What Kind of Partnership between Africa and the Developed World?

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Tony Blair on the G8 Action Plan for Africa:
What Kind of Partnership between Africa and the Developed World?

Following the G8 Summit meeting held in Kananaskis, Canada, Tony Blair, has made several statements about the so-called Action Plan for Africa, one of the main consequences of this year’s meeting of the leaders of the Group of Eight.

The G8 Action Plan for Africa was first agreed at the G8 summit in Genoa last July. At that time it was described by Tony Blair as a "kind of Marshall Plan for the future of Africa", and was presented as ushering in a new "partnership between Africa and the developed world". The G8 Action Plan has been developed in tandem with the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), an economic recovery plan developed by some of Africa’s leaders, originally designed to combat the adverse consequences of globalisation and to aid Africa’s economic development, but which has now been developed in such a way as to further facilitate the penetration of finance capital into Africa.

NEPAD is based on the premise that the adverse consequences of neo-liberal globalisation can be eliminated, that both rich and poor countries can benefit from globalisation if the governments of the big powers, the financial institutions and monopolies guide "the globalisation agenda along a sustainable path". According to NEPAD, African development will require massive capital investment. It is envisaged that the bulk of this capital will come from outside the continent, from private sector sources, although its architects argue that there will also have to be a substantial increase in "aid" programmes, as well as the extension of "debt relief". In order to attract those private capital flows, African governments are pledged to address "investor’s perception of Africa as a ‘high risk’ continent with regard to security of property rights, regulatory framework and markets". In order to create the right climate for greater private investment, African governments are pledged to promote the principles of "democracy, good governance, human rights and sound economic management", the so-called "universal values" which the big powers demand all adhere to and which facilitate the domination of finance capital throughout the world. At the same time other measures will be taken to encourage "private-sector led growth" and NEPAD will encourage a "peer review mechanism" through which African governments will ensure that there is compliance with the agreed "codes and standards for economic and political governance".

Not surprisingly then, Tony Blair and the other leaders of the G8 and EU countries welcomed the adoption of NEPAD by Africa’s leaders and stressed the need both for "good governance and human rights as necessary preconditions for Africa’s recovery" and for "investment-driven economic growth and economic governance as the engine for poverty reduction". In short, Britain and the other big powers wish to encourage the adoption of those principles enshrined in the Paris Charter, which they are now presenting as "universal values".

The G8 Action Plan mainly commits the big powers to increase their intervention in the affairs of African countries. It entails more "peacekeeping" of the type already undertaken by Britain in Sierra Leone and pledges further intervention in other countries such as the DR of Congo and Sudan. In particular it envisages establishing and training African "peacekeeping" forces so that the big powers can intervene by proxy. Under the guise of combating the illegal exploitation of Africa’s natural resources it aims to centralise more control in the hands of the big diamond and other mineral monopolies. The Action Plan also stresses the need for more intervention in the political process in Africa, on the grounds of strengthening economic and political "good governance" and protecting "human rights". In the economic sphere the Action Plan aims to encourage "public-private investment partnerships", and to create the conditions for increased private investment. At the same time rather than eliminating the debts of African countries, the Action Plan is committed to continuing and strengthening the discredited Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative, which forces countries to restructure and liberalise their economies in the interests of both the international monopolies and financial institutions.

The G8 Action Plan does not in any way alter the relationship between the countries of Africa, some of the world’s poorest countries, and the richest and most powerful countries in the world. Rather it seeks to facilitate the increased exploitation of these countries, arguing that this is in order to aid their development and at the behest of their leaders.

Tony Blair weeps crocodile tears for Africa’s plight but the British government is not yet able to acknowledge that Africa’s economic and other problems are a legacy of the brutal conquest and colonial rule of the African continent and the enslavement of millions of its population, undertaken by all the main European powers, and in which Britain played such a leading role. According to Tony Blair, following the G8 Summit "for the first time we have a partnership between Africa and the developed world". But this partnership is nothing new and is as much based on inequality as it has ever been. It is not for nothing that Tony Blair speaks of "a deal" between Africa and the big powers, but it is a deal that is only in the interests of the big powers and offers no hope to the peoples of Africa.