Glad i could be of service
@Coltrane your friend Paul Boateng is very busy giving lovely speeches like below in SA.
British High Commissioner speaks at the Pan African Parliament (25/11/05)
Speech Date: 25/11/05
Speaker: British High Commissioner, The Rt Hon Paul Boateng
Madam President, Distinguished Parliamentarians, fellow members of the diplomatic corps, Ladies and Gentlemen, as the son of an African Parliamentarian and a former Parliamentarian in the UK myself, it is truly an honour to address this assembly today. As our EU/G8 Presidencies, focussing on Africa, come to a conclusion it is for me, a poignant moment. For I have been struck by the absolute conviction held by those of you I have spoken to that this is a Parliament whose time has come and it is in your hands to ensure that this body plays a full part in the future of Africa.
And as we celebrate the moment in history which has seen Liberia elect Africa’s first female President, let me pay tribute to you Madam Speaker and the many African women who represent their countries here. Africa’s women bear the heaviest burden of its poverty but they are also leading the continent in facing its challenges.
Some have called this the Year of Africa. But in fact this is the decade, perhaps the century of Africa. For too long, African progress has been stifled because of conflict, poverty and oppression; what we in Britain see clearly is that Africa is seizing control of its own future. It is the reinvigorated African Union and its institutions, notably the Pan African Parliament that leads the way in this. And the absorption of the CFA’s conclusions into the Sachs Report and the Millennium Summit means that Africa is now top of the world’s agenda. The mood of both Africans and people in G8 countries and across the world has seen a massive rallying of support. In the churches, in the mosques and in the temples, in civil society and in the trade unions, everyone has been drawn together in the belief that this is Africa’s year. We are all citizens of the world and must play a part with Africa: listening, learning, sharing.
The question for us, in europe and the developing world, is how we should respond to this second wind of change spreading across the continent. How can we turn sentiment into strategy, rhetoric into action. We must be fired and inspired by what has to be done in order to reach the MDGs. But we must adopt a self-denying ordinance and stop seeking to impose our own views on Africa. For it will not be in Washington, or Paris, or Beijing, Moscow or even London that Africa’s future will be decided, but right here in Africa itself.
But we have experience to share. We know for example, from the european experience how difficult it is to forge common institutions. This won’t be something we should expect to develop overnight, it has taken europe 50 years to develop a structure which serves the needs of all in our Union. The recent rejection in France and The Netherlands of the draft EU constitution shows that we have a way to go yet. You can learn from our mistakes. Leadership is key – and that must come from you as Africa’s parliamentarians, and from the leaders of the African Union. I pay tribute to President Obasanjo’s inspiring leadership of the Union, I hope that in due course his successors will meet the high standards he has set.
Leadership and unity from you will also be key in keeping up the pressure on the developed world, to deliver on promises made. I hope this body will embrace a prominent role in helping to do that.
2005 / The CFA
I mentioned that this year is the Year of Africa. Why has 2005 been so important in that? I’m pleased that my country has been able to play its part. From the Prime Minister, the Chancellor and their Cabinet colleagues, to the millions of ordinary Britons who rallied around the cause earlier this year to support the 20th anniversary of the Live Aid and the call to “Make Poverty History”. British people want to make a difference. But it is important to recognise that the Commission for Africa, which the PM has been so closely associated with, is particularly notable for the eminent Africans who formed the Commission’s heart and its majority.
The Commission for Africa report is over four hundred pages long. But its message is simple.
To meet the millennium goals you need peace and you need growth.
Peace is a prerequisite for all development. In DRC I saw the consequences of war, but also signs of progress – schools and businesses being built and real signs that a democratic process is taking hold. This is the beginning of a new era for DRC and with the registration of more than 20 million Congolese souls, the signs are that the voice of the people is finally being heard.
For this reason we applaud AU and NEPAD’s work in building truly African mechanisms to address conflict. Since its inception, the AU’s Peace and Security Council has already shown its readiness to grasp and address difficult issues across the Continent. The AU deployment in Darfur has demonstrated Africa’s ability to tackle the sharp end of conflict. It’s work in Burundi, kickstarting the peace process has proved that it can re-build nations and foster democracy, as I saw when I was fortunate enough to represent the UK at the inauguration of President Nkurunziza. We should not overlook the significant role which South Africa’s leaders played in bringing about a peaceful resolution to Burundi’s problems. Development and growth will be needed if peace is to hold there.
The UK has stood with Africa in tackling the trouble in Darfur – contributing Ł32m to help AUMIS succeed in its mission. Through our Africa conflict pool we have spent some Ł450m in conflict prevention and peacekeeping on continental operations in the last 3 years. And we are not alone, the EU, through the African Peace Facility has provided Euros 250 million for peace support operations and capacity building in Africa over the last three years. This fund has played an important part in helping to sustain the AU Mission in Darfur.
I know from my time in Westminster the important role that parliaments play in defining those unwritten rules that are often more powerful than written constitutions. The rules that determine what is acceptable and unacceptable. The rules that can remind us all that the acquisition or continuation of power by force is unacceptable not because it conflicts with any outside rule, but because it is an affront to African principles.
But peace is not enough. You also need growth.
One thing I’ve learnt during my political career is that Governments can’t deliver growth. Not directly. Wealth is created by commercial activity, so what governments must do is deliver the right regulatory environment, both for home grown businesses to flourish, but also to attract foreign investment. We must look to the creation of an African identity, which the PaP must nurture and which we must learn to respect.
Investors in the markets in London and New York are risk averse. They make unfair assumptions – they group countries together – they assume that risk in one place also exists in another simply because they are neighbours. Africa has to have a good reputation and be seen as a place to do business.
This is where the African Peer Review Mechanism is so important. It is a way of challenging those perceptions of risk. It helps demonstrate that a country is worth investing in.
We recognise that it is difficult for any government to subject itself to peer review, and we applaud the twenty three countries that have signed up.
There is a vital role for civil society too, holding governments accountable to the wishes of the people. A healthy civil society is a sign of strength and stability, not of weakness.
But the APRM is only one part of the investment environment. Tony Blair announced last week that the UK would be giving a 30 million dollar boost to the Investment Climate Facility. Shell and Anglo-American have also announced 2.5 million dollars each over five years. So we are now seeking support from other governments and multi-national companies.
It will learn from and build on earlier success stories, for example a successful pilot programme in Entebbe which led to Ugandan entrepreneurs needing just 30 minutes, as opposed to 2 days, to register a business, or in Mozambique, where a customs reform programme which has meant that goods are now cleared through customs up to 40 times faster than before.
So growth needs the right environment. But it also needs market access.
The challenge is clear - can we make trade work for all of us; or do we continue with a system with 2 billion locked out of prosperity. This is a test of our commitment to make globalization work.
Ultimately, agriculture accounts for under 2% of the GDP of rich countries and roughly the same share of employment, while its significance for Africans is paramount.
Think of the Ghanaian coca growers who cannot process their beans for chocolate themselves, because tariffs mean its cheaper to process them in europe – in fact while developing countries produce 90 per cent of the worlds cocoa beans, it is developed countries that produce 90 per cent of the world’s chocolate. And the situation is worse now than when my grandfather, just such a cocoa farmer, had to struggle to send his son to England for education. Nowadays those Ghanaian farmers can only dream of being able to do that. When markets he is dependent on for an income are distorted by decisions and actions taken thousands of miles away, it is clear that the wrongs eminating from unfair trading practices have to be righted in Hong Kong. We have to look at specific measures which will address the needs of the poorest Africans.
The benefits of a successful Round are clear: we know a one per cent increase in Africa's share of world trade would benefit the continent by over $70 billion, three times the aid increase agreed at Gleneagles.
Things have to change.
· doubling investment in infrastructure
· eliminating all forms of export subsidies
· providing strong special and differential treatment, to give them flexibility to make their own development choices
· providing complete market access for LDCs to all rich country markets, as the EU has already offered
· taking strong action on commodities of special importance to poor countries, like cotton and sugar
· simplifying the rules applied to exports from the poorest developing countries.
This an ambitious agenda for Hong Kong, but we must not let the magnitude of the task deter us from attempting it.
Before Gleneagles Chancellor Gordon Brown chaired the G8 finance ministers meetings that agreed the G8 proposal for 100% debt relief (worth potentially up to $55bn for up to 38 Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPCs).
G8 nations, and the european Union have agreed to provide an additional $50bn in aid a year by 2010 (including a doubling of aid to Africa, an extra $25bn a year);
Moving towards universal access to treatment for AIDs by 2010 (ending 6000 new infections every day, treating 6 million who could already benefit from treatment);
To support free, and good, primary education;
It is only through working together as an international community can we hope to make a difference.
Madam President, as I look around this room, I have felt the presence of the great founders and liberators of this continent. I remember as a boy in Accra, lining the route into town from the airport, holding handmade flags from the nations of the OAU. There we saw a parade of limousines carrying the likes of Nyere, Ben Bella, Obote, Senghor. Names of the likes of Kenyatta and closer to this place Oliver Tambo and even Robert Mugabe, both of whom Kwame Nkrumah had given refuge to in Ghana, in honour of the pledge that the Indpendence of Ghana was meaningless unless it was linked to the total liberation of Africa. Think of them and what has happened since. I am conscious as I recall those names of the many missed opportunities as well as the successes. Those freedom fighters were united by a vision – shared a spirit of valour and determination, yet things have not gone as we might have hoped. Things did fall apart but we were able to live through that and one can see that the AU has learnt lessons from the OAU. But we must recognise that we can no longer ignore the new evils of ignorance, corruption and despotism which have replaced colonialism. It requires an equal valour and determination, a clarity of vision and purpose. I sense that spirit is to be found in this chamber. There is no room in Africa for ignorance, despotism and corruption. In the words of that great man of Africa Chief Azikwe:
“we must not allow the mistakes and disappointments of the past to act as a stumbling block to the hopes and achievements of the future… Nor should we encourage the exploitation of the ignorance and poverty of our people in order to satiate the mercenary motives of the more privileged ones”.Those lessons of the past must be linked to the hopes of the future. And that achievement is within our grasp. We must do it together. Britain and the wider world with Africa in partnership.
Let me end with the cry of those times and these.
Forward ever, backwards never! Viva the Pan-African Parliament! Viva!
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Posted 03 March 2007 - 01:05 AM
