O'NEILL, BONO DIFFER ON NEEDS OF POOR GHANA. Three days into their tour of Africa, US Treasury Secretary Paul H. O'Neill and rock singer Bono staked out opposing positions Wednesday on whether private enterprise or more aid was best to help the world's most impoverished continent, Los Angeles Times reports (p. A9).
As O'Neill's entourage, shepherded by Secret Service agents, pushed its way through the smiling throng in the teeming Makola market here in Ghana's capital, the Treasury chief said he saw all the signs of a potential business class.
Noting the displays of colorful cloth and textiles piled high in rickety stalls, O'Neill said they were "Made in Ghana" products that could sell anywhere. "You could make micro-loans to people like these, and they could be on their way," said O'Neill, an ardent advocate of private enterprise to reduce poverty and create jobs.
But Bono, frontman of the rock group U2 who has taken to heart the issue of debt relief for impoverished countries and increased aid, said it was impossible to talk about fostering business without decent roads, electricity and basic services. Bono also warned that popular support for the U.S. could quickly turn into anger if Washington--which fears that dispossessed Africans could be easy recruits for terrorist groups--did nothing to alleviate the continent's poverty.
Meanwhile, the Economist (Global Agenda, online) writes that O'Neill, an avowed sceptic, is hoping to answer whether foreign aid works on his ten-day trip to Africa. O'Neill, who arrived in Ghana on May 20th, is also visiting South Africa, Uganda, and Ethiopia-an interesting and relatively diverse group of countries. Although some are far poorer than others, they are all grappling with basic problems such as high mortality rates, malnourishment and extreme poverty among large sections of their population. Many of their citizens have little or no education and do not have access to basic necessities such as fresh water, which even poor people in rich countries can take for granted.
By going to Africa at this juncture, the Treasury secretary is at least showing a willingness to engage in the debate about foreign aid, and about the best ways of helping the millions of impoverished, and often starving, people in the world's poorest continent. O'Neill appears to be going in a genuine spirit of inquiry, the piece says. But he will also seek to publicize the conditions which Bush attached to the provision of extra American cash.
The severity of the AIDS crisis has led the World Bank to fear that it will make it difficult to achieve some of the Millennium Development goals agreed by the United Nations in September 2000. In particular, the Bank is concerned that teachers are being affected by AIDS at such a rate that they cannot be replaced quickly enough to meet one of the key objectives, that of universal primary education by 2015.
Under its feisty president, James Wolfensohn, the Bank has defended itself, arguing that it has worked hard in recent years to address its shortcomings. And in recent months, the World Bank and other aid agencies have been making some headway in putting the needs of the world's poorest countries at the top of the international political agenda. The fact that O'Neill has decided to make the trip to Africa, to see for himself, is a reflection of this.
Yet even as rich countries hand out more money with one hand, with the other they continue to make life difficult for the world's poorest by excluding them from rich-country markets, the piece says. O'Neill will confront this contradiction at first hand during his trip. Uganda is a classic example of a country unable to diversify because of the need to produce what rich countries will agree to import. Uganda is regularly held up as the role model for the ambitious debt-relief program launched to much fanfare in 1999. This was designed to help those poorest countries which were heavily burdened with foreign debts by cancelling those debts altogether provided certain conditions were met. Uganda was the first country to pass through all stages of the program and was widely praised for its efforts to secure sound economic policies aimed at sustainable growth. But Uganda's current economic difficulties show that even debt relief has its limits. The country's economy is now in serious trouble because of a sharp fall in coffee prices-down by around 40% in the past couple of years.
Meanwhile, SAPA (South Africa) reports President Thabo Mbeki will meet U2 lead singer Bono and US Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill on Thursday afternoon at the Union buildings in Pretoria. Presidential spokesman Bheki Khumalo said the agenda for the discussion, which would also involve Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, included issues of market access, debt relief, bilateral relations with the US and the New Partnership for Africa's Development.