The Commission for Africa, set up on the initiative of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, "has no place to hide", declared one of its members, South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, in Maputo on Thursday.
Three of the African members of the Commission, Manuel, the governor of the Bank of Botswana, Linah Mohohlo, and the Chairman of the Uganda Investment Authority, William Kalema, addressed a press conference on the second day of the African Economic Summit, and argued that the Commission complemented NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa's Development) and in no way replaced it.
Manuel stressed that the Commission had a definite time frame for its work, since it is supposed to produce a set of recommendations in spring 2005.
The people sitting on the commission included many of those who will have to put its recommendations into effect - including Tony Blair himself, his Finance minister, Gordon Brown, and key African figures such as Manuel, Tanzanian president Benjamin Mkapa and Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.
That was why there was "no place to hide". If the commission were to fail, "that would impact negatively on Britain's chairing of the European Union and of the G8 next year", said Manuel.
For Kalema this commission was different from previous bodies precisely because it contained people who would have to make a commitment to carry out the commission's proposals "It would be embarrassing for Tony Blair, Gordon Brown or Trevor Manuel to say "We made this commitment, but we couldn't carry it out". said Kalema.
Manuel hoped to see increased interest in an idea floated by Gordon Brown some 18 months ago for a new funding mechanism that would overcome problems of unpredictability in donor funds.
"The proposal is that a mechanism would be created in the global capital market that countries commit to, and that such commitment can be used to leverage in other resources", he said.
"There was some scepticism about making such commitments in advance, but I think there's been a turn-around and the number of countries interested has increased".
Manuel hoped that such a mechanism could be discussed at this year's G8 summit in the United States. "We can't let this go. We must have this source of funding", he added. This was particularly the case, because there were still problems with the HIPC (Heavily Indebted Poor Countries) debt relief mechanism. Even in Uganda, one of the earliest beneficiaries of HIPC, there were still problems of debt sustainability.
Manuel hoped there would be "enough institutional energy in the Commission to bring this fund onto the table".
He also stressed the need to accelerate work on meeting the United Nations ambitious Millennium Development Goals. These are a series of targets to be met by 2015. One of them is to halve the number of people living in poverty. But at the current pace, Manuel warned, that target would not be met in Africa for another century.
The Commission is committed "to consult as widely as possible", said Linah Mohohlo, "so that we don't just report on our own views".
The Commission's report will concentrate on the obstacles to progress in Africa and how to remove them. Blair has undertaken to present it to his fellow leaders of the industrialised world when Britain takes over the presidency of the G8 next year.
Fonte: AIM
