August 2010 www.un.org/africarenewal United Nations Department of Public Africa Information Hopes and cHallenges African women’s long walk to equality Africa marks Poverty battle: a few 50 years of reasons to smile African business independence fights corruption Africa Contents August 2010 Vol.24 Nos. 2–3 Formerly ‘Africa Recovery’ Special feature 10 Africa at 50 Weighing a half century of independence Fifty years ago, 17 African countries achieved their national independence. 14 Interview with cheick sidi diarra 17 a half century of change 18 ghana’s economy: hope rekindled 20 good governance: central to progress 23 african media breaks ‘culture of silence’ 26 african women’s long walk to equality 28 a ‘wind of change’ 31 Visions of independence, then and now Also in this issue For most African countries, the biggest challenge is reducing external economic 3 poverty battle: a few reasons to smile dependence. UN Africa Renewal / Ernest Harsch 4 Hard road to the MDGs 7 african business fights corruption editor-in-chief Masimba Tafirenyika 36 Malawi businesses act together Managing editor Ernest Harsch Departments Writers Michael Fleshman 37 Watch André-Michel Essoungou 39 agenda Research 39 Books Naututu Okhoya cover photo: United Nations, 1982, South Africa. design & production John Gillespie Africa Renewal is published in English and organizations. Articles from this magazine administration French by the Strategic Communications may be freely reprinted, with attribution to Marlene Tremblay-Gervais Division of the United Nations Department the author and to “United Nations Africa of Public Information. Its contents do not Renewal,” and a copy of the reproduced distribution necessarily reflect the views of the United article would be appreciated. Copyrighted Atar Markman Nations or the publication’s supporting photos may not be reproduced. Subscribe to Africa Renewal www.un.org/africarenewal Correspondence Africa Renewal offers free subscriptions to should be addressed to: individual readers. Please send your request The Editor, Africa Renewal to Circulation at the address above or by facebook.com/africarenewal Room M-16031 e-mail to [email protected]. Institutional United Nations, NY 10017-2513, USA, subscriptions are available for thirty-five US twitter.com/africarenewal Tel: (212) 963-6857, Fax: (212) 963-4556 dollars, payable by international money order or a cheque in US dollars drawn on a US bank, E-mail: to the “United Nations” and sent to Circulation [email protected] at the address above. Africa Renewal is printed on recycled paper. Yet the positive signs are there (see In poverty battle, pages 4–6). “Africa has, since the mid- 1990s, arguably been making the a few reasons to smile greatest progress towards the goals,” writes Shanta Devarajan, the World Bank’s chief economist for Africa. Despite spots West African nation can claim a major “The poverty rate has been declining — but underreported — achievement: at about one percentage point a year. of success, in absolute terms, it is among those There is some evidence that child greater efforts few countries in the world where child mortality in Africa, after stagnating mortality has declined the most. for some time, is beginning to fall are needed sharply…. And in primary [school] In Niger, the rate of deaths of children completion, if you take 1999 as the under five fell from 305 per 1,000 starting point, the fastest progress has By André-Michel Essoungou live births in 1990 to 165 in 2008, been in Africa and South Asia.” according to World Bank data. And uch of the recent reporting even though Niger’s rate of child Another report by the Overseas about Niger could lead mortality remains high, such an Development Institute in the UK Mreaders to believe that beyond accomplishment is particularly and the UN Millennium Campaign political turmoil and tragic famine, significant given the many hurdles suggests that on most of the MDGs, nothing else is worth the attention. the country faces, including recurrent some African countries have regis- Yet, the United Nations reports, the instances of serious food insecurity. tered impressive progress in absolute terms. Poverty has been reduced in In fact, Niger’s case reflects a wider 76 per cent of African countries, the trend across Africa in recent years. report finds. Eleven of the 20 best Progress is indeed taking place, performing countries (also measured despite the many challenges. But more in absolute terms) are among the is needed to attain the world commu- poorest countries in Africa. nity’s global anti-poverty objectives. Yet nowhere else are efforts more Ten years ago in 2000, as a new needed to reach the targets set for millennium dawned, world leaders 2015. On virtually all of the eight assembled at the UN in New York and objectives, the continent is lagging decided it was the right time to give behind the rest of the world. If current new impetus to the goal of combating trends persist, warns the most recent widespread poverty and misery “UN Millennium Development Goals across the globe. They made a solemn Progress Chart,” efforts to reach the promise in an official declaration and objectives will fall well short in the identified eight objectives, known as sub-Saharan African region. the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), to be attained by 2015. This uphill challenge highlights the These include halving poverty and gravity of the continent’s problems. hunger; improving access to health Africa’s proportion of poor people is care, water and education; providing larger than that of other regions. So women and men equal opportunities is its share of people living with HIV/ and protecting natural resources for AIDS. Greater effort is therefore future generations. needed because the road to prosperity for the majority is far longer and much A decade later, major advances have steeper than elsewhere. Nevertheless, Although Africa’s “gender gap” remains been recorded in most parts of the as various studies have shown, good wide, some countries have made strides in world, but far more challenges remain. political leadership, strong account- expanding girls’ education and improving In recent months, two UN reports have ability and adequate budgetary alloca- women’s political representation. painted a mixed picture of success and tions can help overcome such objective shortcomings, particularly in Africa. hurdles to bring success. UN Photo / John Isaac August 2010 3 Africa’s hard road to the Millennium Development Goals Sobering numbers, but some bright spots According to vArious reports by the UN and other organizations,* Africa is facing big challenges in achieving the world’s anti-poverty Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The overall statistics may be sobering, but some countries are showing bright spots of progress, which are highlighted below. Goal 1: Goal 2: Eradicate extreme Achieve universal poverty and hunger primary education Although some African countries are Sub-Saharan Africa recorded the on track to meet the target of halving world’s fastest growth in primary poverty by 2015, poverty and hunger school enrolment in recent years, are on the rise on the continent. with enrolment rising from 58 per The recent global economic crisis cent in 1999 to 76 per cent in 2008 (an worsened the situation. Based on increase of 18 percentage points). Yet projections by the World Bank, sub- the continent lags behind other devel- Saharan Africa is not on course to cut oping regions and the pace of progress the rate of extreme poverty (bench- is insufficient to ensure that by 2015 marked at $1.25 a day) in half between all girls and boys are able to complete 1990 and 2015. There is no sign of a a full course of primary schooling. decline in unemployment rates or of a In 2008, 69 million children were fall in the rate of “vulnerable employ- out of school worldwide. Almost half ment” (the activities of self-employed of those (31 million) were in sub- workers and unpaid family workers). Saharan Africa. From 2001 to 2007, In Kenya, the abolition Nigeria doubled its of school fees in 2007 food production. In increased the number Ghana the number of of primary students by people who suffer from undernour- nearly 2 million. A similar measure ishment fell by 74 per cent between resulted in a threefold increase in Because of improvements in health care, 1991 and 2004. Through a national primary-school enrolment since sub-Saharan Africa has brought down the input subsidy programme, Malawi 1999 in Burundi, reaching 99 per number of children who die before the age achieved a 53 per cent food surplus cent by 2008. In Tanzania, the aboli- of five by 22 per cent since 1990. in 2007, from a 43 per cent national tion of school fees in 2001 led to a UNDP food deficit in 2005. net enrolment rate of 98 per cent for primary schooling by 2006, an increase of 97 per cent compared to 1999 enrolment rates. Zambia *Keeping the Promise, a report of the UN Secretary-General, The Millennium Development Goals also broke through the 90 per cent Report 2010, coordinated and published by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, threshold towards greater access to and Millennium Development Goals Progress Chart 2010, UN Department of Economic and Social primary education. Affairs www.un.org/millenniumgoals/reports.shtml; Millennium Development Goals Report Card 2010, www.endpoverty2015.org/files/MDGReportCard.pdf. 4 August 2010 Sub-Saharan Africa has made rapid Africa’s hard road to the progress in enrolling more children in primary schools. Millennium Development Goals UN Photo/Evan Schneider Goal 3: Goal 4: Goal 5: Promote gender equality Reduce child mortality Improve maternal health and empower women In sub-Saharan Africa, under-five Even though the goal of reducing Despite some progress, gender dispar- mortality has declined by 22 per maternal mortality has seen the least ities in Africa remain large, especially cent since 1990, making it one of progress, remarkable gains were in education and work.