Former President Kufuor asks
for more aid for Africa
By Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh
Accra, Sept 29, Ghanadot - Former
Ghanaian president, John Kufuor, was in The Hague last
weekend to plead for development
aid for Africa,
claiming people like Dambisa Moyo, who advocates
pulling the plug on development aid,
cannot be speaking for Africa because aid is necessary and
it works.
iMoyo, in her controversial book
Dead Aid, proposed to phase out
development aid to Africa in five years,
and to this Kufuor;s response was that she didn't "know
what the reality in Africa looks like".
That was the message the former
president of Ghana came to deliver to a congress held in The
Hague on Saturday on the occasion of '60 years of
development aid'. Also present was the Dutch
Development Aid
minister, Bert Koenders (Labour).
Koenders needs people like Kufuor more than ever. Faced with
dwindling political support, Koenders has had to announce
some serious cuts in the development budget this year. Less
money, fewer recipients, seems to be the new slogan.
And because Koenders' budget is also linked to the gross
national product, it is set to decrease even more under the
impact of the economic crisis.
John Kufuor has a reputation for integrity. Under his
presidency, Ghana became an
example for the rest of Africa. The economy grew
considerably, and the political situation stabilised.
Moreover, Kufuor did not try to extend his rule but left
quietly when his second term as president was up. When US
president Barack Obama visited Africa last July he chose
Ghana to spread his message of good governance in Africa.
"I worry that development aid is decreasing," Kufuor told
NRC Handelsblad.
"Of course the donor countries have to monitor case by case
to see that the money is well spent. Donor countries have to
get their money's worth."
One example of a successful project, according to Kufuor, is
a school meals programme in his own Ghana. For the past four
years Ghana has been aspiring to provide each pupil under
15-years old with one hot meal a day. More than 600,000
children are now part of the programme, which is supported
by the Netherlands.
Critics have reproached Kufuor for being too docile towards
institutions like the World Bank or the International
Monetary Fund (IMF). During Kufuor's first term Ghana joined
the HIPC programme for Heavily Indebted Poor Countries.
HIPC
provides debt relief and low-interest loans in return for
which countries have to bring inflation under control and
get their state finances in order. An often heard criticism
of the HIPC programme is that the budget cuts that go with
it often come at the expense of the poorest citizens of
those countries.
"Ghana has become less dependent [on aid] since I came into
office," Kufuor said.
"It was thanks to the debt relief that we were able to get a
market economy off the ground. Consequently, credit rating
agencies like Standard &
Poor and Fitch raised our rating. We were able to
raise 750 million dollars in government bonds on the
international market, which allowed us to invest in health
care and the infrastructure."
Kufuor had to admit that the government bonds have recently
taken a hit because of the worldwide economic crisis. Ghana
even had to go back to the World Bank for help. But Kufuor
is not discouraged.
"Compare it to a baby that is learning to walk. It's trial
and error. In 2001 Ghana was bankrupt. Last year, when the
world's strongest
economies were suffering from the crisis, Ghana still
managed 7.3 percent growth."
Kufuor said he agrees with Rwandan president Paul Kagame,
who believes the ultimate goal of development aid should be
to make itself redundant. But he strongly disagrees with
Zambian economist Dambisa Moyo, who also happens to have
Kagame's ear.
Moyo says aid to Africa should be cut entirely because it
only leads to inertia and corruption. A graduate from
Harvard and Oxford, who has worked at the World Bank and
Goldman Sachs, Moyo has become the darling of the critics of
development aid since the publication of her book, Dead Aid,
earlier this year.
"Mrs. Moyo is not the voice of Africa," Kufuor said. "She
lives in an ivory tower, far away from the reality of
Africa. Perhaps she should go back to Zambia to see how much
that country still needs help. Maybe then I will pay better
attention to her."
Ghanadot
