turn their failing enterprises Grace, unable to support all four of her going to die and therefore sold everything, around. “A combination of food avail- children, sent Juliette to boarding school. including the bricks and roofing, to pay ability and anti-retroviral therapy,” says Juliette stopped taking her anti-retrovirals for the funeral. Didacienne and her chil- the report, can ensure that women liv- because she worried that her classmates dren share a shed that housed the cooking ing with AIDS “lead a productive life, would find out about her HIV status. Very hearth with one goat and a growing num- become less burdensome on their fami- ill, she was sent back to Butare. There she ber of rabbits. lies and communities and put less strain lay in hospital, unable to eat the hospital on the health system.” food, while Grace sobbed by her bedside, ‘Gift for Life’ UNIFEM, in partnership with African with no money to buy food Juliette could These particular women have been for- Rights and with the encouragement of the eat and frantically worrying about her tunate. They have benefited from a small Ministry of Health, has started an advo- three hungry children alone at home. programme started by African Rights, cacy campaign to address the critical link Didacienne would walk 10 kilometres called Gift for Life, that provides food between food and anti-retroviral therapy in to the nearest clinic when she was ill, a and other basic necessities to women Rwanda. The campaign regards treatment distance that, in her frail state, took her involved in the testimony project. The not only as a health issue, but as a critical many, many hours. She could not afford support is intended as a five-year bridge path towards women’s economic empow- the equivalent of US$0.60 for the bus that to self-sufficiency. Other organizations erment and self-confidence. passed near her house on the outskirts of are also providing food to women in Triphonie, who was at risk of dying Cyangugu twice a week on market day. similar straits. before African Rights came into her life, Not long before Africa Renewal inter- As a result, Triphonie has moved to sat in the living room of her new home, her viewed her at her family homestead, she secure living quarters minutes from the two youngest children eating with gusto had spent weeks in the hospital. When she market and her stall is flourishing. Josiane’s out of a large bowl of nutritious rice and recovered and returned, she found that her “permanent” memory loss is improving beans placed before them on the floor. She small but well built house had been totally now that her stress levels are diminishing; reflected on the changes in her life: “Only dismantled by her late husband’s relatives. she is taking anti-retrovirals and is plan- now am I able to no longer regret that I They explained that they thought she was ning a small business enterprise while her survived the genocide.” n

 APRIL 2006 Africa starts a fishing ‘revolution’ NEPAD .plan .promotes .poverty .reduction, .food .security .and .environmental .sustainability

By .Ernest Harsch t the base of the Zomba plateau in southern A Malawi, more and more Africa’s villagers are digging ponds to small-scale raise fish. Mr. James Chitonya fishers previously grew maize, with want meagre returns. But since he environ- began practicing “fish farm- mental ing” (also known as “aquacul- protection, higher ture”) several years ago, he has Goldwater Mike / Images Alamy earned enough from fish sales incomes to replace his thatched grass and a hut with a house that has elec- greater tricity and an iron-sheet roof. “I voice. am also able to pay school fees for my children and buy them clothes,” he told a local reporter. “In addition, I have bought some livestock from the sales of fish.” (NEPAD). The continent-wide plan, first A stagnating resource Several thousand kilometres away, in adopted by African leaders in 2001, is Although fishing in much of rural Africa the village of Nianing on Senegal’s coast, intended to accelerate Africans’ own devel- tends to be overshadowed by agriculture hundreds of women clean and smoke opment efforts, draw greater benefits from and stockraising, it is not a marginal the 50 tonnes of fish caught annually external economic dealings and advance sector. Fishing provides direct incomes by kinfolk and neighbours, who venture good governance, peace and security. for about 10 million people — half of into the Atlantic in canoes. The women’s Since NEPAD’s advent, teams of experts whom are women — and contributes to processed fish is sold to residents or to have begun developing action plans for the food supply of 200 million more. companies for export to Asia, principally specific sectors, such as agriculture, health According to the WorldFish Centre, an Japan. Concerned that overfishing was and the environment. At a special Fish for independent research institute headquar- beginning to deplete the stocks of offshore All summit meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, in tered in Malaysia, Africans rely on fish fish, Nianing’s fishers and fish processors August 2005, African leaders launched the for an average of 22 per cent of their con- welcomed support from the Senegalese “NEPAD Action Plan for the Development sumption of animal protein. In some coun- government and the Japanese aid agency of African Fisheries and Aquaculture.” tries, the rate is as high as 70 per cent. Fish to improve management of fishing, the In a concluding summit declaration, the also provides essential vitamins, minerals, village’s economic mainstay. Not only are leaders expressed alarm over the depletion fatty acids and other nutrients crucial to a these artisans now better organized than of Africa’s fish stocks, the degradation healthy diet. The poor rely on fish more they were a few years ago, but they have of its aquatic environments and threats than others, because it is often the most learned to observe prohibitions against to the sustainability of its fisheries and affordable source of protein. catching certain species at given times of aquaculture, especially as the demand for Fishing also makes a significant eco- the year, so the fish have time to replen- fish is rising sharply. To overcome such nomic contribution. In Uganda, for exam- ish their numbers. Since the project began, challenges, they vowed action to realize ple, lake fisheries yield catches worth the value of Nianing’s total fish output has “increased benefits from sustainable fish- more than $200 mn a year, contributing increased by almost half. eries and aquaculture.” 2.2 per cent to the country’s gross domes- Initiatives such as these must be rep- In Senegal, as elsewhere in Africa, tic product. They employ 135,000 fishers licated across Africa if the continent is to “Fishing is on the way to revolutionizing and 700,000 more in fish processing and harness the full promise of its fisheries itself,” Minister of the Maritime Economy trading, and generate $87.5 mn in export to strengthen national economies, reduce Djibo Kâ stated just a few days after the earnings. poverty and improve people’s food secu- Abuja summit. Such a revolution is all the Overall, African fish exports increased rity and nutrition, argue promoters of the more urgent, he added, because the fishing notably during the 1980s and 1990s. By New Partnership for Africa’s Development sector as a whole is “in crisis.” 2001 they reached a value of $2.7 bn

APRIL 2006  – about 5 per cent of the total global trade consequences than in Europe or North Another is to invest in fish-processing of $56 bn. According to the UN Food America,” the destinations for most of the enterprises, cold storage units, marketing and Agriculture Organization (FAO), fish region’s fish exports. facilities and other infrastructure that will products make up more than 10 per cent increase incomes and minimize losses, of the total value of national exports in 11 Towards sustainability thereby easing the economic pressure to African countries. Through negotiated agreements between catch so many fish. European and African governments, Overall, argues the NEPAD Action hundreds of European vessels fish an- Plan, African governments need to work nually off Africa’s coasts. These agree- together with the private sector to chan- ments stipulate the types and volumes nel more investment into various forms of of fish that can be caught and the royal- infrastructure. In both coastal and inland ties and fees the foreign ships must pay fisheries, these would include landing to operate in African waters. sites, cold units, road and transport systems But many African countries lack suffi- and marketing facilities. To make sure that cient boats, aircraft, communications equip- fishing better helps reduce poverty, it is ment and trained personnel to effectively also important to target enterprise-support monitor the activities of foreign vessels, to programmes, credit institutions and tech- make sure they do not overfish. Sometimes nical assistance towards small-scale fish- African governments, eager to earn foreign ers and women fish processors. revenue, simply agree to let European fleets Across the continent, says the plan, catch more fish than they African countries need to develop their Half of should. capacities to catch and process their own all those The NEPAD Action Plan fish. This will help ensure that “revenues employed in argues that in marine fisher- and economic rent generated by the sec- Africa’s ies, “arrangements that regu- tor are reinvested into development inter- fishing sector late the access of foreign ventions.” are women. fleets to African fish stocks need to be considered from Involving communities Panos / Jacob Silberberg a long-term perspective on Reforming the way fisheries are man- But under current fishing practices and fish supply and economic development aged will also be essential for bringing management methods, Africa’s marine opportunities.” more of the sector’s benefits to those and inland fisheries are reaching their In recent years, a number of African who do the actual work. In the develop- limits. Too many fish are being caught, so governments have been taking a tougher ment of both national and local policies, stocks are dwindling. Mr. Daniel Pauly, line when negotiating foreign fishing notes the NEPAD plan, there is cur- a researcher at the University of British agreements. In addition to prohibiting rently a “general underrepresentation Columbia in Canada, estimates that with fishing during certain times of the year of fishing communities in the decision- the tripling of fishing activity in northwest and limiting the overall catch, the new making process.” Africa since the 1970s, the amount of fish agreements often channel part of the Therefore, it states, governments must in deep waters has fallen by a quarter. Off fees paid by the foreign vessels towards act to build the capacity of all stakehold- West Africa, deep-water fish stocks have strengthening African countries’ surveil- ers to engage in fisheries management; declined by half. “This trend is also evi- lance capacities. Since many fishing zones develop “co-management plans” that dent farther south,” he says, “along the cross maritime boundaries, neighbouring include government ministries and agen- African coast down to Namibia.” African countries are also working more cies, the private sector, associations of The NEPAD Action Plan observes that closely together to improve monitoring fishers and fish processors and non-gov- during the 1980s and 1990s, fish caught in and resolve any disputes that may arise. ernmental organizations (NGOs); and cre- marine and inland waters increased steadily, Getting foreign ships to operate more ate decentralized government structures rising to an average of 7.3 mn tonnes. But responsibly is only part of the challenge, with transparent mechanisms of control output has stagnated since then, reaching notes Mr. Arona Diagne, president of and audit. only 6.8 mn tonnes in 2002. Senegal’s National Association of Fishers. Failing to work with all local actors can Mr. Claude Martin, director-general “Senegalese boats plunder more of the have dire consequences. In the mid-1990s, of the World Wildlife Fund International, sea’s resources than do foreign ships,” this writer visited Kétonou, a fishing vil- notes that a decline in fish output could he admits. “When fishers come across lage near the coast of Benin. A group of seriously affect local food security. “A a school of fish, they want to take them leading villagers, with funding from a collapse of fish stocks in West Africa,” all.” One solution, Mr. Diagne argues, is French environmental NGO, had created he said, “can have more serious human to teach them to fish more sustainably. a restricted fish “park” in the marshes.

10 APRIL 2006 Fishing there was only allowed by permit, bining traditional aquaculture techniques, a third of Africa’s additional demand for supposedly to prevent overfishing and improved management of water resources fish by 2010. safeguard sustainability. In fact, the project and the private initiative of thousands of The experience of aquaculture ventures was run by two “deflatés” (retrenched for- small enterprises involved in production, in Africa indicates that attempts to intro- mer civil servants) and traditional elders. marketing and servicing, Egypt is now able duce fish farming as a separate activity They and a small group of better-off vil- to meet about half of its national demand generally do not have a great impact. But lagers received permits, while the big for fish from aquaculture. when fish farming is combined with crop majority of poor villagers were excluded. Nigeria is Africa’s second-largest pro- cultivation or stockraising, villagers are Tensions of a different sort emerged in ducer of fish from aquaculture, with more more willing to adopt the practice. Yields the Senegalese fishing town of Kayar in than 30,000 tonnes recorded in 2003. also tend to be much higher. Crop resi- June 2005. Local residents, who had long Madagascar comes next, with under dues can provide nutrients to help the fish observed fishing restrictions, became frus- 10,000 tonnes. mature, while runoff of enriched water trated when the authorities did little to stop Even in countries where production is from fish ponds can help fertilize crops. seasonal fishers from further north from still very low, as in Mozambique, which Irrigated rice farming provides many such violating the prohibitions. opportunities. Their anger broke out in a day Growing aquaculture production in Africa If aquaculture output can of violent protests and clashes thousands of tonnes grow by an average of 10 per with police that left 30 people cent a year, argues a technical 600 injured and one dead. In such paper distributed at the August 531 cases, community participa- 2005 Fish for All summit, then tion in decision-making could 500 463 Africa will be able to reach have helped resolve the con- 408 414 about 3 mn tonnes over the flict before it spiralled out of 400 next 15 years. Such growth control. could create at least 5 mn

300 286 additional jobs, help feed mil- Aquaculture: lions more and yield another ‘sector of the future’ 192 $50 mn–$100 mn in export Improving the efficiency 200 revenues. 137 141 and sustainability of Africa’s 115 According to Mr. Kâ, 91 97 89 95 marine and inland fisher- 100 81 Senegal’s maritime economy ies will help boost overall minister, experts have identi- production to some extent. 0 fied about 700 high-potential But they alone will not be aquaculture sites in that coun- 2001 1991 2002 1998 1997 2003 1999 2000 1992 1993 1990 1995 1996 1994 able to meet the continent’s try. Of those, only 59 are now growing domestic demand Source: UN Africa Renewal from "Hidden Harvests: Unlocking the Potential of being exploited, many directly for fish nor increase exports Aquaculture in Africa," a NEPAD technical review paper, August 2005. linking fish farming with rice on a significant scale. The cultivation. Nevertheless, he NEPAD Action Plan therefore singles produced just 855 tonnes in 2003, the says, fish farming is “the sector of the out aquaculture as the sector with the sector is winning greater attention. Fish future.” greatest potential for expansion. farming, says Ms. Isabel Omar, an aqua- In January, Senegalese Prime Minister Fish farming has been practiced in Asia culture expert in Mozambique’s fisher- Macky Sall inaugurated the stocking with for hundreds of years. It was introduced ies ministry, “plays an important role in about 70,000 “fingerlings” (very young into Africa more than a century ago, but the socioeconomic development of the fish) of three large fish basins near the with only a very modest impact here and country” by improving people’s diets town of Tivaouane. He announced that the there. Only in the last decade or so has through the provision of low-cost pro- government had just approved an alloca- aquaculture begun to take hold, with over- tein, creating jobs and enhancing rural tion of CFA18.5 bn (about US$35 mn) for all production rising from 80,000 tonnes incomes. aquaculture, towards a goal of developing in 1990 to more than 530,000 tonnes in According to studies by the FAO, about 7,500 fish ponds, with an estimated yield 2003 (see graph). But this is still only a 9.2 mn square kilometres (31 per cent of of 100,000 tonnes, by 2010. small fraction of the continent’s total fish the land area) of sub-Saharan Africa is The stocking of the basins, Mr. Sall output. suitable for smallholder fish farming. If said, marked the beginning of a “new era” By far the greatest contribution to the yields achieved in recent fish-farming in Senegal’s fishing industry. “The chal- Africa’s increase in aquaculture production projects can be maintained on a wide scale, lenges of sustainable development require has come from Egypt, which produced devoting only 0.5 per cent of this land area new approaches in the search for solutions about 400,000 tonnes in 2004. By com- to aquaculture would be sufficient to meet to the acute problem of food security.” n

APRIL 2006 11 Tapping women’s entrepreneurship in Ghana Access .to .credit, .technology .vital .for .breaking .into .manufacturing

By .Efam Dovi challenging process marred by debt, frus- pacity and sometimes obstructive gov- Accra tration and government inaction. The big- ernment policies. t has been a very long journey,” says gest hurdle was securing capital. Interest According to World Bank estimates, Leticia Osafo-Addo while making rates, sometimes as high as 50 per cent, most businesses in Ghana, which account ‘I her regular morning inspection of made bank credit impossible. In 2001, she for 70 per cent of employment in the coun- her factory. “I thought about giving up landed in debt due to delayed payment try, fall within the categories of “micro,” several times and going back to nursing.” from her biggest client, the Ghana Armed “small” and “medium” enterprises. They She is the chief executive of Processed Forces. But that year also proved to be a range from farming activities, agribusi- Foods and Spices Company, a medium- turning point. The Ghana Investments ness, light manufacturing such as textiles scale business in Tema, an industrial Promotion Centre facilitated the acquisi- and garments, and arts and crafts. However, zone just east of Ghana’s capital, that will tion of 51 per cent of her company by an due to neglect, this sector has suffered soon be set to produce nearly US$90,000 Austrian soup-making firm, increasing its greatly over several decades, contribut- worth of goods per month. value and thus enabling it to secure loans ing to a nationwide shift from productive entrepreneurship to petty trading. A look around supermarket shelves and village market stalls shows one of the reasons. Thanks to trade liberaliza- tion, cheap imports of every product, from tomato puree and fruit juice to toothpicks and clothing, can be easily bought, providing stiff com- Most busi- petition for local businesses. nesswomen Because of such chal- in Ghana lenges, says Ms. Christy are stuck at Banya, a programme analyst the “micro” with the UN Development level, unable Programme (UNDP), the to expand government should take firm because they action. “Local businesses lack credit need to be protected.” and new She also notes that the technologies. banks appear more willing

Panos / Sven Torfinn to give loans to importers of cheap products than to Ms. Osafo-Addo is now one of thou- from two government ministries. That in local manufacturers. The importers sell sands of women business owners in turn meant she could refurbish a rented their produce quickly, at higher returns. Ghana. But her journey to success began industrial site, and the factory opened in But home-grown businesses require more 23 years ago. She started off in her kitchen January 2006. time to turn a profit and to repay their by making just 10 jars of black pepper loans, so the financial institutions shy sauce for friends. The chili sauce, popular Stuck at the bottom away from them. in Ghana, is known as shito. Ms. Osafo- Ms. Osafo-Addo’s story of success is As in Ms. Osafo-Addo’s case, the chal- Addo’s was a success and demand for it unusual. But her struggle is common lenge of finding much-needed capital has grew. She sought and found additional to many of Ghana’s women entrepre- stalled the growth of Lucia Quachey’s training, including an integrated capacity- neurs. About 80 per cent of women- clothing manufacturing company. Using building programme initiated by the UN owned businesses are stuck at the “mi- her own resources, Ms. Quachey had built Conference on Trade and Development cro” level. They are unable to expand up her small-scale export business, but (UNCTAD) for promoting sustainable because they lack properly coordinated the sharp devaluation of Ghana’s currency small- and medium-enterprises. support, cheap and long-term credit and in the 1980s contributed to a dip in her Moving the business out of her kitchen sufficient access to new technologies. profits. Replacing obsolete machines, hir- and into formal premises proved a long, They face poor infrastructure, low ca- ing labour and investing in raw materials

12 APRIL 2006 all require capital she is unable to obtain conducted in hotels after business hours. nesses to grow and flourish. because of high interest rates and other In a country where women are still largely A wind of change may already be blow- factors. regarded as home-makers, the question ing in favour of women-owned businesses. Currently, commercial bank interest frequently pops up: “What is a married The Ministry of Women and Children’s rates hover between 20 and 25 per cent. woman doing in a hotel with some men?” Affairs has a new scheme, the Women Moreover, banks want collateral, which Ms. Quachey also cites prevalent “old Business Support Programme, 2005-2010, many women do not have, either because boyism” in business circles. These are which is aimed at selecting women-owned of social factors or the seasonal nature of overwhelmingly male-dominated, and manufacturing businesses for receipt of their businesses. Says Ms. Quachey, who there are simply too few women at the long-term support. is also president of the Ghana Association top to encourage other women to strive to In April 2006, UNDP is starting a four- of Women Entrepreneurs (GAWE) and break in. year development project for micro, small general secretary of the African Federation Ms. Gifty Boahene, chief executive and medium enterprises. It will focus on of Women Entrepreneurs: “You need officer of Fairgreen Ltd., an information complementing micro finance with busi- technology, long-term loans to invest in technology company, believes that times ness development services, including equipment and working capital that will are changing and that perceptions of capacity-building and advice. About 60 enable you to use those machines, make women doing business outside the home per cent of the resources will go into sec- money and then be able to pay back the will change as well. But she adds: “We are tors in which women predominate. Where loan.” However, she adds, successive not there yet. I have seen married women necessary, the project may guarantee loans governments have failed to pay adequate who had to go out of their way to introduce to these businesses. attention to these factors. A recent survey their male business colleagues to their hus- by the Ministry of Trade and Industry bands,” to reassure the husbands that their Market reforms revealed that few women-owned busi- relationships were strictly professional. The government, with donor support, nesses in Ghana are able to access new Other marriages simply fall apart. is also implementing a programme technologies. of market reforms through a private- Ghanaian women generally do not face Targetting women sector development strategy that runs to problems in starting businesses on a sub- Several attempts have been made by 2009. The goal is to achieve widespread sistence basis. The difficulty has always the government and its development private-sector growth throughout the been in developing them beyond that level, partners to promote SMEs, but most country by enhancing competitiveness to graduate in scale from micro to small. initiatives have been general and do not and reducing the risk of doing busi- This is where help is most needed. In an specifically target women-owned busi- ness in Ghana. Under the programme, effort to address the issue, the government nesses. Where the programmes do fo- a number of institutional reforms are recently launched the Venture Capital Trust cus on women, the attention has been underway within the legal, financial and Fund to help invest in small- and medium- focused mostly at the subsistence and public sectors. scale enterprises, known as SMEs. micro levels, in the context of other de- Mr. John-Hawkins Aseidu, deputy velopmental concerns. director at the Ministry of Private Sector Social handicaps GAWE is advocating programmes spe- Development, said that although these But women’s business groups worry cifically aimed at helping women-owned reforms do not specifically target women- that their members might not be able to businesses to grow, with at least 40 per owned businesses, their nature should tap into the fund. “At the end of the day, cent of resources specifically targeted eventually promote women’s entrepre- only big businesses will be able to ac- towards firms owned by women. neurship. For example, the operation of the cess these funds, because the informa- Ghana’s political history has not been Registrar General’s department has been tion doesn’t flow to the ground, where encouraging for entrepreneurship in gen- decentralized and its capacity enhanced, so the majority of the women are illiter- eral. Decades of military rule in the 1970s the registration of new businesses should ate,” says Ms. Quachey. “Resources may and 1980s drove away many local and be speeded up. be available, but they may not be acces- foreign entrepreneurs. Now, with a stable “Establishing practical and workable sible to women at all, because culturally political atmosphere and the goodwill that legislation is an essential part of assist- and socially, women are handicapped.” the country enjoys with the international ing and encouraging women to consider She cites women’s multiple roles. They community, industry activists are hoping starting and running their own business,” are expected to look after the home and the government will implement policies said Mr. Patrick S. Frederick, head of a family, which impedes their progress in to encourage business growth. Such an UK-based business consulting agency vocations outside the home. approach could help create a shift from and co-founder of the African-Caribbean In addition, Ghana’s prevailing social subsistence to micro businesses, from Business Network, who was quoted in a norms affect the ability of women-owned small to medium and from medium to local magazine. “This is a hugely under- businesses to function as bigger, male- large. This would in turn provide many tapped resource that should be addressed dominated businesses do. Many deals are opportunities for women-owned busi- and not overlooked.” n

APRIL 2006 13 Trade talks: where is the development? In .North .and .South, .critics .see .“Doha .round” .as .a .run-around

By .Michael Fleshman t was a close thing. But after six days of arm-twisting, all-night bargaining I sessions and closed-door meetings in Hong Kong, an eleventh-hour conces- sion by Europe on farm subsidies saved the December 2005 summit meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) from another embarrassing collapse. The European move kept the troubled global trade liberalization talks, launched at Doha, Qatar, in Port in 2001, alive — but just bare- Mozambique: ly. UK Trade Minister Alan Africa is free Johnson described the agree- to export ment reached in Hong Kong what it does Miller Eric / Bank World as only “one step up from not produce, failure.” Even WTO Director- but not what General Pascal Lamy, who it does praised the 13–18 December produce. summit for bringing the talks “out of hibernation,” conced- ed that negotiators were barely past the development issues, but whether the con- • Strengthening “special and differential halfway point a year after the round was cerns of developing countries were ever on treatment” provisions that allow flex- supposed to be finished. the stove at all. ibility in how poor countries adjust to Four years after the industrial North WTO agreements promised that Doha’s central purpose The Doha agenda • Improving access by developing coun- would be to aid the world’s poor, many The decision to label the Doha process tries to consumers in rich countries, African and other developing countries a “development” round reflected the including duty-free access for the are beginning to question not just the out- new assertiveness of poor countries at exports of the 50 nations designated come in Hong Kong but the fairness of the the WTO. The trade group’s 1999 meet- as “least developed countries” (LDCs), global trading system itself. In their view, ing in Seattle ended in failure in part 33 of which are in Africa key parts of that development agenda because developing countries, led by • Expanding “aid for trade” to help have been shunted to the back burner of Africa, refused to launch talks on new African countries produce more for the negotiations or ignored entirely. The issues until inequities in the previous export, improve skills and efficiency mounting scepticism of the South was trade agreement, known as the Uruguay in trade-related institutions and reflected by African trade ministers meet- Round, were fixed. To secure consent defray the cost of complying with ing in Arusha, Tanzania, on 24 November, on talks in areas of concern to them WTO rules. when they denounced the talks for “failure (see Africa Recovery, December 2001), The absence of progress on this “Doha to deliver any tangible results on develop- developed countries agreed in Doha to Development Agenda” led to the collapse ment issues, despite the characterization of include a number of “development” is- of the 2003 WTO summit in Cancún, the work programme launched at Doha as sues of particular concern to Africa, Mexico, when frustrated developing coun- a development round.” including: tries again rejected new talks. Continued With negotiations scheduled to resume • Correcting the inequities of previous deadlock in the vital negotiations over at WTO headquarters in Geneva on 30 trade agreements agricultural subsidies and inaction on April, a growing number of economists, • Eliminating Northern agricultural sub- most other development issues seemed trade experts and non-governmental advo- sidies, totalling some $350 bn annually, likely to doom the Hong Kong meeting cates in both the North and the South are which depress world prices and bring as well. “Development outcomes in each echoing the ministers’ assessment – ques- unfair competition with unsubsidized of the negotiating areas remain the raison tioning not just how to turn up the heat on African produce d’être of the round,” the African trade min-

14 APRIL 2006 isters cautioned. “Tangible ment goals and a betrayal wages give them a competitive advantage. development results at Four years after the indus- of the promise of the They also sought to preserve develop- Hong Kong must be evi- trial North promised that Doha agenda. ment-friendly aspects of the old rules that dent.” Doha’s central purpose In agriculture, trade allowed them to shield weak industries Their message was would be to aid the world’s expert Aileen Kwa told like banking and tourism from interna- reinforced by a statement poor, many African and other Africa Renewal, “devel- tional competition. Instead, Ms. Kwa to the Hong Kong meet- developing countries are oped countries really noted, “developed countries got what they ing by UN Secretary- beginning to question not didn’t do anything on their wanted — quite far-reaching negotiations General Kofi Annan on just the outcome in Hong subsidies besides making over whole sectors of developing country Kong but the fairness of the 13 December. “Develop- much of the European end economies,” without making matching global trading system itself. ment — real gains in real date” of 2013. Ms. Kwa, concessions. peoples’ lives — remains a member of Focus on the the primary benchmark for Global South, a non-gov- Coming up short success of the Doha Round,” he declared. ernmental research and advocacy group, An agreement to give duty- and quota- “Whatever other smaller steps your nego- noted that the EU offer applied only to free access to 97 per cent of LDC ex- tiations achieve, development writ large export subsidies, totalling €3 bn annually, ports to Northern markets was hailed is the standard against which your efforts while €55 bn in domestic and other types as a major breakthrough at Hong Kong. will be judged.” of subsidies are classified as “non-trade But even that, critics say, is more sym- distorting” and will therefore continue. bolism than substance. The offer sounds Devil in the details The same is true of US farm subsidies, good, said Mr. Tetteh Hormeku, the pro- The last-minute announcement by Euro- she asserted. “There is almost no actual gramme director for the Africa secretar- pean Union Trade Commissioner Peter reduction. You really can’t separate out iat of the non-governmental Third World Mandelson that the EU would eliminate domestic production from export produc- Network, but even 100 per cent duty- farm-export subsidies by 2013, com- tion, so virtually all subsidies end up being free access for LDC exports counts for bined with acceptance of a package of export subsidies, and that hurts small farm- little if countries have little to trade. Al- modest benefits for the LDCs, promises ers” in poor countries. though about one in eight of the world’s of increased funding for “aid for trade” people live in a least developed country, and limited moves by Washington to Setback in tariffs, services the economies of those countries typi- address the particular demands of West The deal on industrial tariffs is no better. cally produce few products for trade and African farmers injured by US cotton At the Hong Kong summit, developing account for barely half a per cent of subsidies (see box page 16), was enough countries reluctantly agreed to a for- global exports. to salvage the negotiations. mula for reductions that could require As it is, Mr. Hormeku said that the In return, African and other poor poor countries to cut levies on manufac- maintenance of tariffs on the remaining developing countries agreed to expanded tured goods more rapidly than wealthy — but significant — 3 per cent renders the talks over liberalization of services, a states. African trade ministers argued agreement virtually meaningless. “That longstanding European and US objec- that structural adjustment programmes 3 per cent potentially allows developed tive. Developing countries also agreed and bilateral aid agreements outside the countries to lock the LDCs out of their to further cuts in industrial tariffs under WTO framework have already forced markets.” Under the agreement, he pointed a formula that could see them open their deep reductions in their tariffs and that out, a developing country like Zambia markets to imported manufactured goods further cuts are both unfair and unwise. could have the right to export duty free more rapidly than will the US, Europe and The agreement, Ambassador Amehou to the US aircraft and computers — items Japan. The issue, explained Benin’s chief told Africa Renewal, “will not serve the Zambia does not manufacture — “but not trade negotiator, Ambassador Samuel development of our countries. We also things like copper and rice that they actu- Amehou, is not whether it was necessary want to get industrialized.… We have told ally produce.” for developing countries to compromise at our [developed-country] colleagues that Helping LDCs increase the diversity Hong Kong, but whether the overall deal we have already done a lot because of and quality of their exports would enable advances their economic interests and con- IMF and World Bank conditionalities. We them to take greater advantage of the tributes to development. should not have to do more than we have agreement. Towards that end, developed The full answer, like the devil, lies in done. It will lead to the de-industrialization countries announced expanded “aid for the bewilderingly complex details of the of our countries. We are afraid the world trade” programmes as part of the LDC agreement, many of which must still be will overwhelm Africa with their goods.” package. But once again, poor countries’ negotiated. Nevertheless, a number of In services, developing countries interests came up short. analysts in both the North and the South sought greater access to Northern markets Zambia’s chief negotiator, Ambassador argue that, in virtually every sector, Hong for labour-intensive service industries such Love Mtesa, spoke for many African gov- Kong was a setback for Africa’s develop- as construction and shipping, in which low ernments when he told reporters at the sum-

APRIL 2006 15 mit: “Economic liberalization . . . has led to unemployment and closure of Zambian Hard landing for African cotton companies. If aid for trade is to make sense For years West Africa’s 10 million cotton farmers have demanded an end to nearly it must address supply-side constraints” — $5 bn in domestic and export subsidies for US cotton that have driven down world cot- that is, by helping poor countries increase ton prices and reduced the farmers to desperate poverty. African demands were led the number and quality of products avail- by the “Cotton Four” — Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali — which rely on the fibre able for export. Industrialized countries for 40 per cent of their annual export earnings. They called for the elimination of some emphasized instead that expanded aid pro- $644 mn in US export subsidies for cotton by the end of 2005, an 80 per cent reduc- grammes are intended to assist poor coun- tion in nearly $4.3 bn of domestic subsidies by the end of this year and the elimination of remaining payments by 2009. Most US cotton subsidies were ruled illegal by a WTO tries implement WTO rules. dispute panel in 2005. Africa sought compensation for financial losses, estimated at “This aid for trade doesn’t address $250 mn annually, along with improved technical assistance and market access. What they got instead was agreement by the US and other developed countries to eliminate export subsidies by the end of 2006 and reduce “trade-distorting” domestic payments faster than for other crops as part of an overall trade deal. The US also offered to increase technical assistance from $2 mn to $7 mn annually and to provide duty-free access for West African cotton. Critics point out that tying reduction of US domestic subsidies to a successful conclusion of the entire Doha round of talks could leave them in place for years despite the WTO ruling. They also argue that $7 mn in aid is poor compensation for $250 mn in annual losses. Benin’s chief trade negotiator, Ambassador Samuel Amehou, dismissed Washington’s market-access offer, noting that it is subsidies, not tariffs, that make African cotton uncompetitive in US markets.

The failure of developed Geneva to get something better, but that Picking cotton countries to address poor will depend on the political will of the in Côte d’Ivoire: countries’ concerns about US and EU.” Right now, he declared, “the African farm- implementation issues and negotiations are suffering.” ers still suffer S&D contributed to the More than four years after the begin- from US and collapse of the 1999 WTO ning of the “Doha Development Agenda,” European sub- meeting in Seattle. Since the ambassador said, it is hard to take the sidies.

Reuters / Luc Gnago then, Mr. Hormeku noted, label seriously. “Where is this ‘develop- developing countries have ment’ round? Does it still have meaning our core problems,” Benin’s Ambassador made more than 200 sepa- to speak of a development round when we Amehou concurred. “I will give the rate proposals for modifications in existing don’t have S&D? No good provisions for example of my country. We used to export agreements and improvements to S&D. By the LDCs? Where the aid for trade is not shrimps to the European market, but last the end of the Hong Kong meeting, how- practical? We don’t see anything really to year we got problems with phytosanitary ever, only five were adopted, including a tackle these issues and boost the econo- [health] requirements. We don’t have temporary exemption on rules governing mies of the developing countries. In the the laboratory to make the inspections.” trade-related investment and language end, it’s business as usual.” Helping Benin build and equip the nec- “urging” donors not to undermine S&D Overall, asserted Mr. Hormeku of the essary inspection facilities, he said, “is a measures through bilateral aid and loan Third World Network, “trade liberalization practical example of how aid can help us. conditionalities. Even these modest con- has not been beneficial to African econo- You can get the best rules, but if you can’t cessions are limited solely to the LDCs. mies. We have not improved our location produce, you can’t take advantage.” On balance, said Ambassador Amehou in the global economy. We have not moved about Hong Kong, “the final results were out of dependency on primary commodi- Business as usual really below our expectations. We were ties. We have not moved into more efficient African countries also failed to make expecting more in agriculture, on LDCs provision of manufactured goods and ser- headway in efforts to correct damag- and S&D. But we only got small progress vices. We are on the receiving end of the ing inequities and imbalances in exist- in export subsidies, small progress for the global economy, which is repatriating our ing trade rules, a problem known as LDCs and nothing special on implementa- resources and locking in IMF and World “implementation issues” in WTO par- tion issues.” Bank conditionalities through trade agree- lance. African demands for “special and Northern agricultural subsidies were ments.… What we have at the moment is differential” treatment (S&D) provi- Africa’s primary concern, he continued, a trade paradigm that African countries sions — intended to give poor coun- “and on domestic subsidies Africa was should open up all sectors of their econ- tries greater flexibility in applying WTO really expecting results. But nothing was omy to foreign providers in a context that rules — fared no better. done! We want to continue negotiations in destroys the basis for domestic produc-

16 APRIL 2006 tion and jobs. It can never lead an African ers, Timothy Wise of Tufts University and mainstream policy economics argued country out of poverty.” Boston University Professor Kevin P. vigorously that trade promotes develop- Gallagher, found that the Bank’s “realis- ment. If this were true, given the mas- Vanishing benefits tic” analysis of a Doha agreement would sive increase in global trade over the The sceptics’ arguments have been increase the average income of each citi- last 25 years, the global economy ought strengthened by the failure of the global zen in a developing country by less than to have experienced accelerated growth. trading system to deliver prosperity one US cent per day and reduce the global Instead, global economic growth has and economic development for the Af- poverty rate by less than half a per cent. actually slowed relative to the prior rican poor. By most measures, Africa “Hardly a good advertisement for this so- quarter-century. This suggests that trade is poorer, less industrialized and less called ‘development round’ of global trade is at best only weakly associated with of a contributor to world trade than in talks,” they observed. growth” and even more weakly with 1986, when the launch of trade talks Moreover, half of the expected gains, poverty reduction. in Uruguay marked the beginning of some $8 bn, would go to only eight coun- In a Washington-based publication, the modern era of trade liberalization. tries: Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Foreign Policy in Focus, Dr. Palley Twenty years later, new research by the Mexico, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam. argued that while growth is necessary to World Bank has led some economists to The LDCs, with the smallest and weak- reduce poverty in developing countries, conclude that Africa may have failed to est economies, would likely benefit the it is not sufficient. “Increased welfare reap the promised benefits of free trade least. The costs and losses associated with rather than growth is the real goal of eco- because they were never really there. continued liberalization are spread more nomic policy,” he observed. The claim that In 2003, a study by the World Bank widely, however. Wise and Gallagher, increased trade automatically reduces pov- predicted that successful completion of the citing additional World Bank studies, erty “is belied by the increasing income Doha talks would generate a staggering estimated that the administrative cost of ratio of North to South.… The widening $832 bn of new wealth by 2015, with most complying with WTO-mandated require- wealth gap is prima facie evidence that any of that amount, $539 bn, going to develop- ments in just three areas — food sanita- beneficial trade effect is at best weak.” ing countries — enough to lift 144 million tion, intellectual property and customs Arguing that poor countries should people out of poverty. The figures were reforms — would average $130 mn per consider abandoning free-trade develop- widely cited by trade negotiators, journal- year for each poor country, for a global ment models in favour of protecting and ists, anti-poverty advocates and senior UN total of some $4.4 bn. developing their domestic markets, Dr. officials in urging poor countries to liber- Deep cuts in tariffs could also prove Palley cited recent research to conclude alize more quickly. costly for African and other developing that expanded trade is a result of develop- More recent research, however, casts countries. According to the UN Conference ment, rather than a cause of development. grave doubts on the earlier, rosy estimates on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and raises new questions about the value of tariffs generate about 20 per cent of gov- Bad faith trade liberalization as a development tool ernment revenue in developing countries. The World Bank’s former senior econo- for poor countries. In advance of the Hong That figure is far higher than in developed mist, Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz, is Kong meeting the World Bank reported countries and represents a vital source of also questioning the link between devel- that, under ideal conditions, including funding for health, education, infrastruc- opment and free trade. “As chief econo- such unlikely developments as the elimi- ture and other development programmes. mist of the World Bank, I reviewed the nation of all tariffs and agricultural sub- Depending on the final outcome of negoti- Uruguay Round of 1994 and concluded sidies and full global employment, Doha ations on tariff reductions, UNCTAD esti- that both its agenda and outcomes dis- would generate $287 bn in new wealth by mates that revenue losses in poor countries criminated against developing coun- 2015 — just a third of the 2003 estimate. could reach $60 bn. tries,” he wrote in December 2005. Under this admittedly unrealistic model, “Both as it was conceived, and even developing countries would gain just $90 ‘Liberalization hinders development’ more as it has evolved, today’s develop- bn, or 31 per cent of the benefits, with the The failure of trade liberalization to de- ment round does not deserve its name,” he balance going to wealthy countries. liver on its development promises is continued. “Many of the issues that it has When more realistic assumptions are leading a growing number of econo- addressed should never have been on the used, the same researchers concluded mists to question whether trade liber- agenda of a genuine development round, that Doha would produce only $96 bn in alization helps or hurts the poor. Dr. and many issues that should have been on total gains — with $80 bn flowing to the Thomas Palley, an economist at Yale the agenda are not…. Those in the devel- industrialized North and just $16 bn to the University, wrote in early 2006: “Main- oping world who believe that there has developing South. stream policy economics has been been a history of bargaining in bad faith Far from Africa being able to “trade its gradually lowering its claims about the have a strong case.” way out of poverty,” a detailed analysis of positive impact of trade on development the World Bank report by two US research- and poverty reduction.… A decade ago, see page 21

APRIL 2006 17 Loss of textile market costs African jobs Diversification, .efficiency .hold .key .for .economic .recovery

By .Gumisai Mutume markets, in the US, Canada and European lion jobs in developing countries, mostly ll across Africa, textile producers Union (EU). Its primary aim had been to in Asia. The MFA, however, had an and exporters are reeling from the protect those countries’ domestic textile unanticipated side effect. Because rich A impact of new trade rules that took industries from more efficient producers country markets were growing much effect in January 2005. The rules, nego- emerging in Asia. However, by doing so, faster than domestic producers could tiated at the World Trade Organization the system also gave advantages to many satisfy, a major opening in the clothing (WTO), opened up to market forces a smaller textile-exporting countries that market was created — and smaller tex- sector that had been protected for more were less constrained by quotas or enjoyed tile-producing countries found a ready than 30 years. It did so by ending a preferential market access into the EU and market. quota system in indus- trial nations which as a side effect had provided a ready market for tex- tiles and apparel from Operating poor African and other a spinning developing countries. machine at The phasing out of the an Eritrean old system has already textile cost Africa more than factory: 250,000 jobs over the In face of last few years, reports stiff compe- the International Textile, tition, it is Garment and Leather not easy for Workers’ Federation African (ITGLWF), leaving manufactur- more than a million ers to mod- Boness Stefan / Panos family members without ernize their stable incomes. Most operations. jobs have been lost in Lesotho, South Africa, Swaziland, Nigeria, Ghana, Mauritius, Zambia, Madagascar, Tanzania, Malawi, the US. As a result, their textile exports to But as trade liberalization policies Namibia and Kenya. the industrial world thrived. began to spread across the globe, the old At a recent meeting of the Africa But with the end of the old system, Asian producers began arguing that quo- branch of the ITGLWF in Cape Town, these same countries are now finding tas were an unfair restraint on trade. Large South Africa, union members called on themselves squeezed out of the market by retailers in industrialized nations added African governments to convene an urgent unfettered competition with giant, highly to the pressure, saying the system forced continental conference on the future of efficient producers in countries such as them to buy from too many different the clothing, textile and footwear indus- China and India. sources — in some cases from up to 50 tries. Its purpose would be to enable gov- different countries. This mounting pres- ernments, trade unions and investors to Demise of a side effect sure coincided with international negotia- develop plans to respond to the current European countries, Canada and the US tions for a new trade regime, known as the crisis by increasing efficiency in the sec- originally set up the MFA in 1974 to Uruguay Round, which took place from tor, attracting investment and improving protect their indigenous clothing and 1986 to 1994. workers’ welfare. textile industries by capping the amount The large Asian textile producers and The old quota system, known as the any country could export to them. The the Northern retailers ultimately won Multi-Fibre Arrangement (MFA), had World Bank says that those quotas the day. In 1994, the WTO set up the limited textile and clothing exports by served to protect jobs in industrial na- Agreement on Textiles and Clothing, pro- producing countries to the world’s biggest tions and resulted in the loss of 19 mil- viding for a phased removal of all quotas

18 APRIL 2006 in the sector within 10 years. like this,” says Mr. Maraisane, “we are According to the International Labour At first, many developing countries cel- afraid that unemployment, which already Organization (ILO), China exported $31 ebrated the liberalization of the textile sec- stands at 40 per cent, will end up reaching bn worth of textiles between January and tor, seeing it as an opportunity to improve 70 per cent.” April 2005, an 18 per cent increase over trade. It was estimated that opening up the the same period the year before. Chinese sector would generate an additional $175 The China effect textile exports to the US and EU, now bn worth of textile and clothing exports. For decades, the flow of textiles from the freed of quotas, increased by 250 per cent But as the deadline drew nearer, smaller world’s largest producers, such as China, and 84 per cent, respectively. textile-producing countries began to real- India, Hong Kong, the Taiwan province Alarmed by the influx, in May 2005 ize that most benefits would not come of China and the Republic of Korea, had the US government imposed tempo- to them, but to countries with large and been tightly restricted in the largest mar- rary restrictions on textiles and clothes highly developed textile industries. kets — the EU and US — because those imported from China, affecting about $2 industrialized countries were alarmed at bn worth of goods. Such restrictions are Lesotho: from gains to losses the rapid growth of Asian garment manu- permitted under “safeguard” clauses that Lesotho provides a telling example of facturing industries. These Asian coun- China signed when it joined the WTO. the grave impact of the expiration of the tries were producing textiles so cheaply Any WTO member can use the clauses MFA. The country’s manufacturing sec- that they threatened to undercut Ameri- to provisionally limit rises in imports tor is highly dependent on textiles and can and European producers. from China until 2008. At that point, the garments, which account for the most But when China, the world’s biggest full impact of the end of quotas will be jobs after the public sector and earn more textile producer, joined the WTO in 2001, felt. When that happens, as many as 27 than 75 per cent of all export earnings. and the MFA restrictions later fell away, the million people, mainly in the small pro- Under the MFA, major Asian textile world trade in textiles and garments faced ducing countries, could lose their jobs, companies, limited in exporting directly unprecedented competition. The National notes a submission to the WTO by a to the EU and the US, set up subsidiar- Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO), group of affected developing countries ies in less developed countries, including grouping the main textile manufacturers in that includes Madagascar, Mauritius and Lesotho. In particular, they took advantage the US, reports that within the first three Uganda. of Lesotho’s easy access to the US market months of 2005 — immediately after the Most analyses of the impact of the phas- under the African Growth and Opportunity lifting of the quotas — imports of cotton ing out of quotas “conclude that China and Act (AGOA) of 2000, which offered duty- trousers from China shot up by 1,500 per India will come to dominate world trade free entry to some products from African cent and of cotton shirts by 1,350 per cent. in textiles and clothing,” notes Norwegian countries that adopted market-based eco- In Europe, “the increases in the import researcher Hildegunn Kyvik Nordås in a nomic policies, introduced political plural- of certain categories of clothes exceeded paper prepared for the WTO. China alone ism and eliminated barriers to US trade and 2,000 per cent during the first quarter of could capture 50 per cent of the US mar- investment. As a result, textiles and cloth- 2005,” notes ITGLWF General Secretary ket, now worth $90 bn. Overall, interna- ing became Lesotho’s economic mainstay, Neil Kearney. tional textile and apparel trade currently which at one point employed 56,000 work- Behind this surge lies an ambitious plan amounts to about $400 bn annually. ers — thus accounting for virtually every by China to make its textile and apparel manufacturing job in the country. sector the dominant player in world Limited options for Africa “Most if not all our foreign inves- trade. Over the last 15 years, the govern- Like the US, African countries could in- tors come from Asia, mainly Taiwan and ment poured tens of billions of dollars voke “anti-dumping” measures to tem- China,” notes Mr. Daniel Maraisane, head into the sector “in the form of free capital, porarily restrict Chinese exports until of the main clothing workers’ union. But direct and indirect subsidies and a host of 2008, notes Mr. Mills Soko, a researcher with the end of the quota system, he adds, other ‘incentives’ to drive competitors out at the South African Institute of Inter- those investors “say it’s now easier and of the markets and create an environment national Affairs in Johannesburg. This cheaper to manufacture in China and India. where no one, including the lowest-cost narrow window of opportunity could So they are starting to go back home.… producing countries in the world, can com- provide a little more time for African There’s simply no way little Lesotho can pete with China in world markets,” NCTO textile producers to improve efficiency compete with such giants.” President Cass Johnson told a recent US and competitiveness and add more value By the end of 2004, six of the coun- Congressional hearing on US responses to to their exports by, for example, produc- try’s 50 clothing factories closed, leaving China’s dominance. ing more high-end textile products. 6,600 workers without jobs or termination Analysts expect that with the expiry A number of African countries began benefits. The surviving companies, faced of the MFA, jobs lost in other develop- taking such steps before the end of the with shortfalls in export orders, placed ing countries will instead move to more quotas. Kenya’s government, for instance, 10,000 workers on short-term work, using competitive producers such as China and removed taxes on all cotton ginning and them only when needed. “If things go on India. textile manufacturing machinery in 2002,

APRIL 2006 19 Diversification gic starting point, they should begin Another option, says Mr. processing local raw materials into fin- Soko, would be for Afri- ished products for export, the commis- can countries to move sion reports. Instead of exporting raw away from overdependence cotton or cloth, for example, countries on textiles and clothing, could develop industries that produce into other goods that are high-end clothing products. This could in demand. For example, include trying to supply niche markets he notes, African countries for garments with African designs. should not see China en- To diversify their exports, African tirely as a threat, but also countries will need significantly as an opportunity for de- improved access into international mar- veloping new export mar- kets, says Mr. Gobind Nankani, the kets by taking advantage of World Bank’s regional vice-president its “insatiable demand for for Africa. That would require reducing commodities.” “protectionist practices, such as subsi- South Africa dies, in foreign markets,” under negotia- has been doing tion in the current round of WTO global African just that over the trade talks. producers last few years, The continent would also benefit from can aim for high-end benefitting from a reduction of barriers in non-agricul- niche mar- sales of mineral tural sectors, especially in other devel- kets abroad, products and oping-country markets, Mr. Nankani such as metals to China. says. For example, “some countries those that With one of the in Latin America heavily protect their emphasize world’s fastest own garment manufacturers and other African growing econo- labour-intensive manufactures, reducing iAfrika Photos / Edward Ruiz designs. mies, China is the opportunity for African produce and the world’s larg- other exports to penetrate those mar- est consumer kets.” In many East Asian countries, he to encourage imports of more modern of oil and a major importer of cotton adds, tariffs are far more protectionist equipment. The government also dropped — accounting for 33 per cent of world than in the EU or US. taxes on goods and services to cotton gin- consumption. Some African countries ning factories and improved incentives to have begun negotiating duty-free entry Adjust or perish lure textile companies into its export pro- of their products into the Chinese mar- “African governments have an obliga- cessing zones (EPZs). These are specially ket in exchange for reduced obstacles to tion to help their private sectors adjust created industrial areas that offer investors Chinese investment in Africa. The conti- to new conditions to retain their com- a host of incentives, such as tax exemp- nent’s trade with China grew from $10.6 petitiveness,” argues Mr. Soko. They tions and the ability to move funds freely bn in 2000 to $13.5 bn in just the first could learn from countries such as Ban- into and out of Kenya. nine months of 2003. gladesh, where the government joined By December 2004, clothing enter- “The potential for expanding this bilat- forces with domestic companies, trade prises in Kenya’s EPZ employed 34,614 eral trade and for strengthening Africa’s unions and non-governmental organiza- workers “in 30 world-class factories,” economic engagement with other fast- tions to develop and implement policies says Ms. Margaret Waithaka of the EPZ growing developing economies (such as to upgrade skills and retrain displaced Authority. Thanks to the improvements India and Brazil) . . . is enormous,” says textile workers. in the sector and to growing demand in Mr. Soko. But to realize that potential, Small, vulnerable African produc- the US, apparel exports from Kenya to African countries first need to move away ers are faced with two choices, he says: the US increased from $44 mn in 2000 from relying on one or two products for “They must either improve their efficiency to $226 mn in 2004, she reports, mak- most of their export revenue. or switch to higher-tier products.” For ing Kenya the second-largest exporter The UN Economic Commission for example, India increased its cotton-based of clothing to the US from sub-Saharan Africa, based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, exports to the US by an estimated 46 per Africa. But for many countries, including recommends that African states pro- cent by shifting production from basic Kenya, such improvements will not be vide cheap credit and other incentives cloth to higher-value textile products and sufficient to enable them to withstand the to enterprises that manufacture a wide fully manufactured clothes. heavy competition of the post-MFA era. range of goods for export. As a strate- Producers who want to be competitive

20 APRIL 2006 Trade talks Benefits of AGOA eroding from page 17 Under the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) signed into law in the US in 2000, the textile exports of 38 eligible African countries enjoy tariff and quota exemptions if In an essay entitled “Fair Trade for they meet certain rules. Those include a requirement that the product’s raw materials None,” he noted, “Unsurprisingly the rich originate either in the exporting country or in the US. But African nations categorized countries’ negotiators throw around big as least developed (with per capita incomes of $1,500 or less in 1998) are exempt from numbers when describing the gains from even that restriction. Their products are allowed duty-free access into the US market even an imperfect agreement. But they did under only one condition: that the final assembly of the textile products takes place the same thing last time, too. Developing in the exporting country, no matter where the yarn spinning, fabric weaving or knitting countries soon discovered that their gains occurs. Because of AGOA, US imports from Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mauritius and were far less than advertised, and the poor- South Africa increased by 66 per cent between 1999 and 2001. In 2003, Africa exported est countries found to their dismay that $1.2 bn worth of clothes and textiles to the US, a 50 per cent increase from the previous they were actually worse off.” year. So far, the ability to make duty-free exports to the US has been a significant advan- With negotiations to complete the Doha tage for AGOA countries. Average US tariffs in the sector amount to 17 per cent of the round looming, the economist cautioned, landed value of products, with cottons averaging 13 per cent and synthetics 25 per cent. “Will the benefits — increased access to Theoretically, AGOA countries still hold an advantage in certain areas freed from international markets — be greater than the quota restrictions. For example, products made from synthetic fabrics are charged aver- costs of meeting rich countries’ demands? age tariffs of 25 per cent if they are imported from non-AGOA countries. Experts argue Many developing countries are likely to that countries seeking to sustain their textile industries need to diversify into such niche markets. However, in sub-Saharan Africa the only country so far producing synthetic yarn come to the conclusion that no agreement is South Africa, since developing such an industry requires massive injections of capital. is better than a bad agreement, particularly The majority of the AGOA countries’ textile products will be undercut by the phas- one as unfair as the last.” n ing out of MFA quotas, since duty-free access alone does not give sufficient competi- tive advantage against goods made more cheaply by the dominant textile-producing countries. Preventing genocide According to a study by the US Trade Commission, Africa’s overall share of US apparel imports will fall, “notwithstanding AGOA preferences.” Already, during the first from page 3 three months of 2005, textile and apparel exports from Africa to the US fell to $270 mn, The time for strengthening the peace- from $370 mn during the same period the year before, when the MFA quotas were still in effect. keeping presence in Darfur “is now,” said Mr. Mendez, “when the security situation in Darfur is getting worse and attacks on can only do so if they lower their produc- example, the cost savings for Zambian civilian populations are spilling over into tion costs, Mr. Soko adds. A Chinese firm and Kenyan firms would be equivalent to Chad.” This could take the form of a stron- with a subsidiary in Mauritius notes that nearly their entire wage bills. ger AMIS or a future UN peacekeeping the costs of buildings, electricity, fabrics For many African textile and apparel mission, to which the African Union has and labour are much higher in Mauritius producers, time to upgrade their industries agreed in principle. As of early March, than in China. Another reports that while before competition heightens is running AMIS had 6,900 personnel in Darfur – too wages are lower in Madagascar, other out. The US and EU have proposed com- small to cover such a vast area. costs, such as transport and electricity, are pletely phasing out tariffs on textile and Mr. Annan has urged donors to respond higher. apparel imports by 2015. At that point, the to the African Union’s appeals for more The World Bank estimates that the tariff advantages that countries currently financial and logistical support, while the cost of doing business in Africa is 20–40 enjoy under AGOA will no longer apply, UN has initiated contingency planning per cent above that for other develop- a move that could destroy the remaining for a possible transition to a UN mission. ing regions, due to high regulatory costs, textile and apparel industries in Africa, However, reported Mr. Annan, Sudanese unsecured land property rights, ineffective says Mauritius’s ambassador to the US, government authorities have organized judiciary systems, policy uncertainty and Mr. Usha Jeetah. demonstrations against the UN in various unfair competition from politically con- Both the US and EU “have had hun- parts of Darfur to protest such a mission. nected companies, which results in a few dreds of years to develop their apparel Mr. Mendez has noted that government large firms holding very dominant market and textile industries, protected by very consent for international involvement in shares. high tariff barriers and quotas,” notes Mr. protecting populations under threat “will Inadequate and high cost infrastructure Jeetah. “What is being asked of the small always be preferable.” But international services are also a hindrance. The World and infant industries in Africa is that they action may also include, in limited cases, Bank reports that if the Zambian and will have 10 years in which to develop “non-consensual means when govern- Kenyan power systems were of the same [their industries] . . . to be competitive with ments are unwilling or unable to protect quality as their Chinese counterparts, for long-established countries.” n their own citizens.” n

APRIL 2006 21 Contact Alida Phielix, tel (27-83) 588 5823, fax WHAT HAS TAKEN PLACE (27-86) 687 1736, e-mail , website Congo) – Regional Consultation on Scaling up towards Universal Access to HIV and 22–25 May 2006, Johannesburg (South AIDS Prevention, Treatment, Care and Sup- Africa) – African Banking Congress 2006. port in Africa. Under the auspices of the Afri- 2–4 May 2006, Cape Town (South Africa) – The conference aims to promote the harmoni- can Union. Contact Samuel Ajibola, tel (242) Housing Africa: An International Investment zation and integration of African banking. Con- 653 7022, e-mail Conference, sponsored by the US Overseas tact Brian Shabangu, tel (27-11) 463 6001, fax Private Investment Corporation (OPIC). Tel (1- (27-11) 463 6903, e-mail , terrapinn.co.za>, website com/2006/bankza/> the World Bank, International Institute for Pub- 10–15 May 2006, Ouagadougou (Burkina 9–13 June 2006, Abuja (Nigeria) – African lic Ethics, UN University and the UK’s Depart- Faso) – 39th Conference of African Min- Fertilizer Summit: Meeting Africa’s Fer- ment for International Development. Contact isters of Finance, Planning and Economic tilizer Challenge, organized by the NEPAD Derek Warren, tel (44) 7932-607-469, e-mail Development. Organized by the UN Eco- Secretariat. Tel (27-11) 313 3153, fax (27-11) 313 , or Christian nomic Commission for Africa, under the theme 3778, e-mail , Hofer, tel (202) 458-0936, e-mail worldbank.org>, website and Meron Aberra, tel (251-11) 544 5098/3098, 10–12 July 2006, Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) 10–1 4 April 2006, Brazzaville (Republic of fax (251-11) 551 0365, e-mail , website tics, organized by the Department of Linguis- tics, Addis Ababa University, on the theme Ministers in Charge of Railway Transport. 15–18 May 2006, Cape Town (South Africa) “The fate of African Languages in the World On the theme “For an Efficient Railway Trans- – Championing Agricultural Successes for of Globalization.” E-mail , website bayana, tel (242) 554 1590, website 13–18 August 2006, Toronto (Canada) – XVI 17–21 May 2006, Nairobi (Kenya) - ICTe Af- International AIDS Conference. Expected to 20–21 April 2006, Miami (USA) – 17th Glo- rica 2006. Organized by the NEPAD Coun- bring together over 20,000 delegates to share bal Warming International Conference and cil and Africa Telecommunication Union and current knowledge on the global HIV/AIDS Expo. Contact Sinyan Shen, tel (1-630) 910- featuring presentations on the next generation epidemic. Contact Bryan Hobson, tel (41-22) 7 1551, fax (1-630) 910-1561, e-mail , website , website warming.net/>

(University of California Press, California, From Sovereign Impunity to International USA, 2004; 420 pp; pb $15.95) Accountability: The Search for Justice in a World of States, eds. Ramesh Thakur and Crises et recompositions d’une agriculture Peter Malcontent (UN University Press, Tokyo, eds. Eric Leonard pionnière en Côte d’Ivoire, Japan, 2004; 324 pp; pb $33) and Patrice Vimard (Karthala, Paris, France, 2005; 368 pp; pb €28) Legitimizing Human Rights NGOs: Les- Economic Growth in the 1990s: Learning sons from Nigeria by Obiora Chinedu Okafor Rwanda’s Genocide: The Politics of Global from a Decade of Reform by the World Bank (Africa World Press, Trenton, NJ, USA, 2006; Justice by Kingsley Moghalu (Palgrave Mac- (World Bank Publications, Washington, USA, 258 pp; hb $99.95, pb $29.95, £15.99) millian, New York, USA, 2005; 239 pp; hb £25, 2005; pb $35) African Women and Globalisation: Dawn of $39.95) South Africa and the Logic of Regional the 21st Century, ed. Jepkorir Rose Chepya- Rwanda 1994: Les politiques du génocide à Cooperation by James J. Hentz (Indiana Uni- tor-Thomson (Africa World Press, Trenton, NJ, Butare by André Guichaoua (Karthala, Paris, versity Press, Indiana, USA, 2006; 256 pp; hb USA, 2005; 320 pp; pb £15.99) France, 2005; 102 pp; pb €32) $65, pb $24.95) Mali-France: Regards sur une histoire par- African Intellectuals: Rethinking Politics, Eyes on Africa: A Fifty Year Commentary tagée by GEMDEV/Université du Mali (Kar- Language, Gender and Development, ed. by Ronald Watts (The Ebor Press, York, Eng- thala, Paris, France, 2005; 584 pp; pb €32) Thandika Mkandawire (Zed Books, London, land, 2005; 184 pp; pb £8) The Decline of Capitalism: Can a Self-Regu- UK, 2005; 256 pp; hb £65, $65, pb £18.95, lated Profits System Survive? by Harry Shutt $29.95) The Fate of Africa’s Democratic Experi- ments: Elites and Institutions, eds. Leonardo (Zed Books, London, UK, 2004; 176 pp; hb Le Défi de l’armée républicaine en Répu- A. Vilalón and Peter VonDoepp (Indiana Uni- £32.95, $55, pb £9.99, $17.50) blique Démocratique du Congo by Mwayila versity Press, Indiana, USA, 2006; 352 pp; hb Problèmes de regroupement des villages Tshiyembe (L’Harmattan, Paris, France, 2005; $60, pb $24.95) 138 pp; pb €13) bété, Côte d’Ivoire: Contribution à l’analyse Le Financement dans les systèmes éducatifs des obstacles socioculturels au développe- The African Union: Pan-Africanism, Peace- d’Afrique subsaharienne, eds. Jean Bernard ment by Boniface Gbaya Ziri (L’Harmattan, building and Development by Timothy Rasera, Jean-Pierre Jarousse et al (CODESRIA, Paris, France, 2005; 202 pp; pb €17.5) Murithi (Ashgate Publishers, London, UK, Dakar, Senegal, 2005; 200 pp; pb £16.95, 2005; 182 pp; hb £55) Amadou Hampâté Bâ: homme de science et $24.95) de sagesse by Amadou Touré and Ntji Idriss Challenging Hegemony: Social Movements Global Corruption Report 2006 by Transpar- Mariko (Karthala, Paris, France, 2005; 350 pp; and the Quest for a New Humanism in Post- ency International (Pluto Press, UK, 2005; 384 pb €26) apartheid South Africa by Nigel Gibson pp; pb £19.99) (Africa World Press, Trenton, NJ, USA, 2006; The Paternalism of Partnership: A Postcolo- 298 pp; pb £18.99) L’islam politique au sud du Sahara: Iden- nial Reading of Identity in Development Aid tités, discours et enjeux, ed. Muriel Gomez- by Maria Eriksson Baaz (Zed Books, London, Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights Perez (Karthala, Paris, France, 2005; 648 pp; UK, 2005; 224 pp; hb £45, $69.95, pb £14.95, and the New War on the Poor by Paul Farmer pb €32) $22.50)

22 APRIL 2006 utes to a “soils health crisis” and rural amount of fertilizer needed to replenish poverty. The study by the International vital nutrients in the soil. Fertilizer Development Centre, to be re- Speaking at the Rockefeller Foundation leased at a major conference in June (see in New York on 30 March, Nigerian Agenda, page 22), argues that if present President Olusegun Obasanjo declared UN, African Bank in $217 mn trends continue, the food shortfall will that “Africa needs giant steps” towards require African imports of staple foods to improved crop harvests. He was joined urban water programme nearly double by 2020 to $14 bn. by African Union Commission Chairman The UN Human Settlements Pro- More than 100,000 hectares of African Alpha Oumar Konaré, NEPAD Chief gramme and the African Development forests and savannah are lost each year Executive Firmino Mucavele and African Bank (ADB) have announced a joint pro- as farmers plough new land to replace Development Bank President Donald gramme to generate investments of nearly exhausted fields. High costs and transpor- Kaberuka to support the study and reflect $600 mn over five years to supply clean tation difficulties mean that African farm- growing concern in Africa about the deep- water to Africa’s fast-growing cities and ers on average apply only a fifth of the ening crisis in agriculture. n towns. The agreement, signed 23 March, will provide $217 mn in grants to im- prove the quality and supply of water for Africa needs funds to fight bird flu drinking, industry and sanitation in urban In March, UN agencies and 45 African govern- areas, which may well account for more ments vowed to expand health facilities and sur- than half of Africa’s population by 2030. veillance services to improve efforts to combat The grants are expected to be followed by “bird flu.” At the meeting in Libreville, Gabon, the an additional $362 mn in loans from the biggest bird flu conference in Africa to date, Afri- can delegates agreed that their countries should ADB for drinking water and sanitation carry out internationally approved measures to projects to help Africa make progress to- fight the virus and establish a committee to moni- wards the Millennium Development Goal tor implementation that would include represen- of halving the percentage of people with- tatives of the African Union and UN agencies. out access to clean water by 2015. The challenge now, says the UN coordinator for The Fourth World Water Forum, held avian influenza, Mr. David Nabarro, is to raise the 10152 - IFAD / Radhika Chalasani Radhika / 10152 IFAD - in Mexico City in March, estimated that resources so desperately needed to carry out $20 bn annually is needed to achieve those efforts. Africa’s development targets for water The virus can be controlled if infected animals by 2015. To date, Africa has developed are culled and farmers compensated for their losses, Mr. Nabarro told Africa .Renewal. However, less than 4 per cent of its available water African governments say they “don’t have the for drinking and sanitation, irrigation and resources in their own countries to mount effec- power generation. High poverty rates and tive control operations, to compensate people infrastructure costs have hampered the who lose their chickens and other poultry, to com- continent’s ability to harness its water municate essential messages to the people and to resources. Only about 6 per cent of farm- prepare health services for human cases” in the event of a pandemic, said the senior UN land is irrigated, while just 4 per cent of system coordinator for avian and human influenza. Africa’s electricity supply comes from In January, donors pledged $1.9 bn to help developing countries boost surveillance hydro power. Despite a range of African and strengthen health and veterinary services to control the disease. However, this money is primarily directed to Asia, where bird flu was concentrated at the time of the programmes to develop the continent’s pledging conference. “What we are doing now is warning the world that African countries water assets, including the African Water also need resources, quickly, and in a way that they can access easily,” explained Mr. Forum and the infrastructure plan of the Nabarro. Delays of even a few weeks can be catastrophic, he said. New Partnership for Africa’s Development So far, four African countries — Cameroon, Egypt, Niger and Nigeria — have con- (NEPAD), progress has been slow. n firmed cases of H5N1 bird flu and the continent’s first human death has been reported in Egypt. The Libreville conference noted that Africa needs at least three more veterinary laboratories and three more human health laboratories capable of determining the H- and African farmland in “crisis” N- sub-types of bird flu, crucial in evaluating risk and tracking the spread of the danger- A forthcoming report on African soil ous H5N1 strain. Currently, most samples have to be sent abroad for testing. World Bank officials warn that the economic impact on Africa could be grave, judg- quality finds that more than 75 per cent ing by the experience in Asia. By mid-2005, more than 140 mn birds had died or were of farmland in sub-Saharan Africa is se- destroyed to contain the disease in Asia, accounting for $10 bn in losses. In Nigeria verely depleted. Such depletion produces alone, there are more than 100 mn birds, many of them owned by poor rural dwellers yields less than a third of the Asian and whose livelihoods depend on raising poultry. Latin American averages and contrib-

APRIL 2006 23 Mr. Taylor’s appearance in the Freetown golese Patriots (UPC), Thomas Lubanga, courtroom was the latest chapter in a 16- comes almost two years after the court year saga of war, brutality and pillage that announced the start of investigations engulfed much of the region, took 300,000 there. The court has found reasonable lives and saw the former guerrilla com- grounds to believe that Mr. Lubanga, human rights mander go from head of state (1997-2003) who was in the DRC’s custody, was in- UN sets up new rights body to exile to accused war criminal. Mr. Taylor volved in enlisting “children under the was initially granted asylum by Nigeria in age of fifteen years and using them to In May, the UN General Assembly will 2003 as part of an agreement to end the participate actively in hostilities.” elect 47 member states to the newly cre- Liberian civil war. He was handed over The ICC, based in The Hague, in the ated Human Rights Council, to replace to UN peacekeeping troops in Liberia by Netherlands, has broad international sup- the often-criticized Human Rights Com- the Nigerian government at the request of port. Currently, 100 countries have rati- mission. The creation of the council the newly elected Liberian president, Ms. fied the Rome Statute, which came into “marks a new beginning for all the UN’s Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, and immediately force in July 2002, establishing the court. human rights work,” states Secretary- transferred to Freetown. n In October 2005, the court issued its first General Kofi Annan. “There is every arrest warrants, for several leaders of reason to hope that the new council will war crimes the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda, combine the best features of the old sys- ICC arrests Congolese although they are not yet in custody. Mr. tem with some much-needed changes.” Lubanga is therefore the first person to be One of the criticisms of the old Human militia leader arrested and transferred to the ICC. Rights Commission was that its rules made The International Criminal Court (ICC) Because the ICC will only prosecute it too easy for countries that did not uphold announced in March that it had ar- those bearing the greatest responsibility human rights standards to gain seats on the rested the leader of an armed group in for war crimes, crimes against humanity body and then use it to deflect censure of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and genocide committed after July 2002, violations by themselves or their allies. (DRC) on charges of war crimes. The it will likely prosecute only a few high- In the March vote, 170 member states arrest of the leader of the Union of Con- ranking perpetrators. n were in favour of creating the council, four voted against and three abstained. The US voted against, said the country’s ambassa- APPOINTMENTS dor to the UN, Mr. John Bolton, because Mr . .Mark Malloch Brown of the UK has been named by UN Secretary-General the resolution did not go far enough to Kofi Annan as his deputy secretary-general, effective April 2006, replacing Ms. “keep gross abusers of human rights off the Louise Fréchette. Just prior to his appointment, Mr. Malloch Brown served as council.” The US favoured an earlier pro- chef de cabinet to the Secretary-General, and before that was head of the UN Development Programme from 1999 to 2005. Previously, he was a World posal that members be individually elected Bank vice-president and deputy chief of the Emergency Unit of the UN High by a two-thirds majority, rather than the Commissioner for Refugees, undertaking missions in the Horn of Africa and absolute majority stipulated by the resolu- Central America. tion. Mr. Bolton nevertheless pledged that UN / Eskinder Debebe The UN General Assembly, acting upon the recommenda- his country would work cooperatively with tion of the UN Secretary-General, has elected Mr . .Achim Steiner of Germany others to make the council as effective as as the new executive director of the UN Environment Programme, for a four-

possible. n year term starting on 15 June 2006. He succeeds Klaus Toepfer. At the time of Paris Sophia / UN his appointment, Mr. Steiner was director-general of the World Conservation war crimes Union (IUCN), a position he has held since 2001. His previous positions included serving as secretary-general of the World Commission on Dams and Liberian ex-president accused as chief technical adviser on a programme for sustainable management of the Mekong River watersheds. The former president of Liberia, Mr. Mr . .Kjell Magne Bondevik, Norway’s former prime minister, has been appoint- Charles Taylor, was formally charged ed by the UN Secretary-General as his special humanitarian envoy for the Horn with crimes against humanity and other of Africa. He succeeds Mr. Martti Ahtisaari, a former president of Finland, who in offences by the UN-supported Special turn becomes special envoy of the UN Secretary-General for the Future Status of Kosovo. At the time of his selection, Mr. Bondevik served as president of the Court for Sierra Leone on 3 April. He Oslo Centre for Peace and Human Rights. Among other positions, Mr. Bondevik thus became the first former head of state served previously as Norway’s minister of foreign affairs (1989-1990), among other cabinet positions. in Africa to be officially charged with UN / Michelle Poiré violations of international human rights laws. Specifically, he has been accused in The UN Secretary-General has appointedr M . .Nobuaki Tanaka of Japan as the new under-secretary-general for disarmament affairs, succeeding Mr. Nobuyasu Abe, effective connection with his alleged role in lead- 6 April 2006. Most recently, Mr. Tanaka has been Japan’s ambassador to Pakistan. A seasoned ing or supporting rebel movements in diplomat, Mr. Tanaka has also served as an assistant director-general of the UN Educational, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. Scientific and Cultural Organization and a deputy director-general in Japan’s Foreign Ministry.

24 APRIL 2006