IRIN news (United Nations Integrated Regional Information Networks)

October 18, 2004

Addis Ababa: African governance has been “polluted by western intrusion,” James Wolfensohn, the head of the World Bank, said on Friday. Speaking at the United Nations African Development Forum in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, he told politicians and delegates they must tap their own traditional systems and values.

“Before colonialism it is clear that this continent had a remarkable concept of management,” Wolfensohn said. “There was long before colonialism a sense of values, a sense of sharing, a sense of community and a sense of participation.”

He added: “It was a system of people coming together for a common purpose. Now we have to find our way back. Governance is not something that is strange to Africa, it is something that has to be rediscovered in Africa.”

In a wide-ranging speech, Wolfensohn told the week-long conference focusing on governance that the world’s attention had been diverted to issues of terrorism and Iraq. He said the “shadow of Iraq, the shadow of terrorism, the shadow of political uncertainty” posed major hurdles to growth in Africa.

“The impact of this is important because it has diverted the attention of the world to questions of military expenditure as distinct from development,” Wolfensohn noted. “The single statistic that tells it all is that in this last year the world spent US $900 billion on military expenditure and $50 to $60 billion only on development. As we come to Africa we come to the recognition that the largest problem on the fundamental issue that we all need to face is the issue of equity and poverty. If we do not address [it] then there is no chance of peace,” he said.

“If the fight against poverty is won it will remove the fundamental base from the problems of injustice and the problems of terror,” Wolfensohn added. He noted that Africa was the “most vulnerable” continent with regard to achieving the 2015 global anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium Development Goals.

In Africa, Wolfensohn said, 314 million people now lived under the international poverty line of $1 a day, compared to 160 million in 1981. Africa’s share of global GDP – which he said was $40 trillion – was just one percent at $400 billion, he added.

Wolfensohn said that AIDS was the biggest threat to governance on the continent. “You have to deal with the questions of AIDS because it is a challenge that would bring down any government,” he said, adding that corruption, capacity building and legal and financial reforms were also key.

“All too many of the corrupt governments can be found in sub-Saharan Africa and this is a tragedy,” he said. “People lose their enthusiasm, they lose their sense of purpose if they find that the results of the nation’s hard work is being distorted and going to the wrong places. This issue of corruption is the single worse cancer that there is,” he concluded.