Africa, Development & Aid, Gender, Headlines, Health, Human Rights, Poverty & SDGs, Women's Health

DEVELOPMENT-AFRICA: Calls for Science and Self-Reliance at AU Summit

Stephanie Nieuwoudt

ADDIS ABABA, Jan 30 2007 (IPS) - To tackle the great development challenges the African continent faces, leaders gathered in the Ethiopian capital for the two-day, bi-annual summit of the African Union (AU) pointed to science and self-reliance as important tools.

If they had gazed from their rooms in the palatial Sheraton Hotel they would have been confronted with the reality of the majority of their people. Most windows overlook a slum just outside the boundary wall of the hotel.

Police kept Addis Ababa’s begging children and adults crippled by disease at a distance from the heads of state, clearing the streets as the leaders whizzed through Africa’s fourth largest city in their convoys of luxury cars.

The need to lift Africa out of poverty was present in the sub-text of the official themes of the Jan. 29-30 summit: ‘Science, Technology and Scientific Research for Development’, and ‘Climate Change in Africa’.

Alpha Oumar Konare, chairman of the AU commission, called for a “responsible” Africa, one that is “more self-reliant” and breaks away from “always asking” for aid.

“An Africa that takes responsibility for itself can forge ahead with development. We are a rich continent with enormous potential. We should struggle for self-reliance as we struggled against apartheid (in South Africa) – with the same sense of commitment and solidarity. Then we shall achieve our development goals,” he said.

In his last address as outgoing chairman of the AU, President Denis Sassou-Ngueso of the Republic of the Congo (Brazzaville) said that 500 million of Africa’s people were 18 years or younger. The continent has an estimated population of nearly 900 million, which means more than half of Africa’s people are children.

“This poses a major challenge for the future. We have to realise that science and technology dominate all of our lives. It is the key to the development of Africa,” he said.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who is only four weeks into his new job, used a personal example to demonstrate the need for unity of purpose in the fight against poverty and disease. He told delegates that as a boy growing up in South Korea he had first-hand experiences of the devastation that is wreaked by conflict.

He told of women and children scavenging for food, crops rotting on the fields and buildings destroyed. Although the images still haunt him, he said his country was able to transform itself from a “traumatised nation with a non-existent economy into a vibrant, productive society and a regional economic power” through unity of purpose.

“Unity of purpose guides our collaboration for democracy, human rights and good governance including through the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). It drives our collective efforts for peace and security – including the UN’s commitment to developing the African Union capacity to plan, launch and manage peacekeeping operations,” he said.

Ban said although some African countries have made good progress in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set by UN member state seven years ago, a lot remains to be done. He called for “strong action” also from the international community to assist African countries to handle climate change.

“We are long past the phase of speculation,” the UN chief asserted. “Climate change is a scientifically proven fact. The international community has to pay urgent attention to this threat.”

According to Ban, many countries have managed to sustain five percent economic growth, 15 countries have instituted universal primary education and most countries are on course to institute gender parity at the school level.

On Tuesday, AU leaders adopted a plan of action to promote women’s health that was agreed upon by their health ministers last year.

“Health ministers from the AU’s 53 member states were brought together to discuss female sexual and reproductive health. It was the first time that African health ministers en masse discussed issues of safe sex, reproductive health and sexuality openly,” Irungu Houghton, pan-Africa policy advisor for Oxfam, told IPS.

Unfortunately, most pledges made at AU summits do not translate into action on the ground. Two years ago in Abuja, Nigeria, AU leaders promised to spend 15 percent of their national budgets on health. So far only two countries, Botswana and Zimbabwe, have kept their word.

Even the commitment to spend 10 percent of their countries’ budgets on agriculture, agreed at their summit in Sirte, Libya, 18 months ago, has gone largely ignored.

“Africa has yet to see sustained political commitment to increase expenditure on food security and health,” Houghton observed.

Implementation of the AU’s new plan of action to promote women’s health is vital since women and girls make up 51 percent of Africa’s population and 70 percent of the continent’s agricultural producers are women.

Women are not only the backbone of the informal sector as they work as subsistence farmers, but also the spine of the formal economy. They work for minimum wages on tea, coffee and flower farms. These products are exported at inflated prices yet the women see only a small part of this.

“When women’s health suffers through tuberculosis, malaria or HIV/AIDS, it has a devastating effect on their countries’ economy,” he explained. The war on Africa’s poverty has to be fought on a war footing.