Sub-Saharan Africa worse off now than 20 years ago... according
to UNDP
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Dear Mark Malloch-Brown
The following is from the Global Development Briefing -- Keeping
Score issue (September 16):
"This is an embarrassing score card for a continent so richly
endowed." President of Nigeria and head of the African Union
Olusegun Obasanjo speaking at an anti-poverty summit in Burkina
Faso last week after Alpha Oumar Konare, former president of
neighboring Mali and now chairman of the AU Commission, painted
a grim picture of an African continent gripped by HIV/AIDS, ma-
laria, and malnutrition and let down by donors who failed to
live up to their pledges. Sub-Saharan Africa is the only region
in the world where people are worse off now than they were 20
years ago, according to the U.N. Development Program.
I would argue that these remarks reflect fairly common knowl-
edge. But something more is needed.
One thing that is missing is a way of looking at the interven-
tions that have been made over the past twenty years, and learn-
ing from that something about the root causes. This is something
that the UNDP's Development Cooperation Report (DCR) provided.
At any rate, a start to this question.
The DCR was not complicated. It was a simple listing of all the
projects that donors (including international NGOs) were funding
in the country and how much was disbursed in the year. For each
project just some quite simple description.
I am terribly disappointed that UNDP has discontinued the prepa-
ration of this report. I understand the UN General Assembly man-
dated its preparation by UNDP in 1978, and I do not know of any
resolution to end the mandate.
But I can understand why it is that the DCR is no longer pro-
duced. I assisted in its preparation in quite a few countries
over the years and it was very clear that the donors did not
want this information published. I was never told why, but one
can easily conclude that in the diplomatic world of speeches and
discussions, a report that is documenting something quite dif-
ferent would be a serious embarrassment. I would think that the
donors are probably very happy that UNDP has stopped publica-
tion. Meanwhile, we are faced with in Africa a situation where
"development" has failed dramatically, and the situation is
worsening every day as a result of the health and HIV-AIDS cri-
sis and the continuing failure to come to grips with key issues
like the international terms of trade, debt and lack of finance
for development investment.
We do know that many donors have withdrawn from Africa, in whole
or in part. We know that the interventions are not very effec-
tive. But it is not well documented, and it should be.
The UNDP is the obvious organization to do this work. I would be
delighted to see the work on the DCR start again.... and to the
extent that our group can be helpful, I would like to be in-
volved.
Information and knowledge is very important, especially informa-
tion that can be used in decision making so that resources are
better utilized. There is no excuse for Sub-Saharan Africa to be
worse off now than 20 years ago... some specific things are
wrong.
Sincerely,
Peter Burgess
in New York
Tel: +1-212-772-6918
mailto:peterb@afrifund.com
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