ADDIS ABABA— A SPECIAL adviser to the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said African countries should refuse to repay their foreign debts. Mr Annan’s economic adviser Jeffrey Sachs first called on developed countries to cancel Africa’s debts. But failing that, he said Africa should ignore its $201 billion (£109 billion) debt burden.
Economic analysis, he said, had shown that it was impossible for Africa to achieve its development goal of halving poverty if it had to repay the loans. “The time has come to end this charade,” he said at the annual summit of the heads of state of the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. “The debts are unaffordable. If they won’t cancel the debts, I would suggest obstruction; you do it yourselves.”
“Africa should stay: ‘thank you very much but we need this money to meet the needs of children who are dying right now so we will put the debt servicing payments into urgent social investment in health, education, drinking water, control of AIDS and other needs,’” he told the BBC’s World Business Report.
Mr Sachs insisted that such a response was serious and responsible, providing that the money was used transparently and channelled only into urgent social needs. And he denied that it would bar African countries from accessing money from the capital markets in the future. “They won’t be able to access those markets anyway until the debt is forgiven,” he explained, adding that there is no reason why they shouldn’t be able to borrow again provided the forgiveness was negotiated in a cooperative manner.
Mr Sachs is special adviser to Kofi Annan on global anti-poverty targets. He made his comments at a conference on the eve of the summit. He called on the developed world to double aid to Africa to $120 billion a year in order to meet commitments made in 1970.
Annan tasks African leaders on mandate
Mr. Annan also asked African leaders to refrain from changing the law once in office to extend their mandates. “There is no truer wisdom, no clearer mark of statesmanship, than knowing when to pass the torch to a new generation.. And no government should manipulate or amend the constitution to hold on to office beyond prescribed term limits that they accepted when they took office. Let us always remember that constitutions are for the long-term benefit of society, not the short-term goals of the ruler. Let us pledge that the days of indefinite one-man or one-party governments are behind us,” he urged.
The constitutions of Togo and Chad have recently been changed to allow a head of state to extend his term of office. Togo’s President Gnassingbe Eyadema has been in power since 1967. Moves are also afoot in Uganda to change the constitution to allow President Yoweri Museveni, who was among the summiteers, to serve more than the two elected terms currently allowed. Political parties are also effectively banned in Uganda.
