3rd Annual Baraza
“From Myths to Mobilization: Reframing U.S. Africa Relations”
October 28 & 29, 2005
MDGs, GCAP, PEPFAR: From Acronyms to Action
Africa faces the greatest human development challenges in the world today.
The HIV/AIDS pandemic is the leading cause of death in Africa, claiming
the lives of over 2 million people in 2004. Almost 4 million children
under the age of five die annually in Africa and malnutrition is the culprit
in half of these deaths. Primary school enrollment and literacy rates
in Africa are among the lowest in the world. These challenges warrant
international concern and support. The question is what kind of support?
This year was touted as a special year for Africa. Indeed,
the calendar of major international conferences and events put Africa’s
poverty-related challenges under the spotlight and highlighted the need
for the world’s richest countries to do more in support of Africa’s
efforts. The Live 8 concerts, the Group of 8 (G-8) Summit, the United
Nation’s (UN) Special Summit, and the campaign to “make poverty
history” created unprecedented visibility and public rhetoric about
Africa. At the top of the agenda this year were issues of Africa’s
debt, the need for increased foreign aid, and improved terms of trade.
As the year concludes, however, Africa still faces the same significant
human development challenges with little tangible new support.
In 2000, the United Nations adopted the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs), a set of measurable targets that seek to improve
health, education, gender equality, and the environment across the world,
with the overarching aim of reducing by half the number of people living
in extreme poverty by 2015. Also, civil society organizations in many
countries rallied around the Global Call to Action against Poverty
(GCAP), an international alliance aimed at forcing world leaders to live
up to their promises of reducing poverty. The Bush Administration’s
main contribution has been the controversial President’s
Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the U.S. government’s
main vehicle for combating HIV/AIDS in Africa.
This was a benchmark year for the MDGs. In September, a UN Special Summit
reviewed progress on these goals. The 2005 Millennium Development Goals
Report confirmed that sub-Saharan Africa is the only region globally not
on target to meet the goals. The UN Development Program (UNDP) reports
that Africa will not achieve some of the MDGs for another 150 years if
greater assistance is not provided.
One prevailing myth is that wealthy countries have sharply increased
aid to Africa. Although they have repeatedly made promises
to provide 0.7% of their Gross National Product (GNP) for development
assistance, not one of the G-8 richest countries reaches even half that
figure. In July, the G-8 made further promises to increase aid to Africa
by $25 billion annually by 2010.
The Bush Administration has claimed that it has tripled
aid to Africa since 2000. The reality is that U.S. aid to Africa has not
even doubled. The total of all forms of U.S. aid to Africa has increased
only by 56% during the period 2000-2004. Moreover, over half of the increase
consists of emergency food aid rather than overseas development assistance,
which would contribute to sustainable development. Although it is the
richest country in the world today, the U.S. fails to provide its fair
share of development assistance to African countries. Only $3.2 billion,
which equals 0.13% of the U.S. budget, was spent on aid to Africa in 2004.
Not only are aid flows insufficient, their direction increasingly reflects
geo-strategic concerns rather than efforts to reduce poverty. Over the
past 3 years, U.S. aid flows to Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Turkey and
Afghanistan were equal to all U.S. aid to the rest of the world combined.
Last year, the U.S. Congress established the Millennium Challenge
Account (MCA) proposed by President Bush in 2002 to provide aid
to a shortlist of countries (9 of which are in Africa as of now) that
meet specific economic and political criteria defined by Washington. The
MCA proposes only a relatively small increase in foreign aid – $1
billion in initial funding for 2004 and $1.5 billion for 2005. The original
target was to increase annual funding for the MCA to $5 billion by 2006.
To date, Madagascar and Cape Verde are the only African countries to have
projects approved for MCA funding and very few funds have been disbursed.
Contrary to popular perceptions, more money continues to flow out of
Africa than trickles in from donors. Although the majority of Africa’s
people are forced to live on less than $2 a day, many African countries
spend more each year on debt service payments (about
$15 billion) than on health care or education for their own people. When
the G-8 met this year, they adopted a debt cancellation package for 18
countries (14 of them in Africa).
While the G-8 makes empty promises, Africa remains by far the region
worst affected by HIV/AIDS. Over 25 million people were
living with HIV in Africa at the end of 2004 (more than 60% of the global
total). Yet the world is still failing to respond to this crisis with
the urgency that is required. The wealthy countries have consistently
failed to ensure full financing for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis
(TB) & Malaria, which is the most promising vehicle for combating
HIV/AIDS. At the latest replenishing round of the Global Fund, rich countries
pledged only half of what is needed to scale up the fight against HIV/AIDS,
TB, and malaria. There was also no funding for new prevention, treatment,
or care programs for 2006 and 2007.
The Bush Administration’s announcement of the PEPFAR
program in 2003, promising $15 billion over a five-year period to fight
HIV/AIDS in Africa, has created another big myth: that the U.S. is leading
the fight against HIV/AIDS and providing its fair share of funding. PEPFAR
provides support to only 12 countries in Africa, leaving three-quarters
of the continent out of the picture. No money was actually requested for
this initiative until the 2004 budget, and then only $1 billion was sought
instead of the $3 billion per year the President had promised. Moreover,
the Bush Administration’s commitment to the pharmaceutical industry
to protect its patents and profits has severely curtailed the program’s
reach. The Bush Administration refuses to purchase low-cost generic versions
of essential HIV/AIDS drugs, which would enable PEPFAR money to reach
about four times as many people with life-saving therapy.
Successful efforts to meet Africa’s challenges will require more
than just a rhetorical alphabet soup of acronyms. Concrete actions to
fulfill past promises and concerted international support for Africa’s
human development agenda are what will sway the tide in the continent’s
favor. At the end of a year that promised so much for Africa, civil society
on the continent continues to demand that urgent attention be paid to
building the internal capacity of African countries to marshal their own
resources for human development.
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MDGs, GCAP, PEPFAR: From Acronyms to Action <
