Finance ministers state a continent's demands

Well before the global economic uncertainties that have followed the 11 September attacks on the US, African countries were carrying out painstaking economic reform programmes, and they still needed the support of international financial institutions and donors to ensure they got the rewards, the continent's finance ministers stated on Tuesday. "We are concerned that the policy reforms that have been carried out in Africa, and for which we are starting to see some sign of progress, might be endangered by what's going to happen in the next months and years," said Ali Gamatie, Niger's finance minister, at a press conference in Washington DC, USA. "This is certainly not the time for the Bretton Woods institutions [the World Bank and IMF] and the donor community to drop out Africa from their radar screen." The African delegates spent Tuesday meeting senior IMF and World Bank representatives, to whom they presented demands, including equitable access to global markets, faster and deeper debt relief, and Africa's need for capital investment, among other issues. Altogether, a total of 23 countries have reached the decision point on qualification for debt relief under the global Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative, including 19 from Africa, said Gerald Ssendaula, the Ugandan Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, who is also head of the African Bureau to the IMF and World Bank - of which Uganda holds the presidency until 2003. "Of the 19, [only] two have reached the completion point: Uganda and Mozambique... Our plea was to speed up debt relief - that is, to close the gap of the period between the decision and the completion point," Ssendaula said. African countries also believed "that the process should be accompanied with grants or loans on concessional terms" so that they did not fall into further debt in the future, he added. The African finance ministers also pressed for equitable access to international markets, which often have barriers to entry that favour developed nations. "Africans are realising that they cannot grow just depending on aid; that while aid is important, the question of market access is even more pivotal. And so, in our discussions... the importance of having market access was very well underscored," said Jean Baptiste Compaore, the finance minister of Burkina Faso. "The problem is that in most of the markets where Africa sells its products, developed world agricultural products are subsidised," Ssendaula said. "Our concern is that our commodities, which are mainly primary commodities, agricultural produce, are not getting a fair share of the market." The African Bureau to the IMF and World Bank also raised its desire to have more Africans recruited by and take up responsible positions in the Bank; additional funding for further research into HIV/AIDS drugs, and to see the price of essential drugs lowered; and for more foreign direct investment in Africa. With the IMF, the African ministers presented issues related to countries' quota of shares in the Fund and to the Poverty Reduction Strategy Programs (PRSPs) it promotes for developing countries, Ssendaula said. Africa would "definitely welcome more grants and aid" rather than debt relief and loans alone, and that loans should be on concessional terms - with a rate of interest below 1 percent, a grace period of 10 years and repayment over 40 years, he said. "I don't think that there is any other continent where there has been greater reform than we have experienced in Africa in the last five years - but, at the same time, we are watching a decline in the flow of aid," said Gamatie. "There is an issue of being credible from the international community in fulfilling the commitment when they say you should have good governance, you should fight corruption, have sound, good economic policy, then you will qualify for HIPC. But once you've done that, then sometimes the response is not there," he said. "We are going to be more coordinated in Africa to try to press further for these demands. We shall be repeating them until we get a solution," Ssendaula added.