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State of Africa – Parameters and Legacies of Governance 155 PART 3 External Relations and Issue Areas CHAPTER 10 Africa in Emerging International Forums Gilbert Khadiagala If what [is] happening in Africa today was happening in any other part of the world there would be such a scandal and clamour that governments would be falling over themselves to do something about it.1 – Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Davos, January 2005 The so-called donors cannot continue to show us how we should manage our country. If we get a GDP [tax] collection ratio of 24 per cent, we shall not need this ignominious practice of dealing with these so-called donors.2 – Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, Kampala, May 2005 Introduction Tony Blair’s unease about development in Africa reÁects the debates about Africa’s ambiguous relations with multilateral institutions. Against the backdrop of prosperity and cosmopolitanism elsewhere, there have always been misgivings about whether Africa can improve its economic fortunes by seizing the opportunities of globalisation – notably trade, investments and new technologies. The ambiguity stems from two stark pictures. On the one hand, Àgures and statistics are mobilised perennially to underscore Africa’s plight: almost 50 per cent of Africans live on less than US$1 a day; 34 per cent are malnourished; 6 000 die of Aids each day; Africa’s share of global trade is only 2 per cent; growth rates have averaged 2,6 per cent over the past decade; Africa as a whole receives only slightly less than 5 per cent of overall foreign direct investment (FDI); and Africa is the only continent to have grown poorer in the past 25 years.3 The other dominant picture is one in which donors and other international actors have maintained a steady presence in Africa as providers of development assistance and humanitarian relief. According to UN estimates, Africa received US$23,1 billion in ofÀcial development assistance (ODA) in 2003, a striking 46 per cent more than three years earlier.4 As a recipient of foreign assistance, Africa is also a target of diverse conditionality regimes that donors have crafted to guarantee Africa’s prudent management of development assistance. The 156 Africa Institute of South Africa PART 3 External Relations and Issue Areas Africa in Emerging International Forums conditionality regimes are, however, under siege, as Museveni’s concern above aptly illustrates. Blair and Museveni allude to contrasting images that colour Africa’s role in multilateral institutions. Although Africa has been a key player in diverse international forums dealing with economic development and security, African countries have consistently sought a meaningful voice in multilateral debates. For the most part, participation has not necessarily afforded Africa sufÀcient vistas for translating demands into concrete results. Part of the explanation for this puzzle revolves around how Africa has articulated its demands on the international arena. Historically, working with the rest of the Third World on fundamental questions, African countries made signiÀcant efforts in forcing change in the rules and norms that underguide international institutions. Over the years, as the Third World became increasingly differentiated, African voices began to gradually decline. More importantly, as African countries have become fragmented in the articulation of continental agenda, there has been a marked impact on their ability to prevail in international forums. In probing the impediments to African voices in multilateral institutions, this chapter contends that while there has been signiÀcant progress on agenda -setting, witnessed in the opportunities that have opened up to Africa via the participation of key African leaders in the G8 summits and Africa’s input in UN reform initiatives, overall there has been a precipitous decline in African ability to wring concessions from an increasingly recalcitrant international community . In addition, although there has been widespread invocation of partnerships as the organisational mantra for engagement between Africa and multilateral institutions, these partnerships have not diminished the persistence of power asymmetries. The outcome of this inability to inÁuence traditional multilateral institutions has been the gradual diversiÀcation of African international economic ties toward the new giants in Asia, particularly China and India. This chapter examines three main elements: continental leadership (under the heading ‘the continental cockpit’), Africa’s engagement with multilateral institutions and attempts to forge new partnerships with emerging powers. The continental cockpit At the turn of the new century, Africa’s engagement with multilateral institutions and other external actors found fresh impetus in the reform movement that germinated in the early 1990s seeking Africa...

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