WASHINGTON, Nov. 13 (UPI) -- Top financial officials from some of Africa's more economically successful nations are in Washington this week, united with one message: don't forget Africa.
But it's only too easy now more than ever to put Africa on the backburner, as global economic risks remain high since the Sept. 11 attacks, and leading aid donors are increasingly concerned about their own country's health, as well as the state of nations with whom they trade the most. That, by and large, rules out Africa altogether.
Leaders of the continent, however, are concerned that whatever gains African nations may have made in recent years to push through political and social reforms will lose momentum should foreign aid dry up in light of the continuing reluctance amongst donor nations to continue providing more assistance.
Their fears are already beginning to become reality. Not only are governments of industrialized nations less willing to foot the development assistance bill as more funds are need for domestic needs, but private investors are less willing to put their money in even the more established emerging markets, let alone in Africa. Meanwhile, tourists, who have always been a key source of foreign currency for the majority of African states, are staying away from the safaris and other escapes the continent is trying to promote since the terrorist strikes.
"We have made a lot of progress over the past three, five years, " said Gerald Ssendaula, Uganda's finance minister. "We need to keep Africa on the global radar screen."
Ssendaula, together with Burkina Faso's Finance Minister Jean Baptiste Compaore and Gaston Edouard Ravelojaona, Madagascar's central bank governor, had met with top officials of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. They are slated to meet with senior members of the U.S. Treasury, USAID, and congressmen before heading to Ottawa on Friday to take part in the Bretton Woods institutions' annual meeting.
Still, if the sparsely attended joint press conference of ministers is anything to go by, interest in African affairs remains tepid at best, with the need for development assistance and challenges of government reform still remaining largely unchanged. The same old story of giving money for the sake of giving money with little lasting result, or so it seems at first blush.
"It's not just about aid, though," said Burkina Faso's Compaore, when questioned how much successful his latest visit to Washington has been in shoring up more assistance to the continent since the attacks on New York and Washington.
With competing interests for the same limited government funds, Compaore pointed out that what Africa needs most to ensure longer-term growth and be less dependent on assistance is to enhance market access for developing nations and to adjust prices in the global commodities market.
Indeed, the slump in commodity prices over the past few years has hit African states particularly hard, as commodities remain the biggest export and source of foreign currencies for many. The African leaders called for the elimination of agricultural subsidies in industrialized nations as a means to level the playing field for all nations.
WTO members are currently disputing over trade subsidies, up to the last minute in negotiations, as some countries are pressing for phasing out the practice to prevent farmers from exporting below market price, which subsequently distorts prices on the world market.
"A breakthrough in this is critical for Africa," Uganda's Ssendaula said.
No African leader had, however, any specific proposals on how to attract foreign capital except through commodities and tourism. Given the volatility of both industries, even at the best of times and under the fairest of markets, the challenge for Africa will be to attract foreign investments which are less at the mercy of prices and consumer sentiment. Without vested investor interest, a global community already juggling with shrinking budgets will only give aid to Africa even more begrudgingly.
