Stories credit : World Development Movement
Source : http://unctadghana.blogspot.com/
Friday 25 April
So as this week at UNCTAD comes to a close, what is the verdict? Is the world a better place after all that talk and networking, or have the several thousand delegates here just produced a lot of hot air?
There has been lots of talk about UNCTAD and its role. As the name suggests, the UN Conference on Trade and Development, looks at trade and development issues. In a world where the WTO is the dominant forum on trade, having UNCTAD around as an independent voice is important. In-between the conferences every four years, it produces research that contributes alternative viewpoints to the prevailing pure free trade orthodoxy.
However, lots of people also fear it is an ineffective talking shop. Unsurprisingly, the EU and the US don’t like some of its research and over the week they’ve been arguing that UNCTAD should have a more focussed (or should that be limited?) role. Others of us think that in an era of food, energy and financial crises, it is important that UNCTAD maintains and strengthens its political voice so that it can speak out and comment on issues that especially affect countries in the global south.
Having said all this, I've been disappointed at the lack of genuine debate in some of the official sessions that I’ve attended, where delegates have mostly trotted out their party lines. The real debates that have happened have apparently been behind the scenes in the ‘negotiating room’ where the final end-of-conference statement is being agreed, or in the civil society tent which has been lively and at times quite heated.
As I write I’ve just finished packing my bags to leave Accra – I’ve not yet seen the official statement that will conclude proceedings and indicate UNCTAD’s future mandate and workplan– maybe it’s still being argued over. However, if you believe in the UN system and believe that we can’t leave talk about finance, investment and the links with development issues to the World Bank, the IMF and the WTO, then you will want to see a strong and feisty UNCTAD in the future.
Wednesday, 23 April 2008
The official launch of WDM's report went really well. The room was pretty full and there was a lot of interest. I think African countries currently involved in trade negotiations with the EU were pleased to see some concrete statistics that they can feed into their own negotiating position. As Gyekye Tanoh from Third World Network said, "The report from WDM ought to be a weapon in the arsenal to destroy free trade deals and a building block when we seek alternatives."
The head of the European Commission delegation attended although he confined his comments to economic partnership agreements and not the Global Europe agenda. Our event chairman Helmuth Markov who is the chair of the European Parliament’s trade committee agreed that the Global Europe strategy is pure and simply about market access for European companies.
Now that’s over, I'm back to lobbying official delegations, where we can track them down! We are still trying to confirm a meeting with the Slovenian delegation but hopefully will be meeting with the group of MEPs on Thursday.
Oh and in case you are worried that its all work and no play, there is a concert tonight with Femi Kuti and hopefully Youssou N'Dour too.
Tuesday 22 April
I haven’t yet identified any members of the UK press here so I can’t imagine that news from UNCTAD has been filling the airwaves and the newspaper columns back home. That’s a shame as incredibly important issues are being discussed here.
A key theme is south-south trade – trade amongst countries in the global south. It already accounts for a substantial part of world trade and that share will rise. China, India, Brazil and a few others dominate this, and many here at UNCTAD feel that this is also a real opportunity for poorer countries to trade more equitably and beneficially.
As deputy trade minister Rob Davies from South Africa said this morning, this is one of many problems with the EU’s proposed economic partnership agreements or EPAs, namely that they will prevent poor countries signing future preferential deals with other southern countries.
“The dynamic trading poles are now in the south. Developing countries can no longer afford to lock themselves into traditional North-South trade relations. We will continue to resist this at the WTO and if necessary by not signing the proposed EPA,” he said. His concerns were echoed by Trade Minister Carlos from Brazil and Minister Diop from Senegal at the same meeting.
And how does the EU respond to this critique? Well, they are present ‘en masse’ at a lot of the discussions but it sees to be mostly development rather than trade officials who speak and when they do, they kind of miss the points people are making. For example, they’ve been talking a lot about aid-for-trade as if that will make up for the injustices in the proposed trade deals. Africans in particular retort that that risks deepening aid dependence.
Incidentally, in the melee after the meeting, I managed to have a quick chat with Rob Davies and to give him a copy of our new report which looks at the impacts of the trade deal South Africa signed with the EU in 1999. I said that our report presented evidence that agricultural products and food processing industries have suffered in South Africa since the deal was signed.
He told me how, as they did not get what they wanted out of that original deal especially in these areas, South Africa had hoped that this could have been addressed through the EPA negotiations. But of course, instead the EU has used the new negotiations to push for EU company access on a whole range of new issues like services and investment.
On my way to lunch, I stopped off at the EU exhibition stand. As the banner says, there is no doubt that European business is benefiting from EU approach to trade policy – but a lot of people are doubting how widely those benefits stretch beyond Europe’s borders.
Monday, 21 April 2008
The UN comes to town
Well, what can I say, when the UN comes to town, it really goes to town. Central Accra has been transformed into a hi-security, be-suited and air-conditioned enclave. Motorcades complete with limos and motorcycle outriders whizz past with sirens at full blast, policemen with guns are everywhere and my pass has to be scanned whenever I enter the conference site.
Today is really the first full day of formal UNCTAD proceedings. It’s my first time at an official conference like this so maybe I should give a flavour of what’s going on. To be honest, it’s not always that clear. Official programmes are out of date as soon as they are printed; one is always arriving too early or too late for things; and you are always convinced something more interesting may be happening elsewhere (although it probably isn’t!)
NGO bods who last week at the civil society forum were wearing t-shirts and sandals - and quite frankly looking a bit hot and sweaty - have now been transformed in their attire. We are now dressed to impress the government delegates, suited and booted and some (definitely not me) are even braving high-heels. The air con alone at this event is probably doubling Ghana’s annual carbon footprint, but it’s also a big relief.
Meanwhile, I’ve spent the morning running around sorting logistics for our event on Wednesday to launch our new trade report Raw Deal. I’ve confirmed our speakers and talked to people about providing food and drink – which will hopefully bring in some hungry delegates.
I’ve also been ‘touting’ myself and our new report around the press room. I did some filming with Brazilian TV and hope that others will pick up on the report too as the week progresses. Luckily I’ve found that every country delegation has a pigeonhole where papers can be placed for them to pick up – that will be handy when it comes to handing out the report and making sure the right people get it. We really hope it will be useful evidence for developing country trade negotiators who are discussing trade deals with the EU right now.
Now a group of EU civil society folks are trying to track down the Slovenian delegation – why? Well, Slovenia holds the EU Presidency right now and so are important players. Some UK groups have also been trying to meet with UK government people but as I write they’ve not yet been able to fit us in…
Quote of the day goes to Pascal Lamy, head of the World Trade Organisation:
“We are not a development agency. Our budget is only 200 million a year and that is probably smaller than some of you NGOs.”
I wish.
Vicky Cann
Sunday, 20 April 2008Visiting local communities in Ghana
I’ve been taking a break from UNCTAD today. I decided to pass on the opening statements by Ban Ki-Moon and the Ghanaian president John Kufuor and visit some local communities in Accra instead with activists from the National Coalition Against Water Privatisation (NCAP). Old WDM hands will recall that in 2004-05, WDM campaigned with NCAP to stop British water company Biwater from bidding for a water privatisation contract in Ghana. This was a privatisation process which had received support from both DFID and the World Bank as well as several UK consultancy companies including Halcrow and Adam Smith International. Well, after being deluged with WDM postcards and feeling the heat from campaigners in Ghana, Biwater did withdraw their bid. But the privatisation went ahead anyway, and the management contract was finally awarded to a strange joint venture between Dutch and South African public water companies!? This joint venture, AquaVitens Rand Ltd (AVRL), is acting as a private water operator and started the for-profit contract in 2006. I was interested to find out how they were getting on…
I went round both Mamobi and Nima communities with Adam Mohammed Sanusi from NCAP. Both Mamobi and Nima are informal settlements that have
grown up around a large marketplace. People live in small concrete houses or corrugated iron shacks and water coverage is very patchy. Pretty soon we came across a private yard tap where water was being sold to local residents, because they don’t have taps in their own home.
Mariam Usman told me: “It takes me 30 minutes to walk here to collect water and I do this 5 times a day for the 16 people who live in my household. Each time I pay 0.1 cedi. We have a tap in our home but there has been no water in it for 4 years! Help us – we need water! Today is Sunday and so I am coming to collect the water so that I can go back and wash my clothes. I am a street vendor but it is very hard to have the time to collect the water too.”
Next we met Jennifer Essador, who was just along the street and was working on a tea stall with her mother: “We need to buy water for our household and to be able to run our tea stall. We pay 0.1 cedis for 1 big container. We had a tap in our house but it has not worked for maybe 20 years! To get a new connection it might cost perhaps 2000 cedis which you can only afford if you run a successful business as that it is a huge amount of money.”
Sanusi tells me that, “There are maybe 200 private water companies selling purified water in Ghana. One is called Kausur as this lorry shows. You can pay 0.05 cedis for one 500ml sachet of water. I drink this water even though it is very expensive in comparison to the ordinary water which is 0.1 cedi for 20 litres or 1 gallon! I drink it because we have tested some samples of the piped water and it shows that while it looks clean, in fact there are particulates in it and it is not safe to drink. We try to educate people about this but it is very expensive for them to buy the purified water.”
Next we meet Bature Djangeru, who is a builder and also Sanusi’s landlord!
“The situation is much worse now than before privatisation. As there has not been much water in our taps, we have been to picket the offices of the water company to complain but the police came and told us to go away! The company still sends us the bills though and tell us that they are working to improve the situation. They should really just leave the company to the government as it is very simple – they are doing an inefficient job. Round here it is a favourite topic of conversation! It’s not that we don’t have competent managers in Ghana; it’s just that whenever we get World Bank money, we have to accept managers from overseas and they have to be paid far higher salaries than Ghanaians, and in dollars. It’s just inefficient.”
We now enter an adjacent community which is Nima. As it is approaching Sunday lunchtime there are lots of street-side chop houses and stalls selling a cornflour staple dish called tuo-zafi. It’s now baking hot in the midday sun and I’m relieved to find some shelter while I chat to the local assemblyman (like a local councillor), the Honourable Abdul Majid Logoh.
“We get water twice a week sometimes or maybe only once a month occasionally. In March there was a time when we were without water for 2-3 weeks. At that time, we then have to ask our wives and children to collect water, sometimes from maybe 3-4 kilometres away. That means that the children can’t always go to school. It’s worse. Lots of areas don’t have water but actually the bills have gone up a lot in two years – maybe even by 100%! If you can’t afford to pay, you get disconnected. Recently the water company and a government minister came along here and disconnected lots of households because they had not paid their bills. As an assemblyman I find it very frustrating when I see people carrying buckets to collect water. People also come to me to complain about the sanitation situation here. There are not enough refuse containers and so people have to dump their waste where they can. Also, the government has now passed control of community toilets to other groups and the price has risen from 0.02 to 0.05 cedis to use them! I have been to them and talked to them about this but we have not resolved the situation yet. The sanitation situation here is serious. There is no underground sewerage and so people store their solid waste in pits which get emptied or they put their waste water in these channels. There are problems with typhoid, malaria and cholera in this area – people get sick and sometimes die.
So, what’s the verdict on the privatised management? They certainly inherited a difficult, far-from-perfect situation but many people I spoke to were concerned that things were getting even worse. NCAP’s work continues. The contract contains clauses that the government can terminate the contract if AVRL does not meet the targets set out. NCAP believes that this situation is now present and are urging the government to stick to this commitment and bring back public management, with enhanced community and democratic oversight and far more public investment.
Vicky Cann
Saturday, 19 April 2008
Global food price crisis
One of the hot topics here is the food price crisis. There are a number of things driving the rise in global food prices including the demand for cereals for use as agro fuels in cars.
Here in Ghana the concern about high food prices has focussed attention on the impact of the liberalisation of agricultural products and the subsequent reduction of subsidies and tariffs. For example Ghana has moved from a position of self sufficiency in rice to now where 65% of rice is imported. The headline in one of the local papers is ‘we must grow the food we eat’ and ActionAid Ghana ran a workshop this afternoon that I attended.
This morning we interviewed Tony Turan from IBON a research and education NGO. This interview will be edited when we get back and we’ll put it on the website. His argument is that conditions set by the Asian Development Bank on loans to the Phillipines meant that they went from being self sufficient to being the world’s largest importer of rice. It was an unprecedented order from the Philippines that then led to the rapid increase in the price of rice. The Phillipines has sneezed and Ghana and others have caught a cold.
As you’d expect discussions here in the workshops tend to be serious, evidence based and focussed on problem solving. Once in a while a speaker slips in a phrase showing their passionate frustration with individuals from the Global North. My favourites so far:
Peter Mandelson ‘has no sympathy or mercy. He will not budge”
Tony Blair has …..well maybe we’ll let that one go for now.
National Theatre
Vicky and I are the only guests in our small hotel attending the conference. However because the hotel is due to house delegates to the conference it has been given police protection. So since Wednesday we have been guarded by up to three armed police at any one time.
Yesterday we held our event presenting the findings of our research into the impact of European free trade deals in Mexico and South Africa.
Speakers from Ghana and the Philippines presented their analysis of the impact of free trade agreements in their regions.
With rooms at a premium when the UN comes to town delegates are scattered across Accra. Last night we met up with colleagues from organisations in North America, Europe and Africa at a restaurant in East Legon. Rice fish beer and discussions about the chances of a World Trade Organisation ministerial meeting in May. East Lagon is 20 minutes drive across town and the evening was completed with me directing the taxi driver on how to get back.
This morning a ten minute walk from the National Theatre where the Civil Society Forum is held to the National Conference Centre to register for the conference centre. Ten minutes and a few extra degrees of air conditioning, literally is appears to allow for the wearing of suits.
Work is still going on to finalise the conference centre. Here workers paint the back fence. Behind them is the Accra racecourse.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
World Dev. Movement - UNCTAD - a rosy future?
UNCTAD - a rosy future?
Stories credit : World Development Movement
Source : http://unctadghana.blogspot.com/
Friday 25 April
So as this week at UNCTAD comes to a close, what is the verdict? Is the world a better place after all that talk and networking, or have the several thousand delegates here just produced a lot of hot air?
There has been lots of talk about UNCTAD and its role. As the name suggests, the UN Conference on Trade and Development, looks at trade and development issues. In a world where the WTO is the dominant forum on trade, having UNCTAD around as an independent voice is important. In-between the conferences every four years, it produces research that contributes alternative viewpoints to the prevailing pure free trade orthodoxy.
However, lots of people also fear it is an ineffective talking shop. Unsurprisingly, the EU and the US don’t like some of its research and over the week they’ve been arguing that UNCTAD should have a more focussed (or should that be limited?) role. Others of us think that in an era of food, energy and financial crises, it is important that UNCTAD maintains and strengthens its political voice so that it can speak out and comment on issues that especially affect countries in the global south.
Having said all this, I've been disappointed at the lack of genuine debate in some of the official sessions that I’ve attended, where delegates have mostly trotted out their party lines. The real debates that have happened have apparently been behind the scenes in the ‘negotiating room’ where the final end-of-conference statement is being agreed, or in the civil society tent which has been lively and at times quite heated.
As I write I’ve just finished packing my bags to leave Accra – I’ve not yet seen the official statement that will conclude proceedings and indicate UNCTAD’s future mandate and workplan– maybe it’s still being argued over. However, if you believe in the UN system and believe that we can’t leave talk about finance, investment and the links with development issues to the World Bank, the IMF and the WTO, then you will want to see a strong and feisty UNCTAD in the future.
Wednesday, 23 April 2008
Wednesday 23 April
The official launch of WDM's report went really well. The room was pretty full and there was a lot of interest. I think African countries currently involved in trade negotiations with the EU were pleased to see some concrete statistics that they can feed into their own negotiating position. As Gyekye Tanoh from Third World Network said, "The report from WDM ought to be a weapon in the arsenal to destroy free trade deals and a building block when we seek alternatives."
The head of the European Commission delegation attended although he confined his comments to economic partnership agreements and not the Global Europe agenda. Our event chairman Helmuth Markov who is the chair of the European Parliament’s trade committee agreed that the Global Europe strategy is pure and simply about market access for European companies.
Now that’s over, I'm back to lobbying official delegations, where we can track them down! We are still trying to confirm a meeting with the Slovenian delegation but hopefully will be meeting with the group of MEPs on Thursday.
Oh and in case you are worried that its all work and no play, there is a concert tonight with Femi Kuti and hopefully Youssou N'Dour too.
Tuesday 22 April
I haven’t yet identified any members of the UK press here so I can’t imagine that news from UNCTAD has been filling the airwaves and the newspaper columns back home. That’s a shame as incredibly important issues are being discussed here.
A key theme is south-south trade – trade amongst countries in the global south. It already accounts for a substantial part of world trade and that share will rise. China, India, Brazil and a few others dominate this, and many here at UNCTAD feel that this is also a real opportunity for poorer countries to trade more equitably and beneficially.
As deputy trade minister Rob Davies from South Africa said this morning, this is one of many problems with the EU’s proposed economic partnership agreements or EPAs, namely that they will prevent poor countries signing future preferential deals with other southern countries.
“The dynamic trading poles are now in the south. Developing countries can no longer afford to lock themselves into traditional North-South trade relations. We will continue to resist this at the WTO and if necessary by not signing the proposed EPA,” he said. His concerns were echoed by Trade Minister Carlos from Brazil and Minister Diop from Senegal at the same meeting.
And how does the EU respond to this critique? Well, they are present ‘en masse’ at a lot of the discussions but it sees to be mostly development rather than trade officials who speak and when they do, they kind of miss the points people are making. For example, they’ve been talking a lot about aid-for-trade as if that will make up for the injustices in the proposed trade deals. Africans in particular retort that that risks deepening aid dependence.
Incidentally, in the melee after the meeting, I managed to have a quick chat with Rob Davies and to give him a copy of our new report which looks at the impacts of the trade deal South Africa signed with the EU in 1999. I said that our report presented evidence that agricultural products and food processing industries have suffered in South Africa since the deal was signed.
He told me how, as they did not get what they wanted out of that original deal especially in these areas, South Africa had hoped that this could have been addressed through the EPA negotiations. But of course, instead the EU has used the new negotiations to push for EU company access on a whole range of new issues like services and investment.
On my way to lunch, I stopped off at the EU exhibition stand. As the banner says, there is no doubt that European business is benefiting from EU approach to trade policy – but a lot of people are doubting how widely those benefits stretch beyond Europe’s borders.
Monday, 21 April 2008
The UN comes to town
Well, what can I say, when the UN comes to town, it really goes to town. Central Accra has been transformed into a hi-security, be-suited and air-conditioned enclave. Motorcades complete with limos and motorcycle outriders whizz past with sirens at full blast, policemen with guns are everywhere and my pass has to be scanned whenever I enter the conference site.
Today is really the first full day of formal UNCTAD proceedings. It’s my first time at an official conference like this so maybe I should give a flavour of what’s going on. To be honest, it’s not always that clear. Official programmes are out of date as soon as they are printed; one is always arriving too early or too late for things; and you are always convinced something more interesting may be happening elsewhere (although it probably isn’t!)
NGO bods who last week at the civil society forum were wearing t-shirts and sandals - and quite frankly looking a bit hot and sweaty - have now been transformed in their attire. We are now dressed to impress the government delegates, suited and booted and some (definitely not me) are even braving high-heels. The air con alone at this event is probably doubling Ghana’s annual carbon footprint, but it’s also a big relief.
Meanwhile, I’ve spent the morning running around sorting logistics for our event on Wednesday to launch our new trade report Raw Deal. I’ve confirmed our speakers and talked to people about providing food and drink – which will hopefully bring in some hungry delegates.
I’ve also been ‘touting’ myself and our new report around the press room. I did some filming with Brazilian TV and hope that others will pick up on the report too as the week progresses. Luckily I’ve found that every country delegation has a pigeonhole where papers can be placed for them to pick up – that will be handy when it comes to handing out the report and making sure the right people get it. We really hope it will be useful evidence for developing country trade negotiators who are discussing trade deals with the EU right now.
Now a group of EU civil society folks are trying to track down the Slovenian delegation – why? Well, Slovenia holds the EU Presidency right now and so are important players. Some UK groups have also been trying to meet with UK government people but as I write they’ve not yet been able to fit us in…
Quote of the day goes to Pascal Lamy, head of the World Trade Organisation:
“We are not a development agency. Our budget is only 200 million a year and that is probably smaller than some of you NGOs.”
I wish.
Vicky Cann
Sunday, 20 April 2008
Visiting local communities in Ghana
I’ve been taking a break from UNCTAD today. I decided to pass on the opening statements by Ban Ki-Moon and the Ghanaian president John Kufuor and visit some local communities in Accra instead with activists from the National Coalition Against Water Privatisation (NCAP). Old WDM hands will recall that in 2004-05, WDM campaigned with NCAP to stop British water company Biwater from bidding for a water privatisation contract in Ghana. This was a privatisation process which had received support from both DFID and the World Bank as well as several UK consultancy companies including Halcrow and Adam Smith International. Well, after being deluged with WDM postcards and feeling the heat from campaigners in Ghana, Biwater did withdraw their bid. But the privatisation went ahead anyway, and the management contract was finally awarded to a strange joint venture between Dutch and South African public water companies!? This joint venture, AquaVitens Rand Ltd (AVRL), is acting as a private water operator and started the for-profit contract in 2006. I was interested to find out how they were getting on…
I went round both Mamobi and Nima communities with Adam Mohammed Sanusi from NCAP. Both Mamobi and Nima are informal settlements that have
grown up around a large marketplace. People live in small concrete houses or corrugated iron shacks and water coverage is very patchy. Pretty soon we came across a private yard tap where water was being sold to local residents, because they don’t have taps in their own home.
Mariam Usman told me: “It takes me 30 minutes to walk here to collect water and I do this 5 times a day for the 16 people who live in my household. Each time I pay 0.1 cedi. We have a tap in our home but there has been no water in it for 4 years! Help us – we need water! Today is Sunday and so I am coming to collect the water so that I can go back and wash my clothes. I am a street vendor but it is very hard to have the time to collect the water too.”
Next we met Jennifer Essador, who was just along the street and was working on a tea stall with her mother: “We need to buy water for our household and to be able to run our tea stall. We pay 0.1 cedis for 1 big container. We had a tap in our house but it has not worked for maybe 20 years! To get a new connection it might cost perhaps 2000 cedis which you can only afford if you run a successful business as that it is a huge amount of money.”
Sanusi tells me that, “There are maybe 200 private water companies selling purified water in Ghana. One is called Kausur as this lorry shows. You can pay 0.05 cedis for one 500ml sachet of water. I drink this water even though it is very expensive in comparison to the ordinary water which is 0.1 cedi for 20 litres or 1 gallon! I drink it because we have tested some samples of the piped water and it shows that while it looks clean, in fact there are particulates in it and it is not safe to drink. We try to educate people about this but it is very expensive for them to buy the purified water.”
Next we meet Bature Djangeru, who is a builder and also Sanusi’s landlord!
“The situation is much worse now than before privatisation. As there has not been much water in our taps, we have been to picket the offices of the water company to complain but the police came and told us to go away! The company still sends us the bills though and tell us that they are working to improve the situation. They should really just leave the company to the government as it is very simple – they are doing an inefficient job. Round here it is a favourite topic of conversation! It’s not that we don’t have competent managers in Ghana; it’s just that whenever we get World Bank money, we have to accept managers from overseas and they have to be paid far higher salaries than Ghanaians, and in dollars. It’s just inefficient.”
We now enter an adjacent community which is Nima. As it is approaching Sunday lunchtime there are lots of street-side chop houses and stalls selling a cornflour staple dish called tuo-zafi. It’s now baking hot in the midday sun and I’m relieved to find some shelter while I chat to the local assemblyman (like a local councillor), the Honourable Abdul Majid Logoh.
“We get water twice a week sometimes or maybe only once a month occasionally. In March there was a time when we were without water for 2-3 weeks. At that time, we then have to ask our wives and children to collect water, sometimes from maybe 3-4 kilometres away. That means that the children can’t always go to school. It’s worse. Lots of areas don’t have water but actually the bills have gone up a lot in two years – maybe even by 100%! If you can’t afford to pay, you get disconnected. Recently the water company and a government minister came along here and disconnected lots of households because they had not paid their bills. As an assemblyman I find it very frustrating when I see people carrying buckets to collect water. People also come to me to complain about the sanitation situation here. There are not enough refuse containers and so people have to dump their waste where they can. Also, the government has now passed control of community toilets to other groups and the price has risen from 0.02 to 0.05 cedis to use them! I have been to them and talked to them about this but we have not resolved the situation yet. The sanitation situation here is serious. There is no underground sewerage and so people store their solid waste in pits which get emptied or they put their waste water in these channels. There are problems with typhoid, malaria and cholera in this area – people get sick and sometimes die.
So, what’s the verdict on the privatised management? They certainly inherited a difficult, far-from-perfect situation but many people I spoke to were concerned that things were getting even worse. NCAP’s work continues. The contract contains clauses that the government can terminate the contract if AVRL does not meet the targets set out. NCAP believes that this situation is now present and are urging the government to stick to this commitment and bring back public management, with enhanced community and democratic oversight and far more public investment.
Vicky Cann
Saturday, 19 April 2008
Global food price crisis
One of the hot topics here is the food price crisis. There are a number of things driving the rise in global food prices including the demand for cereals for use as agro fuels in cars.
Here in Ghana the concern about high food prices has focussed attention on the impact of the liberalisation of agricultural products and the subsequent reduction of subsidies and tariffs. For example Ghana has moved from a position of self sufficiency in rice to now where 65% of rice is imported. The headline in one of the local papers is ‘we must grow the food we eat’ and ActionAid Ghana ran a workshop this afternoon that I attended.
This morning we interviewed Tony Turan from IBON a research and education NGO. This interview will be edited when we get back and we’ll put it on the website. His argument is that conditions set by the Asian Development Bank on loans to the Phillipines meant that they went from being self sufficient to being the world’s largest importer of rice. It was an unprecedented order from the Philippines that then led to the rapid increase in the price of rice. The Phillipines has sneezed and Ghana and others have caught a cold.
As you’d expect discussions here in the workshops tend to be serious, evidence based and focussed on problem solving. Once in a while a speaker slips in a phrase showing their passionate frustration with individuals from the Global North. My favourites so far:
Peter Mandelson ‘has no sympathy or mercy. He will not budge”
Tony Blair has …..well maybe we’ll let that one go for now.
National Theatre
Vicky and I are the only guests in our small hotel attending the conference. However because the hotel is due to house delegates to the conference it has been given police protection. So since Wednesday we have been guarded by up to three armed police at any one time.
Yesterday we held our event presenting the findings of our research into the impact of European free trade deals in Mexico and South Africa.
Speakers from Ghana and the Philippines presented their analysis of the impact of free trade agreements in their regions.
With rooms at a premium when the UN comes to town delegates are scattered across Accra. Last night we met up with colleagues from organisations in North America, Europe and Africa at a restaurant in East Legon. Rice fish beer and discussions about the chances of a World Trade Organisation ministerial meeting in May. East Lagon is 20 minutes drive across town and the evening was completed with me directing the taxi driver on how to get back.
This morning a ten minute walk from the National Theatre where the Civil Society Forum is held to the National Conference Centre to register for the conference centre. Ten minutes and a few extra degrees of air conditioning, literally is appears to allow for the wearing of suits.
Work is still going on to finalise the conference centre. Here workers paint the back fence. Behind them is the Accra racecourse.
Stories credit : World Development Movement
Source : http://unctadghana.blogspot.com/
Friday 25 April
So as this week at UNCTAD comes to a close, what is the verdict? Is the world a better place after all that talk and networking, or have the several thousand delegates here just produced a lot of hot air?
There has been lots of talk about UNCTAD and its role. As the name suggests, the UN Conference on Trade and Development, looks at trade and development issues. In a world where the WTO is the dominant forum on trade, having UNCTAD around as an independent voice is important. In-between the conferences every four years, it produces research that contributes alternative viewpoints to the prevailing pure free trade orthodoxy.
However, lots of people also fear it is an ineffective talking shop. Unsurprisingly, the EU and the US don’t like some of its research and over the week they’ve been arguing that UNCTAD should have a more focussed (or should that be limited?) role. Others of us think that in an era of food, energy and financial crises, it is important that UNCTAD maintains and strengthens its political voice so that it can speak out and comment on issues that especially affect countries in the global south.
Having said all this, I've been disappointed at the lack of genuine debate in some of the official sessions that I’ve attended, where delegates have mostly trotted out their party lines. The real debates that have happened have apparently been behind the scenes in the ‘negotiating room’ where the final end-of-conference statement is being agreed, or in the civil society tent which has been lively and at times quite heated.
As I write I’ve just finished packing my bags to leave Accra – I’ve not yet seen the official statement that will conclude proceedings and indicate UNCTAD’s future mandate and workplan– maybe it’s still being argued over. However, if you believe in the UN system and believe that we can’t leave talk about finance, investment and the links with development issues to the World Bank, the IMF and the WTO, then you will want to see a strong and feisty UNCTAD in the future.
Wednesday, 23 April 2008
Wednesday 23 April
The official launch of WDM's report went really well. The room was pretty full and there was a lot of interest. I think African countries currently involved in trade negotiations with the EU were pleased to see some concrete statistics that they can feed into their own negotiating position. As Gyekye Tanoh from Third World Network said, "The report from WDM ought to be a weapon in the arsenal to destroy free trade deals and a building block when we seek alternatives."
The head of the European Commission delegation attended although he confined his comments to economic partnership agreements and not the Global Europe agenda. Our event chairman Helmuth Markov who is the chair of the European Parliament’s trade committee agreed that the Global Europe strategy is pure and simply about market access for European companies.
Now that’s over, I'm back to lobbying official delegations, where we can track them down! We are still trying to confirm a meeting with the Slovenian delegation but hopefully will be meeting with the group of MEPs on Thursday.
Oh and in case you are worried that its all work and no play, there is a concert tonight with Femi Kuti and hopefully Youssou N'Dour too.
Tuesday 22 April
I haven’t yet identified any members of the UK press here so I can’t imagine that news from UNCTAD has been filling the airwaves and the newspaper columns back home. That’s a shame as incredibly important issues are being discussed here.
A key theme is south-south trade – trade amongst countries in the global south. It already accounts for a substantial part of world trade and that share will rise. China, India, Brazil and a few others dominate this, and many here at UNCTAD feel that this is also a real opportunity for poorer countries to trade more equitably and beneficially.
As deputy trade minister Rob Davies from South Africa said this morning, this is one of many problems with the EU’s proposed economic partnership agreements or EPAs, namely that they will prevent poor countries signing future preferential deals with other southern countries.
“The dynamic trading poles are now in the south. Developing countries can no longer afford to lock themselves into traditional North-South trade relations. We will continue to resist this at the WTO and if necessary by not signing the proposed EPA,” he said. His concerns were echoed by Trade Minister Carlos from Brazil and Minister Diop from Senegal at the same meeting.
And how does the EU respond to this critique? Well, they are present ‘en masse’ at a lot of the discussions but it sees to be mostly development rather than trade officials who speak and when they do, they kind of miss the points people are making. For example, they’ve been talking a lot about aid-for-trade as if that will make up for the injustices in the proposed trade deals. Africans in particular retort that that risks deepening aid dependence.
Incidentally, in the melee after the meeting, I managed to have a quick chat with Rob Davies and to give him a copy of our new report which looks at the impacts of the trade deal South Africa signed with the EU in 1999. I said that our report presented evidence that agricultural products and food processing industries have suffered in South Africa since the deal was signed.
He told me how, as they did not get what they wanted out of that original deal especially in these areas, South Africa had hoped that this could have been addressed through the EPA negotiations. But of course, instead the EU has used the new negotiations to push for EU company access on a whole range of new issues like services and investment.
On my way to lunch, I stopped off at the EU exhibition stand. As the banner says, there is no doubt that European business is benefiting from EU approach to trade policy – but a lot of people are doubting how widely those benefits stretch beyond Europe’s borders.
Monday, 21 April 2008
The UN comes to town
Well, what can I say, when the UN comes to town, it really goes to town. Central Accra has been transformed into a hi-security, be-suited and air-conditioned enclave. Motorcades complete with limos and motorcycle outriders whizz past with sirens at full blast, policemen with guns are everywhere and my pass has to be scanned whenever I enter the conference site.
Today is really the first full day of formal UNCTAD proceedings. It’s my first time at an official conference like this so maybe I should give a flavour of what’s going on. To be honest, it’s not always that clear. Official programmes are out of date as soon as they are printed; one is always arriving too early or too late for things; and you are always convinced something more interesting may be happening elsewhere (although it probably isn’t!)
NGO bods who last week at the civil society forum were wearing t-shirts and sandals - and quite frankly looking a bit hot and sweaty - have now been transformed in their attire. We are now dressed to impress the government delegates, suited and booted and some (definitely not me) are even braving high-heels. The air con alone at this event is probably doubling Ghana’s annual carbon footprint, but it’s also a big relief.
Meanwhile, I’ve spent the morning running around sorting logistics for our event on Wednesday to launch our new trade report Raw Deal. I’ve confirmed our speakers and talked to people about providing food and drink – which will hopefully bring in some hungry delegates.
I’ve also been ‘touting’ myself and our new report around the press room. I did some filming with Brazilian TV and hope that others will pick up on the report too as the week progresses. Luckily I’ve found that every country delegation has a pigeonhole where papers can be placed for them to pick up – that will be handy when it comes to handing out the report and making sure the right people get it. We really hope it will be useful evidence for developing country trade negotiators who are discussing trade deals with the EU right now.
Now a group of EU civil society folks are trying to track down the Slovenian delegation – why? Well, Slovenia holds the EU Presidency right now and so are important players. Some UK groups have also been trying to meet with UK government people but as I write they’ve not yet been able to fit us in…
Quote of the day goes to Pascal Lamy, head of the World Trade Organisation:
“We are not a development agency. Our budget is only 200 million a year and that is probably smaller than some of you NGOs.”
I wish.
Vicky Cann
Sunday, 20 April 2008
Visiting local communities in Ghana
I’ve been taking a break from UNCTAD today. I decided to pass on the opening statements by Ban Ki-Moon and the Ghanaian president John Kufuor and visit some local communities in Accra instead with activists from the National Coalition Against Water Privatisation (NCAP). Old WDM hands will recall that in 2004-05, WDM campaigned with NCAP to stop British water company Biwater from bidding for a water privatisation contract in Ghana. This was a privatisation process which had received support from both DFID and the World Bank as well as several UK consultancy companies including Halcrow and Adam Smith International. Well, after being deluged with WDM postcards and feeling the heat from campaigners in Ghana, Biwater did withdraw their bid. But the privatisation went ahead anyway, and the management contract was finally awarded to a strange joint venture between Dutch and South African public water companies!? This joint venture, AquaVitens Rand Ltd (AVRL), is acting as a private water operator and started the for-profit contract in 2006. I was interested to find out how they were getting on…
I went round both Mamobi and Nima communities with Adam Mohammed Sanusi from NCAP. Both Mamobi and Nima are informal settlements that have
grown up around a large marketplace. People live in small concrete houses or corrugated iron shacks and water coverage is very patchy. Pretty soon we came across a private yard tap where water was being sold to local residents, because they don’t have taps in their own home.
Mariam Usman told me: “It takes me 30 minutes to walk here to collect water and I do this 5 times a day for the 16 people who live in my household. Each time I pay 0.1 cedi. We have a tap in our home but there has been no water in it for 4 years! Help us – we need water! Today is Sunday and so I am coming to collect the water so that I can go back and wash my clothes. I am a street vendor but it is very hard to have the time to collect the water too.”
Next we met Jennifer Essador, who was just along the street and was working on a tea stall with her mother: “We need to buy water for our household and to be able to run our tea stall. We pay 0.1 cedis for 1 big container. We had a tap in our house but it has not worked for maybe 20 years! To get a new connection it might cost perhaps 2000 cedis which you can only afford if you run a successful business as that it is a huge amount of money.”
Sanusi tells me that, “There are maybe 200 private water companies selling purified water in Ghana. One is called Kausur as this lorry shows. You can pay 0.05 cedis for one 500ml sachet of water. I drink this water even though it is very expensive in comparison to the ordinary water which is 0.1 cedi for 20 litres or 1 gallon! I drink it because we have tested some samples of the piped water and it shows that while it looks clean, in fact there are particulates in it and it is not safe to drink. We try to educate people about this but it is very expensive for them to buy the purified water.”
Next we meet Bature Djangeru, who is a builder and also Sanusi’s landlord!
“The situation is much worse now than before privatisation. As there has not been much water in our taps, we have been to picket the offices of the water company to complain but the police came and told us to go away! The company still sends us the bills though and tell us that they are working to improve the situation. They should really just leave the company to the government as it is very simple – they are doing an inefficient job. Round here it is a favourite topic of conversation! It’s not that we don’t have competent managers in Ghana; it’s just that whenever we get World Bank money, we have to accept managers from overseas and they have to be paid far higher salaries than Ghanaians, and in dollars. It’s just inefficient.”
We now enter an adjacent community which is Nima. As it is approaching Sunday lunchtime there are lots of street-side chop houses and stalls selling a cornflour staple dish called tuo-zafi. It’s now baking hot in the midday sun and I’m relieved to find some shelter while I chat to the local assemblyman (like a local councillor), the Honourable Abdul Majid Logoh.
“We get water twice a week sometimes or maybe only once a month occasionally. In March there was a time when we were without water for 2-3 weeks. At that time, we then have to ask our wives and children to collect water, sometimes from maybe 3-4 kilometres away. That means that the children can’t always go to school. It’s worse. Lots of areas don’t have water but actually the bills have gone up a lot in two years – maybe even by 100%! If you can’t afford to pay, you get disconnected. Recently the water company and a government minister came along here and disconnected lots of households because they had not paid their bills. As an assemblyman I find it very frustrating when I see people carrying buckets to collect water. People also come to me to complain about the sanitation situation here. There are not enough refuse containers and so people have to dump their waste where they can. Also, the government has now passed control of community toilets to other groups and the price has risen from 0.02 to 0.05 cedis to use them! I have been to them and talked to them about this but we have not resolved the situation yet. The sanitation situation here is serious. There is no underground sewerage and so people store their solid waste in pits which get emptied or they put their waste water in these channels. There are problems with typhoid, malaria and cholera in this area – people get sick and sometimes die.
So, what’s the verdict on the privatised management? They certainly inherited a difficult, far-from-perfect situation but many people I spoke to were concerned that things were getting even worse. NCAP’s work continues. The contract contains clauses that the government can terminate the contract if AVRL does not meet the targets set out. NCAP believes that this situation is now present and are urging the government to stick to this commitment and bring back public management, with enhanced community and democratic oversight and far more public investment.
Vicky Cann
Saturday, 19 April 2008
Global food price crisis
One of the hot topics here is the food price crisis. There are a number of things driving the rise in global food prices including the demand for cereals for use as agro fuels in cars.
Here in Ghana the concern about high food prices has focussed attention on the impact of the liberalisation of agricultural products and the subsequent reduction of subsidies and tariffs. For example Ghana has moved from a position of self sufficiency in rice to now where 65% of rice is imported. The headline in one of the local papers is ‘we must grow the food we eat’ and ActionAid Ghana ran a workshop this afternoon that I attended.
This morning we interviewed Tony Turan from IBON a research and education NGO. This interview will be edited when we get back and we’ll put it on the website. His argument is that conditions set by the Asian Development Bank on loans to the Phillipines meant that they went from being self sufficient to being the world’s largest importer of rice. It was an unprecedented order from the Philippines that then led to the rapid increase in the price of rice. The Phillipines has sneezed and Ghana and others have caught a cold.
As you’d expect discussions here in the workshops tend to be serious, evidence based and focussed on problem solving. Once in a while a speaker slips in a phrase showing their passionate frustration with individuals from the Global North. My favourites so far:
Peter Mandelson ‘has no sympathy or mercy. He will not budge”
Tony Blair has …..well maybe we’ll let that one go for now.
National Theatre
Vicky and I are the only guests in our small hotel attending the conference. However because the hotel is due to house delegates to the conference it has been given police protection. So since Wednesday we have been guarded by up to three armed police at any one time.
Yesterday we held our event presenting the findings of our research into the impact of European free trade deals in Mexico and South Africa.
Speakers from Ghana and the Philippines presented their analysis of the impact of free trade agreements in their regions.
With rooms at a premium when the UN comes to town delegates are scattered across Accra. Last night we met up with colleagues from organisations in North America, Europe and Africa at a restaurant in East Legon. Rice fish beer and discussions about the chances of a World Trade Organisation ministerial meeting in May. East Lagon is 20 minutes drive across town and the evening was completed with me directing the taxi driver on how to get back.
This morning a ten minute walk from the National Theatre where the Civil Society Forum is held to the National Conference Centre to register for the conference centre. Ten minutes and a few extra degrees of air conditioning, literally is appears to allow for the wearing of suits.
Work is still going on to finalise the conference centre. Here workers paint the back fence. Behind them is the Accra racecourse.
Friday, November 16, 2007
Donors to pay attention to sanitation issues
Donors to Pay Attention to Sanitation Issues
Isabella Gyau Orhin
The Senior Vice President of the KFW Development Bank of Germany Mr. Bruno Wenn has said although the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) number seven highlights the need to provide access to water and sanitation, the issue of sanitation services in Africa has been neglected for a while by the donor community.
Speaking to a group of African media personnel in Frankfurt last Week, Mr. Wenn said the neglect was due to the fact that donors concentrated on providing services in rural communities which have no huge sanitation problems like urban areas.
This therefore led to the focus on the provision of water to the detriment of sanitation services, especially in urban areas.
"In economic sense, there is the need to focus on sanitation in urban areas where there are slums and where people are in dire need of sanitation services," he said.
He said the donor community has a plan to support the provision of sanitation services up to the year 2020 in Africa.
Key indicators according to him are being developed for smooth and effective implementation of the programme.
Studies show that at least 300 million or 40 percent of Africans do not have access to basic sanitation and hygiene services; this number has increased by 70 million since the year 1990. Those without access are concentrated among the poorest and most vulnerable, and the problem is particularly severe in rapidly growing peri-urban areas.
Experts however, say epidemics do not respect geographical boundaries or social status, so a threat to the most vulnerable is a threat to all.
It is estimated that every hour; a hundred African children die from diarrhoea. Most of these lives can be saved through better access to sanitation and improved basic hygiene; the simple act of washing hands with soap can reduce deaths from diarrhoea by a third! Poor sanitation and hygiene weaken Africans through disease, disrupt the environment, exacerbate poverty through medical cost and lower productivity, while robbing the poor and vulnerable of dignity.
In an interview, a Member of Parliament of the Greens Party in Germany Dr. Ursula Eid said it is important for Africa to pay attention on sanitation issues.
Dr. Eid who is an advisor on sanitation to the UN Secretary-General Mr. Ban Ki Moon said she is working very hard to get the African Union to focus on sanitation in one of its up coming meetings.
At the end of the African Sanitation and Hygiene conference in 2002 in Johannesburg, participants pledged to develop and strengthen the clear policies and institutional frameworks needed to improve sanitation and hygiene; as a first step, identify departmental leadership and clarify the responsibilities of the many government departments usually involved in the sector.
Participants further pledged to ddevelop realistic local, national and global targets for improved sanitation and hygiene in particular, and to support the adoption and implementation of a global target of halving the number of people without access to sanitation and hygiene by 2015.
They also pledged to increase the financial and human resources available to achieve these targets, and ensure that adequate resources are also available to monitor progress.
Participants also recognised the leadership of women in sanitation and hygiene. "As care-givers who suffer the consequences of managing health within the family, women have always been quicker than men to appreciate the importance of sanitation and hygiene; they have been at the forefront of efforts to improve them," a statement issued at the end of the summit said.
This does not mean that men can "leave this challenge to women", but rather that the role of women must be understood, respected, and supported if the challenge is to be met., the statement added.
Participants also pledged to make the most of public resources in sanitation and hygiene by using them only for those items for which households and others cannot or will not pay
In Ghana, the National Sanitation Policy which was published in May 1999 by the Local government Ministry looks at environmental problems and constraints and lists inadequate funds to pay solid waste contractors who are doing about 80 percent of the collection not paid for by residents.
Others are lack of intense and sustained public education on sanitation, land acquisition for public waste disposal and not in my backyard syndrome.
The policy also encourages private sector participation in the delivery of sanitation services and this is where Zoomlion, a private waste management company operating in Ghana steps in with public education on sanitation alongside its work.
At the launch of a Public education on sanitation in Accra last month, the Minister for Local Government, Rural Development and Environment (MLGRDE), Mr. Kwadwo Agyei Darko appealed to Ghanaians to desist from the "blame-game syndrome" and find ways of solving and controlling sanitation problems whenever they occur.
He said sanitation isses are very important for accelerated growth and therefore should
A dirty environment, he said, can lead to serious environmental hazards such as floods and outbreak of diseases like malaria and cholera.
"It is we ourselves who dirty the environment and not anyone else. Keep the plastic and liquid wastes in cars in which you are sitting in rather than throwing them out to litter the streets", he said.
He urged Ghanaians not to wait for the government to come and clean their environments for them. "We must clean it ourselves", he said.
Isabella Gyau Orhin
The Senior Vice President of the KFW Development Bank of Germany Mr. Bruno Wenn has said although the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) number seven highlights the need to provide access to water and sanitation, the issue of sanitation services in Africa has been neglected for a while by the donor community.
Speaking to a group of African media personnel in Frankfurt last Week, Mr. Wenn said the neglect was due to the fact that donors concentrated on providing services in rural communities which have no huge sanitation problems like urban areas.
This therefore led to the focus on the provision of water to the detriment of sanitation services, especially in urban areas.
"In economic sense, there is the need to focus on sanitation in urban areas where there are slums and where people are in dire need of sanitation services," he said.
He said the donor community has a plan to support the provision of sanitation services up to the year 2020 in Africa.
Key indicators according to him are being developed for smooth and effective implementation of the programme.
Studies show that at least 300 million or 40 percent of Africans do not have access to basic sanitation and hygiene services; this number has increased by 70 million since the year 1990. Those without access are concentrated among the poorest and most vulnerable, and the problem is particularly severe in rapidly growing peri-urban areas.
Experts however, say epidemics do not respect geographical boundaries or social status, so a threat to the most vulnerable is a threat to all.
It is estimated that every hour; a hundred African children die from diarrhoea. Most of these lives can be saved through better access to sanitation and improved basic hygiene; the simple act of washing hands with soap can reduce deaths from diarrhoea by a third! Poor sanitation and hygiene weaken Africans through disease, disrupt the environment, exacerbate poverty through medical cost and lower productivity, while robbing the poor and vulnerable of dignity.
In an interview, a Member of Parliament of the Greens Party in Germany Dr. Ursula Eid said it is important for Africa to pay attention on sanitation issues.
Dr. Eid who is an advisor on sanitation to the UN Secretary-General Mr. Ban Ki Moon said she is working very hard to get the African Union to focus on sanitation in one of its up coming meetings.
At the end of the African Sanitation and Hygiene conference in 2002 in Johannesburg, participants pledged to develop and strengthen the clear policies and institutional frameworks needed to improve sanitation and hygiene; as a first step, identify departmental leadership and clarify the responsibilities of the many government departments usually involved in the sector.
Participants further pledged to ddevelop realistic local, national and global targets for improved sanitation and hygiene in particular, and to support the adoption and implementation of a global target of halving the number of people without access to sanitation and hygiene by 2015.
They also pledged to increase the financial and human resources available to achieve these targets, and ensure that adequate resources are also available to monitor progress.
Participants also recognised the leadership of women in sanitation and hygiene. "As care-givers who suffer the consequences of managing health within the family, women have always been quicker than men to appreciate the importance of sanitation and hygiene; they have been at the forefront of efforts to improve them," a statement issued at the end of the summit said.
This does not mean that men can "leave this challenge to women", but rather that the role of women must be understood, respected, and supported if the challenge is to be met., the statement added.
Participants also pledged to make the most of public resources in sanitation and hygiene by using them only for those items for which households and others cannot or will not pay
In Ghana, the National Sanitation Policy which was published in May 1999 by the Local government Ministry looks at environmental problems and constraints and lists inadequate funds to pay solid waste contractors who are doing about 80 percent of the collection not paid for by residents.
Others are lack of intense and sustained public education on sanitation, land acquisition for public waste disposal and not in my backyard syndrome.
The policy also encourages private sector participation in the delivery of sanitation services and this is where Zoomlion, a private waste management company operating in Ghana steps in with public education on sanitation alongside its work.
At the launch of a Public education on sanitation in Accra last month, the Minister for Local Government, Rural Development and Environment (MLGRDE), Mr. Kwadwo Agyei Darko appealed to Ghanaians to desist from the "blame-game syndrome" and find ways of solving and controlling sanitation problems whenever they occur.
He said sanitation isses are very important for accelerated growth and therefore should
A dirty environment, he said, can lead to serious environmental hazards such as floods and outbreak of diseases like malaria and cholera.
"It is we ourselves who dirty the environment and not anyone else. Keep the plastic and liquid wastes in cars in which you are sitting in rather than throwing them out to litter the streets", he said.
He urged Ghanaians not to wait for the government to come and clean their environments for them. "We must clean it ourselves", he said.
Gyimah-Boadi advises African countries to invest in Chinese studies
By Isabella Gyau Orhin
African countries have been advised to invest some money in China studies in order to deal with that country effectively and efficiently.
An advisor to the German Government on the African Initiative Prof Gyimah –
Boadi said this in an interview after the third German/Europe –African Dialogue on Development cooperation in Ebarbach near Wiesbaden in Germany.
“We need to learn the Chinese language, understand Chinese culture and politics,” Prof, Gyimah- Boadi who is the Executive Director of the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development. (CDD) said.
He said Africans know the British and the Americans to some extent and this makes it easier in dealing with them.
For instance he said Africans have studied in British schools, have intermarriages with the British people and understands their language.
“When it comes to China, we don’t know them,
They have studied us and know us and that is why they are coming to us,” he said.
He said the Chinese relationship with African countries in recent years has brought some competition in African trade relations with the rest of the World.
“Suddenly Europe and America has to compete with China over Africa,” he said adding,
“If you have something to sell and there are many buyers it is fine,” he said.
Prof. Gyimah-Boadi said the question now is whether African countries will be able to make the good choices.
“This is a question that should be answered by only Africa and not Europe or America,” he said.
Prof. Gyimah-Boadi further explained that.
He said Europeans did not come to Africa as missionaries and charity givers and the same thing applies to china. He all these investors have business interests which Africa must watch cautiously.
Speaking on the relevance of the Summit itself, Prof. Gyimah -Boadi said the forum gave the opportunity for Africa to tap the brains of some of its sons and daughters who for some reasons are not living in their countries.
He said although the German President Mr. Horst Kohler has no decision making powers, he has persuasive skills which help to change the mind of his people towards African issues.
At a press conference after the summit, the summit, the German President Mr. Kohler Europeans and other Western n leaders to refrain from what he termed “teaching Africans lessons.”
“They know what the problems are,” he said.
The Nigerian Mr. Musa Yar’adua said the partnership with Africa forum discussed freely and frankly issues about Africa’s relationship with Europe.
He said issues like under-development, ignorance, peace conflict within the context of globalization are human problems and not African problems.
On the Economic Partnership Agreements, Mr.Yar’ adua said ECOWAS is not divided over the signing of the agreement. He said what is being discussed is being discussed at the regional level and hopefully decisions would be reached.
The Nigerian President said the ultimate aim of the partnership is human development.
The President of Benin Thomas Boni Yayi said Africa would like to keep its relationship with Europe in spite of the disagreements on the signing of the EPAs.
“We are continuing our negotiations and dialogue,” he said.
The President of Botswana Festus G. Mogae on his part said it is important for African governments to establish enabling Environments for private Sector Development.
The President of Mozambique, Amando Guebuza said it is wrong for people to refer to the whole of Africa as a country when indeed Africa is a continent.
He said the African Union establishes the mechanism that allow Africans to move ahead and demonstrate democratic, human rights and press freedom principles.
The President of Madagascar Mr. Marc Ralvomanana on his part said Africans should build their capacity in terms of leadership and negotiation.
“It is important for Africa to choose good leaders based on mutual trust.”
African countries have been advised to invest some money in China studies in order to deal with that country effectively and efficiently.
An advisor to the German Government on the African Initiative Prof Gyimah –
Boadi said this in an interview after the third German/Europe –African Dialogue on Development cooperation in Ebarbach near Wiesbaden in Germany.
“We need to learn the Chinese language, understand Chinese culture and politics,” Prof, Gyimah- Boadi who is the Executive Director of the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development. (CDD) said.
He said Africans know the British and the Americans to some extent and this makes it easier in dealing with them.
For instance he said Africans have studied in British schools, have intermarriages with the British people and understands their language.
“When it comes to China, we don’t know them,
They have studied us and know us and that is why they are coming to us,” he said.
He said the Chinese relationship with African countries in recent years has brought some competition in African trade relations with the rest of the World.
“Suddenly Europe and America has to compete with China over Africa,” he said adding,
“If you have something to sell and there are many buyers it is fine,” he said.
Prof. Gyimah-Boadi said the question now is whether African countries will be able to make the good choices.
“This is a question that should be answered by only Africa and not Europe or America,” he said.
Prof. Gyimah-Boadi further explained that.
He said Europeans did not come to Africa as missionaries and charity givers and the same thing applies to china. He all these investors have business interests which Africa must watch cautiously.
Speaking on the relevance of the Summit itself, Prof. Gyimah -Boadi said the forum gave the opportunity for Africa to tap the brains of some of its sons and daughters who for some reasons are not living in their countries.
He said although the German President Mr. Horst Kohler has no decision making powers, he has persuasive skills which help to change the mind of his people towards African issues.
At a press conference after the summit, the summit, the German President Mr. Kohler Europeans and other Western n leaders to refrain from what he termed “teaching Africans lessons.”
“They know what the problems are,” he said.
The Nigerian Mr. Musa Yar’adua said the partnership with Africa forum discussed freely and frankly issues about Africa’s relationship with Europe.
He said issues like under-development, ignorance, peace conflict within the context of globalization are human problems and not African problems.
On the Economic Partnership Agreements, Mr.Yar’ adua said ECOWAS is not divided over the signing of the agreement. He said what is being discussed is being discussed at the regional level and hopefully decisions would be reached.
The Nigerian President said the ultimate aim of the partnership is human development.
The President of Benin Thomas Boni Yayi said Africa would like to keep its relationship with Europe in spite of the disagreements on the signing of the EPAs.
“We are continuing our negotiations and dialogue,” he said.
The President of Botswana Festus G. Mogae on his part said it is important for African governments to establish enabling Environments for private Sector Development.
The President of Mozambique, Amando Guebuza said it is wrong for people to refer to the whole of Africa as a country when indeed Africa is a continent.
He said the African Union establishes the mechanism that allow Africans to move ahead and demonstrate democratic, human rights and press freedom principles.
The President of Madagascar Mr. Marc Ralvomanana on his part said Africans should build their capacity in terms of leadership and negotiation.
“It is important for Africa to choose good leaders based on mutual trust.”
Kohler says Germany is supporting Africa to attain MDGs
By Isabella Gyau Orhin, Berlin, Germany
The German President Mr. Horst Kohler has said that Germany has a plan to speed up the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Africa and other parts of the world by the year 2015.
This he said is being done by ensuring the payment of 0.7 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by the year 2015 as Germany’s contribution to funding the MDGs.
The President was speaking at a meeting with 10 media personnel from Africa in Berlin recently.
The meeting was organized by INWENT, a capacity building organization in partnership with the Office of the German President as part of preparation towards the Germany/EU Dialogue on Development Cooperation to be held in Frankfurt in early November..
“When I was in Washington in the year 2003 or 2004, the contribution of Germany was 0.25 percent of GDP, now it is 0.36 percent and we hope to raise it to 0.5 percent in 2010 and hopefully to 0.7 percent by 2015,” says Mr. Kohler who is also a former director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
He said the Ministry of Economic Cooperation was working within the framework of the European Union (EU) to shape negotiation for development relations with Africa.
“There is a clear commitment on the part of our Chancellor Mrs. Angela Merkel and our Minister for Economic Cooperation to deliver on their promise,” Mr. Kohler said.
Mr. Kohler also said his country is working within the framework of the European Union to shape the negotiations for a development friendly trade in the direction of openings of markets in Europe for products coming from Africa.
“I am trying to mediate but Europe has to reconsider some elements of its own African concept,” Mr. Kohler said adding, “I very much hope that this meeting in Portugal between African and the Europeans will bring some major steps forward.”
He also said there is the need to put the issue of migration on the table. “I still feel that there is not yet a clear understanding what it means for Africans to come to Europe as refugees or people who just want to escape hunger and trouble.”
Highlighting more on the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPAs) Mr. Kohler said there is the need to move from existing trade regime to a more open trade regime.
What is difficult he said was how to deal with the existing trade preferences that are hanging within the new trade regime.
The President further said trade negotiators from Europe and the United states see the need to reduce existing trade preferences for Africa, adding, “This is an issue where we need a transition period to handle carefully enough.”
The German President also made mention of the fact that African negotiators “are detecting a bit more of their power within international negotiations.”
I don’t want to give judgment of what is right or wrong, you need to know what is good for your continent,” he said adding, “My position is that we need to do something about double standards in international trade regime, we should not preach to others market economy and while we ourselves are very reluctant to reduce the impediments to trade,”
Africans have a deadline to sign on to……………………………………………………….
The Co President of the Heinrich Boll Foundation which is a subsidiary of the Green Party in Germany Barbara Unmuesig says Africa can use its relationship with China to negotiate with Europe on the EPAs.
She said “Europe realizes that they have not done their home work well when it comes to dealing with Africa in the post war years and China has cleverly stepped in.”
She said China is investing heavily in Africa with sophistication while the Europeans feel China is undermining IMF/World Bank conditionalities, conditionalities of good governance and human rights among others.
Europeans are worried that China is becoming more influential in Africa while its main interest is in the gas and oil resources of Africa.
According to Barbara Unmuessig, while Africa can exploit the situation to its advantage, it must watch China carefully since that country can fall into trouble due to its undemocratic stance.
By Isabella Gyau Orhin, Berlin, Germany
The German President Mr. Horst Kohler has said that Germany has a plan to speed up the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Africa and other parts of the world by the year 2015.
This he said is being done by ensuring the payment of 0.7 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by the year 2015 as Germany’s contribution to funding the MDGs.
The President was speaking at a meeting with 10 media personnel from Africa in Berlin recently.
The meeting was organized by INWENT, a capacity building organization in partnership with the Office of the German President as part of preparation towards the Germany/EU Dialogue on Development Cooperation to be held in Frankfurt in early November..
“When I was in Washington in the year 2003 or 2004, the contribution of Germany was 0.25 percent of GDP, now it is 0.36 percent and we hope to raise it to 0.5 percent in 2010 and hopefully to 0.7 percent by 2015,” says Mr. Kohler who is also a former director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
He said the Ministry of Economic Cooperation was working within the framework of the European Union (EU) to shape negotiation for development relations with Africa.
“There is a clear commitment on the part of our Chancellor Mrs. Angela Merkel and our Minister for Economic Cooperation to deliver on their promise,” Mr. Kohler said.
Mr. Kohler also said his country is working within the framework of the European Union to shape the negotiations for a development friendly trade in the direction of openings of markets in Europe for products coming from Africa.
“I am trying to mediate but Europe has to reconsider some elements of its own African concept,” Mr. Kohler said adding, “I very much hope that this meeting in Portugal between African and the Europeans will bring some major steps forward.”
He also said there is the need to put the issue of migration on the table. “I still feel that there is not yet a clear understanding what it means for Africans to come to Europe as refugees or people who just want to escape hunger and trouble.”
Highlighting more on the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPAs) Mr. Kohler said there is the need to move from existing trade regime to a more open trade regime.
What is difficult he said was how to deal with the existing trade preferences that are hanging within the new trade regime.
The President further said trade negotiators from Europe and the United states see the need to reduce existing trade preferences for Africa, adding, “This is an issue where we need a transition period to handle carefully enough.”
The German President also made mention of the fact that African negotiators “are detecting a bit more of their power within international negotiations.”
I don’t want to give judgment of what is right or wrong, you need to know what is good for your continent,” he said adding, “My position is that we need to do something about double standards in international trade regime, we should not preach to others market economy and while we ourselves are very reluctant to reduce the impediments to trade,”
Africans have a deadline to sign on to……………………………………………………….
The Co President of the Heinrich Boll Foundation which is a subsidiary of the Green Party in Germany Barbara Unmuesig says Africa can use its relationship with China to negotiate with Europe on the EPAs.
She said “Europe realizes that they have not done their home work well when it comes to dealing with Africa in the post war years and China has cleverly stepped in.”
She said China is investing heavily in Africa with sophistication while the Europeans feel China is undermining IMF/World Bank conditionalities, conditionalities of good governance and human rights among others.
Europeans are worried that China is becoming more influential in Africa while its main interest is in the gas and oil resources of Africa.
According to Barbara Unmuessig, while Africa can exploit the situation to its advantage, it must watch China carefully since that country can fall into trouble due to its undemocratic stance.
Kohler says Germany is supporting Africa to attain MDGs
By Isabella Gyau Orhin, Berlin, Germany
The German President Mr. Horst Kohler has said that Germany has a plan to speed up the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Africa and other parts of the world by the year 2015.
This he said is being done by ensuring the payment of 0.7 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by the year 2015 as Germany’s contribution to funding the MDGs.
The President was speaking at a meeting with 10 media personnel from Africa in Berlin recently.
The meeting was organized by INWENT, a capacity building organization in partnership with the Office of the German President as part of preparation towards the Germany/EU Dialogue on Development Cooperation to be held in Frankfurt in early November..
“When I was in Washington in the year 2003 or 2004, the contribution of Germany was 0.25 percent of GDP, now it is 0.36 percent and we hope to raise it to 0.5 percent in 2010 and hopefully to 0.7 percent by 2015,” says Mr. Kohler who is also a former director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
He said the Ministry of Economic Cooperation was working within the framework of the European Union (EU) to shape negotiation for development relations with Africa.
“There is a clear commitment on the part of our Chancellor Mrs. Angela Merkel and our Minister for Economic Cooperation to deliver on their promise,” Mr. Kohler said.
Mr. Kohler also said his country is working within the framework of the European Union to shape the negotiations for a development friendly trade in the direction of openings of markets in Europe for products coming from Africa.
“I am trying to mediate but Europe has to reconsider some elements of its own African concept,” Mr. Kohler said adding, “I very much hope that this meeting in Portugal between African and the Europeans will bring some major steps forward.”
He also said there is the need to put the issue of migration on the table. “I still feel that there is not yet a clear understanding what it means for Africans to come to Europe as refugees or people who just want to escape hunger and trouble.”
Highlighting more on the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPAs) Mr. Kohler said there is the need to move from existing trade regime to a more open trade regime.
What is difficult he said was how to deal with the existing trade preferences that are hanging within the new trade regime.
The President further said trade negotiators from Europe and the United states see the need to reduce existing trade preferences for Africa, adding, “This is an issue where we need a transition period to handle carefully enough.”
The German President also made mention of the fact that African negotiators “are detecting a bit more of their power within international negotiations.”
I don’t want to give judgment of what is right or wrong, you need to know what is good for your continent,” he said adding, “My position is that we need to do something about double standards in international trade regime, we should not preach to others market economy and while we ourselves are very reluctant to reduce the impediments to trade,”
Africans have a deadline to sign on to……………………………………………………….
The Co President of the Heinrich Boll Foundation which is a subsidiary of the Green Party in Germany Barbara Unmuesig says Africa can use its relationship with China to negotiate with Europe on the EPAs.
She said “Europe realizes that they have not done their home work well when it comes to dealing with Africa in the post war years and China has cleverly stepped in.”
She said China is investing heavily in Africa with sophistication while the Europeans feel China is undermining IMF/World Bank conditionalities, conditionalities of good governance and human rights among others.
Europeans are worried that China is becoming more influential in Africa while its main interest is in the gas and oil resources of Africa.
According to Barbara Unmuessig, while Africa can exploit the situation to its advantage, it must watch China carefully since that country can fall into trouble due to its undemocratic stance.
By Isabella Gyau Orhin, Berlin, Germany
The German President Mr. Horst Kohler has said that Germany has a plan to speed up the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Africa and other parts of the world by the year 2015.
This he said is being done by ensuring the payment of 0.7 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by the year 2015 as Germany’s contribution to funding the MDGs.
The President was speaking at a meeting with 10 media personnel from Africa in Berlin recently.
The meeting was organized by INWENT, a capacity building organization in partnership with the Office of the German President as part of preparation towards the Germany/EU Dialogue on Development Cooperation to be held in Frankfurt in early November..
“When I was in Washington in the year 2003 or 2004, the contribution of Germany was 0.25 percent of GDP, now it is 0.36 percent and we hope to raise it to 0.5 percent in 2010 and hopefully to 0.7 percent by 2015,” says Mr. Kohler who is also a former director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
He said the Ministry of Economic Cooperation was working within the framework of the European Union (EU) to shape negotiation for development relations with Africa.
“There is a clear commitment on the part of our Chancellor Mrs. Angela Merkel and our Minister for Economic Cooperation to deliver on their promise,” Mr. Kohler said.
Mr. Kohler also said his country is working within the framework of the European Union to shape the negotiations for a development friendly trade in the direction of openings of markets in Europe for products coming from Africa.
“I am trying to mediate but Europe has to reconsider some elements of its own African concept,” Mr. Kohler said adding, “I very much hope that this meeting in Portugal between African and the Europeans will bring some major steps forward.”
He also said there is the need to put the issue of migration on the table. “I still feel that there is not yet a clear understanding what it means for Africans to come to Europe as refugees or people who just want to escape hunger and trouble.”
Highlighting more on the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPAs) Mr. Kohler said there is the need to move from existing trade regime to a more open trade regime.
What is difficult he said was how to deal with the existing trade preferences that are hanging within the new trade regime.
The President further said trade negotiators from Europe and the United states see the need to reduce existing trade preferences for Africa, adding, “This is an issue where we need a transition period to handle carefully enough.”
The German President also made mention of the fact that African negotiators “are detecting a bit more of their power within international negotiations.”
I don’t want to give judgment of what is right or wrong, you need to know what is good for your continent,” he said adding, “My position is that we need to do something about double standards in international trade regime, we should not preach to others market economy and while we ourselves are very reluctant to reduce the impediments to trade,”
Africans have a deadline to sign on to……………………………………………………….
The Co President of the Heinrich Boll Foundation which is a subsidiary of the Green Party in Germany Barbara Unmuesig says Africa can use its relationship with China to negotiate with Europe on the EPAs.
She said “Europe realizes that they have not done their home work well when it comes to dealing with Africa in the post war years and China has cleverly stepped in.”
She said China is investing heavily in Africa with sophistication while the Europeans feel China is undermining IMF/World Bank conditionalities, conditionalities of good governance and human rights among others.
Europeans are worried that China is becoming more influential in Africa while its main interest is in the gas and oil resources of Africa.
According to Barbara Unmuessig, while Africa can exploit the situation to its advantage, it must watch China carefully since that country can fall into trouble due to its undemocratic stance.
Africa and EU may settle for a temporary trade agreement
...................As deadline for EPAs approaches
By Isabella Gyau Orhin
Writes from Brussels
Africa and the European Union may have to settle on other temporary trade agreements come January 2008.
This is as a result of the stance taken by both parties in the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) negotiations.
Speaking to a team of African media personnel in the EU headquarters in Brussels recently, an assistant of the EU Trade Commissioner Mr. Stephen Adams said negotiations with the Caribbean countries are far advanced and the Caribbean countries may be likely to sign the EPAs by the scheduled date of December 2007.
“We may just focus on agricultural and manufactured products for the time being with the African countries,” he said
“What we should remember is that we all agreed in 2001 to change the situation and gave ourselves seven years to do that,” Adams said in a briefing.
Giving a background to the Cotonou agreement which was signed on 23rd June 2000 and revised in Luxembourg in 2005, he said that agreement was based on historical circumstances and the special relationship between the EU and the ACP countries.
Some of the provisions of this agreement he said are in contravention of World Trade Organisation (WTO) regulations which insist that trade relations should be reciprocal.
According to Adams, other developing countries, particularly in Latin America who are outside the ACP have threatened to sue the EU at the WTO if it does not put an end to its preferential treatment for ACP countries.
“This is what we have spent the last seven years doing in order to prevent ourselves from a law suit from the other developing world,” Adams explained.
“The notion here is that the EU discriminates in its trade relations by having different trade arrangements with developing countries,” he added.
He said since the Cotonou agreement is based on preferential access, it does not provide any incentives for the ACP counties to diversify their exports or add value to them.
“We want to use the EPAs to change that,” he said adding, “ at the heart of the EPAs is regional market building so that the EU can negotiate with regional groupings instead of individual countries.”
Mr. Adams also said the EU is not asking ACP countries to liberalize their markets on the same scale as the EU would. “We are just asking them to liberalize just enough to meet WTO regulations,” he said.
According to him, the EU is also guaranteeing increased aid for development assistance although development assistance is not being negotiated as part of EPAs.
Reacting to allegations that the EU is trying to smuggle the Singaporean issues of Investment, Competition and Public Procurement in the EPAs, Mr. Adams said, the EU is not insisting that the Singaporean issues which have been taken off the table at the Multilateral level should be included at all cost in the EPA negotiations.
“The catalyst in Asian wealth is from international capital markets and most investors invest outside Africa, it is about creating the right conditions and agreeing on clear investment rules,” he said adding, “a lot of NGOs have taken this to mean that the EU is forcing the issue of Investment on ACP countries.”
He also explained that the EU cannot accede to calls by NGOs to give Generalized Systems of Preferences Plus (GPS+) to African countries which even give better assess to countries in terms of trading with the EU.
He said the GPS+ is given to countries that have signed international conventions such as the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) agreements on Labour Standards and sustainable development.
Mr. Adams who is a speech writer for EU Trade Commissioner Mr. Peter Mandelson was of the view that most African countries have not signed on to such conventions and as such the EU risks another law suit at the WTO if it attempts to put ACP countries in that category which the EU uses to promote social standards around the world.
In an open letter to anti poverty campaigners who appear to have succeeded in convincing ACP governments not to sign the EPAs, EU Trade Commissioner Mr. Peter Mandelson said “By assisting with the creation of regional markets and accompanying the sometimes difficult adjustments these entails the EU is standing by the side of its ACP partners in their drive to adapt to the challenges of globalization.”
He said no question in Europe’s trade development policy is more pressing than how that continent can use trade to help ACP countries build strong economies.
He said ACP countries received 1.6 billion euros in development assistance over the period 2001-2005 through the European Development Fund and the EU budget.
“Not only will these assistance continue and increase but also ACP countries will be major beneficiaries of the decision to increase Europe’s spending on aid for trade to 2 billion euros.
But critics say that is too small considering the fact that China is investing over five billion dollars in the Democratic Republic of Congo alone.
An article in The Guardian of UK on October 31, 2007 co- authored by Peter Madelson and the EU Development Commissioner Louis Michel, argues that the current trade arrangements discriminate in favour of developing countries. “This is not morally right nor is it compatible with international trade rules.
“Unless we agree on new compatible arrangements with ACP countries we will have to fall back on our Default Preference Scheme for all developing countries which is less generous than our current scheme,” the article said adding, “the EU is not threatening to raise tariffs for these countries, it is doing everything it can to avoid it.”
African countries particularly those in ECOWAS say removing tariffs within regional blocs to strengthen regional trade will cut down revenue for development among others while civil society groups are standing by them.
By Isabella Gyau Orhin
Writes from Brussels
Africa and the European Union may have to settle on other temporary trade agreements come January 2008.
This is as a result of the stance taken by both parties in the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) negotiations.
Speaking to a team of African media personnel in the EU headquarters in Brussels recently, an assistant of the EU Trade Commissioner Mr. Stephen Adams said negotiations with the Caribbean countries are far advanced and the Caribbean countries may be likely to sign the EPAs by the scheduled date of December 2007.
“We may just focus on agricultural and manufactured products for the time being with the African countries,” he said
“What we should remember is that we all agreed in 2001 to change the situation and gave ourselves seven years to do that,” Adams said in a briefing.
Giving a background to the Cotonou agreement which was signed on 23rd June 2000 and revised in Luxembourg in 2005, he said that agreement was based on historical circumstances and the special relationship between the EU and the ACP countries.
Some of the provisions of this agreement he said are in contravention of World Trade Organisation (WTO) regulations which insist that trade relations should be reciprocal.
According to Adams, other developing countries, particularly in Latin America who are outside the ACP have threatened to sue the EU at the WTO if it does not put an end to its preferential treatment for ACP countries.
“This is what we have spent the last seven years doing in order to prevent ourselves from a law suit from the other developing world,” Adams explained.
“The notion here is that the EU discriminates in its trade relations by having different trade arrangements with developing countries,” he added.
He said since the Cotonou agreement is based on preferential access, it does not provide any incentives for the ACP counties to diversify their exports or add value to them.
“We want to use the EPAs to change that,” he said adding, “ at the heart of the EPAs is regional market building so that the EU can negotiate with regional groupings instead of individual countries.”
Mr. Adams also said the EU is not asking ACP countries to liberalize their markets on the same scale as the EU would. “We are just asking them to liberalize just enough to meet WTO regulations,” he said.
According to him, the EU is also guaranteeing increased aid for development assistance although development assistance is not being negotiated as part of EPAs.
Reacting to allegations that the EU is trying to smuggle the Singaporean issues of Investment, Competition and Public Procurement in the EPAs, Mr. Adams said, the EU is not insisting that the Singaporean issues which have been taken off the table at the Multilateral level should be included at all cost in the EPA negotiations.
“The catalyst in Asian wealth is from international capital markets and most investors invest outside Africa, it is about creating the right conditions and agreeing on clear investment rules,” he said adding, “a lot of NGOs have taken this to mean that the EU is forcing the issue of Investment on ACP countries.”
He also explained that the EU cannot accede to calls by NGOs to give Generalized Systems of Preferences Plus (GPS+) to African countries which even give better assess to countries in terms of trading with the EU.
He said the GPS+ is given to countries that have signed international conventions such as the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) agreements on Labour Standards and sustainable development.
Mr. Adams who is a speech writer for EU Trade Commissioner Mr. Peter Mandelson was of the view that most African countries have not signed on to such conventions and as such the EU risks another law suit at the WTO if it attempts to put ACP countries in that category which the EU uses to promote social standards around the world.
In an open letter to anti poverty campaigners who appear to have succeeded in convincing ACP governments not to sign the EPAs, EU Trade Commissioner Mr. Peter Mandelson said “By assisting with the creation of regional markets and accompanying the sometimes difficult adjustments these entails the EU is standing by the side of its ACP partners in their drive to adapt to the challenges of globalization.”
He said no question in Europe’s trade development policy is more pressing than how that continent can use trade to help ACP countries build strong economies.
He said ACP countries received 1.6 billion euros in development assistance over the period 2001-2005 through the European Development Fund and the EU budget.
“Not only will these assistance continue and increase but also ACP countries will be major beneficiaries of the decision to increase Europe’s spending on aid for trade to 2 billion euros.
But critics say that is too small considering the fact that China is investing over five billion dollars in the Democratic Republic of Congo alone.
An article in The Guardian of UK on October 31, 2007 co- authored by Peter Madelson and the EU Development Commissioner Louis Michel, argues that the current trade arrangements discriminate in favour of developing countries. “This is not morally right nor is it compatible with international trade rules.
“Unless we agree on new compatible arrangements with ACP countries we will have to fall back on our Default Preference Scheme for all developing countries which is less generous than our current scheme,” the article said adding, “the EU is not threatening to raise tariffs for these countries, it is doing everything it can to avoid it.”
African countries particularly those in ECOWAS say removing tariffs within regional blocs to strengthen regional trade will cut down revenue for development among others while civil society groups are standing by them.
EU strategise to compete with China over Africa
By Isabella Gyau Orhin
European business executives, academics and politicians have admitted that their relationship with Africa over the years have left a vacuum which China is gleefully filling up with infrastructural development and huge forms of unconditional aid.
Speaking to a group of African Journalists in Berlin last week, the Head of the African division of the Association of the German Chambers of Industry and Commerce Mr. Hieko Schwiderowski said as far back as 1971, a World Bank report cited lack of infrastructural development and energy supply as the key problems facing African countries.
“After all these years if the same problems still persist, then it means we have not chosen the right focal point of our investments in Africa,” he said adding, “This the Chinese have found.”
European diplomats also say Europe is re-defining its relationship with Africa and this has resulted in a new European Union Strategy for Africa.
The strategy dubbed “from Cairo to Lisbon-the EU-Africa strategic Partnership” is set to be discussed at the upcoming EU-Africa summit in Lisbon, Portugal.
The draft states in introduction that “Africa is now at the heart of international politics.”
The document further explains that the African Union (AU) in particular “is emerging not as a development issue but as a political actor in its own right.”
The EU remains the first economic partner of Africa, with exportation of merchandise amounting to 91.6 billion euros and imports reaching 125.6 billion euros in 2005.
Again in 2006, Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) from the EU to Africa amounted to 48 billion.
The EU Strategy also makes mention of the fact that China has rapidly emerged as Africa’s third most important trade partner with a total trade amounting to 43 billion euros in 2006 and up from 30 billion euros in 2005.
The drafting of this strategy started in 2000 at an EU-Africa summit in Cairo, Egypt.
“The Cairo declaration and the Cairo Plan of Action signed at this summit contained a number of ambitious commitments including the return of stolen cultural goods and on Africa’s external debts,” the strategy said adding, “More important perhaps, the Cairo Summit set in motion more structured political dialogue between EU and Africa with regular meetings of senior officials and Ministers”.
The strategy also says that in many ways 2005, became the international year for Africa. A number of high level events were held and important international initiatives were launched including major commitment on aid and debt relief at the G8 Gleneagles summit, following the Paris Declaration on Aid effectiveness among others.
However, there are diplomats and politicians in the EU who are not happy about the way former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and his vice Gordon Brown hijacked the Europe – Africa debt issue with Music and concerts all in an alleged bid to raise their party and UK profile both home and abroad.
“We worked very hard during the Monterrey Summit in Mexico in 2002 and the G8 meeting in Kananaskis in Canada with African leaders on the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). Therefore it was not fair that Blair and Co, hijacked the whole issue with their own African initiative,” an EU diplomat who refused to go on record told the African journalists.
Commenting on the current trends in Africa in Brussels last Monday, a Lecturer at the University of Brussels Jonathan Holslag said “Africa is running out of red carpet these days. Not a month passes without some high-level delegation from a far-flung corner of the world;” he said adding “Re-emerging powers are in the vanguard of those rushing to gain new influence in Africa.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin, Brazilian President Lula da Silva, Chinese Leader Hu Jintao and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh have in the last year all trodden the same path to the African continent.
The United States he said is also pursuing Africa for its own interests. US has changed its policies towards Africa after September 11, and is said to be pursuing oil interests in Africa.
Germany in 2005 launched an African Initiative while Russia in 2006 also launched a New African strategy on gas and oil
Describing it as “a new scramble for Africa,” Holslag says it has been a marked shift away from the “Africa fatigue” of the 1990s, even if Africa’s reappearance on the diplomatic map has not been entirely to its own credit.
Holslag also says these developments in Africa have clearly confirmed the way globalization is entering a new stage. He explained that the west as the world’s main industrial powerhouse is outsourcing more ad more of its resource –intensive activities to Asia, at the same time, Asia’s growth is strengthening the position of the world’s large oil and gas producers in Africa.
This he said is what is threatening the longstanding Europe-African relationship of the 20th century.
“Africa is reorienting its economic focus and even if Europe still remains the main partner in terms of trade, aid and investment, its relative influence is shrinking,” Holslag said.
He explained further that Africa’s re-orientation is as much the consequence of actual changes in trade patterns as it is of the high expectations Africans have of more lucrative transactions in the years ahead.
“Now the EU is still Africa’s privileged political partner, but China, Russia, India and Brazil are turning their African embassies into new diplomatic nerve centres.” Holslag said.
Unlike the first scramble for Africa which was also about its natural resources, Holslag says Africa stands to benefit from the current scramble.
The only warning he said is to ensure that China does not influence the continent’s domestic politics.
European business executives, academics and politicians have admitted that their relationship with Africa over the years have left a vacuum which China is gleefully filling up with infrastructural development and huge forms of unconditional aid.
Speaking to a group of African Journalists in Berlin last week, the Head of the African division of the Association of the German Chambers of Industry and Commerce Mr. Hieko Schwiderowski said as far back as 1971, a World Bank report cited lack of infrastructural development and energy supply as the key problems facing African countries.
“After all these years if the same problems still persist, then it means we have not chosen the right focal point of our investments in Africa,” he said adding, “This the Chinese have found.”
European diplomats also say Europe is re-defining its relationship with Africa and this has resulted in a new European Union Strategy for Africa.
The strategy dubbed “from Cairo to Lisbon-the EU-Africa strategic Partnership” is set to be discussed at the upcoming EU-Africa summit in Lisbon, Portugal.
The draft states in introduction that “Africa is now at the heart of international politics.”
The document further explains that the African Union (AU) in particular “is emerging not as a development issue but as a political actor in its own right.”
The EU remains the first economic partner of Africa, with exportation of merchandise amounting to 91.6 billion euros and imports reaching 125.6 billion euros in 2005.
Again in 2006, Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) from the EU to Africa amounted to 48 billion.
The EU Strategy also makes mention of the fact that China has rapidly emerged as Africa’s third most important trade partner with a total trade amounting to 43 billion euros in 2006 and up from 30 billion euros in 2005.
The drafting of this strategy started in 2000 at an EU-Africa summit in Cairo, Egypt.
“The Cairo declaration and the Cairo Plan of Action signed at this summit contained a number of ambitious commitments including the return of stolen cultural goods and on Africa’s external debts,” the strategy said adding, “More important perhaps, the Cairo Summit set in motion more structured political dialogue between EU and Africa with regular meetings of senior officials and Ministers”.
The strategy also says that in many ways 2005, became the international year for Africa. A number of high level events were held and important international initiatives were launched including major commitment on aid and debt relief at the G8 Gleneagles summit, following the Paris Declaration on Aid effectiveness among others.
However, there are diplomats and politicians in the EU who are not happy about the way former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and his vice Gordon Brown hijacked the Europe – Africa debt issue with Music and concerts all in an alleged bid to raise their party and UK profile both home and abroad.
“We worked very hard during the Monterrey Summit in Mexico in 2002 and the G8 meeting in Kananaskis in Canada with African leaders on the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). Therefore it was not fair that Blair and Co, hijacked the whole issue with their own African initiative,” an EU diplomat who refused to go on record told the African journalists.
Commenting on the current trends in Africa in Brussels last Monday, a Lecturer at the University of Brussels Jonathan Holslag said “Africa is running out of red carpet these days. Not a month passes without some high-level delegation from a far-flung corner of the world;” he said adding “Re-emerging powers are in the vanguard of those rushing to gain new influence in Africa.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin, Brazilian President Lula da Silva, Chinese Leader Hu Jintao and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh have in the last year all trodden the same path to the African continent.
The United States he said is also pursuing Africa for its own interests. US has changed its policies towards Africa after September 11, and is said to be pursuing oil interests in Africa.
Germany in 2005 launched an African Initiative while Russia in 2006 also launched a New African strategy on gas and oil
Describing it as “a new scramble for Africa,” Holslag says it has been a marked shift away from the “Africa fatigue” of the 1990s, even if Africa’s reappearance on the diplomatic map has not been entirely to its own credit.
Holslag also says these developments in Africa have clearly confirmed the way globalization is entering a new stage. He explained that the west as the world’s main industrial powerhouse is outsourcing more ad more of its resource –intensive activities to Asia, at the same time, Asia’s growth is strengthening the position of the world’s large oil and gas producers in Africa.
This he said is what is threatening the longstanding Europe-African relationship of the 20th century.
“Africa is reorienting its economic focus and even if Europe still remains the main partner in terms of trade, aid and investment, its relative influence is shrinking,” Holslag said.
He explained further that Africa’s re-orientation is as much the consequence of actual changes in trade patterns as it is of the high expectations Africans have of more lucrative transactions in the years ahead.
“Now the EU is still Africa’s privileged political partner, but China, Russia, India and Brazil are turning their African embassies into new diplomatic nerve centres.” Holslag said.
Unlike the first scramble for Africa which was also about its natural resources, Holslag says Africa stands to benefit from the current scramble.
The only warning he said is to ensure that China does not influence the continent’s domestic politics.
Friday, April 20, 2007
AfDB to empower African students through capacity building
By Isabella Gyau Orhin
The Vice President of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Mrs. Zeinab El-Bakri has said the Bank is prepared to empower the people of the continent through capacity building.
Speaking at a stakeholders meeting in Accra last Thursday Mrs. El-Bakri said “as a multilateral development bank, we are determined to transform our institution into a knowledge bank and build the capacity for an African voice.”
The meeting was on the Bank’s strategy orientation and support for higher education on the continent. It was in collaboration with the Association of Africa Universities (AAU).
According to El-Bakri, investment in knowledge increases the probability that new goods and services are generated through the use of this knowledge.
Knowledge creates opportunities for growth by developing new ways of making more efficient use of existing resources. She also said the Bank strongly believes that higher education not only serves this purpose but also plays a key role in nation building by being an important place for the popularization of democratic values, the protection of human rights, the promotion of good governance and the rule of law, and by helping society understand itself, its history, its culture and its institutions.
Further, she said a robust and technology base is a prerequisite for sustained economic growth in the context which is accumulation of physical capital, human capital, the rate of innovation and the technological change.
“The East Asian experience is there for us to learn from,” Mrs. El-Bakri said adding “Africa must be seen to be increasingly convinced that such economic transformation is within our reach.”
She said comparable or much higher living standards must be seen as a promise that we owe to the next generation.
Higher education is able to make significant contributions to he provision of scientific and evidence –based knowledge on the key development issues prevailing in our economies.
Today’s new technologies also present higher education with the largest platform to disseminate knowledge to an exponentially larger number of people than ever before.
“We also need to strengthen alliances and relationships with government, the private sector, civil society, professional associations and with he international donor community to meet he MDGs,” she said.
The African Union has included Science and Technology in its second Decade Education Plan of Action which is from 2006-2015 and has adopted Science and technology.
Also one major articulation of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) is to bridge the technological divide between Africa and the rest of the world through the promotion of cross border cooperation and connectivity by utilising knowledge currently available in existing centres of excellence in the continent.
The President of the AAU Professor Akilagpa Sawyer said university enrolment in Africa has exploded with political independence rising four fold between 1975 and 1985and almost tripling again over he next decade.
In spite of this the pressure for further enrolment and expansion is relentless.
The number of universities in Sub-Saharan Africa increased dramatically following the wave of political independence.
From a total of 52 in 1960 to over 300 in 2000 and still climbing.
In spite of these, he said many African countries have only one, two or three universities.
Also, a dramatic explosion of private universities and other institutions of higher education are beginning to provide some relief to the pressures on the dominant public institutions.
Prof. Sawyer however said the African faculty is “greying” as the first and second generations of academics go into retirement and are not replaced at the rate and at the levels of quality required by the demographics and knowledge required over time.
Africa’s universities according to Prof. Akilagpa Sawyer are faced with a dual challenge; On one hand we have the old problems of access, equity, funding, quality, etc. On the other hand we must deal with the new demands of the knowledge society namely, high-end research and innovation, linkage into industry and international networking, he observed.
He said Africa’s universities should be assisted to integrate fully into the global knowledge pool.
Opening the meeting, the Minister of Education, Science and Sports Papa Owusu
Ankomah said Africa abound with rich natural resources. What is lacking is the capacity to harness the available resources through technological knowledge and application for economic growth.
Speaking at a recent AAU meeting on Higher education, Papa Owusu Ankomah said the rich history of higher education in Africa dates back to the flowering of the Nubian civilization through the great temples of knowledge in ancient Egypt to the era of the great centres of learning in Timbuktu in the middle of hate second millennium.
“Those who understood the role of a university in the greater human setting correctly referred to the scholars of Timbuktu as “ambassadors of peace.’
“Timbuktu was not only a great intellectual centre of the West African civilizations of Ghana, Mali and Songhai but also one of the most splendid scientific centres and contributors to the period described as the European Medieval Renaissance eras.
He also said the African higher education system now cannot but be an important and critical part of the overall continent’s renaissance
The Minister explained that during the 1980s and the 1990s, the significance of higher education institutions was played down in favour of basic education and this policy bias, combined with economic difficulties of most African countries at the time led to a weakening of public support for higher education.
This he said happened at a time when demographic pressure was leading to an enrolment explosion in Africa’s higher education institutions.
Some continental bodies including the AAU and a few African bodies resisted the relegation.”
The Minister however said that in the mid 1990s African Ministers of Finance started making a case for higher education.
“We need to remind ourselves that the current situation of the African higher education system is part of a change process, with a past shaped by many factors, a complex and evolving present and a future that can go a number of different ways, depending on factors some of which are within our control,” he said.
In a continent where 43 percent of the population is under 15 years and another 28 percent is between 15 and 30 years of age, the Minister said African leaders are today asserting the right to an independent place of the world and are engaged in efforts to rebuild the continent.
The Vice President of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Mrs. Zeinab El-Bakri has said the Bank is prepared to empower the people of the continent through capacity building.
Speaking at a stakeholders meeting in Accra last Thursday Mrs. El-Bakri said “as a multilateral development bank, we are determined to transform our institution into a knowledge bank and build the capacity for an African voice.”
The meeting was on the Bank’s strategy orientation and support for higher education on the continent. It was in collaboration with the Association of Africa Universities (AAU).
According to El-Bakri, investment in knowledge increases the probability that new goods and services are generated through the use of this knowledge.
Knowledge creates opportunities for growth by developing new ways of making more efficient use of existing resources. She also said the Bank strongly believes that higher education not only serves this purpose but also plays a key role in nation building by being an important place for the popularization of democratic values, the protection of human rights, the promotion of good governance and the rule of law, and by helping society understand itself, its history, its culture and its institutions.
Further, she said a robust and technology base is a prerequisite for sustained economic growth in the context which is accumulation of physical capital, human capital, the rate of innovation and the technological change.
“The East Asian experience is there for us to learn from,” Mrs. El-Bakri said adding “Africa must be seen to be increasingly convinced that such economic transformation is within our reach.”
She said comparable or much higher living standards must be seen as a promise that we owe to the next generation.
Higher education is able to make significant contributions to he provision of scientific and evidence –based knowledge on the key development issues prevailing in our economies.
Today’s new technologies also present higher education with the largest platform to disseminate knowledge to an exponentially larger number of people than ever before.
“We also need to strengthen alliances and relationships with government, the private sector, civil society, professional associations and with he international donor community to meet he MDGs,” she said.
The African Union has included Science and Technology in its second Decade Education Plan of Action which is from 2006-2015 and has adopted Science and technology.
Also one major articulation of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) is to bridge the technological divide between Africa and the rest of the world through the promotion of cross border cooperation and connectivity by utilising knowledge currently available in existing centres of excellence in the continent.
The President of the AAU Professor Akilagpa Sawyer said university enrolment in Africa has exploded with political independence rising four fold between 1975 and 1985and almost tripling again over he next decade.
In spite of this the pressure for further enrolment and expansion is relentless.
The number of universities in Sub-Saharan Africa increased dramatically following the wave of political independence.
From a total of 52 in 1960 to over 300 in 2000 and still climbing.
In spite of these, he said many African countries have only one, two or three universities.
Also, a dramatic explosion of private universities and other institutions of higher education are beginning to provide some relief to the pressures on the dominant public institutions.
Prof. Sawyer however said the African faculty is “greying” as the first and second generations of academics go into retirement and are not replaced at the rate and at the levels of quality required by the demographics and knowledge required over time.
Africa’s universities according to Prof. Akilagpa Sawyer are faced with a dual challenge; On one hand we have the old problems of access, equity, funding, quality, etc. On the other hand we must deal with the new demands of the knowledge society namely, high-end research and innovation, linkage into industry and international networking, he observed.
He said Africa’s universities should be assisted to integrate fully into the global knowledge pool.
Opening the meeting, the Minister of Education, Science and Sports Papa Owusu
Ankomah said Africa abound with rich natural resources. What is lacking is the capacity to harness the available resources through technological knowledge and application for economic growth.
Speaking at a recent AAU meeting on Higher education, Papa Owusu Ankomah said the rich history of higher education in Africa dates back to the flowering of the Nubian civilization through the great temples of knowledge in ancient Egypt to the era of the great centres of learning in Timbuktu in the middle of hate second millennium.
“Those who understood the role of a university in the greater human setting correctly referred to the scholars of Timbuktu as “ambassadors of peace.’
“Timbuktu was not only a great intellectual centre of the West African civilizations of Ghana, Mali and Songhai but also one of the most splendid scientific centres and contributors to the period described as the European Medieval Renaissance eras.
He also said the African higher education system now cannot but be an important and critical part of the overall continent’s renaissance
The Minister explained that during the 1980s and the 1990s, the significance of higher education institutions was played down in favour of basic education and this policy bias, combined with economic difficulties of most African countries at the time led to a weakening of public support for higher education.
This he said happened at a time when demographic pressure was leading to an enrolment explosion in Africa’s higher education institutions.
Some continental bodies including the AAU and a few African bodies resisted the relegation.”
The Minister however said that in the mid 1990s African Ministers of Finance started making a case for higher education.
“We need to remind ourselves that the current situation of the African higher education system is part of a change process, with a past shaped by many factors, a complex and evolving present and a future that can go a number of different ways, depending on factors some of which are within our control,” he said.
In a continent where 43 percent of the population is under 15 years and another 28 percent is between 15 and 30 years of age, the Minister said African leaders are today asserting the right to an independent place of the world and are engaged in efforts to rebuild the continent.
ICTs can transform the lives of women
By Isabella Gyau Orhin
The Business Development Officer of the Ghana India, Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT, Sarata Adams has said Information Communication Technology (ICTs) can transform the way women live and the way development takes place in Africa and the world at large.
Speaking at the Just-ended, African E-governance conference in Accra last week, she said, “technologies have many potential benefits for women such as e-commerce and improved access of women to distance learning and work programme.”
She said Africa is in the midst of dramatic technological transformation where women have played a key role in the transformation across society.
“Women are leaders, entrepreneurs and role models in such positions,” she said.
According to Ms. Adams some visits to some internet cafes in Ghana have shown the enthusiasm with which women are using the internet.
In spite of these, Ms. Adams believe ICT use remains difficult if not impossible for majority of women.
She said there is the need to get young women interested in ICT and also to get employers and workplace culture to encourage women.
Ms. Adams recommended among others, special ICT education programmes, subsides on ICT training for women, workshops and stability in the ICT labour market.
She said girls should also be encouraged to pursue ICT courses while women re-entering the job market should be encouraged to opt for ICT training and ICT jobs.
Added to these there is the need to broaden the perception of what ICT is about as well as develop scholarship schemes for women interested in studying ICT at the higher level.
Also said African governments must ensure that women living on the continent take advantage of opportunities offered by engendering ICTs and transforming the ICT systems using rights based approach.
Government should also create an enabling environment that will encourage more women to join the ICT Industry.
African women’s rights activists insist that Women have scientific and technological expertise and knowledge which should be made more accessible. They also have specific concerns and perspectives which need to be integrated into ICT systems as well as into information systems for sustainable and equitable development.
They also say the ability to communicate their perspectives and concerns is a central empowerment issue, both for publication of their concerns and perspectives, and for access to information and education that will promote women's consciousness-raising. Further, the decentralised, interactive and non-hierarchical nature of these technologies present a non-threatening space for women to develop their views, opinions, benefit from the synergy of interactive communications with women. In addition, once the initial costs of access and technology are covered, ICTs present a low-cost and relatively simple mode of publishing newsletters, articles, statements, etc.
They say the experience of other communications media indicates that if women should be actively involved in the definition, development and information in the new technologies in order to create a space that is conducive to the discussion of their concerns represents their perspectives and abilities in a non-threatening, non-stereotypical manner, and addresses their concerns. Incidents of negative stereotyping, discrimination against women and sexual harassment are already evident online.
Also new strategies for ICT implementation, delivery and use need to be implemented to encourage women's use of ICTs. They will need to include mixed-media and mixed technologies, locally-based distribution systems, and housing in organisational and sectoral contexts which fit with women's daily responsibilities and cater to their time constraints.
Supporting Ms. Adams, a lecturer from the Akan Department, University of Education Mrs. Joanna Portia Antwi-Danso called for a localization of ICT to aid women and others who are not highly literate in eh use of ICTs.
She said survey has proved that majority of aged citizens, especially women are semi literates. “Their educational background is up to basic level and as such their ability to read and write and understand the local languages is far better and overwhelming than they in a second language such as English.”
ICTs offers possibilities and opportunities for development but hey are meaningful only if their content reflect local conditions, she explained.
Localisation if ICT is a way of customizing programmes and materials to suit local people and to have impact on the culture of the local communities.
“Today, in almost every home in Ghana, mobile phone is a common item. She said adding, “I believe that when the language of this technology is localised, a lot more Ghanaians including the aged can use their phones more enjoyably and beneficially.
She said illiterates and semi literate artisans, craftsmen and farmers do not understand the language of the computer and are not attracted to it and therefore never use it in anything.
Localisation of programmes according to her is beneficial because it ensures that IT solutions are taken into higher heights and are more accessible. It also represents a breakthrough for Ghanaian language linguistic and literary studies as well as Ghanaian cultural studies in general.
According to Mrs. Antwi-Danso, localization of programmes ensure that the values and experiences of local cultures are preserved while facilitating work for employees and thereby enhancing work effectiveness
She said in South Africa, computer laboratories are being rolled out into schools where kids do not have English as a mother tongue.
Also software translation efforts are under way in Dares salaam for East Africa’s 130 million Kiswahili speakers and in Kampala for Ugandan software that could be used by 12 million people.
In Kenya also, the localization project has made IT solution more accessible to the Kenyan community as well as to more than 90 percent of the population.
“Finland is a successful example a country that applies local language –Finnish –in all walks of life. Today, the Finnish have succeeded in adopting ICT in their language,” she said.
Source : Public Agenda Ghana
The Business Development Officer of the Ghana India, Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT, Sarata Adams has said Information Communication Technology (ICTs) can transform the way women live and the way development takes place in Africa and the world at large.
Speaking at the Just-ended, African E-governance conference in Accra last week, she said, “technologies have many potential benefits for women such as e-commerce and improved access of women to distance learning and work programme.”
She said Africa is in the midst of dramatic technological transformation where women have played a key role in the transformation across society.
“Women are leaders, entrepreneurs and role models in such positions,” she said.
According to Ms. Adams some visits to some internet cafes in Ghana have shown the enthusiasm with which women are using the internet.
In spite of these, Ms. Adams believe ICT use remains difficult if not impossible for majority of women.
She said there is the need to get young women interested in ICT and also to get employers and workplace culture to encourage women.
Ms. Adams recommended among others, special ICT education programmes, subsides on ICT training for women, workshops and stability in the ICT labour market.
She said girls should also be encouraged to pursue ICT courses while women re-entering the job market should be encouraged to opt for ICT training and ICT jobs.
Added to these there is the need to broaden the perception of what ICT is about as well as develop scholarship schemes for women interested in studying ICT at the higher level.
Also said African governments must ensure that women living on the continent take advantage of opportunities offered by engendering ICTs and transforming the ICT systems using rights based approach.
Government should also create an enabling environment that will encourage more women to join the ICT Industry.
African women’s rights activists insist that Women have scientific and technological expertise and knowledge which should be made more accessible. They also have specific concerns and perspectives which need to be integrated into ICT systems as well as into information systems for sustainable and equitable development.
They also say the ability to communicate their perspectives and concerns is a central empowerment issue, both for publication of their concerns and perspectives, and for access to information and education that will promote women's consciousness-raising. Further, the decentralised, interactive and non-hierarchical nature of these technologies present a non-threatening space for women to develop their views, opinions, benefit from the synergy of interactive communications with women. In addition, once the initial costs of access and technology are covered, ICTs present a low-cost and relatively simple mode of publishing newsletters, articles, statements, etc.
They say the experience of other communications media indicates that if women should be actively involved in the definition, development and information in the new technologies in order to create a space that is conducive to the discussion of their concerns represents their perspectives and abilities in a non-threatening, non-stereotypical manner, and addresses their concerns. Incidents of negative stereotyping, discrimination against women and sexual harassment are already evident online.
Also new strategies for ICT implementation, delivery and use need to be implemented to encourage women's use of ICTs. They will need to include mixed-media and mixed technologies, locally-based distribution systems, and housing in organisational and sectoral contexts which fit with women's daily responsibilities and cater to their time constraints.
Supporting Ms. Adams, a lecturer from the Akan Department, University of Education Mrs. Joanna Portia Antwi-Danso called for a localization of ICT to aid women and others who are not highly literate in eh use of ICTs.
She said survey has proved that majority of aged citizens, especially women are semi literates. “Their educational background is up to basic level and as such their ability to read and write and understand the local languages is far better and overwhelming than they in a second language such as English.”
ICTs offers possibilities and opportunities for development but hey are meaningful only if their content reflect local conditions, she explained.
Localisation if ICT is a way of customizing programmes and materials to suit local people and to have impact on the culture of the local communities.
“Today, in almost every home in Ghana, mobile phone is a common item. She said adding, “I believe that when the language of this technology is localised, a lot more Ghanaians including the aged can use their phones more enjoyably and beneficially.
She said illiterates and semi literate artisans, craftsmen and farmers do not understand the language of the computer and are not attracted to it and therefore never use it in anything.
Localisation of programmes according to her is beneficial because it ensures that IT solutions are taken into higher heights and are more accessible. It also represents a breakthrough for Ghanaian language linguistic and literary studies as well as Ghanaian cultural studies in general.
According to Mrs. Antwi-Danso, localization of programmes ensure that the values and experiences of local cultures are preserved while facilitating work for employees and thereby enhancing work effectiveness
She said in South Africa, computer laboratories are being rolled out into schools where kids do not have English as a mother tongue.
Also software translation efforts are under way in Dares salaam for East Africa’s 130 million Kiswahili speakers and in Kampala for Ugandan software that could be used by 12 million people.
In Kenya also, the localization project has made IT solution more accessible to the Kenyan community as well as to more than 90 percent of the population.
“Finland is a successful example a country that applies local language –Finnish –in all walks of life. Today, the Finnish have succeeded in adopting ICT in their language,” she said.
Source : Public Agenda Ghana
Ghana and the World Bank@50
By Isabella Gyau Orhin
It was an evening of exchanging pleasantries, with handshakes and hugs, and meeting of old friends on March 3, 2007. The venue was the House of the Country Director of the World Bank in Ghana, Mr. Mats Karlson. The President of the World Bank Mr. Paul Wolfowitz was in the country to take part in Ghana’s 50th independence anniversary and all the people who ‘matter’ in the country had been invited to dine and wine with him.
As wine and Champaigne glasses got busy and the Gonje band provided music, Finance Minister Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu and Wolfowitz agreed that Ghana and the bank have been have had relations for about 50 years and this called for a reflection of Ghana-World Bank relations over the past 50 years.
Ghana’s relationship with the World Bank took off in the late 1950s during the first republic when it supported the country with the construction of the Akosombo Dam.
During the Second Republic headed by Dr. Kofi Abrefa Busia, the relationship was reportedly strengthened.
The World Bank’s relationship with the country however was not always a pleasant one. For instance, some of the military heads of states that ruled the country in the 1970s did not see eye to eye with the Bank and called for the abrogation of all forms of repayment of loans acquired previously.
In 1983, Ghana made a U-turn and reconnected with the bank following a devastating drought that brought about famine and an inflation of about 122 percent, the highest ever.
This new relationship resulted in the Economic Recovery Programme and the Structural Adjustment programmes. (ERP/SAP).
From 1983, Ghana became a test case of the efficacy of the World Bank and the IMF's stabilization and adjustment-based lending policies. This was with as one writer puts it “deregulated currency, liberalised trade, slimmed down state-owned enterprises and strengthened bureaucracies as prescribed by the lending institutions.”
After 13 years of the launch of structural adjustment, Ghana came to grips with the high cost of adjustment on its people when it complained to the visiting World Bank President James Wolfensohn and his wife Elaine and four top officials in February 1997 that it was facing problems with the implementation of the programmes.
''These adjustments have been difficult, but our ability to absorb the pain has been the reason we have been able to move thus far,'' Says the then Finance Minister Kwame Peprah.
Ghana’s President at the time Jerry Rawlings also had his own headaches about the adjustment programmes.
At a meeting with Wolfensohn, President Jerry Rawlings said Ghana's budget had come under severe strain from the rising expectations of the majority of Ghanaians. This, he explained, now made it difficult for the country to generate adequate budget surpluses to service its foreign debt and meet other financial obligations.
The amounts Ghana spent servicing its foreign debt went from 13.2 percent of its exports in 1980 to 24.8 percent in 1994, according to the World Bank's 1996 World Development Report. In the same period, the debt increased from just fewer than 1.4 billion dollars to close to 5.4 billion dollars, according to the same source.
According to an IPS report, Rawlings said that Ghana, like some other SAP-applying developing countries, now faced a dilemma: how to meet the rising expectations of its people and, at the same time, the objectives of the adjustment programme.
In a tacit admission of the lack of achievement of some of the objectives of the programme, Peprah said: ''The same issues are still with us as they were in 1983 when we had to explain them to the people.''
These problems include high unemployment, which government sources put at about 20 percent of the active population while the opposition at the time claimed that it was as high as 35 percent. They also include inflation -- reduced from 71 percent in January 1996 to 32 percent by yearend, but still short of the government's 1996 target of 20-25 percent.
Wolfensohn said in a pre-departure press briefing during his 1997 visit that the basic solution to Ghana's problem of macro- economic instability was for the government to rein in inflation. ''And the best way to do that is to make sure that you don't overspend,.”
Fast forward to March 2004, James Wolfensohn paid another visit to Ghana and if the first one was to assess the impact of adjustment programme, then this was to assess, the impact of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) and the Highly Indebted Poor Country’s initiative (HIPC) programmes.
He told Ghanaians that it is wrong for people to place all the problems of third world countries at the doorstep of the Bank. Answering questions at a meeting with students of the University of Ghana Wolfensohn said, “I have no doubt that the Bank has done some good things and I have no doubt that the bank has made some mistakes.” “Ghana was at the same level of development with Korea some forty years ago, they all went through the same programmes but let us ask what happened.” He cited the case of 10,000 ghost names out of 60,000 on the pay role of teachers in Ghana as a clear case of corruption in third world countries.He said while the accusations against the Bank may have an iota of truth, there is no doubt that corruption has played no small part in the impoverishment of the African continent.“We are prepared to change but the system of leadership is yours,” he said.
Wolfensohn also said Ghana has the potential of reaching the Millennium Development Goals than any other country and can become black star or shining star of Africa.
He said the goals set out in NEPAD are not from the Bank but from African leaders themselves who have resolved to fight corruption, have a transparent financial system and strengthen the capacity of its people.
Wolfensohn also said there is no need to debate the image of the Bank, which according to him has changed over the last eight years.
Earlier at the Ghana Institute of management and Public Administration where the fifth Development Dialogue series took place, the Deputy Executive Director of the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) Dr. Baffour Agyeman-Duah said in spite of the World Bank’s insistence that it has good intentions for poor countries, there are many people in Ghana who believe that the removal of subsidies on social services and the prescriptions as well as the conditionalities of the Bank has contributed in no small way to the state of poverty in Ghana. Referring to a Ghanaian Times Article written by a former employee of the Bank, Sena Gabianu on the image of the bank in Ghana, he said the intended privatization of water over the past two years and the privatization of the Ghana Commercial Bank have given the Bank a different image in the country.Dr. Baffour Agyemang-Duah also said there is the need to involve poor people in the drawing up of poverty alleviation programmes.“An open environment is a panacea for development,” he said adding deepening the involvement of poor in problem definition and dialogue can go along way to curb poverty.”“Results will be much better if beneficiaries are kept in the knowledge of what is happening,” he said.He said it is the wish of civil society that decentralization process be put on a fast track to ensure good governance and accountability.
He said the focus now should be on how the Bank can help alleviate poverty and not a debate on its image.“Our focus is on giving opportunities to poor people or putting opportunities in their hands in order to help them.” This he said is reflected in the Bank’s support for the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS) and the Comprehensive Development Framework (CDF).The CDF concept was an attempt to minimize the weaknesses inherent in the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) development programmes to developing countries.
At an Evaluation of the CDF in Ghana in June 2003, a renowned Economist Tony Killick called on Ghanaians to say no to the World Bank and the IMF if their policies did not suit the country.
“Aid dependency does not have to mean donor domination,” he said.
At a media interaction in July 2003, the World Bank officials in Ghana reported that it has since independence invested about four billion cedis into the Ghanaian economy with an outstanding debt of 3.7 billion cedis at the time.
Since that time, a lot has happened in the relationship between the World Bank and the country. Official say Ghana has benefited immensely, for instance, they argue that without the assistance of the bank, Ghana would not have been able to pull itself out of the economic doldrums in the 1980s.
The debt relief under the HIPC initiative, the over 100 million grant for improvement of urban water supply, project with traditional authorities, traditional medicine practictioners, the development market place programme for youth, business incubation project with Busy Internet etc. are
On the economic front, Ghana has made some giant strides compared to the 1980s and 1990s.
On the homepage of the World Bank, The Country Director of Ghana Mats Karlsson reports that the last five years brought higher economic growth (6.2 percent in 2006), after a steady two decades of moderate 4 percent growth. Inflation is lower (10 percent, down from 40), and so are interest rates (15 percent, down from 30), and poverty (33.4 percent in 2005, down from 39.5 percent in 2000, and 51.7 percent in 1990.”
Those statistics, combined with strong improvements in business climate and the democratic process, civil liberties and freedom of the press, indicate Ghana may be able to halve poverty before 2015.
Wolfowitz has however urged Ghanaians not to be complacent with the economic growth obtained so far.
To him Ghana could have done better. On his arrival at the airport on March 2007, he said “I think if we are honest with ourselves, we would say that Ghana’s economic performance in the first years was disappointing and not what the people here wanted, but I am very pleased that in the last 10 years or so, Ghana has become one of the stronger performing African economies. It has come about, I think, through attention to human development, through attention to good, sound economic policy.”
While civil society groups acknowledge the positive role the bank has played in the country’s economy, it believes Ghana would have done better if it had been more transparent in the past.
The Head of the Economics Centre of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) Dr. Kwabena Anaman in an interview with Public Agenda said the Bank has been criticized for being slow in incorporating environmental concerns into their sponsored projects.
“Although they do that now, this has affected projects in the past,” he said.
The Coordinator of the Centre for Budget Advocacy, Vitus Azeem says there is no doubt that the World Bank has contributed positively to the economic development of Ghana. “The huge resources for essential infrastructures like roads, tertiary institutions and hospitals could not have been secured without the support of the World Bank and other donors,” he said adding, “However, the focus of the World Bank’s support and the conditionalities that go with such support have had negative impacts on the lives of the vulnerable and excluded in society. “
According to him, Cost recovery and cost-sharing policies, redundancies, etc. have caused pain and suffering in several families and households.
Also, the emphasis on macro-economic stability as the key indicator of economic advancement has diverted attention from patients being left to die at hospitals, children sitting on the floor in schools without teachers, and corruption.
To the World Bank and other like-minded donors, good governance means opening up our economy to all sorts of imports, he said.
“We welcome the World Bank’s support but it should only focus in ensuring that we use the support for the purpose for which it is meant,” he said.
Meanwhile President Kufuor on independence day urged African youth to stop risking their lives on perilous journeys to Europe because their countries needed their dynamism, energy, creativity and dreams for development. He said Africa was marching forward with a better avenue for financial gains than anywhere else, adding that the future of the continent was in the hands of the youth.
"This is your heritage," declared the Ghanaian leader, current chair of the African Union.
Source: Public Agenda Ghana
It was an evening of exchanging pleasantries, with handshakes and hugs, and meeting of old friends on March 3, 2007. The venue was the House of the Country Director of the World Bank in Ghana, Mr. Mats Karlson. The President of the World Bank Mr. Paul Wolfowitz was in the country to take part in Ghana’s 50th independence anniversary and all the people who ‘matter’ in the country had been invited to dine and wine with him.
As wine and Champaigne glasses got busy and the Gonje band provided music, Finance Minister Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu and Wolfowitz agreed that Ghana and the bank have been have had relations for about 50 years and this called for a reflection of Ghana-World Bank relations over the past 50 years.
Ghana’s relationship with the World Bank took off in the late 1950s during the first republic when it supported the country with the construction of the Akosombo Dam.
During the Second Republic headed by Dr. Kofi Abrefa Busia, the relationship was reportedly strengthened.
The World Bank’s relationship with the country however was not always a pleasant one. For instance, some of the military heads of states that ruled the country in the 1970s did not see eye to eye with the Bank and called for the abrogation of all forms of repayment of loans acquired previously.
In 1983, Ghana made a U-turn and reconnected with the bank following a devastating drought that brought about famine and an inflation of about 122 percent, the highest ever.
This new relationship resulted in the Economic Recovery Programme and the Structural Adjustment programmes. (ERP/SAP).
From 1983, Ghana became a test case of the efficacy of the World Bank and the IMF's stabilization and adjustment-based lending policies. This was with as one writer puts it “deregulated currency, liberalised trade, slimmed down state-owned enterprises and strengthened bureaucracies as prescribed by the lending institutions.”
After 13 years of the launch of structural adjustment, Ghana came to grips with the high cost of adjustment on its people when it complained to the visiting World Bank President James Wolfensohn and his wife Elaine and four top officials in February 1997 that it was facing problems with the implementation of the programmes.
''These adjustments have been difficult, but our ability to absorb the pain has been the reason we have been able to move thus far,'' Says the then Finance Minister Kwame Peprah.
Ghana’s President at the time Jerry Rawlings also had his own headaches about the adjustment programmes.
At a meeting with Wolfensohn, President Jerry Rawlings said Ghana's budget had come under severe strain from the rising expectations of the majority of Ghanaians. This, he explained, now made it difficult for the country to generate adequate budget surpluses to service its foreign debt and meet other financial obligations.
The amounts Ghana spent servicing its foreign debt went from 13.2 percent of its exports in 1980 to 24.8 percent in 1994, according to the World Bank's 1996 World Development Report. In the same period, the debt increased from just fewer than 1.4 billion dollars to close to 5.4 billion dollars, according to the same source.
According to an IPS report, Rawlings said that Ghana, like some other SAP-applying developing countries, now faced a dilemma: how to meet the rising expectations of its people and, at the same time, the objectives of the adjustment programme.
In a tacit admission of the lack of achievement of some of the objectives of the programme, Peprah said: ''The same issues are still with us as they were in 1983 when we had to explain them to the people.''
These problems include high unemployment, which government sources put at about 20 percent of the active population while the opposition at the time claimed that it was as high as 35 percent. They also include inflation -- reduced from 71 percent in January 1996 to 32 percent by yearend, but still short of the government's 1996 target of 20-25 percent.
Wolfensohn said in a pre-departure press briefing during his 1997 visit that the basic solution to Ghana's problem of macro- economic instability was for the government to rein in inflation. ''And the best way to do that is to make sure that you don't overspend,.”
Fast forward to March 2004, James Wolfensohn paid another visit to Ghana and if the first one was to assess the impact of adjustment programme, then this was to assess, the impact of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) and the Highly Indebted Poor Country’s initiative (HIPC) programmes.
He told Ghanaians that it is wrong for people to place all the problems of third world countries at the doorstep of the Bank. Answering questions at a meeting with students of the University of Ghana Wolfensohn said, “I have no doubt that the Bank has done some good things and I have no doubt that the bank has made some mistakes.” “Ghana was at the same level of development with Korea some forty years ago, they all went through the same programmes but let us ask what happened.” He cited the case of 10,000 ghost names out of 60,000 on the pay role of teachers in Ghana as a clear case of corruption in third world countries.He said while the accusations against the Bank may have an iota of truth, there is no doubt that corruption has played no small part in the impoverishment of the African continent.“We are prepared to change but the system of leadership is yours,” he said.
Wolfensohn also said Ghana has the potential of reaching the Millennium Development Goals than any other country and can become black star or shining star of Africa.
He said the goals set out in NEPAD are not from the Bank but from African leaders themselves who have resolved to fight corruption, have a transparent financial system and strengthen the capacity of its people.
Wolfensohn also said there is no need to debate the image of the Bank, which according to him has changed over the last eight years.
Earlier at the Ghana Institute of management and Public Administration where the fifth Development Dialogue series took place, the Deputy Executive Director of the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) Dr. Baffour Agyeman-Duah said in spite of the World Bank’s insistence that it has good intentions for poor countries, there are many people in Ghana who believe that the removal of subsidies on social services and the prescriptions as well as the conditionalities of the Bank has contributed in no small way to the state of poverty in Ghana. Referring to a Ghanaian Times Article written by a former employee of the Bank, Sena Gabianu on the image of the bank in Ghana, he said the intended privatization of water over the past two years and the privatization of the Ghana Commercial Bank have given the Bank a different image in the country.Dr. Baffour Agyemang-Duah also said there is the need to involve poor people in the drawing up of poverty alleviation programmes.“An open environment is a panacea for development,” he said adding deepening the involvement of poor in problem definition and dialogue can go along way to curb poverty.”“Results will be much better if beneficiaries are kept in the knowledge of what is happening,” he said.He said it is the wish of civil society that decentralization process be put on a fast track to ensure good governance and accountability.
He said the focus now should be on how the Bank can help alleviate poverty and not a debate on its image.“Our focus is on giving opportunities to poor people or putting opportunities in their hands in order to help them.” This he said is reflected in the Bank’s support for the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS) and the Comprehensive Development Framework (CDF).The CDF concept was an attempt to minimize the weaknesses inherent in the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) development programmes to developing countries.
At an Evaluation of the CDF in Ghana in June 2003, a renowned Economist Tony Killick called on Ghanaians to say no to the World Bank and the IMF if their policies did not suit the country.
“Aid dependency does not have to mean donor domination,” he said.
At a media interaction in July 2003, the World Bank officials in Ghana reported that it has since independence invested about four billion cedis into the Ghanaian economy with an outstanding debt of 3.7 billion cedis at the time.
Since that time, a lot has happened in the relationship between the World Bank and the country. Official say Ghana has benefited immensely, for instance, they argue that without the assistance of the bank, Ghana would not have been able to pull itself out of the economic doldrums in the 1980s.
The debt relief under the HIPC initiative, the over 100 million grant for improvement of urban water supply, project with traditional authorities, traditional medicine practictioners, the development market place programme for youth, business incubation project with Busy Internet etc. are
On the economic front, Ghana has made some giant strides compared to the 1980s and 1990s.
On the homepage of the World Bank, The Country Director of Ghana Mats Karlsson reports that the last five years brought higher economic growth (6.2 percent in 2006), after a steady two decades of moderate 4 percent growth. Inflation is lower (10 percent, down from 40), and so are interest rates (15 percent, down from 30), and poverty (33.4 percent in 2005, down from 39.5 percent in 2000, and 51.7 percent in 1990.”
Those statistics, combined with strong improvements in business climate and the democratic process, civil liberties and freedom of the press, indicate Ghana may be able to halve poverty before 2015.
Wolfowitz has however urged Ghanaians not to be complacent with the economic growth obtained so far.
To him Ghana could have done better. On his arrival at the airport on March 2007, he said “I think if we are honest with ourselves, we would say that Ghana’s economic performance in the first years was disappointing and not what the people here wanted, but I am very pleased that in the last 10 years or so, Ghana has become one of the stronger performing African economies. It has come about, I think, through attention to human development, through attention to good, sound economic policy.”
While civil society groups acknowledge the positive role the bank has played in the country’s economy, it believes Ghana would have done better if it had been more transparent in the past.
The Head of the Economics Centre of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) Dr. Kwabena Anaman in an interview with Public Agenda said the Bank has been criticized for being slow in incorporating environmental concerns into their sponsored projects.
“Although they do that now, this has affected projects in the past,” he said.
The Coordinator of the Centre for Budget Advocacy, Vitus Azeem says there is no doubt that the World Bank has contributed positively to the economic development of Ghana. “The huge resources for essential infrastructures like roads, tertiary institutions and hospitals could not have been secured without the support of the World Bank and other donors,” he said adding, “However, the focus of the World Bank’s support and the conditionalities that go with such support have had negative impacts on the lives of the vulnerable and excluded in society. “
According to him, Cost recovery and cost-sharing policies, redundancies, etc. have caused pain and suffering in several families and households.
Also, the emphasis on macro-economic stability as the key indicator of economic advancement has diverted attention from patients being left to die at hospitals, children sitting on the floor in schools without teachers, and corruption.
To the World Bank and other like-minded donors, good governance means opening up our economy to all sorts of imports, he said.
“We welcome the World Bank’s support but it should only focus in ensuring that we use the support for the purpose for which it is meant,” he said.
Meanwhile President Kufuor on independence day urged African youth to stop risking their lives on perilous journeys to Europe because their countries needed their dynamism, energy, creativity and dreams for development. He said Africa was marching forward with a better avenue for financial gains than anywhere else, adding that the future of the continent was in the hands of the youth.
"This is your heritage," declared the Ghanaian leader, current chair of the African Union.
Source: Public Agenda Ghana
Small scale phone business to collapse
By Isabella Gyau Orhin
Space to space business, a flourishing mobile retailing business in Ghana and other parts of Africa may soon collapse just like the communication centres.
This is as a result of the introduction of low top up credits by mobile telecommunications networks.
All the mobile phone companies in Ghana such as Areeba which pioneered the space to space business, One touch, TIGO and Kasapa have introduced top up of units some as low as two thousand cedis.
The Coordinator of African Next Knowledge and Brokerage Interaction Dr. Amos Anyimadu, made this known at the recent E-governance conference in Accra organized by the Commonwealth Telecommunication organisation (CTO).
Dr. Anyimadu explained that while the space to space or umbrella mobile phone retailing business led to the demise of communication centres, the mobile phone companies themselves are collapsing the space to space business with very cheap top-up credits or units.
The space to space business provides job opportunities for Africa’s semi literate youth and many unemployed as well as unskilled labour force.
If people could top up with 2000, cedis which is the exact amount paid to the mobile retailer, then that person will just top up his credit and move on,” a participant at the conference said.
Dr. Anyimadu was of the opinion that it is important government put in place policies and measures to resuscitate the collapsed communication centres and the private businesses in the ICT sector to facilitate Public Private Partnership in the distribution of ICT services.
He said research in the fishing community of Moree in the Central region of Ghana has confirmed the demise of communication centres. Four years ago, there were no mobile phone networks operating in that central region town. However over the past six months, the intensity of penetration of mobile networks has virtually collapsed all communication centres including a popular one known as Shalom Communication centre.
He described communication centres as very important institutional resource in African countries which must be assisted to survive the ICT revolution.
He said in a country like Ghana that is yet to hit the 1000 dollar per capita income mark, Private public partnership in the form of communication centres must be helped to spread ICT services.
A German researcher Mr. Marcus Koll who did a study in Akatsi in the Volta Region last year also confirmed the collapse of communication centres in Akatsi including a popular one called Westphalia which is now a beer bar.
The essence of e-governance according to Dr. Anyimadu is putting the citizen at the centre of policy development. “E-government must be citizen focused,” he said.
“When a fisherman in Moree’s phone fell into the ocean, his knowledge of the possibility of repairing the phone brought to the fore how the ICT revolution is developing in Ghana,” Dr. Anyimadu said.
He also said there is the need to re-examine the mobile value chain which starts from the carpenter who makes the boxes for the mobile retail business all the way to the president who makes pronouncements on ICT policy directives.
“There is also the need to develop higher trust and broader social capital in our country,” he said.
Dr. Anyimadu also called on African governments to build trust in African ICT companies saying companies in Ghana like Softribe and others in Southern Africa have developed software’ programmes that are being used in all of Africa and other parts of the world.
Though mobile penetration in Africa does not yet match that of other continents, Africa is touted as the fastest growing region in the world for mobile phone users.
According to reports from the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), by the year 2005, 60 percent of the world’s phones were in developing countries.
It is however argued that these may be accounted for in countries such as China, India, Brazil, etc, African’s are still suffering from teledensities less than 10 percent.
Mobile networks exceed fixed lines in Ghana and other areas in Africa. This is because mobile networks are in many ways easier to expand than fixed line which requires the expensive laying out of thousands of kilometers of cable.
According to the Horizon Magazine of Nokia, predictions are already appearing that mobile phones networks or devices will bring internet access to more Africans with a similar leapfrog over conventional computers which only a tiny percentage of citizens can afford.
The BBC recently reported that 61 percent of its international Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) users come from Nigeria with 19 percent coming from South Africa.
WAP allows mobile phone users to access information through their handsets.
The BBC says many people’s first phone are mobile phones instead of a fixed line and the coming years may show that many more will get their first look of internet on their phones and not on computers.
Space to space business, a flourishing mobile retailing business in Ghana and other parts of Africa may soon collapse just like the communication centres.
This is as a result of the introduction of low top up credits by mobile telecommunications networks.
All the mobile phone companies in Ghana such as Areeba which pioneered the space to space business, One touch, TIGO and Kasapa have introduced top up of units some as low as two thousand cedis.
The Coordinator of African Next Knowledge and Brokerage Interaction Dr. Amos Anyimadu, made this known at the recent E-governance conference in Accra organized by the Commonwealth Telecommunication organisation (CTO).
Dr. Anyimadu explained that while the space to space or umbrella mobile phone retailing business led to the demise of communication centres, the mobile phone companies themselves are collapsing the space to space business with very cheap top-up credits or units.
The space to space business provides job opportunities for Africa’s semi literate youth and many unemployed as well as unskilled labour force.
If people could top up with 2000, cedis which is the exact amount paid to the mobile retailer, then that person will just top up his credit and move on,” a participant at the conference said.
Dr. Anyimadu was of the opinion that it is important government put in place policies and measures to resuscitate the collapsed communication centres and the private businesses in the ICT sector to facilitate Public Private Partnership in the distribution of ICT services.
He said research in the fishing community of Moree in the Central region of Ghana has confirmed the demise of communication centres. Four years ago, there were no mobile phone networks operating in that central region town. However over the past six months, the intensity of penetration of mobile networks has virtually collapsed all communication centres including a popular one known as Shalom Communication centre.
He described communication centres as very important institutional resource in African countries which must be assisted to survive the ICT revolution.
He said in a country like Ghana that is yet to hit the 1000 dollar per capita income mark, Private public partnership in the form of communication centres must be helped to spread ICT services.
A German researcher Mr. Marcus Koll who did a study in Akatsi in the Volta Region last year also confirmed the collapse of communication centres in Akatsi including a popular one called Westphalia which is now a beer bar.
The essence of e-governance according to Dr. Anyimadu is putting the citizen at the centre of policy development. “E-government must be citizen focused,” he said.
“When a fisherman in Moree’s phone fell into the ocean, his knowledge of the possibility of repairing the phone brought to the fore how the ICT revolution is developing in Ghana,” Dr. Anyimadu said.
He also said there is the need to re-examine the mobile value chain which starts from the carpenter who makes the boxes for the mobile retail business all the way to the president who makes pronouncements on ICT policy directives.
“There is also the need to develop higher trust and broader social capital in our country,” he said.
Dr. Anyimadu also called on African governments to build trust in African ICT companies saying companies in Ghana like Softribe and others in Southern Africa have developed software’ programmes that are being used in all of Africa and other parts of the world.
Though mobile penetration in Africa does not yet match that of other continents, Africa is touted as the fastest growing region in the world for mobile phone users.
According to reports from the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), by the year 2005, 60 percent of the world’s phones were in developing countries.
It is however argued that these may be accounted for in countries such as China, India, Brazil, etc, African’s are still suffering from teledensities less than 10 percent.
Mobile networks exceed fixed lines in Ghana and other areas in Africa. This is because mobile networks are in many ways easier to expand than fixed line which requires the expensive laying out of thousands of kilometers of cable.
According to the Horizon Magazine of Nokia, predictions are already appearing that mobile phones networks or devices will bring internet access to more Africans with a similar leapfrog over conventional computers which only a tiny percentage of citizens can afford.
The BBC recently reported that 61 percent of its international Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) users come from Nigeria with 19 percent coming from South Africa.
WAP allows mobile phone users to access information through their handsets.
The BBC says many people’s first phone are mobile phones instead of a fixed line and the coming years may show that many more will get their first look of internet on their phones and not on computers.
Ghana's independnece was shaped by India- Dr. Anyimadu
By Isabella Gyau Orhin
A Lecturer at Department of Political Science Dr. Amos Anyimadu has said the independence of India in 1947 directly shaped the Ghanaian independence of 1957.
Speaking at New Delhi, India on the theme, “Ghana at Fifty, India at Sixty: The Challenge of the Democratic Developmental State” on March 7, 2007, Dr. Anyimadu said “It is fair to say that we shall not be celebrating Ghana at fifty today had India at sixty not been sown.”
It was organised by the Ghana’s High Commission in India in collaboration with Nehru Memorial Museum and Library on Ghana’s Golden Jubilee.
He said the first President of Ghana Dr. Kwame Nkrumah was clear about the importance of the Indian experience to the struggle for freedom in Ghana.
Thus in his autobiography he wrote: “After months of studying Gandhi’s policies and watching the effect it had, I began to see that, when backed by a strong political organisation, it could be the solution to the colonial problem”.
According to him, the Nkrumah-Gandhi axis was driven much more deeply.
“I would suggest that it is not simply incidental that Gandhi’s favourite hymn was “Lead Kindly Light” and that this also became Nkrumah’s, and his party’s, favourite.”
He also said that it is not simply coincidental that Kwame Nkrumah’s most famous aphorism “Seek ye first the Political Kingdom and all things shall be added unto you”, is attributable not simply directly to the Christian scripture but, perhaps more directly, to Gandhi’s fundamental position that:
“You cannot serve God and Mammon is an economic truth of the highest value. We have to make our choice. Western nations are groaning under the monster-god of materialism. Their moral growth has become stunted … Under the British aegis we have learnt much, but it is my firm belief that, if we are not careful, we shall introduce all the vices that she has been prey to owing to the disease of materialism … Let us first seek the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and the irrevocable promise is that everything will be added unto us. These are real economics”
Dr. Anyimadu said what may be considered the three cardinal emphases of Gandhian thought, to rely on the reckoning of Hugh Tinker: “the cooperative society where intellectuals and manual workers find a common purpose”; “the attempt to give self-respect to those whom tradition had handicapped”; and “the philosophy and technique of non-violence” all resonate in the Ghanaian freedom struggle and our post-Independence march for democracy and development.
Dr. Anyimadu who is also a director of the African Next Knowledge Brokerage and Interaction said the personal electricity between Nkrumah and Nehru, which clearly shoots out of the dramatic photograph of the two icons unveiled in Ghana’s High Commission to India, carried these high principles into practical politics and was perhaps most successful in the International Relations precept of Positive Neutrality and organizationally in the Non Aligned Movement.
Erica Powell, Kwame Nkrumah’s long-serving private secretary, in her important book on Kwame Nkrumah captures in different ways the deep personal friendship and political engagement between Nkrumah and Nehru.
“Thus, we are told, as Nkrumah set off for a much colder part of India during his 1961 visit, his ever thoughtful friend and ally, Nehru, realizing that Nkrumah did not seem to carry adequate protection against the elements, fetched a comforting coat and gloves which he personally delivered to Nkrumah on a trot.” Dr. Anyimadu said.
The days of Nkrumah and Nehru according to him were charged with visionary politics. “Today, our challenges appear much more mundane,” he said adding, “It is clear that the distance between Ghana and Indian has widened.”
Recently the BBC World Service focused on India under the rubric “India Rising”. Today the same focus is on Ghana under the decidedly low-tempo, somewhat backward-looking rubric “Winds of Change”
India confidently embraces Globalisation. Ghana struggles to humanize Globalization for basic survival, Dr. Anyimadu said.
The Economist newspaper recently said the Indian economy was overheating with near ten per cent growth. “This, we are told, presents its own problems which the politics of your recent budget, I understand, seeks to address,” Dr. Anyimadu said.
He also said that Ghana seek all growth without the luxury of fine qualification.
A thoughtful and balanced piece written by Michelle Faul of the Associated Press from Accra, and carried by many newspapers around the world on Ghana’s independence day notes that Ghana’s “Golden Jubilee on Tuesday is prompting some sober reflection on why Africa has failed to translate its dreams, and its bounty of mineral and agricultural resources, into wealth”.
The Economist newspaper’s online says that Ghana “is an example of much that has gone wrong, and then right, in Africa”.
Again on the homepage of the World Bank, The Country Director of Ghana Mats Karlsson reports that the last five years brought higher economic growth (6.2 percent in 2006), after a steady two decades of moderate 4 percent growth. Inflation is lower (10 percent, down from 40), and so are interest rates (15 percent, down from 30), and poverty (33.4 percent in 2005, down from 39.5 percent in 2000, and 51.7 percent in 1990.”
Dr. Anyimadu said while the statistics, may tell different stories it may be clear that from the perspective of an Asian tiger it would seem that the African lion is meek indeed.
He also explained that while the idea of the Developmental State has often implied authoritarian governance, India presents an interesting challenge of a Democratic Developmental State.
This is the agenda that the government of President Kufuor has set for us in Ghana as well under the grand promise “Development in Freedom”. What happens to the state in Development has arrested conceptual attention for centuries. The current history of India belies many of the general conclusions that have been assumed. Agrarian social structures were not supposed to yield democracy. Responsive politics in poor countries was not supposed to yield good economics. Here in India these received assumptions have been turned upside down, he said.
According to Dr. Anyimadu, it is refreshing that the evolution of Ghana—India relations clearly points to a practical approach to the challenge of the Democratic Development State. India’s support to Ghanaian development today is distinguished not only by its surprising large size but also its strategic quality of having a clear potential to fundamentally uplift our march to democracy and development.
He said for Africa as a whole, India has extended more than one billion dollars worth of technical assistance. I am particularly taken by the promising Pan-African e-Network Project recently begun by India for Africa. The Project envisages connecting the 53 African Union countries by satellite and fibre optic network, and once completed, it would provide tele-education and tele-medicine facilities from India to regional centres in Africa and also individually to each of the member countries.
It would also provide effective communication and connectivity to all the AU countries including voice and video conferencing facilities among the Heads of States. This is an excellent example of South-South cooperation for meeting the challenges of the new Knowledge Economy in our shrinking world.
Ghana he said is also a member of India’s Team-9 initiative. It is under this arrangement that Ghana has received concessional credit for the Presidential Complex. Near the State House in Accra one finds a gleaming temple to the future. The India-Ghana Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in Information and Communication Technology was established with $2 million dollars assistance from India.
] This facility has fast become a crucial component of our digital future in Ghana. India’s fascinating emergence as a telematics giant is powerful instruction to us in Ghana. I am even happier that our relationship in this area is beginning to more fully cover the content side of this equation.
According to Dr. Anyimadu, the most important point that the took away from the BBC’s India Rising season was the well-based transformation of the Indian public sphere through application of new as well as old communication technologies.
“I note the importance of your local language, including its press, in public life. The force of Indian television and film is truly remarkable. I understand India is one of the few places on our planet where the press is truly deepening.”
According to him, all these factors have significant pecuniary implications. They also have implication for mind and thought.
“They must be good for the quality of democracy in India. It is not difficult to see that these factors form a crucial component of the seminal observation of Amartya Sen, the great Indian intellectual, that famine does not occur in democracies. “
“It is for all these reasons that, even as I conclude my exploration, I am happy to report that we had the first official Indian Film Festival in Accra this year. I look forward to similar, mind-led conclaves linking our two countries in the near future.”
Ghana celebrated its golden Jubilee on March 6, 2007 with a big ceremony which was attended by several heads of states across Africa and dignitaries all over the world.
Source: Public Agenda Ghana
A Lecturer at Department of Political Science Dr. Amos Anyimadu has said the independence of India in 1947 directly shaped the Ghanaian independence of 1957.
Speaking at New Delhi, India on the theme, “Ghana at Fifty, India at Sixty: The Challenge of the Democratic Developmental State” on March 7, 2007, Dr. Anyimadu said “It is fair to say that we shall not be celebrating Ghana at fifty today had India at sixty not been sown.”
It was organised by the Ghana’s High Commission in India in collaboration with Nehru Memorial Museum and Library on Ghana’s Golden Jubilee.
He said the first President of Ghana Dr. Kwame Nkrumah was clear about the importance of the Indian experience to the struggle for freedom in Ghana.
Thus in his autobiography he wrote: “After months of studying Gandhi’s policies and watching the effect it had, I began to see that, when backed by a strong political organisation, it could be the solution to the colonial problem”.
According to him, the Nkrumah-Gandhi axis was driven much more deeply.
“I would suggest that it is not simply incidental that Gandhi’s favourite hymn was “Lead Kindly Light” and that this also became Nkrumah’s, and his party’s, favourite.”
He also said that it is not simply coincidental that Kwame Nkrumah’s most famous aphorism “Seek ye first the Political Kingdom and all things shall be added unto you”, is attributable not simply directly to the Christian scripture but, perhaps more directly, to Gandhi’s fundamental position that:
“You cannot serve God and Mammon is an economic truth of the highest value. We have to make our choice. Western nations are groaning under the monster-god of materialism. Their moral growth has become stunted … Under the British aegis we have learnt much, but it is my firm belief that, if we are not careful, we shall introduce all the vices that she has been prey to owing to the disease of materialism … Let us first seek the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and the irrevocable promise is that everything will be added unto us. These are real economics”
Dr. Anyimadu said what may be considered the three cardinal emphases of Gandhian thought, to rely on the reckoning of Hugh Tinker: “the cooperative society where intellectuals and manual workers find a common purpose”; “the attempt to give self-respect to those whom tradition had handicapped”; and “the philosophy and technique of non-violence” all resonate in the Ghanaian freedom struggle and our post-Independence march for democracy and development.
Dr. Anyimadu who is also a director of the African Next Knowledge Brokerage and Interaction said the personal electricity between Nkrumah and Nehru, which clearly shoots out of the dramatic photograph of the two icons unveiled in Ghana’s High Commission to India, carried these high principles into practical politics and was perhaps most successful in the International Relations precept of Positive Neutrality and organizationally in the Non Aligned Movement.
Erica Powell, Kwame Nkrumah’s long-serving private secretary, in her important book on Kwame Nkrumah captures in different ways the deep personal friendship and political engagement between Nkrumah and Nehru.
“Thus, we are told, as Nkrumah set off for a much colder part of India during his 1961 visit, his ever thoughtful friend and ally, Nehru, realizing that Nkrumah did not seem to carry adequate protection against the elements, fetched a comforting coat and gloves which he personally delivered to Nkrumah on a trot.” Dr. Anyimadu said.
The days of Nkrumah and Nehru according to him were charged with visionary politics. “Today, our challenges appear much more mundane,” he said adding, “It is clear that the distance between Ghana and Indian has widened.”
Recently the BBC World Service focused on India under the rubric “India Rising”. Today the same focus is on Ghana under the decidedly low-tempo, somewhat backward-looking rubric “Winds of Change”
India confidently embraces Globalisation. Ghana struggles to humanize Globalization for basic survival, Dr. Anyimadu said.
The Economist newspaper recently said the Indian economy was overheating with near ten per cent growth. “This, we are told, presents its own problems which the politics of your recent budget, I understand, seeks to address,” Dr. Anyimadu said.
He also said that Ghana seek all growth without the luxury of fine qualification.
A thoughtful and balanced piece written by Michelle Faul of the Associated Press from Accra, and carried by many newspapers around the world on Ghana’s independence day notes that Ghana’s “Golden Jubilee on Tuesday is prompting some sober reflection on why Africa has failed to translate its dreams, and its bounty of mineral and agricultural resources, into wealth”.
The Economist newspaper’s online says that Ghana “is an example of much that has gone wrong, and then right, in Africa”.
Again on the homepage of the World Bank, The Country Director of Ghana Mats Karlsson reports that the last five years brought higher economic growth (6.2 percent in 2006), after a steady two decades of moderate 4 percent growth. Inflation is lower (10 percent, down from 40), and so are interest rates (15 percent, down from 30), and poverty (33.4 percent in 2005, down from 39.5 percent in 2000, and 51.7 percent in 1990.”
Dr. Anyimadu said while the statistics, may tell different stories it may be clear that from the perspective of an Asian tiger it would seem that the African lion is meek indeed.
He also explained that while the idea of the Developmental State has often implied authoritarian governance, India presents an interesting challenge of a Democratic Developmental State.
This is the agenda that the government of President Kufuor has set for us in Ghana as well under the grand promise “Development in Freedom”. What happens to the state in Development has arrested conceptual attention for centuries. The current history of India belies many of the general conclusions that have been assumed. Agrarian social structures were not supposed to yield democracy. Responsive politics in poor countries was not supposed to yield good economics. Here in India these received assumptions have been turned upside down, he said.
According to Dr. Anyimadu, it is refreshing that the evolution of Ghana—India relations clearly points to a practical approach to the challenge of the Democratic Development State. India’s support to Ghanaian development today is distinguished not only by its surprising large size but also its strategic quality of having a clear potential to fundamentally uplift our march to democracy and development.
He said for Africa as a whole, India has extended more than one billion dollars worth of technical assistance. I am particularly taken by the promising Pan-African e-Network Project recently begun by India for Africa. The Project envisages connecting the 53 African Union countries by satellite and fibre optic network, and once completed, it would provide tele-education and tele-medicine facilities from India to regional centres in Africa and also individually to each of the member countries.
It would also provide effective communication and connectivity to all the AU countries including voice and video conferencing facilities among the Heads of States. This is an excellent example of South-South cooperation for meeting the challenges of the new Knowledge Economy in our shrinking world.
Ghana he said is also a member of India’s Team-9 initiative. It is under this arrangement that Ghana has received concessional credit for the Presidential Complex. Near the State House in Accra one finds a gleaming temple to the future. The India-Ghana Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in Information and Communication Technology was established with $2 million dollars assistance from India.
] This facility has fast become a crucial component of our digital future in Ghana. India’s fascinating emergence as a telematics giant is powerful instruction to us in Ghana. I am even happier that our relationship in this area is beginning to more fully cover the content side of this equation.
According to Dr. Anyimadu, the most important point that the took away from the BBC’s India Rising season was the well-based transformation of the Indian public sphere through application of new as well as old communication technologies.
“I note the importance of your local language, including its press, in public life. The force of Indian television and film is truly remarkable. I understand India is one of the few places on our planet where the press is truly deepening.”
According to him, all these factors have significant pecuniary implications. They also have implication for mind and thought.
“They must be good for the quality of democracy in India. It is not difficult to see that these factors form a crucial component of the seminal observation of Amartya Sen, the great Indian intellectual, that famine does not occur in democracies. “
“It is for all these reasons that, even as I conclude my exploration, I am happy to report that we had the first official Indian Film Festival in Accra this year. I look forward to similar, mind-led conclaves linking our two countries in the near future.”
Ghana celebrated its golden Jubilee on March 6, 2007 with a big ceremony which was attended by several heads of states across Africa and dignitaries all over the world.
Source: Public Agenda Ghana
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