Poverty: It’s now or never

by Editor · June 15, 2005

It is telling that a cardinal from one of Central America’s poorest countries should agitate so strongly for debt relief and aid to alleviate the desperate poverty in Africa, a manifestation of our continent’s appalling distress.

As we report this week, Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Honduras has called for improved aid packages, fairer trade agreements, and the cancellation of the debt of the world’s 27 poorest countries. He described the summit of the G8 the leaders of the world’s richest nations’in Scotland in early July as a “great opportunity we must not miss”.

Indeed, there is an unprecedented sense of urgency to the question of finding the political consensus and will to fight poverty. Some go as far as talking about a Marshall Plan for Africa, an allusion to the aid by which the United States helped much of Europe, especially West Germany, rebuild itself after World War II.

Britain’s Prime Minister Tony Blair and his finance minister Gordon Brown in particular have been active in pursuing the poverty relief agenda, especially within the European Union. It must be hoped that the European example will persuade the reluctant US President George W Bush to follow suit.

The political response to poverty relief is usually governed by questions of self-interest. During the Cold War, the West would reward African governments opposed to the Soviet Union’s influence by offering it aid. Usually the beneficiaries of that aid would be the tyrants in power and their cronies alone.

More recently, governments have made it no secret that their aid was tied to economic self-interest, as a way of exploiting local resources or markets.

Public pressure now demands that poverty be fought not because there is an immediate pay-off in doing so, but because poverty is a scandal to the world.

The world’s resources are sufficient to feed all who live in it. As long ago as the 1960s, Martin Luther King Jr said: “We have the resources to get rid of poverty. There is no deficit in human resources. The deficit is in human will.”

We may be hopeful that now is the time that the world begins to show its will to fight poverty. This will must be shown also in Africa.

President Thabo Mbeki and other African leaders have done much to reassure world leaders that the continent is ready to step outside the cycle of corruption and poverty.

As Africa receives increased aid and debt relief, the continent’s leaders must accept new obligations.

Democratic principles of accountability and transparency will have to become the basis of stable governance throughout the continent. The failings of one country in upholding these principles will reflect on the rest of the continent. Africa’s leaders must therefore have the political courage to apply pressure on countries that do not conform to the principles of responsible governance.

The practice of peer review within the African Union must be rigorously applied even if it means displeasing elder statesmen such as Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe.

Mr Blair believes that if the world’s richest nations do not act on global poverty this year, “it will not be done”. The leaders of the world’s richest nations are thus presented with a stark ultimatum: Act now, before it is too late.

We must pray that they do not miss this opportunity to feed the multitudes.