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Africa: Dakar Debt Manifesto
Africa: Dakar Debt Manifesto
Date distributed (ymd): 010119
Document reposted by APIC
+++++++++++++++++++++Document Profile+++++++++++++++++++++
Region: Continent-Wide
Issue Areas: +economy/development+ +debt+
Summary Contents:
This posting includes the Dakar Manifesto, issued by the December
gathering in Dakar of representatives of organizations campaigning
for cancellation of Africa's debt, including some 200 participants
from 22 African countries, as well as guests from debt cancellation
campaigns in Europe, North America, Latin America and Asia. A
series of meetings took place from December 11 - 17, organized by
CONGAD (Le Conseil des Organisations Non-Gouvernementales d'Appui
au Developpement; http://www1.telecomplus.sn/cig/congad) in
Senegal; Jubilee South (http://www.jubileesouth.net), the Committee
for the Cancellation of Third World Debt (COCAD/CADTM:
http://users.skynet.be/cadtm), and the Centre National de
Cooperation au Developpement, based in Belgium.
The gathering reflected an expanding civil society consensus on the
failure of creditor-driven international debt relief measures, and
the need to work not only for cancellation of illegitimate debt but
also for new African initiatives and for reparations from rich
countries to Africa.
Additional documents from the gathering, in French, with more
English translations promised soon, are available at the CADTM and
Jubilee South web sites.
Another posting today provides a year-end summary on the status of
Third World debt, from the Jubilee 2000 UK coalition, and a joint
statement by the World Bank and IMF on the creditors' debt relief
initiative.
+++++++++++++++++end profile++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
DAKAR MANIFESTO Africa: from Resistance to Alternatives
THE TOTAL AND UNCONDITIONAL CANCELLATION OF THE AFRICAN DEBT is a
demand based on undisputed economic, social, moral, legal and
historical arguments. Because the debt problem is not a financial
or technical issue as the World Bank and the IMF are tempted to
demonstrate. It is fundamentally a human, social and political
problem. Debt service and conditionalities associated to it have
contributed to the aggravation of poverty. Moreover, the debt has
been already been repaid: for the past few years, Africa has been
transferring more resources to developed countries than she
receives.
In addition, most of Africa's debt is odious, fraudulent and
immoral. In fact, in most cases, debt has been contracted by not
representative regimes that have used the amount received for
purposes that have not served the interests of their peoples.
Often, this debt served to consolidate and even legitimize
dictatorships that used it to oppress their own people or to make
war, with the benevolence and complicity of Western countries.
Debt has also been contracted to undertake mega projects designed
to stimulate exportations at the expense of the satisfaction of
people's fundamental needs.
The reimbursement of that debt is immoral: its service is diverting
resources essential in the struggle against poverty, illiteracy and
AIDS.
Thus, from whatever angle we consider the issue of Africa's debt,
it is unacceptable. It is all the less acceptable that the historic
debt that the West has incurred from Africa is immeasurable.
Accordingly, we demand both the restitution of what has been taken
from Africa for centuries by sheer force and reparations for all
the crimes and damages inflicted upon its people
Mobilized by the Amsterdam Appeal of April 2000, we representatives
of women's movements, youth movements, rural and urban workers, and
international solidarity, gathered from 11-14 December, 2000, in
Dakar (Senegal), with the support of our partners of other
continents,
- call again for the immediate and unconditional cancellation of
the African debt
- demand the end to Structural adjustment Programs, even as they
are renamed Poverty Reduction Strategy Programs (PRSPs)
- adopt the following program and promise to take all necessary
measures for its implementation
1) SHORT AND MEDIUM-TERM PROGRAM
We call on social movements to increase the campaigns calling for
the unconditional cancellation of Africa and other Third World
countries' debt. We recommend the use of all opportunities to
reinforce the pressure on Africa's debtors, by organizing or
participating in initiatives of all kinds, to draw the attention of
the world public opinion to the criminal nature of the policies
imposed by the World Bank and the IMF to compel African countries
to pay a "debt", several times reimbursed. All the meetings
organized by these two institutions and major Western leaders (G7)
as well as other international gatherings will be as many
opportunities to show our determination. Simultaneously, we demand
that our governments set up a coalition of debtor countries and
repudiate external debt by using the sums so saved to the profit of
their people.
To better implement the above policy, we will endeavor to
strengthen the international network fighting against Third World
debt. We will first attempt to strengthen the relationships between
organizations committed to this struggle in Africa and in other
developing countries as part of the Jubilee South movement. In
fact, we think that the strengthening of such links constitutes one
of the preconditions for the success of the campaign for debt
cancellation. Solidarity between these organizations represents the
base on which the solidarity between South and North organizations
must be built. The strategic alliance with the latter constitutes
a solid link in the chain of the world human solidarity for
breaking the resistance and egoism of Western states and
multilateral institutions.
In this respect, regional campaigns will be undertaken and
articulated to international campaigns. We have to massively
involve public opinion within each country in order to put decisive
pressure on governments to make them rethink their relationships
with the World Bank and IMF and to refuse debt repayment.
Solidarity among members of the network will be forged and
reinforced through data exchanges, organizations of joint events,
mutual assistance in the reinforcement of human and organizational
capacities in order to be better prepared for a higher level of the
struggle.
The credibility of the campaign depends on the ability of civil
society organizations to articulate coherent strategies and to
propose alternatives. Thus, the reinforcement of the civil society
capacity to intervene is an essential task whose implementation
requires a patient work.
Citizens movements must reinforce themselves so as to be in a
position to not only refute creditors' arguments but especially to
move the debate towards the center and identify the real issues.
2) STRATEGIC PROGRAM
1. Radical change of policies
It is essential to tackle the structural factors, which are at the
roots of the debt crisis. In this respect, it is necessary to
revisit from top to bottom the external borrowing policies, as well
as the use made of the loans. When those loans are necessary,
parliamentarian institutions must be involved and the issue must be
debated.
Transparent and democratic rules must be applied under the control
of the citizens. We must reduce as much as possible the use of
external loans by mobilizing internal saving through a progressive
fiscal policy, which compels the richest to contribute to the
development efforts.
On the external level, it is necessary to act on several fronts.
In order to stop or reverse the trend toward the deterioration of
the terms of trade, one should set up mechanisms aimed at
stabilizing the prices of raw material and commodities. Producers
should form cartels to defend the prices of their products
subjected to manipulation by big trading companies from the North.
Likewise, international agreements of price stabilization should be
negotiated under the aegis of the United Nations system. This would
allow the increase in export incomes; limit the depletion of the
natural resources and save the environment.
On the other hand, African countries should speed up their economic
integration in order to reduce their external dependence, create
the conditions for establishing a regional market capable of
supporting a regional industrialization policy, which could promote
export diversification, thanks to a greater value-added of local
products. Integration should go hand in hand with the establishment
of viable monetary areas in the different regions of the continent;
the only means that will allow them to avoid the tyranny of foreign
currencies on African economies
2 Reinforcing South-South Cooperation
South-South cooperation shall be considered as an essential stage
by social movements and African governments. It will allow African
countries to reinforce the trend for less dependence towards
developed countries. In this perspective, we are urging African
countries, members of the OAU to explore all existing
possibilities, especially the recommendations of the South
Commission Report, under the supervision of the late Julius K.
Nyerere and to implement concretely the agreements concluded
between them at the Sirte Summit (Libya) in 1999 regarding debt
cancellation. The cooperation between G77, that between G15
countries and other forms of cooperation must be developed in all
areas.
Social movements must accept, support and widely circulate treaties
signed among countries of the South.
African countries and their partners from the South should convince
the United Nations to undertake concerted measures to discourage
international financial speculations whose devastating effects have
been observed in South East Asia, Brazil and Russia in recent
years. The imposition of the Tobin tax, the funds of which will be
devoted to human development, the fight against money laundering
(notably by ending bank secrecy), as well as the shutting down or
the penalization of tax havens, constitute appropriate measures.
3. Restitutions and Reparations
Another section of the strategic agenda is the issue of restitution
and reparation owed to Africa by Western countries. Slavery,
colonization and the various forms of exploitation and wealth
plundering have left Africa drained, and caused a tremendous
economic, social, scientific and cultural backwardness of the
continent. One cannot understand the situation of the continent
without taking into account the destructions, robbing and
plundering Africa has gone through because of Western countries.
From that perspective, we are compelled to demand both the
restitution of what has been stolen from Africa by sheer force and
reparations for all the crimes and damages imposed on its people.
Restitutions include cultural and scientific wealth.
In addition, we must repatriate ill-acquired wealth by African
leaders and return them to the people that have been deprived of
it. To achieve this objective, we have to use appropriate legal
actions.
4. For an endogenous development
We must replace the notorious "Washington Consensus" now largely
discredited, with a vision of development inspired by the values of
the African political, social, cultural, economic and scientific
Renaissance promoted by an African people's consensus. The
fundamental values associated with this Renaissance include
restoring confidence in Africans, rejecting all forms of
exploitation and domination, reinforcing the culture of solidarity
and the spirit of self-reliance, relying on the creative genius of
the African people in order to create a new civilization of
autonomous development so as to bring a great contribution to world
civilization
The concept of endogenous development is to be conceived as a
process of strategic reflection on the fundamental conditions of an
African development, understood as a multidimensional emancipating
project, i.e. on the economic, social, political, scientific and
cultural and gender levels
The need for an approach to endogenous development proceeds from
the basic historical fact that there is no "universal model", out
of space and time, e.g., valid everywhere and at all time.
Development depends on the history, culture and experience of a
people. It cannot be a carbon copy of another experience,
especially one based on a reductionist view of the true history of
the people, full of abiding cultural prejudices and built on the
domination, exploitation and looting of the resources of other
peoples. The outlines of an approach to an African endogenous
development could have, inter alia, the following essential
features:
- A human-centered development, in order to meet the real basic
needs expressed by the African people. The experience of Africa
reveals the failure of the neoclassical model imposed as a turnkey
model. The more one talks about growth rate, the more poverty
expands. Well, what is the use of "growth" which crushes human
beings and increases poverty and exclusion? The truth is that the
only kind of development is the one which contributes to the full
blossoming of the human being. Understood from this perspective,
development is first of all a qualitative and not purely
quantitative phenomenon. It is no longer an unrestrained
accumulation of wealth, often for a handful of people, but the
permanent search of solutions to the basic problems of the majority
of the people.
- A development based, first and foremost, on our own vision of
our future and the defense of our fundamental interests. Therefore,
a development formulated and implemented by Africans themselves and
according to their own priorities. In fact, the second fundamental
break to take place is the rejection of an imported development,
which treats our continent as a dumping ground where the waste of
industrialized countries is thrown.
- Another characteristic of the new approach to development is
that it can no longer be an "elite" issue, but a participatory,
inclusive and democratic development. Especially, it is a
development relying on agriculture and the mobilization of the
numerous human and material resources of this sector, understood at
the same time by intellectuals and non-intellectuals, by the rural
areas and the urban zones. This raises the issue of the African
cultural Renaissance and the use of the African languages in the
formulation and implementation of development programs. The
introduction of African national languages would allow hundreds of
millions of African to use their creative power in order to fully
participate in crafting development strategies and policies.
Without the conscious participation of the people in the definition
of policies that affect their life and future, there will never be
any development, because the people are the driving force of all
economic and social transformation.
- The new approach must also focus on the search for the
continent's collective self-reliance on essential and strategic
needs, at the agricultural and industrial level. For this, it is
must be within African integration, a fundamental framework of
sustainable endogenous development. It is a truism to say that
without integration, Africa has no chance to develop. The
vicissitudes of history have made Africa one of the most fragmented
continents in the world. That is one of the essential factors for
its backwardness and current marginalization.
In the 21st century, Africa will be African only if the continent
completes its integration and acts with a unique and single voice
in the concert of nations. This approach does not mean that Africa
will isolate herself from the world. On the contrary, it is to
ensure the participation of the people of the continent in an
alternative globalization to the neoliberal globalization. We are
in favor of a globalization based on a solidarity among people of
the North and the South and giving priority to meeting basic human
needs.
5. That is why Africa must renew the ideal of Pan-Africanism and
base its practice on the principles and values of the African
Renaissance. This also means that we should walk on our two feet,
take agriculture as the basis of development and lay the ground for
building a modern and efficient industry.
6. Another development means promoting and ensuring social justice,
gender equality, democracy and respect for human rights. The high
level of poverty and exclusion results from the bad influence of
the "all for market" policy and the unrestrained search for private
benefit, which pushed the State to abandon policy aimed at
promoting equality and social justice.
7. Another development in Africa involves the creation of new
development institutions, one of which is a new State ridden of its
oppressive, exploitative and repressive colonial heritage. In fact,
it is imperative to reconsider all institutions inherited from
colonization and create instead new institutions consistent with an
endogenous and autonomous approach to development. The State and
most present institutions are of "elitist" type and carbon copies
of their European counterparts. That is why they participate more
in the repression and exploitation of the African people than in
the creation of conditions allowing them to develop all their
potential and to blossom. In fact, institutions created to enslave
Africans would not, under any circumstances, serve to free them.
Therefore, new institutions whose nature and functions are
different from the ones inherited from colonization, are needed. It
is necessary to put in place a new State, which will ensure equity
between all and promote an integrated human development
8. The governance issue should be examined and resolved from that
angle and not from the perspective recommended by Western
countries, which aim only at making our institutions even more
docile instruments to serve their interests. Citizens must conquer
anew the ground lost by democracy. Institutions consistent with an
endogenous development, designed by and for Africans, are the
instruments for African peoples' liberation, institutions with
which they will identify themselves closely, because they
participated in their design, understood their nature and mastered
their functioning.
This material is being reposted for wider distribution by the
Africa Policy Information Center (APIC). APIC provides accessible
information and analysis in order to promote U.S. and
international policies toward Africa that advance economic,
political and social justice and the full spectrum of human rights.
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