UNITED NATIONS - A plan for the world's most industrialized countries to jump-start economic development in Africa will be missing a crucial detail when it is presented at the Group of Eight summit in Canada next month.
The plan, which is being personally promoted by Jean Chrétien, the Prime Minister, says that 40 years of failed overseas-aid policies should be replaced by business investment in countries pegged as a good bet for success.
But with just weeks to go before the summit opens in Kananaskis, Alta., a list of African countries deemed worthy of such investment has yet to be produced.
African leaders will meet in Rome next month to begin the process of selecting which of their continent's 53 countries they would like to see as the plan's main beneficiaries. A list of their recommendations may be months away.
Mr. Chrétien, however, wants the summit to be remembered as having set Africa on the road toward development.
Pierre Trudeau, in his last year as prime minister, also sought to spark Third World development. He toured world capitals to promote a North-South dialogue between rich and poor countries.
The failure of overseas aid as a trigger for development in Africa, the world's poorest continent, was admitted yesterday by Robert Fowler, the Prime Minister's special representative charged with organizing this year's G8 summit.
"We have been reinforcing failure in Africa for a long time," said Mr. Fowler, a former Canadian ambassador to the United Nations, during a briefing at the Canadian Mission to the UN.
"[After] $13-billion to $14-billion worth of Canadian development ... show me the countries in Africa that are significantly better off," he added, citing a typical request of Canadians concerned about aid expenditures.
Corrupt, ineffective governments swallowed a large part of the aid. Living standards in Zambia -- to give one example -- are 40% lower than they were at independence in 1964 despite international help totalling US$2-billion.
Mr. Fowler said Africans would be even worse off if the aid had not been given. Still, every economic indicator for the continent points downward today. South of the Sahara, people die younger, are more hungry, have less access to clean water and are more afflicted by AIDS than in any other region of the world.
The number of orphans left by AIDS will, it is estimated, equal half the population of Canada within five years.
Last year, African leaders declared international aid alone would not lift the continent from destitution and called for deeper investment commitments from the West.
G8 leaders, at their annual meeting last year in Genoa, Italy, embraced the call, leading to the New Partnership for Africa's Development. It aims to encourage investment in countries that are receptive to embracing sound macroeconomic policy and democracy.
"We hope to produce a couple of winners in Africa that other people want to emulate," Mr. Fowler said.
Few countries in Africa have political and legal systems in place that businessmen consider trustworthy. Contracts may not be honoured, doing business may involve payoffs and protections for foreigners may be vague.
The investor climate is so bad that even African investors place 40% of their capital outside the continent. "Africans have no confidence in Africa. That we have to change," Mr. Fowler said.
The African leaders meeting in Rome are to identify which of the continent's countries are best placed to reform. But they are likely to recommend many more than just the few Mr. Fowler suggested the West expects.
"At the end of the day, the decision as to when Canadian taxpayer dollars get spent is a Canadian decision," Mr. Fowler insisted.
People outside the favoured countries will not be forgotten in the partnership plan, he said.
Traditional aid will help provide the "basic needs" of Africans, he said. But he said it will not be handed to notoriously wasteful or corrupt governments.
"Where we really don't like the governments, we will find other ways of delivering the aid," he said. Already, in many parts of Africa, aid is dispensed to people in need through charities, such as Oxfam or Save the Children.
Despite the move to promote development through investment, Canada yesterday announced a contribution of $74.5-million to the African Development Bank.
Of that amount, $72-million will be used to provide low-interest loans to the 39 poorest sub-Saharan countries, said the Canadian International Development Agency. The rest will be used administratively within the bank for reforms and other projects.
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