Editorial: A hopeful new dawn for Africa

Opinion

So many and so deep are Africa's problems that any initiative to help the poverty-stricken continent is welcome. But the Group of Eight's cancelling of 18 nations' debt obligations will be counted a success only if it furnishes a tangible benefit for the African people. Past billion-dollar aid and debt-relief packages - and even the money that is now being written off - have built far too few schools and hospitals. Instead, they have expanded the palaces and Swiss bank accounts of Africa's many dictators and despots. This latest contribution will be measured by its influence in charting a new course for the troubled continent.

Some thought was clearly given to this as negotiations around the G8 table wound towards a compromise. The initial debt cancellation will apply to countries, most in sub-Saharan Africa, which have met minimum standards of governance, as decreed by the 1996 World Bank's Heavily Indebted Poor Country Initiative. It will be granted on condition that the savings are used for health, hospitals, schools, teachers and infrastructure. Further countries will become eligible for the exercise once they have also completed the World Bank programme.

Additionally, the G8 has decreed that further aid will be tied more closely to good governance, transparency and economic development. This represents a warning, and a challenge, to the likes of Nigeria, which has been excluded from the debt forgiveness. The Nigerians, and others like them, will be out of the picture until they do more to fight corruption and use their economic wealth more wisely.

The trick for the G8 will be to enforce these edicts, so that help reaches the people of Africa. Similar dictates have been tried and have failed in the past. Despite the best will in the world, and the oversight of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, the siphoning has continued.

If there is hope that matters will be different this time, it lies, in large part, in the figure of the new World Bank president, Paul Wolfowitz. He has arrived there with a determination, transferred from his time in the Bush Administration, that democracy and human rights will not be the preserve of people in rich states.

The debt-relief package must also act as a lever that encourages the tackling of the fundamental causes of Africa's woes. Corruption, often aided and abetted during the Cold War, is far from the only reason that loans - the nurturer of economic growth in the West - have been frittered away. Most African countries' economies remain dependent on commodities, which make debt burdens intolerable when they go into cyclical decline. Worst of all, their trading capacity has been hobbled by subsidies and other methods of protection that remain widespread throughout the very nations now distributing this debt largesse.

Popular sentiment in these nations has been the main driver of this package. The notion, initially at least, was not promoted by international bankers or Governments. They arrived late on the scene, propelled by varied motives. This initiative reflects, to a large degree, a greater public interest in Africa's problems, and a greater understanding of the vicious cycle of poverty and indebtedness.

At least in this respect, Sir Bob Geldof and others of his ilk deserve a vote of thanks. Now, the sentiments they have aroused must focus on achieving greater trade equality, so that Africa can harness its export potential. And on ensuring that this package is, indeed, the harbinger of democracy and human rights.

Charity is not what Africa needs. Previous aid has, arguably, caused as much harm as good. This debt-relief package and future aid must go hand in hand with better governance and trade equity. If not, Africa will be no further ahead - and there will be more and more aid concerts.