An
Ethical Foreign Policy Towards Africa
Remarks by Hon. David Kilgour
Secretary of State (Africa and Latin America)
14 December 1999 - St. Thomas Anglican Church,
Ottawa
We are entering
the new century lauded by the United Nations’
human development index as one of the best
countries in which to live. We have much
to offer both the developed and developing
worlds, whether as a leading provider of
information technology, manufactured goods,
or know-how for resource extractors. Not
only can we now offer strong economic performance,
but our society is also perceived as a model
of celebrating otherness, and enjoying a
vibrant civil society.
Yet we must
set our goals even higher for the next century,
never forgetting the disparities of the
current world in which we live. We are well-placed
to lead efforts to bridge the gap between
the North and South. It now seems to be
widening, not narrowing in part due to the
unequal access to the new knowledge economy
and high tech industry. Globalization must
be made to benefit all of humanity, or risk
exacerbating the already shocking inequality
which became so common in the old economy.
It is a telling reality that the assets
of the world’s richest three billionaires
exceed the combined GNP of all the least
developed countries and their 600 million
nationals. The global community has a long
way to go when three billion people live
on less than $2 per day.
War and Poverty
Africa, the cradle of humankind, has waged
a continuous battle with war and poverty.
None of us can escape responsibility for
the suffering and violence which has beset
the continent over the past century. The
scars of Western colonialism and its legacy
need not be reiterated here. The survival
of authoritarian regimes propped up by both
the East and West during the Cold War did
little to instill the values of freedom
and democracy we espouse. As a stage for
super power proxy wars, the continent was
destabilized by the infusion of much military
hardware. Cecil Rhodes and others swarmed
the continent in search of fortunes to be
gained in diamonds, gold, copper and oil
with scant attention paid to local development
or labour standards.
Africans
themselves recognize their own culpability
in the events of the past century. Leaders
who were held up as the continent’s
hope squandered national resources and turned
countries with the potential to be wealthy
and innovative into some of the poorest
in the world. Corruption continues to plague
parts of the continent, but systematic local
efforts are now beginning to see measures
of accountability put in place.
Africa is
one of the regions most negatively affected
by globalization. African leaders have since
independence fought against the marginalization
of their peoples in the world economy and
in high politics. But the dreams of statesmen
such as Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana and Julius
Nyerere of Tanzania have yet to be fully
realised.
A new generation
of a leaders, including Olesegun Obasanjo
of Nigeria and Thabo Mbeki of South Africa,
have provided a new vision for Africa --
one of an African revival. The 53 African
states will be seeking to forge new and
meaningful partnerships with countries such
as Canada in support of this renaissance.
Africa should no longer be seen by the world
as a problem to be solved, but rather many
eloquent voices to be heard.
A New Partnership
Prime Minister Chrétien's recent trip
to Africa demonstrated our commitment to
strengthening relations with African nations.
It solidified bridges at a political level
which can be nurtured. It is essential that
we develop a new partnership with Africa.
Our foreign policy as a whole must give
higher priority to Africa. This won’t
be easy. Too many Canadians ask, "Why
should we care about Africa? Don’t
we have enough problems at home?"
For many,
these are good times. We have experienced
one of the longest periods of sustained
growth in history: eight years of uninterrupted
growth and now a budget surplus. Do we not
have a responsibility to promote peace,
development, and human security on the African
continent? We cannot be apathetic when millions
of civilians are caught in armed conflicts
and live in grotesque squalor. A successful
Africa will create a safer, more environmentally
sustainable world, reduce aid budgets, and
open up lucrative markets.
Africa will
become an important market for Canada. Our
investment in Africa has tripled over the
last decade, and two-way trade now exceeds
$2 billion. While most foreign direct investment
goes to Asia and Latin America, Africa will
likely take over at some date as the fastest
growing region in the world. Angola, Uganda,
and Botswana already stand among the ten
fastest growing economies globally. At independence,
Botswana was one of the poorest countries
in the world, but has been the fastest growing
economy in the world since 1965, with an
annual GNP growth rate of 13%. Mozambique
and Ghana have also achieved strong growth
performance in recent years.
Trade and
Investment
The opportunities for Canadian trade and
foreign investment in Africa are considerable.
There is massive opportunity in the area
of telecommunications alone; with 750 million
inhabitants on the continent, there are
only 14 million with phone lines. Markets
abound too for Canadian educational products
and Canada should seize this window of opportunity
before others establish dominance. Internet
and cell phone companies with foresight
have realised the potential of African markets
and currently enjoy enormous success. More
individuals are now walking the streets
of Johannesburg with cell phones than in
Milan, Paris or Toronto.
Resource
extraction will remain an important component
of trade with Africa. Oil reserves on the
continent are only beginning to be tapped.
Africa has dominance in the world diamond
industry and contains some 54% of the world’s
gold reserves. Alongside the production
of primary commodities, long term sustained
growth in African countries will depend
largely upon the capacity to diversify exports
and achieve export-led growth in manufactures.
Africa also needs guaranteed access to developed
country markets and the elimination of trade
barriers to African products. The US has
taken steps in this regard by passing the
Africa Trade Bill. Africa has expanded access
to the US clothing market with the removal
of tariffs and quotas.
Can it be
acceptable that Canada’s trade with
Africa in one year is the equivalent of
52 hours of trade with the United States?
If we are to expand into new markets, we
will have to go outside of the North American
continent. There are now only four Canadian
trade commissioners based in Africa to serve
47 countries, and merely 13 political officers
deployed in the region.
Knowledge
Provider
Canada must market its credentials as a
leading knowledge provider globally, and
most urgently in Africa. Our educational
institutions have earned their stripes as
some of the best in the world. Ontario alone
houses 19 good universities. The University
of Alberta has recognised the desirability
of marketing its education internationally
and is currently recruiting about 1000 new
foreign students. We have a burgeoning high
tech industry in this city alone, and private
sector initiatives in distance learning
are fast becoming a trend. Articles in our
press which criticize Canada for losing
ground as a foreign educator cannot be ignored
-- we must seize this opportunity.
Nowhere is
there more of a need to engage in the field
of education than in a continent where textbooks
in local schools are 20 years out of date
-- if there are textbooks at all. Regional
universities boast only a handful of computers
in central libraries. Africa is alone in
experiencing declining basic educational
standards. The call from Africans themselves
is increasingly, "Education -- Education
-- Education." When only 0.1% of Sub-Saharan
Africans are linked to the Internet, closing
the knowledge gap becomes critical to global
development. How will a university student
in Uganda without access to the Internet
effectively compete with a student in Britain
who flicks on a laptop each day?
We can help
bridge this gap. Canada has just seen the
last school in this country connected to
the internet. Our NGO sector is now trying
to connect schools in Africa to the internet,
and the private sector is donating computers.
I would like to encourage more of these
type of initiatives, and will lead an education
mission to South Africa in March 2000. For
one week, leading educators, private sector
companies and human resource trainers will
hopefully develop partnerships with South
African counterparts. A long term strategy
in education capacity building is the goal.
Other education missions will follow to
East and West Africa -- we must not fail
to play our part.
AIDS Pandemic
Linked to education must be greater efforts
by Canada to stem the AIDS pandemic sweeping
Africa, leaving graveyards of millions in
its wake. 70% of all people in the world
infected with HIV live in Africa. More Africans
die of AIDS than are killed in war, and
an average of 5,500 now perish daily. It
is estimated that 30 million Africans will
die of AIDS in the next five years. Their
leaders are finally acknowledging that AIDS
constitutes a national crisis in many countries.
It threatens the entire continent’s
economic and social development. CIDA is
responding to this crisis by providing an
additional $50 million to support projects
to fight AIDS in each region of Africa.
AIDS education
and health centres are essential, but there
is also an urgent need for substantial additional
research into new prevention and treatment
techniques. African victims of this disease
also desperately need more affordable access
to AZT – the anti-AIDS drug which has
proved effective in cutting mother-to-child
transmission. Why can’t the pharmaceutical
industry across Canada work with African
countries and the World Health Organisation
to devise ways in which to make such drugs
cheaper? Better yet, why not donate batches
to the most seriously affected areas?
The AIDS
virus has escalated at a time when African
governments are severely constrained in
terms of what they can afford to spend on
health care and other developmental needs.
This is largely owing to the unmanageable
debt burdens carried by African states.
To service their debts fully, African countries
find themselves paying more than 60% of
the revenues generated from exports to donors
and external commercial lenders. Ghana is
one of the most promising economic performers
on the continent that cannot make the necessary
capital investments in healthcare, education
and infrastructure as long as it pays such
a substantial amount of its export earnings
on servicing its debt. Even creditors now
agree that debt burdens are unsustainable.
Debt Burden
The Highly Indebted Poor Countries debt
reduction initiative earmarked 29 countries
for debt relief, 24 of which are in Africa.
Only four countries have received debt relief
to date under this initiative. What is needed
is deeper, broader and faster debt relief.
This will free up resources to create fiscal
space for direct spending on poverty reduction
measures, health and education. Canada has
forgiven $39 million of debt for Senegal,
Benin, Mali, Mozambique and Burkina Faso.
This is a start, but should we not go further
when you consider that some African countries
are grappling with debts to the tune of
$20 billion? Nigeria is struggling under
an external debt of $32 billion -- greater
than its GDP.
Some have
argued that Canada should feel no sense
of obligation to relieve debt burdens when
excessive amounts of revenue are diverted
for military expenditures or personal aggrandizement
in African states. To address this issue,
it may be necessary to better integrate
poverty and development factors more explicitly
in the debt reduction framework without
overloading programs with excessive conditionality.
We should also remember that during the
Cold War bilateral loans provided funds
for extensive military expenditures by African
countries. Sometimes governments were pressured
into accepting a wide range of loans they
didn’t need or productively use. In
many cases, little or no effort was made
to ensure accountability for expenditures.
Foreign loan
money and arms sales have contributed to
the wars which continue to envelop the continent.
In too many cases Western companies have
prolonged conflict in war-torn African nations
by propping up authoritarian regimes with
substantial revenue flows. To our collective
shame, the international community has not
responded robustly in the context of African
wars as it has in Europe and Asia, with
interventions in both Kosovo and East Timor.
Genocide
in Rwanda will define for our generation
the consequences of inaction in the face
of mass murder. The time has long passed
when one could claim ignorance about what
is happening in Africa, or what is needed
to bring about peace. Africa accounts for
more than half of all war-related deaths,
and struggles to assist more than eight
million refugees.
Of all the
countries in the UN community, it is Canada
which is consistently revered for its contributions
to international peacekeeping, conflict
resolution and mediation expertise. It was
a Canadian Prime Minister, Lester B. Pearson,
who was instrumental in formulating the
notion of peacekeeping: his legacy has seen
Canada participate in more peacekeeping
missions than any other country.
Let African
countries not now ask "where is Canada?"
when it comes to African conflicts. We have
recently displayed our willingness to engage
in peace efforts by participating as the
only non-African contingent in the peacekeeping
force deployed to the Central African Republic.
We were also prepared to lead a peacekeeping
mission into Zaire prior to the Kabila coup.
No Excuse
for Indifference
With the conflict in the Democratic Republic
of Congo now threatening to develop into
a regional war capable of devastating large
swathes of the continent, can we sit idly
by? If the Lusaka Peace Accord is tittering
on the brink of collapse -- or some might
say is already rendered null and void --
we need to engage the players. We may not
have substantial resources to apply to peace
efforts, but this cannot be an excuse for
indifference. One of the first initiatives
I’ll undertake in the new year will
be a fact finding mission to the Great Lakes
region in order to assess the prospects
of peace in the Congo, and identify what
role Canada might play in helping to bring
peace to Africa’s largest state. Canada
must be seen as proactive this time, not
reactive -- that is one lesson to be learned
from recent history.
Canada’s
Ambassador to the United Nations, Robert
Fowler, can be congratulated on his efforts
in Angola, particularly to implement the
UN sanctions regime. International efforts
to prevent the proceeds from diamond sales
being utilised by factions in the Angolan
conflict is long overdue. The tragedy of
Angola is that it is one of the 15 poorest
countries in the world, but it is a significant
source of high quality diamonds: it will
produce 2.5 million barrels of oil per day
by 2015. That is more than Kuwait’s
daily production. With such economic potential,
it is devastating to think that 200 people
are dying a day in Angola, making it the
world’s deadliest war.
The political
economy of war requires greater analysis
in order to understand what underlies and
sustains so many African conflicts. We have
seen warlords flirt with peace while reinforcing
their weapons of war all for the sake of
maintaining control over lucrative diamond,
gold or oil fields. Liberia, Sierra Leone,
Sudan, the Congo and Angola all come to
mind here. Foreign multinationals have perpetuated
conflict in many instances by employing
mercenaries to protect their concessions,
and either bolstering or bringing down regimes.
If we hope to facilitate peace on the African
continent we will have to address the real
roots of conflict, in addition to concerted
efforts to train civilians and military
officers in Africa for peace.
In addressing
the challenges that confront Africa in the
next century, we must not forget the bright
spots or overlook the achievements that
have been made. Less than fifty years have
passed since the first black African country
gained independence from colonial rule,
compared to the centuries over which the
states of Europe and Asia matured their
political systems. This decade has witnessed
the founding of more parties in Africa than
at any time since the decolonization period.
Democracy has taken root in Botswana, Mali,
Mozambique, Tanzania, South Africa and Mauritius
to name but a few. These have been African
success stories in terms of political freedom.
Countries like South Africa overcame what
seemed insurmountable obstacles on the path
to democracy and avoided the bloodshed which
has accompanied so many political transitions.
For South Africa to have emerged from the
days of apartheid and state oppression with
such an open political system, free media,
one of the most progressive constitutions
in the world, and concerted efforts at reconciliation,
there is no reason why this cannot be replicated
in other African nations. The year 2000
will see fresh elections in Egypt, Côte
d’Ivoire, Ghana, Senegal, and Tanzania.
Canada could play a role in assisting newly
elected African parliaments through orientation
programs, parliamentary exchanges, and good
governance programs. We will look to our
civil society to implement such forward
looking initiatives.
One more
parting thought as we say good-bye to the
old century and anticipate the new. For
Canada to implement an ethical foreign policy
in the coming new year as a friend of the
developing world, particularly Africa, we
must work to change the imbalance of power
which exists in the United Nations. Real
power in our global body is largely vested
in the hands of a few powers which were
the victors of World War Two, and who still
exercise an overriding influence over international
affairs.
The realities
of global politics have changed. The vast
majority of today’s 186 member states
did not exist as sovereign independent states
at the time the organisation was founded.
If the world body entrusted with overseeing
peace and security matters is to solve its
crisis of legitimacy, the developing world
will need to be accorded a greater voice
in security council decision-making. Canada
is well-placed to drive forward a UN reform
agenda given its membership in the Security
Council for the forthcoming year.
Let the next
century not only be one of promise and opportunity
for Canadians, but one for the African peoples.
Let us emerge as partners in efforts to
eradicate poverty, Aids, conflict, and indebtedness.
Let education and trade be the highlights
of a score card for the next century. And
to those who question our intentions, we
answer them by noting, "humanity, after
all, is indivisible."
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