Introducing AfricanLiberty.org

Dear Friends,

I have been relatively dormant on my blg, but it is for a good cause. It is my pleasure to add a new product to the wonderful work we are doing in Africa and for Africa.Africanliberty.org is the Cato Institute and IMANI's African-focusedprogram. It was launched in December of 2007 and provides content inEnglish and Swahili, as well as access to material in French,Portuguese,and Arabic.

Our mission at AfricanLiberty.org is to be the continent's main platformfor sharing practical ideas generated by Africans and those who believe in Africa 's positive future.

Our vision at AfricanLiberty.org is to bring African voices for libertytothe wider world and work with African media to disseminate policy ideasfor a new century of peace, freedom, and prosperity.AfricanLiberty.org also produces audio and video content and will beworking in 2008 with African broadcast media, especially radio.

Inaddition, AfricanLiberty.org will publish books in African countries (inEnglish and, in conjunction with UnMondeLibre.org and OrdemLivre.org, inFrench and Portuguese). The first books planned for 2008 include Africaneditions of the works of Frederic Bastiat, Johan Norberg, and FranklinCudjoe.Our team has familiar faces.

However, in addition to Mr. Kofi Bentil andmyself, let me introduce Mr. Selorm Branttie, who was my successfulcampaign strategist during College days and now Business DevelopmentManager at AfricanLiberty.org.

Please see http://www.africanliberty.org/?q=node/85 for detailed profileof team members. We will soon be inviting friends on this forum to behelpme edit this exciting work. AfricanLiberty.org is truly dedicated topromoting freedom enterprise, educated leadership and success in Africa.Let's think together.

Sincerely,

Franklin Cudjoe

Editor, AfricanLiberty.org

Mugabe Ambushed in Lisbon

African and European leaders on Sunday ended their two-day summit in the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, with the adoption of a Declaration pledging their commitment to a new strategic partnership based on interdependence, equal sovereignty and respect. I will return to the thorny issues of trade as it relates to competition and liberalization.

Thankfully one issue was not forgotten; MUGABE:

If Mugabe thought his only outspoken enemy was British Premier Gordon Brown, he was dead wrong. After haven been baited by Brussels to attend the second AU-EU meetings with the hope of launching yet another vitriolic attack on his arch enemy , the UK, he was spell bound when German Chancellor Angela Merkel did what was onerous, but humane. She fell short an inch of describing Mugabe as the new evil on the block, “damaging the image of new Africa". Mugabe, who felt like the earth opening for him to be swallowed couldn’t hide his gory face and had to be soothed by his colleague African leaders who as usual see him as the last bastion of African freedom. Such misguided adulation for open tyranny is the very reason why Africa is in a mess.

However, the EU ought to share in the blame for the state of affairs in Zimbabwe and any of the continent’s troubled spot, albeit retrospective. The West’s past misdeeds were usually compensated by massive injection of poor people’s taxes from the West to the rich and pillaging leaders of Independent era African leaders. Despite the common knowledge that such freebies only politicized life on the continent, they have continued and metamorphosed into grand schemes, with torrents of aid being poured into schemes such as Tony Blair’s Commission for Africa and the US’s Millennium Challenge Account. Mugabe and his closest pal, Al Bashir of Sudan would be unworthy recipients of such monies, but then the fact that other shameful leaders such as Congo’s Dennis Sasso Nguesso would receive money after blowing $300,000 in one visit to Washington should make our tummy churn in awe.

We know this absurdity will continue for a while, especially as China now gives freely without meddling in good governance indicators in a country. May be it gives Africa some amount of sovereignty and ownership of policies- but such ownership should include the responsibility of the consequences of bad judgment and bad leadership

We should be happy however that as host Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates described the meeting as a "summit of equals", he truly meant "We are equal in our human dignity... but also equal in terms of political responsibility,”.

Foreign Aid and its unintended consequences.

Later this week, I will be speaking in Rome on the illogicality of foreign aid, and as if by intelligent design, my friend Todd Kruse, anchorman of the Uhuru Policy Group sent this powerful letter to me. Aside getting it on my blog, I will ensure media houses publish it as well. You can send your comments on this letter. Many thanks Todd.



Uhuru Policy Group – letter to US Congress

November 26, 2007

Dear Members of Congress,

Each year numerous non-governmental organizations pressure the world’s leaders and international financial institutions for debt forgiveness for some of the world’s poorest countries. Groups such as Oxfam, DATA (led by U2’s Bono), Jubilee USA and others like Jesse Jackson plead for relief on behalf of the world’s poorest citizens. Their efforts have succeeded in securing billions of dollars in loan forgiveness.

This campaign is a well intentioned effort meant to facilitate a rise from poverty for the world’s poor. While the ultimate goal is no doubt noble, the approach used to achieve these goals undermines the very efforts aimed at reducing poverty in the developing world.

Today, tools are available for countries that are interested in debt management, eliminating poverty and increasing wealth. Many nations, including the poorest countries in places like Africa have taken advantage of special programs like the Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) Initiative supported by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank’s International Development Association, making them eligible for debt forgiveness.

Unfortunately, without adopting economic and good governance reforms, the cycle of debt accumulation followed by debt forgiveness will continue leaving programs like HIPC irrelevant. To reverse the debt accumulation-debt forgiveness cycle to create wealth for the poor, we must first address the primary factors that are contributing to the impoverished state of these economies.

There is no better example than the Republic of the Congo, which was granted HIPC status in 2006 and received approximately $3 billion in debt forgiveness[1]. This begs the question -- how does a country with 5 percent annual GDP growth[2] and billions of dollars in oil revenue continually find itself pleading with its creditors for debt relief? Look no further than its president, Denis Sassou-Nguesso, who rose to power through a violent coup in 1997. President Sassou-Nguesso is notorious for extravagant spending on trips to the United States. In one egregious example, he spent nearly $300,000 at the Palace Hotel in New York City, significant portions of which were paid in cash.[3] Despite such lavish trips abroad, the Republic of the Congo spends millions of dollars each year on high-powered Washington lobbyists that pressure the U.S. Government for additional debt relief while the average citizen lives on less than $4 per day[4].

Recently, Senator Patrick Leahy added an amendment to HR 2764, the Foreign Operations and Related Programs Appropriations Act of 2008, which would restrict the issuance of visas to officials of foreign governments and their families involved in corruption in extractive industries, such as oil and diamond mining. The amendment targeted seven countries, including the Republic of the Congo.

In introducing this amendment, Senator Leahy has taken a critical step in assuring citizens in impoverished countries that the United States will not allow corrupt foreign officials or their families to operate with impunity. Support for this amendment would demonstrate action and resolve on the part of the United States in addressing these country governance issues. However, more must be done.

There must also be action in recipient countries to eliminate political corruption, increase transparency and facilitate economic growth. We must refrain from continuing to make financial commitments to leaders of nations who do not make a commitment to their own countries.

We must break the cycle of debt accumulation and debt relief in countries like the Republic of the Congo by eliminating political corruption, increasing transparency and promoting the importance of foreign direct investment. It is important that the U.S. Congress take a stand against corrupt foreign leaders who seek debt forgiveness while they line their pockets with state funds. The end result of today’s current foreign aid system is that millions of citizes in these debtor nations remain in abject poverty.

I strongly urge you to support the Foreign Operations and Related Programs Appropriations Act of 2008 and Senator Leahy’s amendment.


Sincerely,
Todd Kruse
Uhuru Policy Group co-founder
Minnesota

[1] http://www.goalusa.org/newsroom/sundaytimes0107.shtml
[1] https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/cf.html

Addressing Africa’s health workforce crisis

By McKinsey Consult

"Millions of people across sub-Saharan Africa suffer needlessly because they cannot obtain medical care from trained workers. Fully 820,000 additional doctors and nurses are needed to provide the region with even the most basic health services. The money to hire, train, and sustain such an increase won't be available in the foreseeable future. Even if funding materialized, 600 additional medical and nursing schools would be needed to fill the gap, and it would take more than two decades to train the requisite number of professionals. To ameliorate the problem in the coming decade, countries in Africa should build systems based on thoughtful ratios between professional and paraprofessional workers. Governments can't do so alone; the development community and the private sector also have roles to play."

This interesrting anylysis reminds me of a piece I did some time ago in which I quoted former US president Bill Clinton who said “You just can’t get the medicine, ship it into a country and drop it from the sky. If it is going to save people’s lives, the medicine must be accompanied by instructions, monitoring, by follow-up and by changing the medicine if necessary.”

..But sub-Saharan Africa averages 12.5 doctors per 100000 people, with dilapidated or nonexistent health structures in most countries.

Read more here

World Aids Day- IMANI and ABL make a call

Photos speak louder eh? Well, it was World Aids Day and we supported the Accra Brewery Limited to celebrate the day with a focus on the youth. We heard revealing stories from a survivor and an activist.

ABL's Managing Director, its Corporate Affairs Manger and myself granted interviews to the media on the importance of companies to focus their corporate social investments in HIV/Aids prevention and how questionable falling rates in HIV infections in Ghana should not occupy the Ghana Aids Commission, but rather be aggresive in using funds they receive from the Global Fund wisely and across the length and breadth of Ghana to educate children especially on the dangers of HIV/Aids.