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From: Patrick Bond <pbond@wn.apc.org>
Date: Sat, 4 May 1996 04:25:35 -0400
Subject: Fwd: AFRICAN NGO DECLARATION TO UNCTAD IX
From: <ifaa@wn.apc.org>
Date: Mon, 29 Apr 1996 20:46:32 +0000
Subject: AFRICAN NGO DECLARATION TO UNCTAD IX
Comrades
If any of you have reason to reproduce this in any of your
publications, please let me have a copy for the media group's records:
Rachel Houghton, IFAA. Fax: +27 11 403 2454. Also, please disseminate
this to as many friends as possible.
Thanks
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MARKET DOESN'T REPLACE NEED FOR
DEVELOPMENT COOPERATION
AFRICAN NGO DECLARATION FOR UNCTAD IX
(This declaration has been prepared by the parallel NGO Conference to
UNCTAD IX, held from 24-28 April 1996, in Midrand, South Africa.)
INTRODUCTION
This declaration emerges from the discussions amongst African NGOs,
labour, religious and other civil society organisations who came together in a parallel conference prior to UNCTAD IX. With the par
ticipation of similar organisations from other countries we exchanged
experiences and ideas around issues of trade and development, and voiced our concerns about the impact of the global economic sys
tem upon our communities and countries.
We share a common vision of a world which recognises its essential
interdependence while embracing human diversity in all its forms; where justice and equity for all peoples is the first priority, an
d in which principles of democracy and popular participation are
universally upheld so that the creation of a peaceful, cooperative and sustainable future is secured.
The current system of globalisation and liberalisation has had
devastating effects upon African economies. Our countries have been pushed backwards into increasing debt, de-industrialisation, agricul
tural decline, environmental degradation, poverty and deepening
inequality. Those worse affected, such as children, youth and women, are already at the margins of society. Financial and physical reso
urces continue to be drained out of Africa. Its marginalisation is
both a product of an inequitable international system and of factors internal to African economies and polities.
We oppose a system which places growth above all other goals,
including human well-being, and which undermines national economic development and social security. We see that this system creates incen
tives for capital to externalise its social and environmental costs.
It over-exploits and destroys the natural environment and encourages the unsustainable use of resources. It turns social services
into commodities out of reach of the poor, generates jobless growth,
derogates the rights of workers and undermines trade union and other democratic rights.
This global system has resulted in an ever greater concentration of
power and control over resources into the hands of a relatively few transnational corporations and financial institutions. This pro
cess has exacerbated inequalities within and between countries,
actively encouraged competition for investment and financial resources, and discouraged regional cooperation and integration amongst Af
rican countries. However, we affirm that globalisation and
liberalisation are not irresistible processes but are the product of human agencies and can therefore be influenced and changed.
With respect to UNCTAD itself, we are concerned that it has largely
taken on board the 'realities' of the liberalising globalised world order, although it does adopt a more holistic and questioning a
pproach and raises issues of particular concern to the developing
world. We are concerned at the relative inaccessibility of UNCTAD to the voices of non-governmental organisations and social movement
representatives. Nonetheless, we believe that UNCTAD can play a
useful role as a monitoring, research and policy development organisation and as a capacity building and technical support institution
to governments and non-governmental forces in Africa.
In coming together prior to UNCTAD IX we have reached the following
conclusions:
1 GLOBALISATION AND LIBERALISATION
We see that it is the strategies of business organisations and the
interventions of financial institutions and governments that have produced the inter-linked processes of globalisation and liberalis
ation. Globalisation requires - and is reinforced by - the
liberalisation or 'deregulation' of investment and capital movements, trade in goods and services, communications and other national and int
ernational economic transactions.
African countries have for many years already been subject to such
liberalisation processes through the imposition of structural adjustment programmes (SAPs). The neo-liberal economic paradigm makes
our governments unresponsive to our basic economic and social needs,
forces open our economies to the advantage of external traders and investors and makes African countries ever more dependent upon
the richer industrialised countries and their transnational
corporations. Our countries are being recolonised, and the responsibility of our governments to us is being replaced by their responsivenes
s to the needs and interests of TNCs and their home governments.
In this context we make the following key recommendations:
1.1 AFRICAN GOVERNMENTS must heed the calls from their
non-governmental organisations and social movements to resist the imposition of SAPs and other liberalisation programmes. These are damaging to
people and economies and to governments' own policy independence and
relevance.
1.2 AFRICAN GOVERNMENTS must be transparent in their dealings with
the Bretton Woods Institutions and other external agencies and, by providing full information and resources to their own people, ena
ble us to be more effective players and active partners in the
struggles against liberalisation programmes.
1.3 AFRICAN GOVERNMENTS must take responsibility for their own
actions and not use the pretext of their obligations to external agencies and international forces as excuses for their own faults and t
heir failures to respond to the democratic demands and development
needs of their own people.
1.4 UNCTAD as a research and capacity building organisation focused
particularly upon the needs of less/least developed countries must support the right, and provide the technical and policy backup f
or governmental and non-governmental organisations and social
movements in Africa, to pursue development programmes that are relevant to their visions and needs.
1.5 UNCTAD must resist the global hegemony of the neo-liberal
paradigm and legitimise the creation of development policies based upon national and local diversities and democratic rights.
2 FINANCIAL FLOWS AND INVESTMENT
The attraction of foreign investment through the creation of
'conducive conditions' are presumed - including by UNCTAD - to be the essential pre-condition for economic development worldwide. However,
as African countries are encouraged to compete with each other for
such foreign investment they aggravate their divisions and their dependence upon, and exploitation by, profit-seeking foreign inves
tors.
Our experience of foreign investment in Africa is that it is
minuscule in scale, concentrated in the extractive sectors, and while it has limited positive linkages into our economies it has many nega
tive economic, social and environmental effects. The purported
necessity to attract foreign investment is utilised by financial institutions and foreign governments as an instrument to impose their p
olicies upon our governments. In the same way debt obligations are
deliberately maintained by creditors - particularly the Bretton Woods Institutions - on account of the policy leverage it gives them
over governments and countries under debt management programmes.
In this context we make the following key recommendations:
2.1 AFRICAN GOVERNMENTS must resist such dependence upon foreign
investment by mobilising all possible internal financial sources and development resources, including community, cooperative, and nati
onal public and private enterprise. Furthermore, governments must
play direct social and economic development roles on more democratic, participatory and accountable bases than hitherto.
2.2 AFRICAN GOVERNMENTS should have recourse to Official Development
Assistance (ODA) while they work towards mobilising alternative resources. Such ODA should be allocated through transparent consul
tative processes and utilised in appropriate and accountable ways.
2.3 AFRICAN COUNTRIES must insist on the cancellation of external
debts that cannot be repaid in order to enable the mobilisation of internal resources for investment. Any further external borrowing
must be subject to clearly defined development aims and transparent
democratic consultations and controls.
2.4 UNCTAD should conduct objective analyses of, and monitor, the
operations of transnational corporations (TNCs) around the world, especially their effects on local communities, national economies a
nd the environment. The UNCTAD investment division should operate
within the perspective of the former UNCTC, instead of seeing its role as servicing the interests of TNCs.
2.5 UNCTAD should continue its work on monitoring the nature and
effects of the astronomical and volatile speculative international financial flows promoted by financial deregulation and liberalisati
on. It should produce effective proposals for regulatory controls
upon such dangerous financial forces.
3 TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT ISSUES
The new multilateral rules-based trade regime that emerged out of the
Uruguay Round of GATT has removed theoretically the unilateralist threats and pressures by strong countries that have long featur
ed in international trade relations. However, neither it its
creation, nor in its content and application is the new world trade regime, under the World Trade Organisation (WTO), an equitable or impa
rtial system.
UNCTAD and other international agencies are already calculating that,
of the hundreds of billions of dollars of increased trade that is anticipated as a result of the more open trade system, Africa w
ill actually lose a further US$2.5-3bn in the immediate future.
Although these are described as mere 'transitional costs', trade liberalisation has had profoundly damaging effects upon African countr
ies, particularly in the area of de-industrialisation. We see the new
trade rules as a device to give legal force on the international plane to the trade liberalisation programmes already being impos
ed within the countries of Africa.
In this context we make the following key proposals:
3.1 AFRICAN GOVERNMENTS must adopt joint negotiating positions in the
forthcoming meeting of the WTO in Singapore at the end of this year in order to expose and oppose the limitations that Trade Rela
ted Investment Measures (TRIMs) will impose upon national investment
strategies. They must also resist the inclusion within the WTO of the proposed Multilateral Investment Agreement (MIA). This would
remove any governmental regulatory controls, open up African
countries to foreign investors completely, and destroy local enterprises and farms.
3.2 AFRICAN GOVERNMENTS must similarly oppose the General Agreement
on Trade in Services (GATS) which is forcing countries to open up their service sectors to transnational corporations. At the same
time, Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) are
imposing further financial and legal restrictions on access to technology, with the danger of the further appropriation by private enterp
rise of the world's resources and human knowledge.
3.3. While powerful governments are creating conditions for the rapid
opening up of the markets of developing countries, AFRICAN GOVERNMENTS must struggle together for the right to formulate and util
ise appropriate trade and development strategies for their countries.
This includes targeted and transitional tariff policies and other instruments in the interests of their economies and peoples.
3.4 AFRICAN GOVERNMENTS must resist trade arrangements which result
in the continent being used as a dumping ground for dirty industries and hazardous materials. They must resist the over - exploitat
ion of natural resources for trade and debt-related payments. The
imposition of disguised trade-related protectionist environmental standards act as a further non-tariff barrier to the continent's ex
ports.
3.5 UNCTAD must provide analyses, information and technical support
to LDCs in all future trade and other international economic negotiations to ensure that the subordination and sidelining of their
interests and needs, that characterised the Uruguay Round, does not
happen again.
3.6 UNCTAD must monitor independently the world trade system to
counter the bias against the LDCs and to ensure that the WTO does not become yet another international institution, like the IMF and th
e World Bank, utilised by the most powerful industrialised countries
in the service of their own interests.
4 REGIONAL ECONOMIC INTEGRATION
Harmonisation, coordination and cooperation in technical, economic,
environmental, social and political spheres is essential in an increasingly integrated and interdependent world. Such cooperation i
s particularly important for African countries. It is the essential
basis for them to combine their resources and form larger markets, and achieve economies of scale in investment and production. Th
is would enable them to create appropriate forms of self-sustaining
development, as well as participate more effectively - to the degree and in the directions that they judge necessary - in a highly
competitive world economy.
UNCTAD acknowledges the importance of regional integration for LDCs,
but there are contradictory trends and conflicting strategies in this sphere of international relations, as in others. In Africa w
e see our governments paying mere lip service to the aims of regional
and continental integration. While signing formal cooperation and integration agreements they continue to have recourse to unilat
eral rather than multilateral strategies and pursue policies that
create competition rather than cooperation between potential development partners.
In this context we make the following key proposals:
4.1 AFRICAN GOVERNMENTS must resist the impetus toward 'solo'
integration into a hostile global economy that is being promoted by SAPs and other unilateral liberalisation programmes.
4.2 AFRICAN GOVERNMENTS must enter into serious multilateral
negotiations with fellow members of formal regional agreements and turn these into real processes of cooperation and integration; while at
the same time recognising and supporting multifaceted and informal
processes of cross-border trade and other forms of bottom-up cooperation and integration.
4.3 AFRICAN GOVERNMENTS must make the entire process of regional
cooperation and integration more transparent and democratic. It is only on the basis of direct popular participation, and as a people-
driven process, that regional integration will be real, sustainable
and secure, and where the rich diversity of peoples' cultures will be respected and built upon.
4.4 UNCTAD must support regional integration amongst LDCs by all
means, including the defence, extension and utilisation of the 'special and differential' provisions inserted into the Uruguay Round a
s a gesture towards the particular difficulties of LDCs. Fragile as
these concessions are, the allowances for negotiated multilateral preferential and free trade agreements amongst LDCs must be uphel
d and implemented.
4.5 At the same time, UNCTAD also has a potentially important role to
play in monitoring international trade patterns and trade agreements - particularly the latest strategies being utilised by the p
owerful blocs of industrialised countries to coopt or integrate
existing or potential regional groupings in the rest of the world into their respective free trade areas. These competitive struggles a
re reminiscent of the 19th century scramble to carve up the world
into competing 'spheres of influence' and colonial empires.
5 THE ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANISATIONS.
We must develop our own capacities to analyse and understand the
implications of globalisation and liberalisation. In this respect, NGOs must prioritise capacity building, as well as lobbying governm
ents and international agencies, such as UNCTAD, toward the creation
of an enabling environment for this.
It is evident that we African NGOs could do more advocacy and
lobbying among civil society and towards our governments if we have information and effective analyses. In this context we are convinced
that it is essential for NGOs, popular civil society organisations,
academics, labour, religious and other democratic social movements to be partners in development endeavours at all levels - policy-
making, negotiations, agreement monitoring and so on.
Therefore we recommend that:
5.1 NGOs demand from our governments, UNCTAD and other international
organisations full information and participation in the decision-making processes on all agreements and processes relating to ques
tions of international trade and development.
5.2 NGOs utilise such sources, together with our own independent
research and experiences, to develop effective input into national, regional, and international debates and negotiations on these issu
es.
5.3 NGOs draw upon the experiences and understanding of our
communities and constituencies in improving popular understanding of the local and national implications of globalisation and liberalisatio
n. Popular civil society organisations should be able to evaluate and
measure economic growth and development on the basis of peoples' indicators.
5.4 NGOs, as organised participants in the struggles for democracy
and development in our countries, must link into national, regional and continental networks to ensure the most effective sharing of
experiences and information, with coordinated campaigns and
programmes of action.
5.5 NGOs must create effective and mutually supportive alliances with
counterpart organisations and networks in other countries of the South and the North on the basis of our shared problems, our con
cern for our planet and our common humanity.
------ Forwarded message ends here ------
Patrick Bond
51 Somerset Road National Institute for Economic Policy
Kensington 2094 * Johannesburg P.O. Box 32848 * Braamfontein 2017
Phone: 2711-614-8088 Phone: 2711-403-3009 * Fax: 2711-339-6395
E-mails: PBOND@WN.APC.ORG and PATRICK@NIEP.ORG.ZA