MR. KILGOUR - ADDRESS ON AN ETHICAL FOREIGN POLICY TOWARDS AFRICA
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NOTES FOR AN ADDRESS BY
THE HONOURABLE DAVID KILGOUR
SECRETARY OF STATE FOR AFRICA AND LATIN AMERICA:
"AN ETHICAL FOREIGN POLICY TOWARDS AFRICA"
OTTAWA, Ontario
December 14, 1999
We are entering the new century lauded by the United Nations' human development index as one of the best
countries in which to live. We have much to offer both the developed and developing worlds, whether as a
leading provider of information technology, manufactured goods, or know-how for resource extractors. Not only
can we now offer strong economic performance, but our society is also perceived as a model of celebrating
otherness, and enjoying a vibrant civil aspect.
Yet we must set our goals even higher for the next century, never forgetting the disparities of the current world
in which we live. We are well-placed to lead efforts to bridge the gap between the North and South. It now
seems to be widening, not narrowing, in part due to the unequal access to the new knowledge economy and
high tech industry. Globalization must be made to benefit all of humanity, or risk exacerbating the already
shocking inequality which became so common in the old economy. It is a telling reality that the assets of the
world's richest three billionaires exceed the combined GNP [Gross National Product] of all the least developed
countries and their 600 million nationals. The global community has a long way to go when three billion people
live on less than $2 per day.
Africa, the cradle of humankind, has waged a continuous battle with war and poverty. None of us can escape
responsibility for the suffering and violence which has beset the continent over the past century. The scars of
Western colonialism and its legacy need not be reiterated here. The survival of authoritarian regimes propped
up by both the East and West during the Cold War did little to instill the values of freedom and democracy we
espouse. As a stage for super power proxy wars, the continent was destabilized by the infusion of much military
hardware. Cecil Rhodes and others swarmed the continent in search of fortunes to be gained in diamonds,
gold, copper and oil, with scant attention paid to local development or labour standards.
Africans themselves recognize their own culpability in the events of the past century. Leaders who were held up
as the continent's hope squandered national resources and turned countries with the potential to be wealthy
and innovative into some of the poorest in the world. Corruption continues to plague parts of the continent, but
systematic local efforts are now beginning to see measures of accountability put in place.
Africa is one of the regions most negatively affected by globalization. African leaders have, since
independence, fought against the marginalization of their peoples in the world economy and in high politics. But
the dreams of statesmen such as Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana and Julius Nyerere of Tanzania have yet to be
fully realized.
A new generation of a leaders, including Olesegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, have
provided a new vision for Africa -- one of an African revival. The 53 African states will be seeking to forge new
and meaningful partnerships with countries such as Canada in support of this renaissance. Africa should no
longer be seen by the world as a problem to be solved, but rather many eloquent voices to be heard.
Prime Minister Chrétien's recent trip to Africa demonstrated our commitment to strengthening relations with
African nations. It solidified bridges at a political level that can be nurtured. It is essential that we develop a new
partnership with Africa. Our foreign policy as a whole must give higher priority to Africa. This won't be easy. Too
many Canadians ask, "Why should we care about Africa? Don't we have enough problems at home?"
For many, these are good times. We have experienced one of the longest periods of sustained growth in
history: eight years of uninterrupted growth and now a budget surplus. Do we not have a responsibility to
promote peace, development and human security on the African continent? We cannot be apathetic when
millions of civilians are caught in armed conflicts and live in grotesque squalour. A successful Africa will create
a safer, more environmentally sustainable world, reduce aid budgets, and open up lucrative markets.
Africa will become an important market for Canada. Our investment in Africa has tripled over the last decade,
and two-way trade now exceeds $2 billion. While most foreign direct investment goes to Asia and Latin
America, Africa will likely take over at some date as the fastest growing region in the world. Angola, Uganda
and Botswana already stand among the ten fastest growing economies globally. At independence, Botswana
was one of the poorest countries in the world, but it has been the fastest growing economy in the world since
1965, with an annual GNP growth rate of 13 percent. Mozambique and Ghana have also achieved strong
growth performance in recent years.
The opportunities for Canadian trade and foreign investment in Africa are considerable. There is massive
opportunity in the area of telecommunications alone -- with 750 million inhabitants on the continent, there are
only 14 million with phone lines. Markets abound, too, for Canadian educational products and Canada should
seize this window of opportunity before others establish dominance. Internet and cell phone companies with
foresight have realized the potential of African markets and currently enjoy enormous success. More individuals
are now walking the streets of Johannesburg with cell phones than in Milan, Paris or Toronto.
Resource extraction will remain an important component of trade with Africa. Oil reserves on the continent are
only beginning to be tapped. Africa has dominance in the world diamond industry and contains some 54
percent of the world's gold reserves. Alongside the production of primary commodities, long-term sustained
growth in African countries will depend largely upon the capacity to diversify exports and achieve export-led
growth in manufactures. Africa also needs guaranteed access to developed country markets and the
elimination of trade barriers to African products. The U.S. has taken steps in this regard by passing the Africa
Trade Bill. Africa has expanded access to the U.S. clothing market with the removal of tariffs and quotas.
Can it be acceptable that Canada's trade with Africa in one year is the equivalent of 52 hours of trade with the
United States? If we are to expand into new markets, we will have to go outside of the North American
continent. There are now only four Canadian trade commissioners based in Africa to serve 47 countries, and
merely 13 political officers deployed in the region.
Canada must market its credentials as a leading knowledge provider globally, and most urgently in Africa. Our
educational institutions have earned their stripes as some of the best in the world. Ontario alone houses 19
good universities. The University of Alberta has recognized the desirability of marketing its education
internationally and is currently recruiting about 1000 new foreign students. We have a burgeoning high tech
industry in this city alone, and private sector initiatives in distance learning are fast becoming a trend. Articles in
our press that criticize Canada for losing ground as a foreign educator cannot be ignored -- we must seize this
opportunity.
Nowhere is there more of a need to engage in the field of education than in a continent where textbooks in local
schools are 20 years out of date -- if there are textbooks at all. Regional universities boast only a handful of
computers in central libraries. Africa is alone in experiencing declining basic educational standards. The call
from Africans themselves is increasingly, "Education, education, education." When only 0.1 percent of sub-Saharan Africans are linked to the Internet, closing the knowledge gap becomes critical to global development.
How will a university student in Uganda without access to the Internet effectively compete with a student in
Britain who flicks on a laptop each day?
We can help bridge this gap. Canada has just seen the last school in this country connected to the Internet. Our
NGO [non-governmental organization] sector is now trying to connect schools in Africa to the Internet, and the
private sector is donating computers. I would like to encourage more of these types of initiatives, and will lead
an education mission to South Africa in March 2000. For one week, leading educators, private sector
companies and human resource trainers will hopefully develop partnerships with South African counterparts. A
long-term strategy in education capacity building is the goal. Other education missions will follow to East and
West Africa -- we must not fail to play our part.
Linked to education must be greater efforts by Canada to stem the AIDS pandemic sweeping Africa, leaving
graveyards of millions in its wake. Seventy percent of all people in the world infected with HIV live in Africa.
More Africans die of AIDS than are killed in war, and an average of 5500 perish daily. It is estimated that 30
million Africans will die of AIDS in the next five years. Their leaders are finally acknowledging that AIDS
constitutes a national crisis in many countries. It threatens the entire continent's economic and social
development. CIDA is responding to this crisis by providing an additional $50 million to support projects to fight
AIDS in each region of Africa.
AIDS education and health centres are essential, but there is also an urgent need for substantial additional
research into new prevention and treatment techniques. African victims of this disease also desperately need
more affordable access to AZT, the anti-AIDS drug which has proven effective in cutting mother-to-child
transmission. Why can't the pharmaceutical industry in Canada work with African countries and the World
Health Organization to devise ways in which to make such drugs cheaper? Better yet, why not donate batches
to the most seriously affected areas?
The AIDS virus has escalated at a time when African governments are severely constrained in terms of what
they can afford to spend on health care and other developmental needs. This is largely owing to the
unmanageable debt burdens carried by African states. To service their debts fully, African countries find
themselves paying more than 60 percent of the revenues generated from exports, to donors and external
commercial lenders. Ghana is one of the most promising economic performers on the continent that cannot
make the necessary capital investments in health care, education and infrastructure, as long as it pays such a
substantial amount of its export earnings on servicing its debt. Even creditors now agree that debt burdens are
unsustainable.
The Highly Indebted Poor Countries' debt reduction initiative earmarked 29 countries for debt relief, 24 of which
are in Africa. Only four countries have received debt relief to date under this initiative. What is needed is
deeper, broader and faster debt relief. This will free up resources to create fiscal space for direct spending on
poverty reduction measures, health and education. Canada has forgiven $39 million of debt for Senegal, Benin,
Mali, Mozambique and Burkina Faso. This is a start, but should we not go further when you consider that some
African countries are grappling with debts to the tune of $20 billion? Nigeria is struggling under an external debt
of $32 billion -- greater than its GDP [Gross Domestic Product].
Some have argued that Canada should feel no sense of obligation to relieve debt burdens when excessive
amounts of revenue are diverted for military expenditures or personal aggrandizement in African states. To
address this issue, it may be necessary to better integrate poverty and development factors more explicitly in
the debt reduction framework without overloading programs with excessive conditionality. We should also
remember that during the Cold War, bilateral loans provided funds for extensive military expenditures by African
countries. Sometimes governments were pressured into accepting a wide range of loans they didn't need or
could not productively use. In many cases, little or no effort was made to ensure accountability for expenditures.
Foreign loan money and arms sales have contributed to the wars which continue to envelop the continent. In
too many cases, Western companies have prolonged conflict in war-torn African nations by propping up
authoritarian regimes with substantial revenue flows. To our collective shame, the international community has
not responded as robustly in the context of African wars as it has in Europe and Asia, with interventions in both
Kosovo and East Timor.
Genocide in Rwanda will define for our generation the consequences of inaction in the face of mass murder.
The time has long passed when one could claim ignorance about what is happening in Africa, or what is
needed to bring about peace. Africa accounts for more than half of all war-related deaths, and struggles to
assist more than eight million refugees.
Of all the countries in the UN community, it is Canada which is consistently revered for its contributions to
international peacekeeping, conflict resolution and mediation expertise. It was a Canadian prime minister,
Lester B. Pearson, who was instrumental in formulating the notion of peacekeeping: his legacy has seen
Canada participate in more peacekeeping missions than any other country.
Let African countries not now ask "where is Canada?" when it comes to African conflicts. We have recently
displayed our willingness to engage in peace efforts by participating as the only non-African contingent in the
peacekeeping force deployed to the Central African Republic. We were also prepared to lead a peacekeeping
mission into Zaire prior to the Kabila coup.
With the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo now threatening to develop into a regional war
capable of devastating large swathes of the continent, can we sit idly by? If the Lusaka Peace Accord is
teetering on the brink of collapse -- or some might say is already rendered null and void -- we need to engage
the players. We may not have substantial resources to apply to peace efforts, but this cannot be an excuse for
indifference. One of the first initiatives I'll undertake in the new year will be a fact-finding mission to the Great
Lakes region in order to assess the prospects of peace in the Congo, and identify what role Canada might play
in helping to bring peace to Africa's largest state. Canada must be seen as proactive this time, not reactive --
that is one lesson to be learned from recent history.
Canada's ambassador to the United Nations, Robert Fowler, can be congratulated on his efforts in Angola,
particularly to implement the UN sanctions regime. International efforts to prevent the proceeds from diamond
sales being utilized by factions in the Angolan conflict are long overdue. The tragedy of Angola is that it is one
of the 15 poorest countries in the world, but it is a significant source of high quality diamonds: it will produce 2.5
million barrels of oil per day by 2015. That is more than Kuwait's daily production. With such economic
potential, it is devastating to think that 200 people a day are dying in Angola, making it the world's deadliest
war.
The political economy of war requires greater analysis in order to understand what underlies and sustains so
many African conflicts. We have seen warlords flirt with peace while reinforcing their weapons of war, all for the
sake of maintaining control over lucrative diamond, gold or oil fields. Liberia, Sierra Leone, Sudan, the Congo
and Angola all come to mind here. Foreign multinationals have perpetuated conflict in many instances by
employing mercenaries to protect their concessions, and either bolstering or bringing down regimes. If we hope
to facilitate peace on the African continent we will have to address the real roots of conflict, in addition to
making a concerted effort to train civilians and military officers in Africa for peace.
In addressing the challenges that confront Africa in the next century, we must not forget the bright spots or
overlook the achievements that have been made. Less than 50 years have passed since the first black African
country gained independence from colonial rule, compared to the centuries over which the states of Europe
and Asia matured their political systems. This decade has witnessed the founding of more parties in Africa than
at any time since the decolonization period. Democracy has taken root in Botswana, Mali, Mozambique,
Tanzania, South Africa and Mauritius, to name but a few. These have been African success stories in terms of
political freedom. Countries like South Africa overcame what seemed insurmountable obstacles on the path to
democracy and avoided the bloodshed which has accompanied so many political transitions. If South Africa
was able to emerge from the days of apartheid and state oppression with such an open political system, free
media, one of the most progressive constitutions in the world, and concerted efforts at reconciliation, there is no
reason why this cannot be replicated in other African nations. The year 2000 will see new elections in Egypt,
Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Senegal and Tanzania. Canada could play a role in assisting newly elected African
parliaments through orientation programs, parliamentary exchanges and good governance programs. We will
look to our civil society to implement such forward-looking initiatives.
One more parting thought as we say good-bye to the old century and anticipate the new. For Canada to
implement an ethical foreign policy in the coming new year as a friend of the developing world, particularly
Africa, we must work to change the imbalance of power that exists in the United Nations. Real power in our
global body is largely vested in the hands of a few powers who were the victors of World War II, and who still
exercise an overriding influence over international affairs.
The realities of global politics have changed. The vast majority of today's 186 member states did not exist as
sovereign independent states at the time the organization was founded. If the world body entrusted with
overseeing peace and security matters is to solve its crisis of legitimacy, the developing world will need to be
accorded a greater voice in Security Council decision making. Canada is well-placed to drive forward a UN
reform agenda given its membership on the Security Council for the forthcoming year.
Let the next century not only be one of promise and opportunity for Canadians, but also one for the African
peoples. Let us emerge as partners in efforts to eradicate poverty, AIDS, conflict and indebtedness. Let
education and trade be the highlights of a score card for the next century. And to those who question our
intentions, we answer them by noting, "humanity, after all, is indivisible."
Thank you.