2005: Year of decision for Africa.

In early October the Prime Minister was in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for a meeting of the Commission for Africa. Mr Blair said that Africa will be “in the spotlight of international attention” in 2005 and that failure to deal with the continent's problems would be a disaster not just for Africa but for the wider world. However, "the prize for success”, he continued, “would be an Africa standing proud in its own right in the international community."

Here we carry some edited highlights of the speech. To read the entire speech click here.

Year of decision
“Next year will be the year of decision for Africa and for the international community. The problems are multiple, we know them all - debt, disease, conflict, poor governance, inadequate aid. The difference is that this time we have to put together a plan that is comprehensive in its scope and has at its core a real partnership between Africa and the developed world. The price of failure would be disaster for Africa and for the wider world. The prize for success would be an Africa standing proud in its own right in the international community.”

Africa cannot be left behind
“It is wrong that more than 1 in 6 African children die before their fifth birthday, it is wrong that only half of the lucky ones that survive are able to complete their primary education before they have to go out to work to support their family, and it is wrong that 12 million children in Africa have been made orphans by Aids. It is wrong that somebody's chances in life depend so starkly, not on their talent, or ambitions, or how hard they work, but on where they are born. And those of us who believe that everyone, not just a few, everyone, should have the chance to fulfil their potential, cannot and must not stand by and watch Africa be left behind by the rest of the world.”

The world needs African development
“Millions of people in Africa, suffering from persecution, conflict, extreme poverty, even starvation, have had to leave their homes behind. Most of these people don't have the resources or the ability to get very far and will probably become refugees in another poor country in Africa that cannot afford to protect them. But many do find their way to Europe and elsewhere. And we know that poverty and instability leads to weak states which can become havens for terrorists and other criminals. Even before 9/11 al Qaeda had bases in Africa, they still do, hiding in places where they can go undisturbed by weak governments, where they plan their next attack which could be anywhere in the world, including right here in Africa as we have seen.”

Progress in Africa
“We do know that Africa can make progress. At Independence in 1966, Botswana was one of the poorest countries in sub-Saharan Africa. It is now one of the richest. Average income has risen from a few hundred dollars to over $3,000 today. Economic growth has averaged 7.5 per cent per year. And because of this progress Botswana is better placed to respond to one of the worst Aids epidemics in the world with one of the most advanced treatment programmes in Africa. For other countries the picture has been more mixed. For every step forward there has been a cruel push backwards, whether through disease or conflict, falling world prices for a major export or a failing government. But countries have also come back from these setbacks. UK military intervention in Sierra Leone helped to end a 10 year civil war in 2002. Just 2 years later the rebels have been disarmed, demobilised and reintegrated into civilian life, and just last month the UN peacekeepers handed over prime responsibility for security in the last remaining sector of the country to the government.”

African leadership
“The African Union is already showing how important it will be, particularly on governance and security issues. The African Union's new plan for Africa's development, and its Africa peer review mechanism, is indeed an African-led initiative to get African countries to encourage each other to improve governance, which the evidence shows is a vital component of progress. 23 countries, covering 75 per cent of the population of sub-Saharan Africa, have now signed up for peer reviews. I strongly welcome this African-led approach to improving demonstrably the governance of countries, and believe the G8 should provide resources to support implementation of peer review recommendations. The African Union's Peace and Security Council, set up on Africa Day this year, is also a crucial step forward. I applaud the African Union's decision to establish a standby force with a rapid reaction capability to deal with conflicts and peacekeeping in Africa. The first of five brigades will be operational by the end of the year, and the G8 is already supporting the development of this standby force.”

Aid and debt relief
“We have more than doubled our aid budget since 1997. We wish to continue increasing aid at this rate, which would mean that the UK would reach the 0.7 per cent UN target in 2013. As a result of this, we will be able to increase aid directly for Africa to £1 billion next year. This will enable us to lift one million people in Africa permanently out of income poverty each year. Twenty-seven countries are already benefiting from debt relief under the HIPC initiative. In July this year Ghana became the 14th country to reach Completion Point. As a result Ghana will receive $3.5 billion in debt relief, and Ghana could save approximately $230 million annually in debt service costs for the next 10 years, which is money that instead it can spend on education and health and other investments for its people.”

Private sector investment
“We also need to increase private sector investment in Africa, we need action to open up opportunities for business in Africa to grow faster by trading with the rest of the world. There could be no clearer example that what is good for Africa is actually good for the rest of the world. We would all benefit from fairer trade, all of us. I welcome the progress made in the WTO negotiations in Geneva in July, in particular the agreement by other G8 countries to match the EU commitment to phase out all export subsidies on agricultural goods, which make it so much harder for Africa to compete with subsidised goods from richer countries. West African cotton farmers alone could earn some $250 million from this. The UK would like to see Africa get the benefit of this agreement as soon as possible. But actually we should not wait for the WTO to increase the opportunities for Africa to trade, we can increase those opportunities now. For example once Lesotho was allowed to import cotton from China to turn it into clothing, which is then sold to America, business boomed, it increased from less than $100 million to over $300 million in three years. The EU and the G8 must encourage such collaboration between developing countries to help them trade out of poverty.”

Common human bonds
“And the purpose of what we are trying to do is to say forget this being about wealthy countries giving out of the generosity of their hearts to African countries. What this is actually about is recognising the common bond of humanity that says if we together help resolve the problems that beset this continent - disease, which we know we can prevent and deal with; conflict, which we know we could resolve; debt and aid, which we know we can afford; good governance, which we know it is within the capability of Africa to provide - if we came together, work together and took that comprehensive plan and actually decided we would make it the priority for the international community to implement, then those people that I saw this morning, who are, I know, when the television cameras are there and the photographers are there, are the exception in terms of the help they are given, those people would become the norm, their prospects of a better future would become the rule. That is all it requires.”

Read the whole speech here.