BELGIUM: African leaders met on the last day of a European Development Days forum in Brussels

Record ID: 452481

  • Title: BELGIUM: African leaders met on the last day of a European Development Days forum in Brussels
  • Date: 17th November 2006
  • Summary: AMADOU TOUMANI TOURE, MALI PRESIDENT SITTING DOWN MOGAE (RIGHT) RAVALOMANANA (MIDDLE) AND TOGO PRESIDENT FAURE ESSOZIMNA GNASSINGBE SITTING TOGETHER ZENAWI AND KAGAME COMPAORE SMILING WITH RAVALOMANANA AND MOGAE PEOPLE SITTING COMPAORE TALKING
  • Embargoed: 2nd December 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Belgium
  • Country: Belgium
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA5BR2GVYGG4W0ZM9FRPVI5M69F
  • Story Text: African leaders met on the last day of a European Development Days forum on governance in Brussels on Friday (November 17) saying donor countries must respect national ownership and work on mutual partnership.
    Archbishop Desmond Tutu was at the huge gathering of African leaders and delegates to address the final news conference.
    European Commissioner for Development Louis Michel acknowledged that it was up to Africans themselves to lead their countries towards development and congratulated everyone at the 3-day talks for contributing to the debate on good governance, democratic development and the fight against corruption.
    "The precise objective of these Development Days was to allow the meeting and confrontation the realities and truths that cross paths between donors and their beneficiaries but within the context of partnership as mutually respectful partners. What I want to say is that the profound meaning of these days is to break away from the past because if Africans have a responsibility to take charge of their own destiny we, the international community, the community of donors, we also have an extraordinary responsibility which is that of being a little less traditional, to give fewer moral lessons, to be less suggestive, to be a little less heavy in our interference," Michel said.
    But some African leaders warned the European Union not to lecture them on democracy saying development had to come out of a partnership of equals.
    Rwanda's President Paul Kagame blamed previous development aid packages for Africa's troubles whilst Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said democracy had to come from within and should not be imposed on them by the west.
    "Let us acknowledge however that in the past few years, there is a broad based recognition that donor-driven policy leads to poor developmental outcomes. And who takes the responsibility for such a poor result? Rarely the same people who created them in the first place own up to these problems. At any rate I wish to state that increasingly, the language of development is that of domestic ownership or policy design and execution It remains to be seen however if indeed this thinking is genuine and is going to continue," Kagame said.
    One nation, the Central African Republic, used the platform to call for direct EU help in pushing for U.N. troops to be positioned at its borders with war-torn Darfur. President Francois Bozize denounced the invasion of his country by assailants whom he said tried to impose a rebellion from abroad.
    Violence in Darfur, where tens of thousands of civilians have been killed in ethnic conflict since 2003, has spread to neighbouring Central African Republic and Chad, which this week declared a state of emergency across large swathes of the country.
    Chad proposed on Friday to send troops to its southern neighbour Central African Republic to help it fight off an invasion of Sudanese-backed rebels, the government said.
    Both Chad and the Central African Republic have called for the deployment of international peacekeepers.
    The 1706 U.N. Security Council was adopted by by the U.N. Security Council on Aug. 31.
    "My country has had to face, for the last 15 days, an attack characterised by the violation of its territorial sovereignty, by the occupation of a few cities in the North East by a band of non-identified assailants and that want to impose us a rebellion from abroad. You will understand that I will once more use this tribune to ask that the European Union, which has always been by our side, to help put in place the United Nations 1706 resolution on the positioning of forces at the borders of the Central African Republic, Sudan and Chad as well as putting in place the resolution come to at the 11th Francophone summit in Bucharest which invites the United Nations to act diligently," Bozize, told the conference.
    Continuing from Kagame's theme Zenawi said democracy could not be applied from outside and warned the EU against forming plans for Africa which could further de-stabilise the continent.
    "There have been times when people in Africa have felt that the issue of democratisation and good governance is just another layer of conditionality designed to justify lack of will to provide adequate development assistance. There have been times when people in Africa have felt that this conditionalities have perhaps more by default than by design, reduced African states into virtual protectorates of donors. Indeed there clearly is a great deal of resentment in the African continent associated with such feelings. These feelings can perhaps be attributed in part to the ambivalence of some Africans whose regards for the advisability of promoting democracy and good governance but I am convinced that much of the resentment emanates from the missionary zeal and attitude with which some donor representatives have tried to pursue the democratic agenda. Fortunately much of the donor community is aware of the inherent counter democratic nature of promoting democracy which is not home grown, indeed the most recent European consensus on development repeatedly calls for ownership and partnership" Zenawi said.
    E.U. officials stressed a "strategic partnership" between Europe and Africa had to be built on the premise that cooperation is linked to political and economic reforms.
    Botswana's President Festus Mogae urged the E.U. not to keep pushing a one-size-fits-all aid plan for African nations, which he said would do more harm than good in trying to combat poverty.
    He added each country also had a different approach to what democracy and good governance meant in dealing with corruption, human rights and freedoms.
    He also urged the international community not to cut off aid to countries that have developed better than others saying Botswana was still very vulnerable as a result of basing so much of its economy on mineral wealth.
    "I also believe in the notion of rewarding countries which have a proven track record of good governance,. It is unfair to abruptly cut off development assistance to countries that reach a certain level of per capita income without consideration of other important indicators of development and social progress. A country such as Botswana which is highly dependent on depletable natural resources will remain highly vulnerable until sustainable economic diversification takes root. These realities should never be ignored," Mogae said.
    The E.U. has long chastised African countries over widespread corruption and poor management of billions of euros in aid the continent gets every year.
    E.U. governments last year agreed to increase its annual aid to Africa from the present 17 billion euros to around 25 billion euros by 2010. Within that, the E.U. plans a 3 billion euros incentive fund to spur reforms.
    On Wednesday, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso called for both African and European nations to accept closer relations and to seal that commitment at a leaders' summit planned for Lisbon, Portugal next year.
    The appeal comes after the E.U. saw China sign 1.9 billion US dollars in trade and cooperation pacts with African nations during a special summit over a week ago. The E.U. fears that will weaken its historical influence there.
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