Mbeki: West must honour pledges to Africa

Johannesburg - The developed world must honour its commitment to helping Africa weather the global economic crisis, former South African president Thabo Mbeki said on Thursday.

"Past experience confirms that in many instances it is much easier to make commitments to support the African development process than to honour such undertakings," Mbeki said in a speech prepared for delivery at the South African Property Owners Association convention in Durban.

"However, so grave is the current crisis, that Africa, and indeed the developed countries themselves, cannot afford such a betrayal of trust."

The G20 and various financial institutions had committed considerable resources to help Africa to weather the storm, he said.

Thus far, the crisis has had a considerable impact on the continent and on sub-Saharan Africa in particular.

"If anyone among us had any illusions about how the global crisis might affect us, these would surely have been shattered by the GDP figures for the first quarter of 2009 issued by Statistics SA last week," Mbeki said, referring to the announcement that South Africa had entered its first recession in 17 years.

The consequences include a decrease in demand for African exports, a drop in tourism, decreased remittances, a slump in foreign direct investment, a reduction of trade finance and a decrease in tax revenues as economies contracted.

Mbeki added that the financial turmoil also had social and political consequences in Africa including an increase in unemployment and poverty and the threat of social instability which might undermine democratic gains made in the last two decades.

The former president said sub-Saharan Africa needed to understand the problems posed by the crisis, respond to them and position itself to take advantage of the global economic recovery which would eventually take place.

"It follows that the rescue of the African economy must and will involve action by ourselves as Africans, and action by the developed countries," Mbeki said.

Mbeki said the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank had announced a number of interventions to help developing countries and Africa itself should takes steps to respond.

He argued this response should centre on pursuing the political, economic and security goals it set itself in the New Partnership for Africa's Development and on engaging G20 countries and multi-lateral institutions to honour the financial commitments made to them. - Sapa

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