|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
  |
 |
  |
This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.
Remarks by J. Brady Anderson,
Council on Foreign Relations
USAID Administrator
April 10, 2000
Good evening.
I want to thank the Council for inviting me here today. It's a pleasure to be here.
I also want to thank Len Robinson, who has done so much to raise appreciation for Africa through the National Summit on Africa. Len, it's good to see you again.
As many of you know, I lived in East Africa for eight years-five as a private citizen and three as the U.S. Ambassador to Tanzania.
We all know that Africa is not an easy place to describe. It is a land of extremes, home to vast deserts and deep, lush forests: the home of Mobutu Sese Seko and Nelson Mandela.
I came to Tanzania just after the genocide in Rwanda, and one of the first things I did was to travel to the refugee camps on the Kagara river, which separates Tanzania and Rwanda.
The relief workers there had hung a large net off one of the bridges-I could see it hung down deep into the water. I remember I asked one of my colleagues what the net was for.
He told me the workers used it to fish bodies-victims of the genocide-out of the river.
In Africa, not even a net floating in water is what it seems.
But over the years my wife Betty and I met thousands of wonderful, hard-working, generous people. People who, though they live half a world away, want many of the same things Americans do: education for their children, medical care when they're ill, and most of all, the opportunity to improve their lives.
The tragedy of Africa is that far too many people are denied that opportunity.
We are all familiar with the problems Africa faces: the HIV/AIDS epidemic that is sweeping through the continent, the constant threat of famine in the Horn, the wars in places like Liberia, the Congo, and Angola, and the lawlessness of Somalia and Sudan.
And while it is true that these challenges pose serious threats to development-in fact, I would go so far as to say they are the antithesis of development-it is also true that they are symptoms of a larger problem: the lack of sound, functioning institutions.
An honest judiciary, a vibrant civil society, agencies that both invite private investment and regulate it, a free press, a functioning educational system-these are examples of the institutions societies need to flourish.
And it is the process of building these institutions that is the essence of development: at root, it is these institutions that separate the developed world from the developing.
If you were to ask me, what are the three biggest threats to development in Africa today, I would say: poverty, HIV/AIDS, and conflict.
Weak institutions exacerbate all of these.
Take the AIDS epidemic, for example.
Two-thirds of the world's people infected with AIDS live in Africa-some 23 million people. AIDS kills more Africans every year than all the continent's civil wars, and it orphans over 12 million children. Eight million of these children are currently homeless-this number is set to mushroom to 40 million over the next ten years.
That's the humanitarian aspect. Here's the development angle:
AIDS strikes Africans in their prime, killing off the very men and women best positioned to contribute to African society. It is wiping out nearly four decades of progress: children are forced to drop out of school to care for dying parents and businesses face rising labor costs and a shortage of skilled workers: today, one fourth of Zimbabwe's adult population is believed to be infected. Ten years from now, my beloved Tanzania will have lost 20 percent of its workforce.
This means that businesses have to hire and train two or three people for every skilled job, knowing that they will lose at least one of them to AIDS.
But most of the damage is immeasurable, economists say, because it appears in ways that cannot be seen-businesses that will never be founded, ideas that will never be pitched, or university departments that will never be created.
Over the past 15 years, USAID has provided over half a billion dollars to help fight the spread of this disease in Africa. Other donors, both bi- and multilateral, are also spending considerable, though lesser, amounts.
Our help is critically needed. An ounce of prevention in Africa is worth well more than a pound of cure-of course, in this case there is no cure.
And yet, no matter how much money the United States, the EU, or the World Bank pour into anti-AIDS efforts in Africa, ultimately the key to prevention rests with the African people, and their willingness and ability to create the institutions to address this issue.
To illustrate my point, I ask you to think about how this country fights AIDS-community groups, non-profits, public education campaigns, and the media help educate people about the disease, and help spread the message of prevention. Public health messages are broadcast on TV and on the radio. News of new research and treatment options is spread through medical journals and conferences. And doctors counsel patients one-to-one, answering any questions the patient may have.
Americans rely on this system to work not just when it comes to AIDS, but any threat to our well-being.
In Africa, people can rely on very few of these institutions. Civil society there is still in its early stages, while governments often lack the resources or the will-or both-to mount public education campaigns.
Perhaps most importantly, a huge proportion of the population in Africa simply does not have access to educated health care workers or competent care.
The average education level for health care workers in Zambezia, a province of Mozambique, for example, is sixth grade.
In Malawi, there is only one doctor for every 48,000 people.
If the developed world wants Africans to someday be able to deal with the AIDS crisis on their own, we must help them-not only by continuing to provide AIDS prevention and education assistance, but by helping them educate medical workers, build up their civil societies, and create functioning health delivery systems. That is, we must help them build institutions.
The same is true of another major impediment to development in Africa-conflict.
Since the 1960s, when Africa first gained its independence from colonial rule, it has had more than its share of war and conflict.
This is, of course, partly a legacy of colonialism itself. When they left Africa, Europeans left behind them so few educated, skilled, and trained workers that it was easy for those few to seize power and warp it to suit their own needs, or that of their ethnic group.
Let me be more specific, because I certainly don't mean to imply that different ethnicities cannot co-exist.
What I mean is that when a society does not have a strong rule of law-the guarantee that all its citizens will be treated equally, regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, or religion-it is easy to believe that you are being discriminated against for any of these reasons. In Africa, as you know, it is most often religion or ethnicity.
When the rulers of a country are more interested in gaining and keeping power than they are in attending to the needs of their citizens, and when those rulers happen to be of a different ethnic group then you, the stage is set for violence.
This deep sense of injustice is only exacerbated by poverty, a lack of education, unemployment, and a ready supply of arms, all of which Africa unfortunately has in abundance.
And too often, the result is not just violence, but prolonged conflict.
USAID can help and is helping Africans deal with conflict: we are supporting the Burundian peace talks in Arusha, Tanzania, for example, and helping counsel and educate former child soldiers in Sierra Leone.
But, as with the AIDS epidemic, prevention is the key. And conflict prevention ultimately flows from the political will of the African people, and from their democratic institutions.
Strong institutions can help transcend ethnicity or race or religion, because they are the embodiments of the values and beliefs of the entire population, not just a small segment of it.
Strong institutions promote equality before the law and equality of opportunity, both of which promote stability and prosperity.
Which brings me to the third major impediment to development in Africa-and perhaps the most pervasive: poverty.
Africa is one of the most blessed lands on Earth. Diamonds and oil are only the best known of its many natural resources.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo sits atop vast reserves of uranium, metals, and emeralds, while South Africa holds 40 percent of the world's gold reserves. The fertile lands of East Africa are perfect for cash crops like cashews, coffee, tea, and all kinds of grains.
So I dare ask the question, why is Africa so poor?
Here too, the answer is complex.
Part of the answer can be found in the policies of the corrupt regimes that ruled Africa for the first few decades after independence. These regimes crushed freedom with one hand while using the other to line their pockets with the country's wealth.
Mobutu Sese Seko, for example, was worth an estimated $4 billion in the early 1980s, a time when Zaire's annual per capita income was about $170.
These rulers effectively robbed Africa of 20 to 30 years of progress.
Which is why today, even after embracing democracy, many African countries are still as poor as they were 20, even 30 years ago.
Part of the reason is a lack of education. Africa has had to build its education system from the ground up; unfortunately, it has not always had the resources to do so effectively.
For example, at independence, in 1964, Zambia had very few high schools. In later years, under the rule of Kenneth Kaunda, the government spent millions to build up its school system. But, because Zambia was then dependent on copper, when the price of copper collapsed in 1974, so did the Zambian economy. The decline of the Zambian education system soon followed.
This story is repeated, in some shape or form, throughout Africa.
Education is the linchpin of development. This has always been true, but in today's global economy, where everything and everyone, it seems, is interconnected, education takes on a whole new importance.
In the 21st century, it is virtually impossible to build a market economy without an educated population, and without an educated workforce that is comfortable with information technology.
But even beyond that, a lack of basic education means that people often don't understand the forces around them. Even if the public health messages about AIDS reach them, for example, they may not make sense. Families who for generations have depended on copper mining for their livelihoods may not understand why suddenly copper is not worth as much.
But education, while critical, does not obviate the need for economic reform. Indeed, economic reform plays a big part in attracting the revenues countries need to shore up their education systems.
You know, one of the first things you learn in economics classes back in college is that to create economic growth, you have to stimulate the economy-that is, generate wealth. And the easiest, best way to generate wealth is to make it easy for people to start their own businesses, because as in the U.S., small businesses are the engine of economic growth.
At USAID, one of the ways we help spark this engine is through our microenterprise programs, which give men and women small loans-often as little as $40-to start their own small businesses.
From 1994 to 1998, for example, we spent over $144 million on microenterprise loans to Africa, helping hundreds of thousands of people. The loan repayment rate, incidentally, was 96 percent.
But clearly, our microenterprise programs, as effective as they are, cannot shoulder the entire burden of economic development. To promote economic growth on the continent, Africa must attract and keep foreign investment. And to do that, African countries will need stable economies, low inflation, and a predictable investment environment.
And in order to do this, Africa needs to build up its institutions.
First among these is the rule of law, which guarantees foreign and domestic businesses legal recourse. Investors in the United States, or even in developing countries like India, for example, which has a much sounder institutional base, know that when they sign a contract with an American or Indian company, that contract is binding.
If the company breaks the terms of the contract, the investor has a right to take them to court, where he or she can expect to get a fair hearing.
A strong rule of law also protects companies against theft-not just of actual property, but of intellectual property.
But what else-clearly a rule of law, all by itself, will not be enough.
African countries also need to establish sound financial institutions: autonomous central banks to set monetary policy, regulatory agencies-like our FDIC-that regulate commercial banks, and finance ministries that pursue sound fiscal policies.
These three things in concert-education, economic reform, and anti-corruption-will, I am convinced, have a tremendous, positive impact on the health of the African economy.
But none of the things I have mentioned is easy to do. Development takes time, hard work, patience and a little help from your friends.
This summer, Congress will pass the Foreign Operations Appropriations Act, which includes funding for the United States' foreign assistance programs.
This bill will include funding for many important and sorely needed programs in Africa-AIDS prevention, polio eradication, child mortality, immunization and basic education are only some of these.
But I hope that Congress will realize that while these programs represent some of the best of what we do, they should not be the only things we do.
Development is an act of political will-of leaders having the courage to make tough choices in an even tougher environment. Where this will exists, as it does in many parts of Africa, it is in our best interests to promote it.
And the best way to do that, as I have said several times today, is by helping African countries strengthen their democratic, economic, and social institutions.
You know, a year after I was appointed Ambassador, Tanzania held its first real multi-party election. USAID sponsored some 30 observers, but I was observing in an unofficial capacity.
I remember my wife and I spent most of the day traveling between polling stations, but we wound up the day in a one-room schoolhouse, watching people line up to vote. They closed the polls at dusk, and, as the mosquitoes buzzed around, counted the ballots by the light of kerosene lanterns.
I think the look on the people's faces as they huddled over the ballots, carefully counting in the stillness of the Tanzanian night, is something I will carry with me for a long time.
This is how democracies are built. This is how progress is made-one person at a time, one institution at a time. And that, in fact, is development.
Thank you again for inviting me here tonight.
This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.
 |
|||
Last Updated on: July 12, 2001 |
