What did participants at the July Briefing think of the discussions? We asked a few for their reactions.
Ambassador Brave Ndisale of Malawi chaired the second Panel of the briefing. She found the briefing very useful to provide clarity on policies and practices of new actors in development, especially China. She also underlined that Africa has a lot to learn from the experience of China and India. Further, she reminded us how coordination among donors can be fostered when the ownership of development processes stays at national level: her country represents a success story in this sense.
Lucy Hayes of Eurodad [see video] found the discussions on Africa and China particularly interesting. Moreover, the discussion on aid and agriculture is timely. It is time we made better use of the money now available, building from what is there and ensuring bottom-up solutions.
Amadou Diallo (NEPAD) stressed the relevance of the subjects covered in the discussions , these help us better understand the initiatives of different actors and the various drivers behind these processes. Further, he underlined the value of the Briefings in providing a platform for dialogue, exchange and debate for harmonisation and coordination of different development policies. He encouraged the organisers to continue this initiative in Brussels, perhaps also launching similar activities in Africa.
(interview in French)
Joseph Coompson [see video], Chief Agricultural Economist at the African Development Bank expained that the AfDB is coordinating a task force looking into the division of labour among donors to Africa’s agricultural sector.
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If a green revolution was possible in Asia then why not in Africa? With these words Akin Adesina (AGRA) took the floor and challenged participants during the first panel of the Brussels briefing on “New drivers, new players in ACP rural development”.
Mr. Adesina noted that conditions in Africa differ from Asia: crop variation is greater; climatic conditions are highly diverse; and only a small part of the land is irrigated. A green revolution for Africa needs to recognize this diversity and take environmental sustainability seriously, he stated.
While new technologies and crop varieties can help, they cannot alone offer a solution. Africa faces additional challenges to improve agricultural production: farmers’ access to new technologies is limited; markets are poorly developed, soils are drained of nutrients and fertilizer use is low. To address these challenges, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa - AGRA - intervenes with a number of programmes, which Mr. Adesina presented, including improving seed systems, soil health and market access as well as policy advocacy.
On top of these, locally based and consistent policies are of central importance. Mr. Adesina argued that World Bank structural adjustment programmes of the 1980s were disastrous for African agriculture and he urged that it was time to end the “Washington Consensus” and adopt a real “African Consensus” for policy development. He reminded participants of African success stories past and present; arguing that if “maize revolutions” have been possible in countries like Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi, then productivity growth is possible. He concluded that all actors, public and private, need to ensure that institutions, infrastructures, markets, and technology are working together for a green revolution in Africa.
See more from the 2 July Briefing
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Ndiougou Fall, President of ROPPA (Network of Farmers’ and Agricultural Producers’ Organizations of West Africa), offered the audience at the July 2008 Brussels Briefing a farmer’s organization perspective on the issue of ‘new actors, new players”.
As recognised by Mr. Riera, the “enormous difficulties” that developing countries are facing leave lots of rooms for new actors to bring in their contributions. However he sees these new opportunities also bringing new questions: What are the capacities of these new players? Do they have sufficient experience and knowledge to intervene effectively in agriculture and rural development? And what are the values that move them? Can they really bring about a change?
(video in Fench)
For Mr. Fall these are all important questions that need to be reflected upon and answered. But more important is to undertake a lucid and systemic analysis to reform the current development model that has been strongly affected by globalisation and liberalisation in most regions, and of which migrations and degradation of natural resources are but two irreversible consequences. Many institutions have played a role in maintaining this system. It is time for reform and in-depth re-examination of how it works.
If new actors are coming in, we first need to ask these questions, recognise that the system is not working, proceed with a systemic analysis, and find solutions. Will the new actors be able to assess the situation and act differently? Africa in particular is at the very center of this crisis, and if the systematic analysis will be inadequate, according to Mr. Fall there’s the concrete risk that we will repeat the same mistakes over and over again.
Against this backdrop, he presented what he thinks Africa and developing countries really need. In particular, he advocated for more incentives for production; regulation policies; regional integration; reinforcing of investments in infrastructure; and the implementation of a form of global governance with coordination and coherence at the regional and national level.
He concluded stating that aid is a discipline to support development policies at the national and regional level, and that responsibilities on aid should move from donors to beneficiaries; farmers’ organisations in particular should be able to play a bigger role in the aid picture.
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Jian-Ye Wang, of the African Department of the IMF, focused his intervention in the 6th Brussels Development Briefing on changing Africa-China economic relations and African development.
Pointing out that China-Africa cooperation is not new and already goes back 30 years, Mr. Wang noted that the label “new” donor is misleading as China is not primarily an aid donor in the traditional sense. Talking in these terms might let us miss the real point - that private capital flows are overtaking ODA in Africa.
For Mr. Wang it is important to understand this concept and recognise China’s multiple roles, as a market for Africa’s exports, as financier and investor, and as contractor and constructor. Economic relations between China and Africa are now primarily commercial rather than aid-driven. China’s private sector plays a significant role in Africa meaning that cooperation takes many forms, it is decentralised and broad-based.
Mr. Wang further argued that changes in the China-Africa relationship are a reflection of structural changes in the world economy: Past debtors are today’s creditors and vice versa. Over the seven years to March 2008, global foreign currency reserves jumped (mostly in emerging and oil exporting countries) by US$4.9 trillion, with China’s reserves alone up US$1.5 trillion. As a result, China has become a more significant supplier of capital than even the USA. He concluded that China’s engagement in Africa is a logical consequence of this growth.
In addition, China has experiences than can be relevant for Africa, particularly in terms of rural development. Wang pointed to China’s rising productivity in the agriculture sector, which has not only enabled China to feed about 20 percent of the world’s population with some 7 percent of the world’s arable land, but also facilitated industrialization and further economic reform. China’s reform started with agriculture, not with “charity”, and demonstrates that growth is the most effective way out of poverty, for lasting poverty reduction.
However, according to Mr. Wang, while African countries can learn important lessons from China’s experience, they need to determine their own development strategy. “It’s each country that has to be in charge, so they can learn instead of copying, and develop strategies that fits the local conditions.”
See more from the 2 July Briefing
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In the first panel of the briefing on “New drivers, new players in ACP rural development” Olga Sulla from the World Bank argued that, backed by considerable financial capacity, philanthropic foundations are playing an increasingly significant role in development assistance and have the potential to do much more.
The vast majority of philanthropic foundations are US based, with most work carried out at national rather than international level. She pointed out that only 1% are active in international development, giving total grants estimated between $5-7 billion, mainly in emerging economies. These foundations have been most active in health: the Gates foundation for example provides $1.2 billion of the $1.4 billion in this sector. Most foundations work through global funds and only 12 have offices in developing countries. In particular, Ms Sulla noted that few foundations have been active in agriculture and rural development; though nevertheless their role is clearly growing.
Although the World Bank was the single largest donor to agriculture in Africa between 1990 and 2006, it was criticized in a 2007 Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) report for failing to adopt a coherent and integrated approach in its lending support. She stated that the Bank has taken the findings seriously and it is strengthening its focus on agriculture with increased funding, new initiatives and a new approach aimed at stimulating private sector led investments across the value chain.
Against this backdrop, cooperation between the World Bank and philanthropic foundations is developing in a number of areas. However, Ms Sulla argued that further work still needs to be done to understand and fully exploit the complementarities between foundations and official development assistance.
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Speaking in the third panel of the Brussels briefing on “New drivers, new players in ACP rural development”, Ambassador Keiji Yamamoto and Motofumi Kohara, JICA Director General for Rural Development, explained how Japan fosters South-South cooperation
Ambassador Keiji Yamamoto opened his intervention with an overview of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD). Japan hosted its fourth TICAD this May and chaired the G8 Summit where development and Africa were one of the major topics. The main issues discussed at TICAD IV were boosting economic growth, ensuring human security and addressing environment/climate change issues.
As far as rural development is concerned, the TICAD process will seek alignment with the Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) agenda to enhance capacity to increase food production, improve access to markets and to support sustainable management of water resources and land use. Japan acknowledges the gravity of the food crisis and has set a series of emergency responses and is ready to invest in infrastructure and the improvement of technologies as part of longer-term efforts, notably to double rice production over the next ten years.
Mr. Motofumi Kohara, from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) explained that JICA, together with the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), launched the “Coalition for African Rice Development” (CARD) as one of the mechanisms to boost rice production. The coalition forms a consultative group of bilateral and multilateral donors, as well as regional and international organisations working in collaboration with producing African countries. He stated that in implementing CARD, Asian experiences are very useful, although the conditions prevailing in Africa and Asia are different in many aspects. He argued that improving rice production in Africa will also serve as an important driver in South-South cooperation between Africa and Asia.
See more from the 2 July Briefing
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