Erasing the scar

Mar 11th 2005
From The Economist print edition

The Commission for Africa set up by the British prime minister, Tony Blair, has released its long-awaited report. It contains some good ideas on what rich countries can do to help the continent. But Africa will remain poor until its own people tackle corruption and poor governance

FAT documents crafted by committees rarely make for racy reading, and the 461-page final report of Tony Blair's Commission for Africa is no exception. It could have been cut by 90% without losing any meat. Do we really need to be told, for example, that “Africa is poor, ultimately, because its economy has not grown”? The report promises to be “blisteringly honest”, but when it complains that corrupt and oppressive regimes are holding Africa back, it stops short of naming any.

But of course, literary merit is not the only, or even the most important, measure of a document's worth. The Blair report matters because it signals the intentions of a rich and influential government—Britain's—and because it has been drafted with the co-operation of some of the more sensible African leaders. So there is a chance that some of its recommendations might be implemented.

The most concrete proposals concern what rich countries can do for Africa. The report calls for an extra $25 billion a year in aid to Africa by 2010, and another $25 billion a year by 2015. It demands 100% debt cancellation for countries that need it. It calls for an end to rich-world agricultural subsidies, which hurt farmers in poor countries. And it calls on rich countries to tear down the trade barriers that keep African goods out of their markets, including not only tariffs but also finicky rules-of-origin and health-and-safety standards.

These are all good ideas. Ending farm subsidies should be the most obvious, since it would save western taxpayers $1 billion a day as well as helping the poor (though most of the benefits to farmers would accrue to those in middle-income countries, not Africans). Debt cancellation makes sense, too, so long as it is offered only to countries whose governments are likely to make good use of the money thus made available, and so long as it is only offered once, as the report acknowledges.

Extra aid would probably ease Africa's poverty. Although past aid has largely been wasted, the report gives sound pointers as to how in future it could be made to work. Aid should be “untied”: that is, the recipient should not be obliged to buy goods from the donor. It should be predictable, to help the recipient plan for the long term. It should mostly be in the form of grants, not loans, to avoid future debt traps. It should “support the national priorities of African governments rather than [donors'] special enthusiasms”.

Most important, aid should be lavished on the countries that can use it—ie, poor but fairly well-governed ones—and denied to corrupt and incompetent regimes that will steal or squander it. The trouble is, there are not enough well-governed countries in Africa. “Without progress in governance,” admits the report, “all other reforms will have limited impact.”

The report's concrete proposals for tackling corruption are aimed largely at western bribe-givers rather than at African bribe-takers. Foreign banks should be obliged to disclose suspicious accounts held by powerful Africans, it says. Foreigners who pay bribes should be punished, and foreign firms that extract minerals from African soil should be more transparent in their dealings with local governments.

Well and good. But none of this gets to the root of the problem. Foreigners may contribute to corruption in Africa, but they do not cause it. African politicians paint a picture of rich western firms offering irresistible inducements to previously blameless African officials. But more often, it is the officials who abuse their power to extort money from blameless citizens. For every shady multinational slipping a minister a sackful of cash for a contract, there are thousands of African policemen robbing people at roadblocks or African bureaucrats inventing pointless rules so that they can demand bribes not to enforce them.

Africa will not prosper until corruption is checked and governance improves. And that task, as the report says, is “first and foremost the responsibility of African countries and people”.

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