UN meeting addressing “the path to development”

The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) on Monday opened an in-depth discussion of ways and means to set Africa on the path to lasting peace and sustainable development. In a report to the 54 member states of the council, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan made no bones about the “multiple challenges” that must be tackled to set Africa, a continent in the most harrowing circumstances, on the path to development, according to a UN press statement. Echoing Annan’s sentiments, the current president of the council, Cameroonian Ambassador Martin Belinga-Eboutou, spoke of the need to pay special attention to the eradication of poverty against a setting of heavy debt burdens, stagnating or receding international development assistance, a withdrawal of foreign direct investment, armed conflicts and the ravages of the AIDS pandemic. The high-level discussion on Africa takes place days after the end of the Organisation of African Unity summit in Lusaka, Zambia, at which the OAU paved the way for the establishment of an African Union. Annan last week described that move as “an historic effort” that “will require leadership, courage and a willingness to depart from the ways of the past, if it is to do for Africa what the European Union has done for Europe”. The ECOSOC session, to last until Wednesday, will be attended by officials from the IMF, World Bank, World Trade Organisation and other major financial institutions, as well as ministers of African states, representatives of African private companies and UN specialised agencies, trade unionists and investors. Three round-table meetings on the investment climate in African countries, financing investment, and priority infrastructure needs will run in parallel. Annan, and the head of the World Bank, James Wolfensohn, on Monday called on developed countries to cut the US $300 billion a year they spend on subsiding farmers, and give poor African states more chance to compete for trade. Annan said the subsidy had the effect of lowering world prices, thereby contributing to lower incomes and poverty in Africa. On Tuesday morning, former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela is to address the gathering by video during a debate on the link between peace and development. General discussion is due to continue on Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday, and to culminate in a ministerial declaration. Annan has voiced the hope that the African countries will reach agreement on a single, integrated framework for development on the continent, and emphasised that the international community has an obligation to help them in their efforts. In advance of the ECOSOC talks, he identified six broad areas of concern: improving governance and preventing conflict; mobilising resources for eradicating poverty; food security and increasing productivity in agriculture; diversifying Africa’s economies; rehabilitating infrastructure; and strengthening human capital.