It's the quality of aid, not just the quantity, that is crucial

from Asahi

BY TARO KARASAKI,

Irungu Houghton, pan-African director for Oxfam International, the Britain-based group set up to fight poverty, says the quality of aid, not just the amount, should be a key factor in pledges of assistance to Africa. Oxfam Japan has been granted observer status to attend TICAD IV. Excerpts from a recent interview with The Asahi Shimbun follow:

Q: What would you like to see achieved at the conference?

A: TICAD is very established as a process to discuss development issues.

Many African citizens expect the decisions that come out of it are going to lead to tangible results in poverty reduction in Africa. So there is an expectation that important decisions will be made.

TICAD IV is happening in a context where, according to Oxfam research, there is a public mandate for Japan to make some bold decisions with regard to Africa. According to an Oxfam survey of 1,000 Japanese citizens, more than 84 percent said that Japan should keep its promise to reduce poverty in developing countries.

The conference is also happening in a context where Japan's place among OECD countries has dropped from being the third-largest contributor to fifth-largest, and that has led to a 30-percent decrease in assistance.

So while it is clear that there is a public mandate for bold action on the part of Japan, the experience of the past year shows that Japan is playing a small role.

Q: Tokyo plans to make a number of key pledges during the conference, including a doubling of aid and direct investment by the private sector by 2012. How do you evaluate this?

A: We aren't only concerned about quantity, but also the quality of aid.

Japan will pledge several forms of assistance, including a plan to support climate change work in developing countries, using $10 billion over the next five years. Oxfam's position is that this is a welcome pledge, but pledges by themselves don't change the lives of people.

There needs to be an emphasis on detail. Will this be in the form of loans or grants? If these are loans, then I think this is probably setting up Africa to return to the level of indebtedness that it faced at the beginning of the 2000s.

Q: The conference is expected to adopt a declaration that emphasizes economic growth, human security and environmental issues. How do you view this?

A: The main concern is that there is not enough reference in the draft document to existing commitments (to support) achieving universal access to medical treatment.

In terms of health, currently the level of assistance is at $14 billion. What is needed is $50 billion, so that leaves a variance of $36 billion.

And we haven't seen a very strong commitment to achieving Millennium Development Goals. The starting point for the declaration has to be reversing the fact that Africa is not meeting any of the MDGs in any substantive way.

This leads us not to be very optimistic about the TICAD process unless one sees a rewording of the document. If (the leaders) cannot change the declaration, then the action plan must be much more specific, by setting numerical targets and also delivery deadlines. That would make the process more reassuring and clearly give the conference a historic perspective.

If not, the average African citizen would be disappointed.

Q: The slogan of TICAD IV is "Toward a Vibrant Africa" and one of the key issues is enhancing economic development. What is your opinion of this?

A: I think it is refreshing to see that the Afro-pessimism of 10 years is disappearing. Africa continues to be on a vibrant search for solutions to its own problems.

If you look at the African continent, over the last five years you can see a reversal of the very poor growth rate. On average, Africa now reports a growth rate of more than 5 percent. Many countries have applied for peer review (by other African nations) on good governance and democracy. We have seen a drastic fall in the number of conflicts. So there is progress in Africa in many ways, not that everything is perfect. Africa is making great steps in terms of trying to change the profile of the continent.

But economic growth is not a precondition for either stability or development progress. I live and work in Kenya, which has recorded in excess of 6 percent GDP growth over the last few years, which is a tremendous turnaround. But that did not stop a breakdown in law and order that started late last year. Up to 300 people died and hundreds of thousands of people were displaced. The distribution of that growth is as important as the growth itself.