The First Step on the Ladder

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Africa has been many different shades of basket case since the end of the Age of Empires. After Africa became free of it’s colonial yoke, many African nations took notice of the rapid industrializations going on both the Soviet Union and China under the rising tide of communism. Said African nations began looking at communism as a model for their own budding nations and this led to command economies and major investment in heavy industries such as coal and steel production to stimulate growth. However, this approach had little success. Only a handful of states formally adopted socialism and even fewer turned to outright Marxism. Many economists who study the post World War II time period in Africa regard their closed economies as major stumbling blocks toward modern development.

Often the approach of governments in Africa was to borrow heavily from abroad and use this aid to grow the economy to a level that the loans could be paid off. Sporadic growth during the years after independence continued. The countries focused on exports to pay for these development efforts. The 1973 energy crisis hit sub-Saharan Africa as hard as anywhere in the world. While some nations were net exporters, most were heavily reliant on imported fuels. Economies quickly began to falter and events such as famines hit Africa in the 1980s. The collapse of the Soviet Union, which had supported socialist and collectivist projects throughout the continent, undermined the legitimacy of such an approach, while it also meant that there were no longer any sources of international aid to help pursue this approach. (Biography.ms)

Between civil wars, famine, government corruption and the occasional worldwide market crash, Africa has had a devil of a time getting itself right and moving up the development ladder. It has been ravaged by malaria and AIDS and countries such as Rwanda and Sudan have or are currently experiencing countrywide genocide. I’ve contended that the world was willing to let Africa fall off the map as nobody seemed to be willing to make the sacrifices needed to do real work in saving the continent. It would appear the old mentality toward Africa is changing for the better, one would hope.

The first glimmer of hope is coming from bosom buddies George Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair. MSM Money reports that, “President George W. Bush on Tuesday paved the way for an agreement on multilateral debt relief for Africa when in a change of tack he promised "additional resources" would be made available to the World Bank.

Speaking at the White House, flanked by Tony Blair, the UK prime minister, Mr. Bush presented a show of unity on reform and development in Africa, which will be the centerpiece of next month's Group of Eight summit at Gleneagles in Scotland.

"We agree that highly indebted developing countries that are on the path to reform should not be burdened by mountains of debt," he said.”

This came as a great relief to me as just yesterday Bush had regarded debt relief as a loser, stating that, “It doesn’t fit our budgetary process.” I nearly hit the roof when I read this in an article from the BBC. However, it looks as if Bush has changed his mind and decided to do the right thing in Africa.

In addition to the extremely important debt cancellation, Bush has also called on Congress to triple aid to Africa. Bush also pledged an additional $674 million in aid for humanitarian relief that would help save millions of Africans from famine.

The reason why debt relief in Africa is so important for their move up the development ladder is that it could increase net aid to Africa by up to $1billion a year, compared with the $25 billion increase the commission said was necessary to reduce poverty substantially.

World Bank President and HNIC (head neo-con in charge) Paul Wolfowitz is also taking his pledge to bring Africa out of the dark ages quite seriously. Reuters reports that, “The World Bank plans to increase its efforts in Africa to help countries mired in poverty achieve growth rates similar to the continent's economic stars, the bank's top official for Africa said on Tuesday.

To show the bank's commitment to Africa, new World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz will travel there next week on his first foreign trip since taking over on June 1.

The former U.S. deputy defense secretary will visit Africa's two major powers - Nigeria and South Africa - and also stop in Rwanda and Burkina Faso.

Gobind Nankani, the bank's vice president for Africa, told Reuters in an interview that policies under Wolfowitz would seek an overall growth for African countries that would benefit both the poor and the more successful nations.”

In the shadow of the Downing Street Memo and the aftermath of the Iraq war, Blair is seeking to rehab his legacy and his image by using his position as head of the G8 to really push Africa up the development ladder. There’s more to be done obviously but this is a good first step.