Expo Zaragoza 2008 :: News

Intense debate on “Good intentions in Africa” in the Agora

The neo-liberal solutions proposed by a documentary served as a backdrop to discuss the opportunities for Africa

On 23 July, the Agora was a meeting point for experts from different areas. At the debating table were Ricardo Martínez (Africa House), Bru Rovira (La Vanguardia), Alec Van Gelder (an economist at the Catholic University of Leuven) and Marc Niñerola (Intermon Oxfam).

“The good intentions” by Xavier Sala i Marti was the documentary that served as the preamble to the debate. This work questioned the effectiveness of international aid in Africa and, from a neo-liberal perspective, pushed for free trade and the creation of companies as the big solution to the problem of hunger in Africa. The thesis behind this audio-visual presentation starts from the principal that the regions that receive the most aid are those that grow the least. Xavier Sala summarised the proposals for this continent in three concepts: “promote trade, investment and the creation of companies”.

“Africa does not need Coca Cola, it needs water so its children do not die of starvation” – said Ricardo Martínez from Africa House without mincing words. This specialist explained that Africa has a history of slavery, colonisation and now “we are failing in the fight against poverty”. However, this expert explained the paradox that “really Africa is a net exporter of wealth” and he added that there can be no changes in this continent while the exported riches fall below the amount invested. Faced with the argument about corruption in the African administrations, he was cutting: “There is no corruption if nobody wishes to be corrupted”.

For his part, Alec Van Gelder showed himself to be more moderate and commented that one of the problems was that of mentality. He said that “ideas about how to help have changed little since the 50s” and added: “We must concentrate on the results and not on good intentions”. Van Gelder strongly defended the ability of the Africans to do well for themselves. This expert believes that we must let these people act of their own free will and with the right degree of international interference as “the impact of international aid is minimal, [thus] it is more important that they learn to help themselves”. The first step would be to eliminate the so-called “demographic deficit” and the next to eliminate all the obstacles that limit their business activity. He gave Ethiopia as an example: he explained that following the starvation of the 80s, the level of aid was so great that agriculture dropped by 75%.

Bru Rovira, a journalist for La Vanguardia, concentrated his intervention in one particular area. He said that before deciding how to help, the “ethical imperative” must be resolved. The journalist explained about the lack of morals when establishing relations with Africa and argued that an ethic must exist externally to the decisions of the markets – “it is very serious if food and energy are in the commodities market” and added: “the path needs the recovering of the political and ethical space”.

However, Intermon Oxfam said that this ethical problem needs to be coupled with the creation of strong, stable democratic states. Their representative in the Agora, Marc Niñerola, explained that it was also necessary to create a citizenship with its own identity in the African countries. He put forth the question of whether there had ever been help for cooperation in Africa; he stated that the budget in the UN for these matters was the equivalent of that for the maintenance of the New York police force.