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■■■TCSF English Newsletter [extra] ■■■　

Africa Alert News Vol.5 (digest version)
◆ 2006.October ◆

Viva! Africa: People’s Network across the Continents
Published by TICAD Civil Society Forum (TCSF)
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Dear colleagues,
Our English newsletter contains information about TCSF’s activities
and Japanese aid supports toward Africa. This time, we would like to
deliver you an English digest version of "Africa Alert News Vol.5" which
was issued by the alert working group in July in Japanese. We hope to
strengthen our network with you by sharing information about our
activities.
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　
Thank you.
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■　Africa Alert
1. Democratic Republic of the Congo ? Turmoil over the Election
■　Africa CSO Alert
2. The Realities and Issues of the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative
(MDRI)
3. Aftermath of Kenya’s Food Crisis
■　Japanese Aid Alert
4. Report on the International Symposium “Can Japan’s ODA Save the
World’s Poor?

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【Africa Alert】
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◆1. Democratic Republic of the Congo -- Turmoil over the Election

Starting from 30th of July, the first “democratic” presidential and
parliamentary elections will be carried out in the Democratic Republic
of Congo (hereafter “Congo”). Since it gained independence from
Belgium in 1960, Congo has been experiencing political insecurity, such
as oppression under an authoritarian system and civil wars.

The election was prepared under the interim government established
after the comprehensive peace agreement to end the civil war was signed
in 2002.

The success of the election (that is, a peaceful election) will be a
touchstone for Congo’s political development by achieving internal
peace and national reconciliation. However, tension is still inevitable
with a continuous state of turmoil over the election process.

The biggest issue is that UDPS (Union pour la democratie et
le progres social), the major opposition party, and its leader, Etienne
Tshisekedi, might boycott the election. UDPS members have been
demanding the postponement of the election, claiming that basic
conditions for the election such as transparency have not been met. And
as their claim was not accepted, they have declared to boycott the
election.

　The electoral committee has not accepted UDPS’s demands, such as
conducting another round of voter registration, as doing so would incur
extra costs as well as delay the election until 2007.　

Amid this turmoil over the election process, MONUC (United Nations
Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo) has taken charge
of transporting materials and staff to 53,000 polling stations; already
17,000 staff have been dispatched for peacekeeping.

In addition to MONUC, the EU has also dispatched its forces and donors
have poured in approximately US$ 500 million overall. As we can see,
this election has attracted global support and attention. The Japanese
government will also dispatch an election-monitoring team.

　While the election attracts global attention, the citizens,
particularly in rural areas, do not seem very hopeful. Some of them do
not have access to important information regarding the election, and
some have already given up on their hopes, saying, “Our daily lives
will not dramatically improve just because of the election”.

　Speculation about the success of the first election jn Congo still
remains, as not enough confidence has been built among the actors in the
process nor has uncertainty lifted over whether all the actors can
accept the results of the election.

Even if the election was successful, the new government will face a
huge expectation held by the citizen for a bright future. This is the
election of a new era; however, many problems remain in order
to achieve political stability and development.

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【Africa CSO Alert】
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◆2. The Realities and Issues of the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative
(MDRI)

Criticism has been raised by the CSOs working toward debt writeoff
as part of the MDRI (Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative), decided
during the G8 summit held in Gleneagles.

This writeoff targets the debts owed to IMF, IDA and AfDF, an amount
totaling an estimated US$ 5.5 billion, including future debts. In
selecting the target countries, Mauritania was excluded after additional
conditions were added. Due to the different cut-off dates among IMF, IDA
and AfDF, the debt-reduction rate remains 30% in qualified Central
and South American nations, rises up to 70-80% in Uganda and Ghana,
and remains 30% in Mali and Mozambique. The reduction of debts to IDA
and AfDF will be reflected by deducting the debt amount from future aid.

It has been reported that the extra funds arising from debt reduction
have been used in medical and educational sectors. Although the MDRI was
planned as a part of achieving MDGs, approximately 10 times the current
debt-reduction effort will be needed to meet them.

Finally, they must consider this as a fundamental structural problem
that is the collective responsibility of lenders, which leads to the
need for a global structure that weighs the debts of a nation as well as
how much parliament and civil societies can be involved in obtaining
development funds.

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◆3. Aftermath of Kenya’s Food Crisis

Rain has returned to areas affected by the draught in Kenya, and
the severe water shortage has been alleviated compared to the beginning
of this year. However, the food shortage remains and people still rely
heavily on food provided by local and international donors such as
Action Aid, as the draught killed the cattle essential for the survival
of communities.

　In order to respond to the current humanitarian crisis, various
donors, including the Kenyan government, international agencies, NGOs
and local governments, are working for the recovery of affected
areas and people; for example, they now work in the northeastern
region, helping children under the age of five and pregnant women.
Action Aid is providing food to internally-dislocated families, pregnant
women and orphanages, as well as supplying water-tanks and building
materials for houses.

Despite these efforts, the need for aid continues to grow due to food
shortages, migration toward the cities, and the risk of drug abuse by
youths who lost their jobs during the draught. Because of the large
scale of this draught and the number of people affected, funds are
needed continuously and there will be a need for other interventions,
for example, support for families to purchase cattle, the introduction
of livestock less vulnerable to draught such as goats and camels, and
the implementation of irrigation projects.

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【Japanese Aid Alert】
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◆4. Report on the International Symposium “Can Japan’s ODA Save the
World’s Poor?

　On the 27th of May, TCSF and five other NGOs co-hosted an
international symposium called “Can Japan’s ODA Save the World’s Poor?”
At the symposium, discussions were held in regard to how much Japan’s
ODA has contributed and what can be done to maximize its contribution to
poverty reduction. The main points made during the discussions are as
follows.

First, the current ODA reform lacks the ability to contribute to
eradicating
the world’s poverty. It was also pointed that Japan has played a role
in setting Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Paris Declaration
on Aid Harmonization.　

Japanese ODA must give more emphasis to social and environmental
issues, and Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs should give more
autonomy to JICA in grant assistance. The importance of collective
efforts by donors was also confirmed, as was the need for stronger
accountability and greater ownership by recipient countries.

Second, comments were made in regard to development and poverty
eradication in various nations as well as to relationships with civil
society.

In the UK, with the increasing and untying of funds, public awareness
has grown and therefore the need for partnership among public and
private sectors and civil society has been recognized.

France strongly committed to achieving MDGs, and great emphasis has been
placed on results, ownership, harmonization of aid as well as Africa’s
development.

In the Netherlands, they concluded that good governance is indispensable
to increasing aid effectiveness and pointed out the importance of the
role civil society plays in the South in achieving good governance.

　Third, it was discussed that the poor were usually treated as “the
object to be helped” but instead should be the central players,
and the poor must be able to participate in decision-making and
evaluation of ownership issues.

　Finally, there were comments regarding the indispensability of
strengthening civil society’s capacity, the need for monitoring in
developing countries to improve aid effectiveness, and the
partnership NGOs and governments should have instead of an adversarial
relationship.

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◆TCSF operates an English mailing list for facilitating communication
between TCSF and African CSOs and among African CSOs. If your address
is not on the list and wish to join, please contact TCSF
news@ticad-csf.net
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http://ticad-csf.net/eng/e-index.htm
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