HARARE, Feb 6 (IPS) - Civil societies in Africa are demanding the establishment of an arbitration mechanism under the United Nations which they believe will offer a sustainable solution to the debt crisis choking sub-Saharan Africa.
Sub-Saharan Africa's total external debt stands at about 370 billion U.S. dollars, according to the Harare-based African Forum and Network on Debt and Development (AFRODAD).
''Total debt cancellation of both bilateral and multilateral debt will provide finance for economic and human development,'' says AFRODAD's Coordinator, Opa Kapijimpanga, in a paper titled 'Fair and Transparent Arbitration on Debt'.
''For Africa this could mean a minimum of 13 billion U.S. dollars per year,'' she says.
African governments owe foreign creditors an average of almost 400 U.S. dollars for every man, woman and child on a continent where the average annual wage for most countries is less than 400 U.S. dollars per month, according to AFRODAD.
Under such conditions, efforts to repay the debt will not be easy. ''To resolve the crisis, we need a treaty which will allow the setting up of an arbitration mechanism on debt,'' says Eunice Mafundikwa of AFRODAD.
Existing instruments such as the Permanent Court of Arbitration based in The Hague, The Netherlands, and the Geneva-based UN Commission on Trade could either have their mandates extended to include debt issues, or establish a new commission to deal with debt issues, she says.
While recognizing that it takes time and money to conduct major international commercial arbitration, Mafundikwa argues that setting up an international Arbitration Court on Debt through a UN treaty is the optimal solution.
Mafundikwa says the court could be composed of not more than five arbitrators representing both the debtors and the creditors with an independent arbitrator to ensure impartiality.
''This kind of composition has been used in other arbitral tribunals. However, such a court could also maintain a panel of arbitrators from which parties can choose. It would have a secretariat to provide the necessary organizational support. Existing facilities such as courtrooms, library, and consultation rooms belonging to the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague could be accessed,'' she says.
AFRODAD says it has written to all UN ambassadors in New York. ''We are trying to push our governments to persuade the United Nations to establish the court,'' she says.
Debts qualifying for arbitration will include those contracted by dictatorships or repressive regimes, and used to strengthen the hold of these regimes.
Wealth stolen by dictators, like the late Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire and the apartheid debt, inherited by South Africa would fall under this category.
AFRODAD also wants debts contracted and used for improperly designed projects and programs to fall under this mechanism. These include the failed development programs, the so-called White elephant projects by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), says Mafundikwa.
They will also include debts that swelled because of high interest rates and other conditions imposed by creditor governments and banks.
Sub-Saharan Africa spends over twice as much on debt servicing as on basic health services, spends 6.1 percent of Gross National Product (GNP) on education and spends five percent of GNP on debt servicing, according to AFRODAD.
Since 1990, Africa's debt service has risen from 10.9 billion U.S. dollars to 15.2 billion U.S. dollars, a rise of 39 percent.
One of the countries hardest hit by the debt burden is Zambia.
In a year, Zambia spends 37 million U.S. dollars on primary education and devotes 1.3 billion U.S. dollars to debt repayments.
As a result of the debt burden, campaigners say half of all African children do not attend primary school and school enrolment rates on the African continent are declining.
In Mozambique, one in four children dies before age five due to infectious diseases, yet the government spends four times more on debt servicing than on health care.
In a letter to the G-8 countries in 2000, the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan highlighted the seriousness of Africa's Debt crisis. He pointed out that ''Up to 40 percent of African countries' revenue was now being allocated to servicing foreign debt to the detriment of health, education and other essential social services''.
G-8 comprises the United States, Canada, Japan, Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Russia.
The debt burden also has contributed to spiraling poverty. Figures made available to IPS by AFRODAD indicate that an average of 51 percent of the people in sub Saharan Africa live in absolute poverty on less than one U.S. dollar a day.
Thirty-three of the 41 countries classified as Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPCs) by the IMF and World Bank in the world are in Africa.
''Debt cancellation, if properly worked out, would be an effective way to break the chain of poverty and put the region on the path to sustainable development,'' says Mafundikwa.
AFRODAD regrets that the West's response to the debt problem has been to hatch up plan after plan, initiative after initiative. Unfortunately, none of these have adequately addressed the problem and the bulk of the crisis remains unresolved.
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