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Newsroom & speeches
36/06
22 May 2006
Let me start by saying what a privilege it is to be here this morning in Abuja at this conference.
I am here today not just to talk, but to listen. To hear your ideas, and take your advice. And let me begin by saying what I have already learned from you and the people I have met in the countries of Africa I have had the fortune to visit. Everywhere I have travelled I have seen not only the potential and promise of Africa - but I sense a new desire for this to be unleashed with the empowerment of the people and communities and countries of Africa.
Last year Africa enjoyed its third consecutive year of growth over 5 per cent.
And across Africa and here again today I have seen the inspirational entrepreneurial spirit of this continent.
But while optimistic, I am - like you - realistic about the challenge you face. Over the last two decades the number of people living in poverty in Africa has doubled; Africa's share of world trade has more than halved. While half the time other developing countries - principally in Asia - have seen their share of world trade increase by a third.
I see a vision of Africa enabled with the power to realise and fulfil your countries' potential and to make the most of your people's talents and to be the best they can be.
A political empowerment that is being led by the African Union, with the principles of democracy, universal human rights and good governance enshrined in its constitution.
An economic and social empowerment that is built on your idea of community - ubuntu - taking care of each other - and can be achieved through the rights and opportunities of the Millennium Development Goals, by 2015 the right of every child and mother to have decent health, the right of each and every individual to make the most of their talents.
I am inspired in the task by the words of President Mandela who has told us even at 86, even after the single most important act here of the last century - the ending of apartheid, his long walk is not yet over.
He tells us that having achieved political freedom he realises he has climbed only one mountain. And the mountain of economic and social freedom has yet to be climbed.
“We have not taken the final step of our journey”, he said. “But the first step on a longer and even more difficult road. For to be free is not merely to cast off ones chains but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”
And last month in Maputo he came out of retirement to say that in the empowerment of people no goal is more important than achieving what is perhaps the most important right of all – the right of every child to go to school.
And promises made to the world's poorest children have a special status and should never be broken.
And because this will only be achieved by partnership between rich and poor, I know that at the heart of this empowerment is nothing less than a global new deal between developed and developing countries as bold and as farsighted as the Marshall Plan of the 1940s.
A covenant for this generation and next founded not on the old colonialism of the past or the post-colonial dependency, but a covenant that is a partnership of equals between poor countries and rich countries.
A covenant which is rooted not just in shared interests but in shared values, the essential belief in the words of the UN Declaration of Human Rights, that "all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights."
And a covenant grounded in responsibilities that it is to the benefit of all to accept - rich countries and poor countries recognising that they have mutual obligations and indeed responsibilities to each other.
And let me say – in setting its objective as "from commitment to action in Africa" - I believe this conference is both a symbol of this partnership and a timely affirmation of it.
The countries here today taking responsibility with plans for your own economic development – and for our part, rich countries must meet our responsibility to help finance these plans.
Last year - 2005 - at the Gleneagles Summit in Scotland, which it was Britain's honour to host as G8 President, the rich world made historic promises on reducing debt for the world's poorest countries.
We have a duty to keep our promises. And last month following the earlier IMF deal, the World Bank agreed their write off – a total write off of multilateral and bilateral debt of $170 billion in total. And we Britain are not satisfied: we will fight for debt relief for all 67 poor countries, and as an affirmation of our faith in this Britain will unilaterally offer to service 10 per cent, our share of debt relief to all of the poorest countries – not just HIPCs - who make debt relief the basis of poverty reduction.
And having last year launched the pilot international finance facility for immunisation, I believe we should now extend this model to all health care and education – enabling us to invest long term in a stable and predictable way.
So now this year the time has come to do even more to keep our promises on aid and trade, and doing so ensure that 2005 is remembered as not the end of something, but the start of a long term journey that empowers developing countries – as the foundation for long term prosperity and sustained growth.
At the heart of this commitment to the future is empowering people and investing in their individual potential.
This is why the Millennium Development Goal that by 2015 every one of the world's children are able to go to school - because they have a school to go - is perhaps the most important ambition of all.
Take Asia's experience. In 1960 South Korea was as poor as the worst-off parts of Africa, but is now as rich as parts of Europe; and is an economy built on exports: with less than 1 per cent of the world's population, today it has almost 3 per cent of its exports.
And an underlying driver of this is its commitment to investing in both its infrastructure and its people. In 1945 South Korean literacy was 22 per cent; thirty years later it was 93 per cent - reaching 100 per cent literacy well before other developing countries, and today it still spends more on education than virtually any other nation.
I know you agree with me that it is one of the world's greatest scandals that even today 100 million children do not go to school – most girls, most in Africa.
That is why - at the invitation of President Guebuza, with Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Trevor Manual and I, President Mandela and Graca Machel launched a new 'education for all' initiative in Mozambique last month: the demand that the promise of free education must be kept, school by school, class by class and child by child.
You know that education puts opportunity directly into people's hands and is not just the very best anti-poverty strategy, but also the very best economic development programme.
And you know, and agree, the benefits are not just for children, but families, communities and whole countries. It improves job chances and prosperity: for every additional year of a child's education, in the poorest countries, estimated average earnings increase by 11 per cent. And it promotes health and prevents disease: for each additional year of a mother's education, childhood mortality is reduced by 8 per cent.
Put simply primary education for every child is the most effective investment the world could ever make.
And for $10 billion a year we can meet that goal.
You feel most passionately about the sheer waste of potential when you meet children excluded from chances we take for granted. In Britain pupils think nothing of enjoying free education. In Africa it is a right still being fought for.
Think of the whole of human civilisation as the great progress made by a few - and the utterly unfair waste of the talents and potentials of millions. Think of the great music never composed; the great art never drawn, the great science never discovered; and think of the great talent never realized, the marvellous ability never unlocked, the wonderful potential never fulfilled.
And think what this generation can finally achieve: the first generation where instead of unlocking only some of the potential of some of our children, educational opportunity becomes such that we unlock all the potential of all our children.
The global campaign for education, supported by Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, has set as its objective: quality free education as everyone's right.
In supporting the campaign, speaking with Nelson Mandela, Graca Machel has said: "millions of parents, teachers and children around the world are calling on their governments to provide free, good quality, basic education for all the world's children. We add our voice to their call."
And we see from our own eyes every day the gaping sorrows of the left out millions, and the legitimate demand of millions that they have the chance to realise their talents.
Indeed one of my most vivid memories of my visit to Africa earlier last year was the children in Kibera outside Nairobi in Kenya chanting the slogan demanding 'free education'.
I will never forget on my last visit to Mozambique the scores of mothers working in a sugar factory, waving their £5 weekly pay cheques – and demanding to know how they could ever afford, no matter how hard they worked, to pay for their children's education.
And I met a 12 year old girl in a hut in a Tanzanian village. Her brother was suffering from HIV/AIDS and she told me that to help him her ambition was to be a doctor. But i knew there and then that this impoverished girl, no matter how determined she was, could not even enjoy a secondary school education far less pay for a medical education.
So I believe we must not only fight for the right of every child to go to school, but recognise the importance of higher education and skills and build long term prosperity and growth.
When the fight for free education has been won, the faith in it is impressive.
When Kenya made education free 1 million children turned up from nowhere to enrol for schooling. One million children who could not afford education one day started to grow develop and flourish at school the next day. When Uganda made education free, numbers increased from 3 million to over 5 million and the gender gap was all but eliminated. And when in Malawi education was made free, enrolments increased by 50 per cent to 3 million.
But still the World Bank estimates 77 out of 94 poor countries still charge some type of fees for primary education.
And this is why I am privileged to be here today to see so many countries - some committing for the first time, some reaffirming the commitment you have already made - to 10 year plans that show step by step your route to meeting the millennium development goal to provide free education to every child.
But I know - and this is the message you rightly tell me today when you say to me you do not want to be disappointed again by setting your aspirations high – you can only put in place ambitious 10 year plans, if you have the certainty of finance to achieve them.
And not with the finance of the past that was too often halting and sporadic, but aid which is stable, predictable and guaranteed over the long term.
And greater predictability must also be matched by greater flexibility from the international financial institutions: taking into account the pledges from donors so as to give you the fiscal space, without constraints on spending ceilings, to achieve the priorities set out in your own education plans.
So let me say this: Britain will play our part in securing that finance by demanding that rich countries meet our responsibility and keep our promises on increased aid.
This is why in Mozambique last month Hilary Benn and I set out Britain's pledge: we will enter into 10 year agreements with you to finance your 10 year education plans - locking in the long-term commitment vital to delivering high quality education for all.
In total Britain will commit at least $15 billion over the next ten years – four times as much as the $3.5 billion of the previous ten years.
And we now call on others to follow.
In St Petersburg in June, I will press other G8 Finance Ministers to commit to their share. Starting with closing the immediate $400 million funding gap in the World Bank's Fast Track Initiative.
At the G8 Heads of Government summit the month after, President Putin has agreed to put education for all the world's children on the agenda.
On your part you need to demonstrate immediately that you have the plans in place that are ambitious, showing step by step over 10 years, your route to providing education for every child and the appropriate skills for your economy ---- plans that cover 10 years because donors can only provide long-term pledges against long-term plans.
I know some of you already have these plans in place - ambitious plans that often have had to be scaled back to modest aspirations because of concerns about the availability of finance. We are not calling for you to start again. But we are asking for you reaffirm your ambition.
And to those of you who do not have 10 year plans we offer our support - both financial and technical - to help you prepare them.
And my aim is that at the annual meetings in Singapore in September – with developing countries setting out the 10 year plans you are committing to today – developed countries hold to their promises and commit to financing them.
And at every opportunity in the months and years that follow with you meeting your responsibilities, we will hold to account rich countries in meeting theirs.
A global cause around which the world can unite that affirms our dignity as human beings - that no matter your birth or background, every child in every part of the world should have the chance to realise their potential, to bridge the gap between what they are and what they have it in themselves to become, and so to enrich the world.
And it is a concrete example of what the global new deal between rich and poor countries that I propose can mean in reality.
But I am also realistic about the very many challenges you face.
It is true that education can unlock economic development as well as social justice; it is also true that the good education can do can be undone by the failure to open the doors to economic development.
And if you think back 40 years ago US President John F Kennedy said that the purpose of the 1960s trade round was, and I quote from him, the opportunity to help developing countries like Japan. And so it did as Japan grew to become a mighty economic power.
We must now do the same for today's developing countries.
So I am as disappointed as you are at the failure in Hong Kong last December to reach agreements on trade; and in missing the April 30 deadline, despite our negotiators best efforts, on the frustrating lack of progress since.
Time is running out to secure an ambitious deal in this trade round.
We must do everything in our power to resist a retreat into protectionism.
So it is urgent that heads of government stand ready to break the deadlock, using all the resources of leadership and statesmanship. Finance Ministers have a role to play at the G8 meeting in St Petersburg and Heads of State when they meet soon after in Russia. And the key that will unlock this door is India and Brazil’s willingness to move forward, and America and Europe offering progress by reducing protectionism in agriculture.
Agricultural protectionism in Europe and America means $300 billion a year in subsidies to shelter the richest parts of the world that dwarfs the $50 billion spent on aid for the poorest.
The Commission for Africa said the “barriers and subsidies [of rich country protectionism] are absolutely unacceptable; they are politically antiquated, economically illiterate, environmentally destructive, and ethically indefensible. They must go.”
So when Europe comes to review its budget and its agricultural policies - as within the next two years it has committed to do - the essential element of both must be a radical reform of the Common Agricultural Policy that sets a timetable to end all forms of agricultural protectionism.
And because we know even with fair access it will take time for poor countries to compete globally and that trade reforms must fit with a country's own development programs, let me say that instead of forced liberalisation, poor countries must be allowed the flexibility to decide, plan and sequence their own trade reforms that they will commit to and make themselves.
But - as I have heard from every African President, Prime Minister, Finance Minister and Trade Minister I have met - although trade justice matters so too does making sure developing countries have the additional resources they need to take advantage of trading and investment opportunities – and to prevent their most vulnerable people from falling further into poverty as they become integrated into the global economy.
It is not enough to say 'you're on your own, simply compete'. We have to say 'we will help you build the capacity you need to trade'. Not just opening the door but helping you gain the strength to cross the threshold.
Investment in infrastructure is key. The World Bank estimates that for traders in 24 of the world's poorest countries there is neither the infrastructure nor the communications to compete successfully or fairly. So while tariff costs are often highlighted, it is actually transport costs that often constitute a bigger burden of the cost of exporting: with 40 per cent of Africans living in landlocked countries, costs for Africans transporting goods from village to town to port are twice those for Asians. Even today for 12 African countries less than 10 per cent of their roads are paved. And it takes four times as long to import and export from sub Saharan Africa than from developed countries.
Yet the possibility is there when the investment is there: while land line telephone coverage in Africa is the lowest in the world, Africa is the world's fastest growing continent for mobile phones - 65 per cent in one year - opening up communications to millions previously denied it.
So with the Commission for Africa estimating a need for infrastructure investment of $10 billion immediately and $20 billion in the years to come, Britain will contribute finance for aid for trade: to help with both the additional resources required to build physical infrastructure - road, rail, power, telecommunications; and, by trebling our support to £100 million a year by 2010, to help build the institutions and people needed to support trade - from customs and standards agencies to trade negotiators.
So I support the trade settlement that matches trade opening with a substantial aid for trade fund to assist infrastructure in developing countries.
And at its very core this strategy for economic empowerment demands that all of us, rich and poor countries alike, be fully transparent in our dealings, be truly accountable, show where the money goes: the foundation of the good governance essential for reducing poverty.
So we must all open our books, be open to scrutiny, be open and above board – and above suspicion.
There must be no truck with the old secrecy, no support for the old obscuring of financial truths, no tolerance of the old corruption.
And this is not just a concern for taxpayers in rich countries, for corruption fundamentally affects the poorest and most vulnerable people in poor countries.
Let me take the example of natural resources, which for many developing countries is a route to future prosperity.
Yet in the past, a lack of transparency in what companies pay governments, and what governments receive from those companies, has led to what has become known as the 'resource curse' of corruption and conflict.
The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative - launched by Tony Blair three years ago, and now endorsed by 20 countries - seeks to provide that missing transparency and accountability to ensure that revenues are spent on things which matter to the people, such as schools for their children and healthcare when they're sick.
Today I want to suggest we build on this success:
So I am delighted that very soon, Hilary Benn, will publish Britain's proposals on the expansion of EITI and taking forward this important agenda.
My message is: it is through openness and good governance at all levels of society, right down to the grass roots, that people will be empowered, change take root and development sustained.
But as I have argued with an empowered people, empowered communities and empowered countries - education for all need not just be a slogan but a reality, health care for all not just be a demand but a right, economic development a job for all not just a distant hope but a realisable achievement.
The original Marshall Plan was always about more than just financial aid. It was about a shared commitment to tackling the economic and social challenges of their time.
As Marshall's Treasury Secretary argued then: prosperity like peace was indivisible, that it could not be achieved in one country at the expense of others but had to be spread throughout the world and that prosperity to be sustained had to be shared.
And so let us from this conference set out our shared vision of tackling the economic and social challenges of our time.
And as we look ahead, the words of Nelson Mandela to world leaders are again our inspiration: “do not look the other way; do not hesitate. Recognise that the world is hungry for action, not words. Act with courage and vision.”
So we need both vision and action.
In 2005 we set our vision and made our commitments. Now in 2006 we must act and deliver on them.
Action without vision is directionless travel that leads us nowhere,
Vision without action is living in an ivory tower of abstractions,
But vision and action together can change the world.
Thank you.
