Civil Society Statement on Africa Policy
Addressed to the Meeting of the G7 Finance Ministers
Halifax, Canada - June 14-15, 2002

We, the undersigned groups, call upon you, the Finance Ministers of the G7 countries, to use the occasion of your meeting on June 14-15 to commit to an agenda that will address Africa's most critical economic challenges.

We welcome the proposed focus on Africa at this year's G7 Summit in Kananaskis, Canada, and we urge you to ensure that action is taken that will make a real difference in reducing poverty and promoting development. It is critical that this meeting create a new framework for partnership between the G7 and African countries, based on a firm commitment to dismantling the barriers to Africa's economic development and addressing the continent's most urgent priorities.

The official African initiative, entitled the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), is likely to frame much of the discussion at the G7 meetings. This is a significant new plan defined by a group of African leaders that seeks to address the continent's development challenges. However, NEPAD is still an emerging initiative that requires broader consultation among African leaders and civil society. In recent weeks, many of the most-respected African civil society organizations and coalitions [e.g. the Council for Development and Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA), Third World Network-Africa, and the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD Group, as well as many prominent African development experts, have publicly deplored the extremely limited consultations -- which excluded many African governments entirely, as well as the continent's civil society -- involved in drafting NEPAD.

In its current state, NEPAD reflects the prevailing economic perspectives of donor countries rather than those defined by Africans themselves. It cannot become the cornerstone for a new partnership between African governments and G7 governments until it has first become a partnership between African governments and their own people. Unless this initiative is more fully informed by African voices, it cannot be regarded as a blueprint for Africa's development.

The focus of the upcoming G7 meetings, therefore, should be on the particular role and responsibilities of the G7 countries themselves. The agenda must address the actions required of G7 governments to remove the impediments to poverty reduction in Africa. The G7 Action Plan for Africa, drafted in secret by officials of G7 countries and designed to complement NEPAD, does not address Africa's most immediate priorities. The Plan utterly fails to focus on the concrete actions already available to G7 governments that would have a real and positive impact.

Specifically, the G7 governments have the power to cancel Africa's oppressive burden of illegitimate foreign debt; the resources to increase investments in human development and especially to fully finance the Global Fund for HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; and the influence to redress the structural imbalance in trade relations between rich and poor countries. This should be the Africa agenda in Halifax and Kananaskis.

Africa's burden of foreign debt, much of it arguably illegitimate or "odious," represents the single largest obstacle to the continent's development. So long as African countries are forced to spend almost $15 billion per year repaying debts to G7 countries and the international financial institutions, they will be unable to address their urgent domestic needs. The constant outward flow of desperately needed resources undermines poverty reduction initiatives and cripples efforts to cope with the devastating impact of the HIV/AIDS crisis.

The current international debt relief framework, the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative, has failed to resolve Africa's debt crisis. Even by its own measure, this framework is not reducing debt to levels described by the World Bank as "sustainable". The HIPC plan is a flawed approach to addressing Africa's debt crisis. It offers insufficient relief to a limited number of countries, it ties debt relief to specific austerity measures, and it serves chiefly the interests of creditors. It fails also to address the question of illegitimacy hovering over so much of this debt. "Enhancements" of HIPC at this time of gathering crises could only be seen as a shell game. A serious commitment to addressing Africa's challenges must begin by releasing the continent from debt bondage.

There is an urgent need for a greater commitment of resources from the G7 countries to support African efforts to address the continent's health crisis and related social and economic challenges. Increased public investment of this kind should be seen as an obligation of G7 countries. The enormous wealth of the world's richest countries is directly related to the impoverishment of Africa and the global South more broadly. The growing disparity between the poor and the wealthy in the world is both unconscionable and destabilizing.

More money is essential to address the impact of the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa and to stem the spread of the pandemic worldwide. The Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is an important new mechanism to finance the war on AIDS. Currently, its effectiveness is being undermined by a lack of funding from rich country governments. Whereas the Global Fund requires $10 billion a year if it is to succeed in financing both prevention and treatment, especially the provision of essential medicines, less than $2 billion has been pledged so far. The war on AIDS can be won. But only if the G7 commits far greater resources than it has to date.

Just as the committed funding for combating HIV/AIDS is far short of what is needed, so too are resources, including fresh research in the service of the public interest rather than private profit, dedicated to fighting health challenges with a longer history in Africa. Diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria remain major killers in Africa, despite the fact that we already know how to control them; what we lack is the political will and the resources to get effective treatment to Africans.

More broadly, the G7 should invest in promoting health and education for Africa's people as a foundation for sustainable growth. It is widely recognized that such investments in human development are indispensable to poverty reduction. They are also essential if the Millennium Development Goals are to be met. Yet, levels of development assistance from rich countries have fallen in a consistent downward trend in the past decade. Despite repeated commitments from western governments to provide 0.7% of their gross national product (GNP) for official development assistance, not one of the G7 countries reaches half of that figure. The true measurement of the G7's new commitment to Africa will be revealed by the degree to which these figures change as a result of the Kananaskis summit.

While debt cancellation and increased public investment by rich countries must form two key pillars of a successful approach to Africa's economic challenges, trade can also play an important role. In order for trade to generate sustainable growth, however, there must be a more equitable trading relationship between rich countries and African countries. Over the past two decades, the vulnerability and marginalization of African countries in the global economy has been exacerbated rather than eased by trade liberalization policies imposed by external powers. Africa's share of world trade has declined to less than half of what it was in 1980, resting now at only 1.5%. African economies remain over-dependent on primary commodities, while trade
barriers imposed by rich countries severely restrict access for African products to foreign markets. Changing this dynamic will require a commitment on the part of the G7 countries to simplify expanded market access for African goods and to dismantle trade barriers. It will necessitate the establishment of more equitable terms of trade and an end to the current double standards in international trade rules. At present, developing countries face tariff barriers that are four times higher than those encountered by rich countries. These barriers cost poor countries an estimated $100 billion a year. Trade can only be a successful contributor to economic growth in Africa to the extent that the G7 countries take actions to level the playing field in the global economy.

Finally, a new partnership between the G7 and African countries must be based on a shift away from the practice of imposing economic policies dictated by G7 governments and the international financial institutions. Instead, a true partnership must focus on priorities and strategies defined by African countries themselves to reduce poverty and promote development.

Your meeting in Halifax must move beyond rhetoric to immediate actions such as debt cancellation that would make a real difference for Africa's people.

Sincerely,

ActionAid USA (co-initiator)
Washington, DC USA

Africa Action (co-initiator)
Washington, DC USA

50 Years Is Enough: U.S. Network for Global
Economic Justice (co-initiator)
Washington, DC USA

TransAfrica Forum (co-initator)
Washington, DC USA
___ _ ____ _ ____ _ ____

AFRICAN COUNTRIES

Action Pour la Promotion des Initiatives
Communautaires (APIC)
Parakou, Benin

KAIPPG/Kenya
Mumias, Kenya

East African Center
Takaungu, Kenya

Kenya Human Rights Commission
Nairobi, Kenya

FIKRIFAMA
Antananarivo, Madagascar

COMODE
Antananarivo, Madagascar

Network Movement For Justice & Development
Freetown, Sierra Leone

Dynamic Stability CC
Bellville, South Africa

Tanzania Association of NGOs
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Rural Food Security Policy and Development
Group (KIHACHA)
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

HakiKazi Catalyst
Tanzania

Concern for Development Initiatives in Africa (ForDIA)
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

African Network & Forum on Debt &
Development (AFRODAD)
Harare, Zimbabwe
___ _ ____ _ ____ _ ____

G7 COUNTRIES

Halifax Initiative Coalition
Ottawa, ON, Canada

Ghana Union
Hannover, Germany

Solidarity Voice for Africa Development
London, UK

G7 COUNTRIES (cont'd) - USA

Jubilee USA Network
Washington, DC USA

Columban Justice & Peace Office
Washington, DC USA

KAIPPG/International
Rhode Island, USA

Sisters of the Holy Names
California Justice and Peace Committee
San Jose, CA USA

Nigerian Democratic Movement
Washington, DC USA

Global Exchange
San Francisco, CA USA

Holy Cross International Justice Office
Notre Dame, IN USA

Women's International League for Peace &
Freedom, Mary Wood Branch
Springfield, IL USA

MCPR - Rwanda
Massachusetts, USA

The Southern Africa Committee of the
Michigan Coalition for Human Rights
Detroit, MI USA

UKIMWI Orphans Assistance
Washington, DC USA

Washington State Africa Network
Seattle WA, USA

Africa Faith & Justice Network
Washington, DC, USA

Africa AIDS Action Committee
Philadelphia, PA USA

Congregation Justice Committee
Sisters of the Holy Cross
Notre Dame, IN USA

State Rep. G. Spencer Coggs
Milwaukee/Madison, WI USA

Africa Today Associates
Denver, CO

Americans for Democratic Action (ADA)
Washington, DC USA