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African Revival: a Self-Help Plan

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Too often, Africa is seen by the West as an amorphous mass, not distinct nations and peoples. Actually, the continent is home to 55 countries whose fates are intertwined by facts of history and geography.

In Africa’s west, a rebel movement in Sierra Leone, fanned by neighboring Liberia, threatens regional stability. To the east, in the Horn of Africa, a two-year war has been waged between Ethiopia and Eritrea, which are now trying to put a peace accord in place.

Across the continent, ever more elections are being held, but they tend to promote strife more than stability as losers arm themselves rather than take up the challenge of forming a democratic political opposition.

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Amid these challenges, there is straightforward encouragement in an effort by Africa’s biggest economies--South Africa, Nigeria and Algeria--to write a plan for recovery across the continent. Significantly, the program, backed by the United States and other developed countries, recognizes that the countries themselves must create the environment that will attract both outside help and investment. South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki, one of the principal movers behind the Millennium Africa Recovery Plan, put it best, saying, “It’s really up to yourself as an African country to come on board by demonstrating seriousness and commitment.” Foreign affairs appointees of the incoming Bush administration, while unlikely to continue President Clinton’s active Africa policy, have spoken in support of America’s international role in promoting democracy and market economics and should help Africa’s effort to help itself.

The economic portrait is bleakest in countries ravaged by major political disruptions, including Congo, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia and Sierra Leone. There, the economies have declined while the rest of the region registered small growth. The AIDS epidemic is claiming as many as 12 million lives on the continent each year and famine is widespread. The World Bank, in its recent report on global prospects, sees economic growth of only about 1.3% over the next decade, a rate far too low to make a dent in Africa’s poverty rate.

The fact that the recovery program was initiated by African officials rather than outside development agencies reflects recognition that, unless the countries themselves tackle the problems of political instability, economic mismanagement, corruption and disregard for human rights, they will be left behind.

But Africa cannot go it alone. In addition to debt forgiveness, the rich countries must open their markets to exports from sub-Saharan Africa.

The recovery initiative, if implemented, could have far-reaching consequences for development and put Africa into economic partnership with the rest of the world.

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