TheCourier-2010-15 ( .pdf )

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_59.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_14.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_34.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_56.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_28.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_36.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_26.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_45.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_17.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_61.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_22.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_02.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_31.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_24.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_30.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_20.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_63.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_15.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_43.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_52.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_58.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_53.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_21.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_47.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_18.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_33.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_09.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_49.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_68.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_35.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_40.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_29.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_55.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_64.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_62.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_32.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_pdf.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_27.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_11.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_03.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_13.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_50.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_57.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_10.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_05.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_06.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_44.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_38.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_12.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_46.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_67.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_19.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_65.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_51.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_23.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_54.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_39.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_48.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_41.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_08.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_16.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_07.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_04.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_60.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_37.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_66.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_42.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_01.txt

TheCourier-2010-15_Page_25.txt

THE


N. 15 N.E. JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010


COURIER
THE MAGAZINE OF AFRICA CARIBBEAN PACIFIC & EUROPEAN UNION COOPERATION AND RELATIONS


..w4 j
.f.^ i


--j


illi


IfoTi!


III


Milll


r-l
Y~
-I~ --
--- -~


__- -4


il 11 lu 1ILIII;j l Ill 1








THE

COURIER


Editorial Board
Co-chairs
Sir John Kaputin, Secretary General
Secretariat of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States
www.acp.int

Mr Stefano Manservisi, Director General of DG Development
European Commission
ec.europa.eu/development/

Core staff
Editor-in-chief
Hegel Goutier

Journalists
Marie-Martine Buckens (Deputy Editor-in-chief)
Debra Percival


Editorial Assistant and Production
Okechukwu Romano Umelo

Contributed in this issue
Elisabetta Degli Esposti Merli, Sandra Federici, Tim Graewert, Philippe Lamotte,
Joshua Massarenti, Anne-Marie Mouradian, Andrea Marchesini Reggiani, Detlef Sonnenberg

Project Manager
Gerda Van Biervliet

Artistic Coordination, Graphic Conception
Gregorie Desmons

Public Relations
Andrea Marchesini Reggiani

Distribution
Viva Xpress Logistics www.vxlnet.be

Photo Agency
Reporters www.reporters.be


Cover
Leaving Mindelo. Marie-Martine Buckens
Design by Gregorie Desmons

Back cover
Card game at the Mindelo market. Marie-Martine Buckens


Contact
The Courier ww.
45, Rue de Trves
1040 Brussels
Belgium (EU)
info@acp-eucourierinfo
www.acp eucou rie r.info
Tel +32 2 2345061
Fax :+32 2 2801406

Published every two months in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese

For information on subscription,
Go to our website www.acp-eucourier.info or contact info@acp-eucourier.info

Publisher responsible
Hegel Goutier

Consortium
Gopa-Cartermill Grand Angle Lai-momo



The views expressed are those of the authors and do not represent the official view of the
EC nor of the ACP countries.

The consortium and the editorial staff decline all responsibility for the articles written by
external contributors.


Privileged partners




ENGHOR

Cultural centre promoting artists
from countries in Europe, Afri-
ca, the Caribbean and the Pacific
and cultural exchanges between
communities through performance
arts, music, cinema, to the holding
of conferences. It is a meeting place
for Belgians, immigrants of diverse
origins and European officials.

Espace Senghor
Centre cultural d'Etterbeek
Brussels, Belgium
espace.senghor@chello.be
www.senghor.be


e:4








THE


N. 15 N.E. JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010








URIER


THE MAGAZINE OF AFRICA CARIBBEAN PACIFIC & EUROPEAN UNION COOPERATION AND RELATIONS




Table of contents
THE COURIER, N.15 NEW EDITION (N.E)


PROFILE
Mohamed Ibn Chambas, newly-appointed Secretary
General ofthe ACP Group 2
Andris Piebalgs, new EU Development Commissioner 3
EDITORIAL 5
TO THE POINT
Michle Duvivier Pierre-Louis, Former prime
minister of Haiti: An architect of Haiti's difficult
renaissance 6
ROUND UP 8
DOSSIER
The G20 and developing countries
From a G20 ofthe poor to a G20 ofthe rich 13
In search of a global governance organisation involving
developing countries 14
G20: 5 out of 10 for financial reform; 3 out of 10 for
support to poor nations 15
International Finance Corporation branches out 18
"I believe we should have a G180":
Interview with Luxembourg MEP Charles Goerens 20
INTERACTION
Fiscal reforms in developing countries 21
"Trade talks must reflect a new global consensus 23
on hunger"
Overhaul of EU fisheries agreements in 2012? 24
'Green' Ghanaian timber for Europe 25
Overseas Countries and Territories receive the
emancipation cure 26
EU funds for 13 ACPs to cushion the impact of
the economic crisis 27
Opinion: Newcomers to ACP-EU partnership draw
on 30 years of ties 28
Cultural policy: Operators engage in networking
activities 29
Securing a role for local authorities, the third party 30
CIVIL SOCIETY ON THE MOVE
Greenpeace sets up in Africa 31
ACP civil society adopts networking approach 32


TRADE
Global crisis chips Africa's gem 33
Eastern Caribbean farmers slate "done deal" 35
ZOOM
Gloria Mika, supermodel: Flight ofthe 'Guardian
Angel of Democracy' 36
OUR PLANET
Copenhagen climate summit: Darkness before dawn 88
REPORT
Cape Verde
Cape Verde: A hub connecting three worlds 40
Unique and proud: A nation born ofthe first
globalisation 41
Setting the standard for development 43
Becoming a bridgehead for continental Africa 45
Sound management that got us through the crisis 47
The government is a long way from achieving its
objectives 49
"Djunta-M!" 50
"Saudade" and natural beauty 51
DISCOVERING EUROPE
Plovdiv
Plovdiv: New ventures for Europe's oldest
inhabited city 52
Waiting to be discovered 53
From Dionysus to the damask rose -Plovdiv's riches 55
How to integrate and end discrimination of
the Roma? 57
Bulgaria's development programme on the
launch pad 58
CREATIVITY
A Meeting Place for African Culture 60
A Window on Contemporary Photography:
The 8th Bamako Encounters 61
FOR YOUNG READERS
Haiti in black and white and colour 63


YOUR SAY/CALENDAR





profile


Debra Percival and Hegel Goutier


il 11111(1


I.Ji 11 [:




Profile


Anne-Marie Mouradian
Andris Piebalgs, New EU Development Commissioner
Development police not to be
I I i I I I I II
rimTTnaff
maniplatedby foEmig picg^



























D4`






















-3r


I i-i~~r I I '.1 ,II.,I,,,,,,,,,,,~







editorial


he Courier had to make a last-minute
change to the contents of this issue to
include an article on the hell that descend-
ed on Haiti on 12 January. During the
weeks since the earthquake, more information has
circulated on this country, its people, its history and
its culture than ever before.

The works and citations of all those who had sought
to present this Caribbean republic in a more just
light, generally without success, were all invoked.
From Andr Malraux, Andr Breton or Jean-Paul
Sartre to Sergue Mikhalovitch Eisenstein, director
of 'The Battleship Potemkin' and whose screenplay
'Jean-Jacques Dessalines' on the author of Haitian
independence he never succeeded in bringing to the
screen, to his great chagrin, although it remained
a reference in the university courses he later gave.
From Santana to Anas Nin, from Aim Csaire or
Lopold Cedar Senghor to Bill Clinton ... they all,
in one way or another, considered Haiti's contribu-
tion to the world to be exceptional. We discovered
the violence to which Haiti had been subjected,
the first country in the New World to experience
the very first globalisation after 1492 and two years
before it occurred in Cape Verde, the subject of
this issue's report. Haiti experienced torments and
the most barbarous form of slavery that began with
the arrival of Christopher Columbus, inflicted by
constant threats from various powers throughout
the 19th century and occupation by the Americans
in the early 20th century. Also the struggles for
freedom, including its support for the United States
for independence in 1776, before its own independ-
ence, and the massive aid in terms of men, money
and munitions for Bolivar and the liberation of
South America.

In the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, the
familiar clichs of Haiti were repeated; this accursed
land that has known nothing but chaos. All the
governments were tarred with the same brush, for-
getting the elections and democratic governments
dating back to the 19th century: from Nissage Saget
in 1870-1874 to Tiresias Simon Sam from 1896 to
1902 -admittedly sometimes alternating with the
most uncompromising of regimes -not to forget the
period of enlightenment under Dumarsais Estim
from 1946-1950.


Then the intellectuals and a growing number of
journalists started to tell the true story of this land,
its people, its riches, its modest but not insignificant
contribution to humanity, its many great writers,
and its artistic heritage. Also highlighted are the
beginnings of a renaissance in recent years, includ-
ing 13 international prizes for literature and its writ-
ers in 2009 alone. The country's progress too has
been exemplified in terms of the political govern-
ance of recent years that has largely convinced the
international community. Michle Pierre-Louis is
testimony to this fact, still prime minister before the
earthquake when she granted The Courier the inter-
view published in this issue. But for many it was the
disaster that gave the opportunity to discover the
truth about Haiti.

Were it not for this improved governance the soli-
darity on the part of the world community may not
have been so great. Meeting in Montreal on 25
January, the donor countries may not have been so
unanimous in deciding that the Haitian Government
was best placed to manage the funds to rebuild the
country, following the lead of the European Union
that had already granted its support in the form of
budgetary aid, a kind of mark of approval.

The Haitian Government says it is ready to begin
reconstruction on more solid bases. One example of
this is the Haitian president's urging of the World
Food Programme in particular that emergency food
aid should not destabilise local production and be
used mainly to constitute stocks. This is not so
removed from the problem raised in our articles
on the global consensus against hunger or fishing
agreements or even climate change. The reason
the choices made by Haiti at this point in time
have the backing of donors is that global govern-
ance has made notable progress in recent times,
despite major apprehensions that remain justified.
Our dossier on the G20 and developing countries
illustrates this.

Does this mean that good can come from misfor-
tune? It depends. Only time will tell.



Hegel Goutier
Editor in chief


N. 15 N.E. JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010






















w'

SP'Y


Michle Duvivier Pierre-L
Former prime minister


ouis


difficult renli.a.lidri
Michle Duvivier Pierre-Louis. DEC
One of the political notables to attend the European Development Days in Stockholm in October
2009, Michle Duvivier Pierre-Louis is above ail a symbol of the recovery of Haiti's credentials as a
democratically-governed country. Our interview with the former prime minister took place before
the earthquake which destroyed Haiti and put in danger the country's renaissance which had
begin to take place over the past 2-3 years. Among other activities at the EDD event, she was invit-
ed to hand over one of the European Commission's prestigious Natali Prizes for Journalism, a true
sign of the times for a country that not long ago was itself plagued by human rights violations.*


ichle Pierre-Louis was prime
minister of Haiti from September
2008 to the end of October 2009,
and was particularly noted for her
implementation of the reform policy put into
place by President Ren Prval. One element
of this policy was to furnish the country with
a new image as a tourist destination. Note
that it was between Miami and Labadee
in Haiti that the new largest liner in the
world, Oasis of the Seas, property of the Royal
Caribbean Cruise Line with a capacity for
6,500 passengers, made its maiden voyage.


Duvivier Pierre Louis has spent a large part
of her working life outside politics in civil
society and is acutely aware of the collateral
effects of reform on the most vulnerable.

Is the worst now over for Haiti, or does the coun-
try still :,ii. from an image problem?

The country remains extremely fragile
despite the progress made. As regards the
uncertainties, I prefer to focus on day-
to-day problems, and as far as image is
concerned, I think one of the key events of


recent times was the forum for US inves-
tors, organised in Haiti by former President
Clinton as special UN envoy for Haiti. This
attracted 250 participants.

What do you see as your government's achieve-
ments and, more widely, those of the three years
of the Ren Prvalpresidency?

First of all, security and stability. When
President Prval came to power in 2006, the
country was still in the grip of gang violence,
with the 'Baghdad operation' plunging the


COURIER







o the point


country into terror, including kidnapping,
killings, rape and arson. The president adopt-
ed a strategy that produced positive results,
namely appealing to the opposition to form a
kind of government of national unity.

The help of Minustah** made possible both
the reform of the police, with an increase in
manpower from 5,000 to 10,000, and the fight
against the corrupt practices of police officers
involved in the gangs and in drug trafficking.
Serious progress was made in dealing with
these gangs. Nightlife has returned to Port-
au-Prince today: before it was like a graveyard
after eight in the evening.

Doesn't the situation of extreme poverty in itself
pose a threat to security?

Absolutely. Haiti receives humanitarian aid,
and it is not through humanitarian aid that
a country is developed. That is why, in
Washington at the donors' conference in
April 2009, I proposed a change to the coop-
eration paradigm. It is private, public, for-

















eign and Haitian investment that will make
it possible to kickstart the development proc-
ess. We are criticised for creating low-paid
jobs, but we are still paying the price today
for having invested so little in education. We
do not have the technical capacity to build a
road infrastructure or to protect our coconut
or banana crops against infection. These are
truths that are sometimes not what we want
to hear, but I prefer to state things as they are
even if it pains me to do so.

We took essential measures which were linked
to conditions required to access external
financing. When Aristide left office, the ratio
between the taxes on income and goods and
GDP was 6.5 per cent, and today it is 10.9 per
cent. In the wider Caribbean region, the norm
is around 15 per cent or even 18 per cent.

Over the past two years we have managed
to fund our operating budget out of the
public treasury, that is, from income tax and
taxes on goods combined, and it has been a



N. 15 N.E. JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010


Michle Duvivier Pierre-Louis and US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton speak to reporters at
the US State Department. Reporters/AP


very long time since this has been the case.
Unfortunately, between 65 and 70 per cent
ofthe budget's public expenditure continues
to be met by international aid. Our work is
making it possible to build up confidence
among citizens, but we are now at a cross-
roads. By that, I mean we could just as easily
take a step backwards as a step forwards.

I can perfectly understand impatience on
the part of the population and elected rep-
resentatives. I took office at a time when
four hurricanes in a row had destroyed eve-
rything. The international community esti-
mated the losses at a billion US dollars, or 14
per cent of GDP, and the UNDP launched
an emergency appeal to raise $US107M. At
the donors' conference in April, we received
promises of around $US400M, but since
then -and it is now eight or nine months ago
-we have not even received $US100M.

Wasn't the Haitian Government 'more Catholic
than the Pope' in pursuing reforms when one
sees the latitude that the rich countries have
allowed with regard to liberalism in the face of
the economic crisis?

The countries that adopted such latitude had
the capacity to do so. What measures could
we take? We bore the full brunt of opening
up our markets, and it was very hard. When,
at the request of the International Monetary
Fund and the World Bank, we deregulated
all imports into the country, we killed off
a large proportion of national production.
Rice from Miami was selling at a tenth of
the price of local produce. But that was the
price to be paid. The Paris Club cancelled
$US1.2bn of the Haitian debt.


We know that investment is the only way
to bring about genuine development. The
textile industry is on the right track. We
are also working to promote tourism, in the
entire country and not just in hotspots like
Labadee where the huge liners of the Royal
Caribbean Cruise Line bring in thousands of
tourists every week, particularly among the
Haitian diaspora. For example, we are cre-
ating infrastructure to attract them to visit
the Citadelle Laferrire, a national treasure

















and a UNESCO world heritage site. The
Taiwanese are also now investing in the
south of the country. But it will be difficult
to compete with Cuba and the Dominican
Republic as a mass tourism destination, and I
am not even sure I regard this as desirable.

* See also article on aftermath of Haiti earthquake:
'Africa mobilises for Haiti ', p. 8.
**French acronym-The UnitedNations Stabilisation
Mission in Haiti.

Keywords
Michle Duvivier Pierre-Louis; Haiti;
EU Development Days; Ren Prval;
Oasis of the Seas; Labadee;
Royal Caribbean Cruise Line;
Citadelle Laferrire; Hegel Goutier.






















Hegel Goutier




ifrica mobilises for Haiti

To an unprecedented extent as far as a humanitarian cause outside the continent is concerned,
Africa has rallied to the aid of Haiti since the earthquake that laid waste to the country on the
12th January 2010 and caused probably more than 200,000 deaths, leaving millions more
wounded and homeless. Even those countries suffering a very difficult economic situation them-
selves have made their contribution to this display of generosity.


S outh Africa has been at the fore-
front of the continent's effort,
reacting with great speed not only
in announcing financial assistance
but by rushing rescuers and health pro-
fessionals to Haiti to help to tackle the
immediate emergency, closely followed
by specialist expertise, including experts
in the identification of bodies, and finally
the humanitarian aid teams themselves.
On the morning of the 14 January, only a
little more than 24 hours after the earth-
quake, a team of 40 rescuers specialised


in different fields called "Rescue South
Africa" took off from Waterlook Airforce
Base, where President Jacob Zuma had
gone personally to see them off, express-
ing his gratitude for the work they are now
doing in the name of South Africa. Zuma
also appealed to every South African to
contribute help in one form or another to
the Haitian people. The telephone com-
pany Vodacom, South Africa, has financed
this rescue team to the tune of 1.5M rand
(US$202,000), and another team of ten
specialists in trauma and different types of


I *GnC RI 'IM H

IIIPER uno


surgery, "Gift of the Givers", left for Haiti
on the 14 January, taking with them a
variety of material, including tents, water
purification tablets, energy supplements
and medicines, to the value of 5M rand
(US$655,500). The South African Red
Cross has also launched an appeal for 30M
rand (US$4M).

South Africa's example has been widely
followed elsewhere on the continent, and
with similar speed. On the 15 January
Gabon, too, announced the sending of
substantial aid, accompanied by a state-
ment from the Council of Ministers speci-
fying that this was "emergency aid of
US$1M for our brothers, who have only
just recovered from both a long and mur-
derous civil war and terrible and deadly
flooding".

> Senegalese parliament quotes
in fauour of right of settlement
in Senegal for Haitians
The president of Senegal, Abdoulaye
Wade, has decided to allocate US$500,000
to Haiti, and captured the headlines by
announcing that Haitians would be wel-
come in his country. "Africa should offer
Haitians the right to return to their home.
This is a question of rights, and we must
not be grudging in our giving". It is likely


COURIER


Lel an- nignt negeu wou-er, iviale nepor erstr

















































that Mr Wade hopes that the costs of
this "repatriation" of Haitians would be
taken care of by the international com-
munity. Criticised by an opposition party
which labelled his proposal as "absurd",
Wade pointed out the example of Liberia,
populated by black people from North
America, and he had the backing of the
Senegalese parliament, which voted unan-
imously on the 22 January for this "right
to return" for Haitians, and in addi-
tion promised US$100,000 to Haiti from
its own resources, exhorting the whole
Senegalese population to offer the equiva-
lent of a day's pay to the aid efforts in
Haiti. The parliament also lent its support
to plans for a major national telethon to
help the Caribbean nation.

Nigeria has made available to the United
Nations mission in Haiti a contingent of
121 soldiers, to provide assistance with
operations to rescue victims. The vice-
president, Goodluck Jonathan, underlines
his country's commitment: "As the inter-
national community mobilises in aid of
Haiti, it can count on Nigeria's support",
and backed this up by releasing an initial
sum of US$67,000 of aid for Haiti.

Benin, a nation ruled by a royal family
which produced the architect of Haitian
independence, Toussaint Louverture, also



N. 15 N.E. JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010


launched a telethon in aid of Haiti, and
in addition its government has decided
to provide assistance for 50 Haitian stu-
dents who attend university in Benin,
and to increase the number of its police
officers serving in MINUSTAH (United
Nations Sabilisation Mission in Haiti), as
well as sending soldiers to take part in the
MINUSTAH mission.

The Democratic Republic of Congo
(DRC) has contributed up to $2.5M to the
special fund set up by the United Nations,
a very generous amount considering the
difficulties which the country is under-
going. This offer has also received the
support of the opposition party "Union
du Congo", though this was not entirely
unanimous. Many Congolese, however,
support the gesture of their president and
the words of Mgr Ilunga Mutuka, who
made clear in a statement on behalf of the
Church of Christ in Congo (CCC) that
"the Democratic Republic of the Congo
still has a vivid memory of the contribu-
tion of many Haitians to the education of
Congolese youth in the wake of the inde-
pendence of the country in 1960".

Equatorial Guinea has released US$2 of
aid for Haiti, to be administered through
the United Nations fund, while Congo
has announced a contribution of one


million dollars, matching the respective
offers of Gabon and Namibia. Mauritius,
on the other hand, has donated an addi-
tional US$500,000 to the fundrais-
ing operation set in motion by Caritas
Mauritius. Botswana has contributed up
to US$150,000, Rwanda and Namibia
US$100,000 each, and LiberiaUS$50,000,
and other countries such as Zambia and
Gambia, have also shown their solidarity
with generosity. The list of donors contin-
ues to grow.













The .0 e a e -

e e[ Hii E60M i:


1up it l vnepu lti t/Lall, 1up-ilyliL n ieyel iuuulel, Luttuiii inlelu iIIyit l epu0 Lel8/Ar


















































1 'lu m ii "i ,t ', h ', ,i i !',. "'l ,I ,,!t l' .,.. ,l.,. i ',



\! ccli I I. l\ iii t'iIi u 1 i !l

il.., i l..t , i l h .,. ,l ,.. ,l ., \\ '..l .\ | i t l i
priority region for Spain, emphasising here
development measures. Two major meetings
will be held under our Presidency with ACP
countries: the Joint EU-ACP Parliamentary
Assembly (Tenerife), and the Joint ACP-EU
Council (Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso).

How important is it to put the Doha round on
track?

The EU's trade policy is characterized by its
support for free trade, within the framework
of international rules supported by all. The
reference point for the drawing up of trade
policies is the World Trade Organisation
and, in particular, the Doha Round of mul-
tilateral trade talks. The Spanish Presidency
attaches great importance to unblocking
this negotiation process and is commit-
ted to reaching an agreement on issues for
negotiation in the first half of the year. This
objective is also shared by the EU. Under
its Common Commercial Policy (CCP), it
gives priority to a multilateral approach,
which does not discount, however, other
forms of negotiation such as free trade areas
on both bilateral and regional scales.


v. .t ,il.. ..l IJ l i ,. [ r. ,t h u l i' l ,. ,!l ... 1 1ii .. I.. .
r!'v. IK uhl t lUt 1.t i.. il. h u il i1 i, il ', I

h,. t ,, i! t.,.l h i,. h .l. ''. '. l.'. I II 1 ,il
t uhb

The European Commission is to put pen to
paper on reform of the EU's Fisheries P..'. i
What changes would the Spanish Presidency
like to see, particularly with regards to illegal
fishing in ACP waters?

From 1 January 2010, Council Regulation
(EC) No 1005/2008, of 29 September 2008
establishing a Community system to prevent,
deter and eliminate illegal, unreported and
unregulated fishing, came into force and is
applicable not only in Community waters
but also in waters subject to the jurisdic-
tion or sovereignty of third countries. This
is the main tool of the Common Fisheries
Policy to combat and eliminate illegal fish-
ing. The Spanish Presidency is aware of the
importance ofthe economic, social and envi-
ronmental viability of fishing activities and
emphasises that it will be attentive towards
the exploitation of fishing resources based on
sustainability criteria both at the Community
and at international levels.

Will you launch any initiatives in the area of
gender qu:., j.:i in EU development ;-..-.:. i


SMiguel Angel Moratinos Cuyaub. ourtesyofthe Spanish
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation



Apart from promoting the adoption of an
EU position in view of the special ses-
sion to revise the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs) to hold in New York next
September, during its Presidency Spain
will promote progress in European pol-
icy with reference to certain MDGs, for
instance, MDG3: Promote gender equality
and empower women. We shall support the
approval of the 'EU Action Plan on Gender
Equality and Women's Empowerment'
which aims to enhance the effectiveness
of EU gender policies and programmes
to promote equality and the empower-
ment of women in developing countries. In
March, in Valencia, we are hosting the 4th
Europe-Africa 'Women for a Better World
Meeting'.


COURIER













IlII)III1 IC I I I~1(1~1 Il' (




I ~III' I I


Banner announcing Lisbon Treaty. Reporters/AP


Anne-Marie Mouradian


1 December 2009. In the com-
ing months its implementation will
make it possible to answer certain
questions concerning its impact, including
on relations with the ACP countries.

One of the treaty's principal innova-
tions is the creation of the post of High
Representative for Foreign Affairs and
Security Policy, the holder also being
Commission Vice President responsi-
ble for Foreign Affairs. The incumbent,
Catherine Ashton will conduct and coor-
dinate political dialogue with non-EU
countries and ensure a coherent foreign
policy. The Development Commissioner,
Andris Piebalgs, and Commissioner for
International Cooperation, Humanitarian
Aid and Disaster Response, Kristalina
Georgieva, will work closely with her. It
remains to be seen how these different posts
will interconnect in practice.

The treaty widens the common priority
objectives of the EU's external action to
include reducing and eradicating poverty.
This is proof, say some observers, that
development will be a policy in its own right.
Others underline the risk of it becoming no
more than an instrument in the service of
external relations. "I remain confident until
we see otherwise. I am not saying that devel-
opment has nothing to do with external pol-
icy, but the question I ask myself is whether
the autonomy of development policy will be
maintained", warned Louis Michel.


> Preseruing the acquis*

The disappearance from the Lisbon Treaty
of any reference to the ACP Group, which
had existed since the Maastricht Treaty
(1992), caused some concern. This was
expressed in the letter sent on 23 November
by Eunice Kazembe, President of the ACP
Council, to the Presidents of the European
Commission and Council. For his part,
Wilkie Rasmussen, ACP Co-President of
the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly,



N. 15 N.E. JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010


considered such fears to be premature, while
adding: "But I am not nave. We must fight
to preserve the acquis of our relations."

One of the principal challenges facing the
High Representative will be to set up the
European External Action Service, a genu-
ine European diplomatic service under her
authority. This colossus will ultimately, by
around 2014, consist of the 10,000 civil
servants of the Council, Commission and
diplomatic services of the Member States. A
first visible sign ofthe change is that, since 1
December, some 130 European Commission
external delegations have become EU del-
egations. These will grow progressively with
the addition of representatives ofthe Council
and the Foreign Ministries of the Member
States. Questions are naturally being raised
regarding the impact on delegations in the
ACP countries where the granting and pro-


gramming of aid is currently managed by the
Development Directorate-General.

Another innovation is that for the first time
the treaty introduces a specific legal basis for
humanitarian aid. For its part, the European
Parliament will have increased budgetary
powers and wider competence in fields such
as humanitarian aid and immigration.

In this new configuration ofthe EU's exter-
nal action, the personality of the High
Representative and of the Development
and Humanitarian Aid Commissioners will
clearly play a major role in determining their
relations in practice.
* The 'essence' of the agreement.

Keywords
Lisbon Treaty; development cooperation;
ACP.


TH IEI KE f' IGRSI gOER OPRT









Po* y Vic -rsdn of th r- niara l an ...si - s




-a Commssio. Bor in 1956 Brit- -us as Th -orera -opes





I I



L cooperation at


a turning point


T he entry into force of the Lisbon > madagascar and niger
S s 1 Treaty and the completion, in
-2010, of negotiations for a review The JPA also condemned the coup d'tat
of the Cotonou Agreement will in Madagascar and called for the return to
i l be two new turning points, stressed Louis constitutional order by ail the parties com-
P Michel, European Co-President of the ing together in a spirit of consensus to put
Assembly. For his part, Wilkie Rasmussen, an end to the crisis. It regretted "the intran-
Sthen the ACP Co-President, argued for sigence of Mr. Rajoelina, who seems to be
iTrr^i* -the Economic Partnership Agreements to the hostage of his clan" and "the demands
include measures to help the ACP countries of the exiled president, Mr. Ravalomanana,
face the future opening up of their markets. who shows an inappropriate lack ofrealism".
It recommended individual sanctions in the
The Assembly adopted three reports. It event of failure to respect the undertakings
calls for improved representation for the given in Maputo and Addis-Ababa.
ef *liq EI fitr developing countries, especially in Africa,
within international institutions and on the The JPA also called on the authorities in
IMF and World Bank governing bodies. It Niger to "return to constitutional order as
- recommends that the impact of the finan- soon as possible and release all political pris-
me e ce cial crisis on the ACP countries should be owners, including Members of Parliament and
* reduced by seeking new sources of funding opposition leaders". The delegations from
for development, such as the introduction Madagascar, Niger and Guinea-Conakry
of an international tax on financial trans- were only present at this session as observers
actions. Finally, the report on social and without voting rights and not as full mem-
cultural integration and the participation bers ofthe Assembly. A.M.M.
of young people calls for guarantees of The 'essence' of the agreement.
improved access to education and jobs for
the 15-24 age groups.
Keywords
Joint Parliamentary Assembly; Luanda;
new European Commissioners.













-!I




hi I


~l T1


i1


Il[


IIIII1


[NI


I~ I!r


I Z-


ili'






Dossier G20 and developing countries



with different organizations of develop-
ing countries, namely the ACP, LDC,
SVEs (Small, Vulnerable Economies),
Cotton-4 (Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and
Mali), G-33, NAMA-11 (Market Access
for Non-Agricultural Products), Caricom
(Caribbean community). This new forma-
tion set itselfthe initial objective ofworking
to ensure that the development agenda be
endorsed by the multilateral trade system.


After the eruption of the world financial
crisis, the epilogue to a series of crises which
had seriously affected developing nations,
the lobbying of the G20 of "developing and
emerging" countries helped to lead to an
enlargement ofthe G20 ofdeveloped nations
and the creation of a larger group of emerg-
ing nations. Six countries are members
of both groups: South Africa, Argentina,
Brazil, China, India and Mexico.


* Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania andZimba-
bwe; China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Philippines
and Thaland ; Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile,
Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru,
Uruguay and Venezuela.



Keywords
G20; financial crisis; WTO; ACP; LDC;
SVE; Cotton-4; G-33; NAMA-11.


In search of a global



governance organisation



inuoluing developing countries

In their study 'The G20 and the regulation of the world economy' Catherine Mathieu and Henry
Sterdyniak of the OFCE (French Economic Observatory)*, an economic and political science
research centre in Paris, hold the view that developing countries, with the exception of the very
poorest, had initially benefited from financial globalisation, before coming to experience its
downside. The authors went on to explore possible channels for the creation of a new form of
world financial governance which is fairer on poor countries.


The study's view is that ail but the
very poorest developing countries
benefited from the strong growth
in the world economy from 1990
until just before the eruption of the finan-
cial crisis in 2008. Paradoxically, the third
world debt crisis of 1982 and those of Brazil
and Argentina which broke out between the
end of the 1990s and in the years immedi-
ately after the turn of the century, also all
occurred around the same period. Financial
globalisation is a source of instability which
places nations and people in competition
with one another, and it may be surmised
that the effects of this process are at their
greatest in the young republics of Africa in
particular.

> H combination of 620 and IMF?
A number ofexisting institutions will have to
be adapted and others set up if an improved
framework for global governance is to be
established. There will be a need for a cen-
tral organisation to provide leadership and
guidance to specialised bodies, and while
this central institution does exist in embry-
onic form in the G8, G20, and IMF, none
of these is at present sufficiently resource


From left: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Liberian
President, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and Nigerian Finance
Minister Mansur Muhtar. Reporters/AP
to take on the role required. To function
successfully, this organisation must have
effective sanctions at its disposal. The WTO
alone is capable of performing this role,
but in practice sanctions have been applied
almost exclusively to small countries. The
IMF is too dependent on the US and the
UN lacks the power required, while the G7/
G8, for its part, implies the dictatorship of
the rich nations.

The G20 is more in accordance with the
new power relationships in the world, and
its members constitute 90 per cent of GDP
and 65 per cent of world population. Its


weakness, however, is what the authors of
the study call "the great absentees", such
as Spain, Iran or Nigeria, and indeed whole
regions ofthe world play no role in it. Neither
has the organisation so far produced a great
deal in terms of significant specific results.

An economic and financial committee under
the combined leadership ofthe IMF and the
G20 could be one solution to this conun-
drum. Such a committee would include
the countries of the G20, but would also be
enriched by representatives of regions which
are at present under-represented, especially
Africa. While "the G20 has travelled a long
way in the right direction", the study won-
ders whether "the leaders of the G20 will
have enough will and constancy to carry out
reform in the face of the many challenges
ahead". H.C.

* Notes presented at the ENA (Ecole Nationale d'Ad-
ministration, Strasbourg, France), 9 December 2009.



Keywords
Catherine Mathieu; Henry Sterdyniak;
OFCE; ENA; globalization; world financial
governance; Africa; G20; Hegel Goutier.


COURIER




- -Dossier


620
5 out of 10O
for finance
reform

I i III
I I I I I I
n a e i Th f-e Couri ea o th a 0m a e e e
Naa e a W ood s e a a N 1 o as sa t i a si
Zealand-born aritis h aaademic who is P rec- a--seveloping economies. Ngaire as a s s ea --



meatff s Bt ae aae -a asa-at a-e5 a' ef asa fss i chang
N. a -a e e s e e a- aa-
** e e







Dossier G20 and developing countries



Is the G20 just papering over the cracks or does
it offer a real way forward in dealing with the
globalfinancial crisis?

To imagine that the G20 offers reconstruc-
tion of the system of global governance is
in my view completely wrong. People look
upon it as a complete revolution in global
governance. This isn't so: it just recognizes
a power shift in the world and the need to
have a different informal group of great
powers making strategic decisions.

The G20 has no formal authority to make
decisions. It has no implementing capacity
to make decisions and few of its members
would agree to it being used in that way.

When former US President George Bush
called the first G20 leaders' meeting in
November 2008 (ed: in Washington), it was
through the recognition that the financial
crisis required an immediate global coordina-
tion of policies which would be credible to
the market and investors. This initial meeting
successfully gathered leaders very quickly.
The first G20 Summits came out with action
plans which charged different institutions
and governments to do specific things. The
G20's Finance Ministers have been meeting
for 10 years. After the financial crisis in 1997,
the G7 already recognized that they had to
have a wider group which would come up
with global solutions to the financial crisis.

The London Summit in April 2009 followed
up the action plan of the first G20 meeting
and pushed it forward. Its main achieve-
ment was to get an agreement that major
economies would contribute credit lines to
the IMF. They collectively agreed to inject
money into the global economy to stop the
crash. The first thing was to stop the world
economy from seizing up; the second was
to start thinking immediately about how to
regulate finance in order to prevent another
crisis becoming a major one; the third was
to find ways to mitigate or to reduce the
impact ofthe crisis on developing countries;
and the fourth was to reform international
institutions because the very fact that they
had to meet at the G20 as opposed to meet-
ing within the IMF, for example, was to
put out a signal that reform of international
institutions was necessary.

At the third meeting in Pittsburgh, there
was much more of a focus on jobs because
the industrialized countries feared that
unemployment would become more acute.
So it went back to the number one point
on the agenda: stopping the economy seiz-


ing up. There was less focus at the G20 in
Pittsburgh on how the crisis was affecting
developing countries. The major agreement
to come out of Pittsburgh was that Brazil,
China, India and Russia (the BRIC), would
contribute to credit lines of the IMF in
return for more reform of the IMF.

As you said, the IMF moved slowly. Do you
think the IMF and World Bank have got to
grips with the crisis?

Inside the IMF and World Bank there is
tremendous motivation and determination


What does the future holdfor the G7 and G8?

I think the G8 at the leaders' level is dead. It
can keep on meeting but it is fairly irrelevant
as an institution. The G7 Finance Ministers'
group is probably going to survive because it
is the powerful way for the G7 countries to
coordinate their position within the G20.
They give it more power than the G20. But
if the G7 Finance Ministers continue to
meet, what they risk is pushing the emerg-
ing economies into a similar counter group.
That is what we saw at the G20 Finance
Ministers' meeting in London earlier this


Ngare Woods and Donad Kabeka A an Deveopmen Bank Pesden

Ngaire Woods and Donald Kaberuka, African Development Bank President. cEP


to try to get as much money as possible
to developing countries. What is slowing
the IMF and World Bank down is that the
powerful countries, the member countries,
have been slow to give these institutions
the resources and mandate to act, to move
quickly particularly in respect to the poor-
est countries. The WB has been left trying
to deal with this crisis by simply front-
loading speeding up already agreed loans.
So it has not been given the additional
resources to pump into developing coun-
tries. The IMF was directed by powerful
countries to deal with the financial crisis
in countries in the European area and that
means that some 80 per cent of the money
that the IMF has lent since the crisis began
has gone to countries in the European
area, and only between about two or three
percent has gone, for example, to African
countries.


year where the G7 countries had met to pre-
pare their own position. The BRIC also met
to prepare their position. It could polarise
the G20 in two camps.

If the G20 has no real authority, what is the
main interest of countries such as China or
Brazil in being part of this club?

Their interest is to ensure that they can
influence strategic decisions and I think
the fact they have participated to the G20
Finance Ministers' group in the last ten
years has given them an experience of how
to use this kind of grouping, which is prov-
ing interesting. The crisis in 1997 was a
crisis in emerging economies; it was South
Korea, Brazil and so forth and Russia who
were in crisis. But this crisis is different.
The crisis itself is a crisis in the G7, in
United States, Great Britain and Europe. At


COURIER







G20 and developing countries Dossier


the end of the day the emerging economies
are very well placed, not least because they
have already been in crisis themselves and
are hence able to better protect themselves
against this crisis. When the 2008 crisis
arrived, these countries were in a much
stronger position because they had reserves;
they had taken measures which have pre-
vented the crisis from hitting them too hard;
they have had experience in engaging in the
G20 Finance Ministers' group. We have
also seen emerging economies become more
assertive; which had not been the case in the
global network before then.

Are China, India and Brazil ., ..- standing up
for the developing nations?

You are right. They say that they are but
what strikes me in the G20 leaders' sum-
mit, is that the main voice for developing
countries has actually probably come from
the presidents of the WB, the Managing
Director of the IMF and from the African
Union representative. They have been say-
ing, "Look this is a development emergency,
we have to do something about it". But in
my view, the G20 has not performed well
vis--vis developing countries. They have
done very well in preventing the wealthy
economies from seizing up. They coordi-
nated quickly and they took some decisive
cooperative action. I think they get high
marks for that. They have done a little bit
we can give them 5 out of 10 on financial
regulatory reform. But when it comes to
easing the impact of the crisis on develop-


SBrazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Chinese President Hu Jintao and Indian
Prime Minister Manmohan. Reporters


ing economies, I would probably give them
3 out of 10 because they have been high on
promises but low on delivery.

How important was the role played by South
Africa and African Union in the G20 leaders'
meetings? Were they merely spectators?

They were not in a great position of power
particularly because in these first three
meetings the wealthy country governments
have been so focused on their own crisis.
The Pittsburgh summit was focused on the
unfolding economic crisis inside United
States and inside Europe. It has been quite
difficult, particularly for African govern-
ments who are facing a real crisis as a result
of the financial crisis. It has been very dif-


ficult for them to put their needs on the
agenda and have them given priority. H.C.

* Mattli, W. and Woods, N. (co-Author), The Politics of
Global Regulation, Princeton University Press March
2009.
**Woods, N. (Co-Author) Inequality, Globalization,
and World Politics, Oxford University Press, 1999.
***Woods, N. (Co-Author), Inequality, GI ;
Explaining International Relations since 1945, Oxford
University Press, 1996.
****Woods,N., ThePoliticalEconomyofGlobalization,
Macmillan, 2000.
*****Woods, N., The Globalizers: the IMF, the World
Bank, and their Borrowers, Cornell University Press,
March 2006.


Keywords
Ngaire Woods; economic governance;
Oxford; G20; Hegel Goutier.


Reporters


N. 15 N.E. JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010






Dossier G20 and developing countries


International finance




Corporation branches out


Rachel Kyte is Vice-President of Business Advisory Services for the International Finance
Corporation (IFC), the arm of the World Bank (WB) that provides finance and advice for private
investment in developing countries. She joined the Washington-based organisation nine years
ago as an ombudsman, investigating complaints about projects, moving on to become Director
of the Environment Department before her current posting.


I Rachel Kyte. IFC


I n the following interview with The Courier
in Brussels, she tells us that the IFC is seek-
ing new partnerships with bilateral and mul-
tilateral partners because there is now little
money sitting around in public coffers. Rachel
Kyte says that these are :' .. i:. times for
international financial architecture" with a
need for an even sharperfocus on the poor the
least resilient in the crisis and for more innova-
tive instruments.

In the wake of the crisis in October 2008,
a lack of finance for infrastructure quickly
emerged and at the end of 2008, the IFC
also calculated a $US1.8bn shortfall of
financing for the microfinance industry.
Kyte says that since the big trade banks
had repatriated most of their capital back
to Europe instead of putting it into credit
services in emerging markets, the IFC's
Board immediately tripled its trade financ-
ing to $US3bn. A microfinance facility was
also created with the Germans, with a first


tranche of a $US500M which helped extend
finance to 30 highly successful commercial-
ly-based micro-finance institutions around
the world, a special initiative the IFC now
wants to repeat.

What was the IFC's remit following the
Pittsburgh G20 meeting?

In its financial inclusion paragraphs in
Pittsburgh, the G20 expressly asked us
to help. The question was, how do you
extend financial inclusion even at a time of
a retreating global economy? How do you
make sure that the poor do not suffer more?
We are nearly five years away from the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
and are a long way from achieving them,
so how do you keep fighting poverty at a
time when there are far fewer resources to
go around? One issue is how to increase
the amount of smart regulation that allows
finance to be accessible to the poor. This


is a discussion about how to extend access
both by making smart regulation (such as a
collateral register). Secondly, if more money
were put on the table, it's a matter of help-
ing Small and Medium-sized Enterprises
(SMEs) best channel this through supply
chains by assisting big companies in extend-
ing their backward linkages to create more
jobs in SMEs and also looking specifically
at the needs of women who are owners of
SMEs, but have problems getting access to
markets and credit.

Have you brought in any new instruments in the
wake of the crisis?

There are three big innovations. One has
been to create more funds for our own
account; setting up equity accounts with
more people on board, for example the
equity structure fund with Germany's par-
ticipation. All co-operation partners now sit
down, agree on the problem and co-create.


COURIER


611f: Rn IMEC InnOURTIOn
The Global Index Insurance Facility (GIIF) ers and vulnerable communities against
is a new joint initiative between the IFC, natural disasters that can wipe out their
European Commission (EC) and the Dutch livelihoods and trap them in poverty. IFC
Government. It provides funds to insure is committed to helping extend financial
against certain catastrophic events, de- products and services to places where
pending on their severity. For example, the private sector is at the early stages of
insurance will be paid out in the event of development, creating more opportunities
a wind storm of a certain category, or an for people that need them the most". The
earthquake registering a certain magni- EC has put E24.5M into GlIFs trust fund
tude on the Richter scale. Jean Philippe which is also supported by the Netherlands.
Prosper, IFC Director for Eastern and
Southern Africa, says, "The Global Index
Insurance Facility will help protect farm- Find out more: www.ifc.org







G20 and developing countries Dossier


The second is the global trade liquidity
pool; it is not a new instrument in itself but
the number of partners and the ambition
are very new. Thirdly, we have created an
asset management company. This is not on
our own account. It is a wholly-owned sub-
sidiary. This allows us to leverage sovereign
funds, public pension funds and privately-
managed pension funds to invest alongside
us. We provide the flow and these funds
will be able to take 50 per cent of equity. It
is another way of bringing more capital into
emerging markets in a responsible way at a
time when it is just not flowing on its own.
We understand there is at least $US5 trillion
worth of public pension funds assets under
management in Europe that have some kind
of requirement of sustainability, as well as
pension funds that need to grow in order that
we can all have our pensions. They have to
produce a return to the beneficiary and they
have to be green which means that over time
they need to be invested more in emerging
markets and in sustainable companies.


Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Sinh speaksatthe 2008 India-frica Forum Summit. Reporters
Ilndian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh speaks at the 2008 India-Africa Forum Summit. 0 Roportors/AP


Can you tell us more about the IFC's initiatives
to promote women's business activities?

We are helping banks invest in them as
entrepreneurs because it's smart business.
We are also about to launch what I call
a new 'public good' -that actually helps


I Young women studying dressmaking in Project Credit Femmes school, Dakar, Senegal. Reporters/LehtikuvaOy


people understand how to ensure that when
they reform the regulatory environment for
SMEs, it is done in such a way that women
in business benefit as well. We have tradi-
tionally been very gender blind in regulatory
reform for SMEs. For example, you can
set up a collateral register but in countries
where women are prevented from raising
collateral, how do you create such a regis-
ter that takes into account the ability of a
woman to collateralise movable assets such
as jewellery, or a fixed asset that might mean
a change in the law around ownership of
land? If you go in with your eyes wide open,
you can have much more effective regula-
tion. Over 60 per cent of SME owners in
Africa are women. We will be launching this
work over the next few weeks. I am hoping it
will be taken up by everybody who is in the
SME business.

Do youforecast a second global crisis?

We see a long, hard road out of this with
complete restructuring of certain supply
chains in some industries that had over-
capacity -including downsizing as a result
of recession, for example, in the apparel
industry. We are concerned about how to
stimulate credit in emerging markets and
how to enable good firms to access credit.
It is not going to be easy. The Organisation
of Economic Cooperation and Development
(OECD) is not the only source of invest-
ment. We have just been to India and were
all struck with the opportunities for Indian
investment in Africa. You are going to see a
lot more south-south investment. D.P.





Keywords
Rachel Kyte; IFC; global crisis; SMEs;
microfinancing.


N. 15 N.E. JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010




























~la'lllllI
Mareo e e oe e


we sh e*o' e'


''e a 6180 e e


There wl be dead o un es el conres enl n th
ing proess. This es essentially the i Ew3fS3uembou










Charles Goerens. CEP


You are critical of the G20. Why is that?

The G20 has pretensions of replacing the
United Nations. As it includes just 10 per cent
of the world's countries, it is hardly very rep-
resentative. Ifyou do not belong to the club of
rich nations, you do not have the right to be
heard. Is this good governance?The European
Union could have made the difference. It
should allow the other EU Member States,
and not just the rich ones, to take part in the
initial phase of the decision-making process,
which is not the case at the moment. This is
true for the African, Caribbean and Pacific
nations. South Africa, the only ACP member
of the G20, is not really representative of the
ACP group.

What is the solution?

I believe we should have a G180, which would
include all the nations that have been left
out. I have just returned from a conference
on security and development, a major issue
in these times of crisis (and the subject of
a report by Charles Goerens -editor's note),
because development cannot be achieved
without security, and vice-versa. Everything
depends on a nation's governance and wealth.


Where this is lacking, the system does not
function well enough to allow the state to gov-
ern properly. Poverty is therefore the underly-
ing reason for all insecurity. This is where we
need to start addressing the problem. It is an
arduous, low-profile job, but it helps to keep


Reporters
the peace. I firmly believe this is the right
approach. Having said that, I still believe that
Africa has never been as well governed as
at present with the exception of regions like
Kivu and Darfur, where freedoms are flouted
and access to wealth is limited. Africa can
be seen as an enormous institutional build-
ing site. We are the only ones who cannot
see this. They need our help. I support the
need to open Africa up to the world, but in


a well-managed way. An Africa which is open
without being sold off.

What can Europe do?

Europe's ability to listen and show prudence
is its strength, but also its weakness. Europe
missed an opportunity to position itself on
the international stage between 4 November
2008 -the date of Barack Obama's election
-and 20 January 2009, the date of his inves-
titure as President of the USA. Europe also
lacks clear vision when it comes to positioning
itself in international organizations, such as
the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and
the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Take
the Chinese, for example, who inundate the
informal African markets with manufactured
goods, thanks to a chronically undervalued
currency, while still adhering to the WTO's
anti-dumping rules. Instead of suppressing
the Africans, we should be helping them get
themselves back on their feet. And Europe can
play its part here by joining forces within the
IMF to address the issue of currency parity.

Keywords
Charles Goerens; security; development;
G20; G180.


COURIER



































Participants at the 2009 Tax & Development Conference, jointly organized by the EP Development Committee and EU Commission. EP




Fiscal reforms in



developing countries

Organised by Eva Joly, chair of the European Parliament Development Committee, and Karel De
Gucht, former European Commissioner for Development, a conference on good fiscal governance
was held on 9 December 2009. The many experts present included Lszl6 Kovcs, European
Commissioner responsible for Taxation, Abou Bakar Traore, the Malian Minister for Mines,
representatives of the Spanish government, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD) and international Non-Governmental Organisations.


the starting point for the debate.
While taxation is the best means of
achieving development by enabling
countries of the South to be less dependent
on international aid, in practice these coun-
tries have rarely succeeded in putting into
place an efficient tax system. On the contra-


N. 15 N.E. JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010


ry, tax evasion and the flight of capital to tax
havens cause them to lose billions every year
that could have been used to build schools,
hospitals, roads and fund other development
projects. The cause lies in corrupt practices
among Africa's elite coupled with the finan-
cial dishonesty and banking secrecy found in
the countries of the North.


"Victims of tax evasion, fraud when engag-
ing in cross-border trade or the putting into
place of tax incentives aimed at attracting
investment capital, the developing countries
are believed to be losing US$385bn every
year", stressed Joly. "The black economy
which by definition avoids all tax -reduces
the tax base. In Kenya, for example, 60 per
























































Eva Joly, chair of the European Parliament Committee on Development and Karel De Gucht, former European Commissioner
for Development. CEP


cent ofthe country's tax revenue comes from
just 0.2 per cent of the population, this being
insufficient to collect sufficient resources to
meet the country's vital needs."

Karel De Gucht believes tax evasion cur-
rently represents at least three times the
amount of development aid.

In the face of such a situation, the priority
is to correct the weakness of the tax sys-
tems of developing countries. This requires
long-term investment -a tax administration
cannot be reformed in a year -which is not
only the responsibility of the governments
concerned but also of donors. Currently just
0.2 per cent of public development aid goes
towards improving tax systems.

However, recently there has been some
progress. "We have made more progress
over the past 10 months than in the past 10
years", explained Jeffrey Owens, Director
of the OECD's Centre for Tax Policy and


Administration. Recalling the commitments
made at the G20 in London in April 2009 to
bring tax havens into line, he urged NGOs
to keep up their pressure on politicians.

Another initiative, which is all the more
important as it comes from the South, is that
African countries have decided to take their
destiny into their own hands by launching
the African Forum on Tax Administration
in November 2009. The launch of this
network, with support from the OECD
and European Union, should enable senior
African tax officials to set out Africa's tax
needs and priorities and to develop and
share best practices to strengthen capacities
in this sector.

"I hope that this conference will have
served to generate genuine awareness of
the situation and will force the European
Commission to take more account of 'tax
and development' in its proposals in the
future", concluded Joly. This dynamic MEP


and former magistrate is also determined
to fight to oblige multinational companies
to provide details in their annual reports
of the activities, revenue and taxes paid per
country. A.M.M.

http://ec.europa.eu/development/services/
events/taxdevelopment/index.htm















Keywords
Fiscal governance; Lszl Kovcs; Abou
Bakar Traore; taxation; Eva Joly; Jeffrey
Owens; OECD; Anne-Marie Mouradian;
Karel De Gucht.


COURIER






ACP-EU Interaction


"Trade talks must reflect




a new global consensus




on hunger"


At the end of 2009, the FAO announced that the number of malnourished people in the world
had hit the billion mark. From Rome where the last Food Summit was held in November to
the Copenhagen Climate Conference in December, the issue of food security was yet again on
the table. To no great effect, despite warnings from UN experts, including Olivier De Schutter,
Special Rapporteur on the right to food. We interview him here.


I I n Rome", explains Olivier De Schutter,
"ail the sensitive questions were brushed
aside. Some difficult questions were
hardly raised at all, often passed over
in silence or put on hold while awaiting the
results of further studies. These were: the
problem of agro-fuels, land speculation in
southern countries and international trade
reforms although I should emphasise that
questions of world trade bear a more com-
plicated relationship to food than people
usually acknowledge".

How do you see the future?

Over the coming months we must look at
these fundamental issues. But with whom
and adopting what approach? These ques-
tions remain unanswered. On the other
hand, what is new, and this should be
emphasised, is that the Committee for
World Food Security is now firmly in place.
It has existed since 1996 but to date had
been ineffective as it only included constitu-
ent states. It was a talking shop that lacked
visibility and took no decisions. It has now
been reformed to include the International
Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank
(WB) and the World Trade Organisation
(WTO), along with organizations repre-
senting civil society. It is a kind of mini-
parliament which will provide for increased
coordination through the UNDP (United
Nations Development Programme).

Food security inevitably raises the question of
international trade. How do you regard the


N. 15 N.E. JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010


Courtesy ofwww afronline org and Damien Glez


still thorny negotiations on this point within the
WTO?

I believe that, unfortunately, international
trade will be held up as a panacea when in
fact it risks fooling people. We are confronted
with a declaration that both says we are going
to help 'small countries' and which presents
international trade as a catch-all solution,
when in practice, countries that wish to
increase their exports, and thus their ability
to gain access to foreign markets, create food
insecurity inside their own countries. The
small countries are often the ones that lose
out. If they increase their exports they have
to increase their own investments and small
producers end up being the losers. We are
faced with competition for access to the best


'glezorg I


land and water. The key issue here is protec-
tionism. I suggest a solution that gives coun-
tries the right to protect their agriculture.

The problem is that we are seeing a fall in
tariff protection due to bilateral agreements
and to the demands of donors. Southern
countries have not used all the WTO's
flexible mechanisms. This allows them to
export bananas or cotton, but to what
effect? It doesn't make it possible for devel-
oping countries to pursue more sustainable
agriculture. This is where the main cause of
a lack in food security lies. M.M.B.

Keywords
Food security; Olivier De Schutter; FAO.
























'- P The SSNC study says that the agreements Directorate General for Development to
S * with other nations cost the EU more than take part in future negotiations, rather than
S150M during 2009, or 16.8 per cent ofthe leaving them to the DG for Fisheries and
EU's total fisheries budget, involving some Maritime Affairs. And because ofthe nature
ra718 vessels mainly from Spain, France and of stocks which obviously cross boundaries,
Portugal. It questions whether the agree- it recommends that future partnerships be
ments promote sustainable development drawn up on a regional basis.
mmli based on an assessment of their impact on
--r West African nations -Mauritania, Guinea, The SSNC also wants all EU governments
Senegal and Guinea Bissau. to be actively involved in negotiations -not
just be left to nations with a vested inter-
i 7 e 7 "The concept of fisheries and fish as a est in exploiting stocks -and it says there
r pre-requisite for food security seems to be should be an end to subsidies for EU boats.
forgotten, dominated by the states with big Priority should be given to developing the
commercial interests", finds the SSNC. West African sector and small-scale fish-
Demersal species and other fish stocks have series in particular with local community
been over-fished and the SSNC also casts involvement to prevent further depletion of
doubt over whether the EU money goes to resources. Only when surplus stocks have
Developing the sector in West Africa. been properly documented should com-
Smercial agreements be negotiated: "Should
> "Real partnerships" there be a shortage of fish, it is the West
Africans who have the right ofprecedence to
SThe SSNC wants to see "real partnerships their own fish", says the SSNC study. D.P.
based on coherence between fisheries, devel-
opment and trade policies", suggesting that Keywords
agreements should better manage fish stocks ........... .. ih


A 2009 'green paper' of the Euro-
pean Commission's Directorate
General for Fisheries and Maritime
Resources involved a very public
consultation on the way ahead, including
scientists, civil society and many interested
individuals. The European Commission is
now drawing up an impact assessment on
the CFP, based on the consultation, which
includes the future nature of agreements
with non-EU countries.

EU boats have a long tradition of fishing
in West Africa to meet a dependency on
imported fish which provide two-thirds of
requirements. On joining the EU in 1986,
the bi-lateral fisheries agreements of Spain
and Portugal with African nations were
brought under the EU umbrella. These
agreements -essentially licences to fish
for compensation -were given a facelift in
2002 and renamed 'Fisheries Partnership
Agreements' which placed more of an accent
on developing the artisanal fishing sector in
African nations.


and develop the sector. To make this hap-
pen, it wants the European Commission's


I Fishing boats, Saint-Louis, Senegal. CReporters/Photononstop


s er es agreemnens; we s oce y
for Nature Conservation; Mauritania;
Guinea; Senegal and Guinea-Bissau.


COURIER





. r(1h.o ITIT. n1T?1



































e emanci


:ion cure


It is in keeping with the spirit
of the times. After having
launched the major initiative
of Economic Partnership
Agreements (EPAs) with the
African, Caribbean and Pacific
Group of States, the European
Union has decided to review
the association that links it to
the Overseas Countries and
Territories (OCTs). The new
recommended partnership
has three main objectives:
increased competitiveness,
reduced vulnerability and the
opening up of the OCTs to
other cooperation partners.


I n 6 November 2009 the European Com-
mission presented its communication
on a new partnership between the EU
and the OCTs (http://eur-lex.europa.eu/
LexUriServ/LexUriServ.douri=COM:2009
:0623:FIN:EN:PDF). This new communi-
cation comes against the backdrop of the
reflection initiated by the Commission in


June 2008 following publication of a 'Green
Paper' on relations between the EU and the
OCTs. It takes stock of these consultations
and presents the components for a new part-
nership with a view to replacing the present
Overseas Association Decision that expires
in December 2013. The aim is to continue
this reflection in 2010 and 2011, in partner-
ship with the OCTs and the Member States
to which they are linked (Denmark, France,
the Netherlands and the United Kingdom),
so as to be able to draw up concrete legisla-
tive proposals to modify the present associa-
tion by the end of 2013.

> Exceptions
In regard to this consultation, the Com-
mission notes that: "A common opinion is
that the current anti-poverty focus in rela-
tions between the EU and the OCTs no
longer corresponds to the reality in the field
and should be replaced by a new approach.
The unique relationship between the OCTs
and the EU should be the cornerstone of
such a new logic. It should take due account
ofthe OCTs' specificities, in particular their
economic and social development, diver-
sity and vulnerability, as well as their envi-
ronmental importance. It should also aim


to strengthen their resilience and enhance
their competitiveness".

There are exceptions, however. In the case
of Anguilla, Mayotte, Montserrat, Saint
Helena, the Turks and Caicos Islands
and Wallis and Futuna, the Commission
acknowledges that maintaining "an anti-
poverty approach might be justified" insofar
as they fulfil the conditions for development
assistance.

Regarding trade and financial coopera-
tion, the Commission proposes to maintain
current anti-reciprocal tariff preferences
granted to the ACPs, "without prejudice to
any revision necessary". This would be the
case, for example, if an OCT decided to join
an EPA concluded between the EU and a
regional ACP group. It thus notes that "the
Cariforum-EU EPA already allows OCTs
to be brought within the scope ofthe agree-
ment. Should an OCT and its Member State
so request, the Commission would agree to
include that OCT within an EPA". M.M.B.


Keywords
OCTs; EPA; EU; new partnership; ACP.


COURIER








































Children walk past a dilapidated colonial building, Bissau, Guinea-Bissau. Reporters/AP


Eleven African and two Caribbean countries are the initial beneficiaries of 215M from the
EU's Vulnerability-FLEX (V-FLEX) finance mechanism for African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP)
nations, it was announced in December 2009. They are: Benin, Burundi, the Central African
Republic, the Comoros, Ghana, Grenada, Guinea Bissau, Haiti, Malawi, Mauritius,
the Seychelles, Sierra Leone and Zambia (see table).


S -FLEX', an initiative adopted
by the EU in August 2009
to cushion the impact of the
economic crisis on ACP coun-
tries, has an overall budget of 500M. "The
Vulnerability-FLEX mechanism is the EU's
swift response mechanism to help countries
maintain priority spending, thereby assist-
ing the worst-affected countries to reduce
the social cost of the crisis", said Karel De
Gucht, EU Commissioner for Development
and Humanitarian Aid. EU officials say the
remaining budget will be allocated during
2010.

The funds will be injected directly into ACP
governments' budgets so that they can keep
up levels of public spending, particularly in
social sectors, without jeopardising macr-
oeconomic stability. For ACP states which
requested V-FLEX funding, the EU based
its calculations on forecasted fiscal losses and
other vulnerability criteria. EU officials say
the mechanism is aimed at countries with a
high degree of economic, social and politi-
cal vulnerability and with the right policies
in place to deal with the crisis. For the same
purposes, a handful of countries from the



N. 15 N.E. JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010


same list of beneficiaries will also receive
further smaller amounts from the European
Development Fund (EDF) and from a


'FLEX' mechanism to support fluctuations
in export earnings (see table below for coun-
tries and corresponding amounts). D.P.


Table: Financinq of fCP countries in response to the crisis [EU sources]


Benin
Burundi
Central African Republic


25.00
13.60


26.40
13.60


Comoros 4.70 0.33 2.24 7.27
Ghana 35.00 35.00
Grenada 5.00 0.29 5.29
Guinea Bissau 8.00 3.18 11.18
Haiti 30.00 30.00
Malawi 25.00 25.00
Mauritius 10.90 10.90
Seychelles 9.00 7.50 16.50
Sierra Leone 12.00 12.00


Zambia
Total


30.00
215.80


30.00
230.74


V-FLEX = Vulnerability FLEX instrument
FLEX = Support for fluctuations in export earnings
EDF = European Development Fund







Interaction ACP-EU


Andrei Gromyko (foreground right), then Foreign Minister of the former Soviet Union, meeting with Marcelino dos Santos,
founding member of FRELIMO and then Mozambican minister for development and economic planning, Moscow, 1977. 0 Reporters/Novosti



Bulgaria is a newcomer to the EU-ACP partnership. As an economy in transition, it has itself been
a recipient of foreign aid for the past 20 years. Nonetheless the Balkan state gained experience in
development cooperation when the Communist regime was in power. From the early 1960s until
the end of the 1980s, Bulgaria was a donor of development aid to over 40 countries including some
in sub-Saharan African nations. Some other Eastern European newcomers have similar ties.


the African independence movements
in countries such as South Africa,
Zimbabwe (the former Rhodesia), Na-
mibia, Angola and Mozambique. Although
there were no diplomatic relations at gov-
ernment level, leaders of the Bulgarian
Communist Party actively supported the
liberation movements in these countries
with the aim of encouraging them to incor-
porate socialist policies into their political
programmes.

South Africa's African National Congress
(ANC) established relations with Bulgarian
government officials and NGOs in the early
1970s. Four years after his appointment
as Secretary General of the ANC, Alfredo
Nzo, who served as foreign minister under
the government of Nelson Mandela, went
on a state visit to Bulgaria in 1973. In subse-
quent years, ANC delegations were regular-
ly invited to party congresses in Bulgaria's
capital, Sofia. The Bulgarian government
provided humanitarian and military aid to
the ANC and on several occasions, publicly
expressed its solidarity.


On the independence of Angola and
Mozambique in 1975, Bulgaria concluded
respective treaties of friendship and co-
operation with both countries. Bulgaria pro-
vided scholarships to African students and
in some countries set up joint enterprises
(i.e. Bulgarian-Nigerian companies).

Most former socialist nations followed simi-
lar development policy goals. In the 1970s,
Poland actively supported the concept of
the 'New International Economic Order'.
Despite being a socialist country, Poland
successfully forged relations with African
leaders who were opposed to Communism.
Other Socialist bloc nations focused more on
partnerships with Communist movements.
The Hungarian Socialist Workers Party,
for example, concluded inter-party co-
operation agreements with Mozambique's
Liberation Front (Frente de Libertaio de
Mocambique -FRELIMO) and Angola's
Popular Liberation Movement (Movimento
Popular de Libertaio de Angola -MPLA).

But are there any connecting factors be-
tween the policies of Socialist governments


decades ago and the development policies of
today's EU newcomer member states from
eastern Europe? The personal career of
the former Slovak foreign minister Eduard
Kukan (in office 1998-2006) suggests that
the answer to this question is yes. Kukan was
a Czechoslovakian diplomat from 1964 until
1991 and dealt mainly with his country's
relations with different African countries.
As his country's foreign minister, he made
use of his language skill in Swahili, which
he learnt while studying at Moscow's State
Institute of International Relations. Hence
today's political leaders may rely on quali-
fications and personal contacts, acquired in
the past, to revive the partnership of their
states with certain ACP countries.

* Freelance journalist.







Keywords
Bulgaria; Poland; Slovakia; South Africa;
FRELIMO; MPLA.


COURIER






ACP-EU Interaction


Andrea Marchesini Reggiani (.ltiirt l nnlir il


Culture is a fundamental tool
for the EU's external relations.
This is one of the themes that
has been emerging since 2007,
when the Council approved
an Agenda for Culture*, based
on three ambitious sets of
objectives: cultural diversity
and intercultural dialogue;
culture as a catalyst for
creativity; and culture as a
key component in external
relations.


planned within this Agenda was
held in Brussels on 29 and 30
September 2009, and addressed,
amongst others, the issue of the rela-
tionship between culture and develop-
ment. This issue was discussed by Odile
Quentin, Director General for Culture, and
Stefano Manservisi, Director General for
Development. Mr. Manservisi described the
shift that has been taking place in this rela-
tionship. Culture used to be last on the list of
importance in terms of development policy,
but now constitutes a transversal approach,
due to the recognition ofits key role in creat-
ing the correct foundations for dialogue.

The workshops of the Forum involved cul-
tural analysts from ACP countries, and
interesting comparisons were made between
the Culture programme (targeted at Europe)
and the ACPCultures programme (targeted
at ACP countries). The ACPCultures pro-
gramme has not been operating for long,
and therefore has less experience, with less
funding available for a greater number of
countries (6M for the 79 ACP countries,
compared to 400M for the 27 European
countries). ACPCultures also has lower visi-
bility among the target audience of citizens.

Francisco D'Almeida (of the Culture and
Development Association) communicated
the impatience of African field operators,
and their desire to witness the concrete
application of local and national policies
which benefit their day-to-day cultural
activities, and also to enjoy a better struc-
turing of national and interregional mar-
kets. The topic of visas for non-European


N. 15 N.E. JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010


Operators engage



in networking



activities


operators was also discussed. The European
cultural platforms, which are engaged in
the political lobbying of their governments,
were cited as an interesting model.

Indeed, networking is now a working prac-
tice which is applied to all cultural projects.
At the 3rd World Culturelink Conference,
which was held in Zagreb from 13 to 15
November 2009, discussions were held on
the status of cultural networks in relation to
national and transnational policy-making.
Culturelink Network is an institution which
is funded by UNESCO and the Council of
Europe, and its members highlighted the
importance of the redefinition of cultural
policies in the current period in which tech-
nology facilitates interaction and shapes
cultural practices in a constantly chang-
ing landscape of digital communication.


Key issues concerning the value of cultural
networks in sustainable development strate-
gies were emphasized through examples
from Latin America (The Latin American
Network of Art for Social Transformation)
and Africa (The ARTerial Network).

Therefore, the networking activities carried
out between operators represent a prior-
ity for cultural policy, and are essential to
address the urgent needs of cultural indus-
tries in the south of the world.
* Res. of the Council of 16th Nov. 2007, on a Euro-
pean Agenda for Culture, in The Official Journal of the
EU C 287/1, 29.11.2007.

Keywords
European Cultural Forum; Culturelink
Network
















a lu Il'lI lu



I I1












eratio n which should evIentully lead to greater conIderation of the wishes of both European

loalauhriie ndbeeicar aton he i oms oplnnn E ad


si

KhalifaSall, Mayor of Dakar, Senegal, at the
'Conference on Decentralised Cooperation', Brussels.
SCommittee ofthe Regions


P participants from all ofthe continents
met in Brussels at the Committee
of the Regions, a European Union
institution, with a view to discuss-
ing projects, programmes and future per-
spectives for decentralised cooperation,
but above all to define the role played
in the whole process by local authorities.
In the opinion of the Commissioner for
Development ofthe European Commission,
Karel De Gucht, "Local and regional
authorities bring with them a valuable view-
point and unique experience and abilities as
far as action on questions of development
is concerned". His view won the backing


of Luc Van den Brande, President of the
Committee of the Regions, who stated that
"NGOs are already highly active in this
field. We should not aim to imitate them,
but rather to focus our efforts on quality of
management of development aid among our
partners at a local and regional level".

On top of the general debate, four round
tables formulated recommendations:

*Effectiveness of aid. A "good" project
is one which is defined by people accord-
ing to their specific needs. It is there-
fore necessary to take local authorities
into account in the drafting of European
development policy.

* Local governance. This implies the par-
ticipation of all local and regional actors,
governments, civil society and the general
population. Local authorities must admin-
ister a portion ofthe aid, which should not,
for example, allow for budgetary aid.

* Energy. Local action is particularly
important as far as protection of the
environment and climate change, is con-
cerned. Examples of this can be found
in the energy independence of the city of
So Paulo, Brazil, which produces exactly
45 per cent of its own energy require-
ments, or the reforestation process in
Paris, France.


* Millennium Development Goals -
Health. Only very rarely do local authori-
ties take part in the planning of health
policy, and it is vital that this should
change.

The immediate decisions announced at the
close of the meeting were the following:
the compilation of an 'atlas' listing coop-
eration programmes and projects involving
European local authorities; the continua-
tion of the process of dialogue following the
initial meeting; and the setting up, among
other initiatives, of an Internet forum on the
subject of European funds for decentralised
cooperation.

In a declaration made by the Director
General for Development, Stefano Manser-
visi, the European Commission made a
significant commitment to work towards a
greater integration of the views of local and
regional authorities in EU policy, within the
framework of United Nations action on the
Millennium Development Goals (MDG) in
2010. H.C.




Keywords
Committee of the Regions; European
Commission; Conference on Decentralised
Cooperation; WCO; Karel De Gucht;
Stefano Manservisi; Hegel Goutier.


COURIER






ivil Society on the move


w-


*1 I r


Philippe Lamotte*


sets up in flfrica

Greenpeace activists at the 2007 EU-Africa Summit, Lisbon, Portugal. Reporters/AP

Long established in Europe and the Americas, Greenpeace is now making its presence felt in
Africa, tackling climate change, deforestation and overfishing. The rationale behind this move
is that a better management of natural resources should be beneficial, in the long run, to food
security and combating poverty.


Interview with Michelle Ndiaye Ntab, Greenpeace Africa Executive
Director and expert in governance, health and development


N ews from Greenpeace in recent
months has certainly shown a very
African slant. The South African
Kumi Naidoo, holder of a doctor-
ate in political sciences from the University
of Oxford, was appointed last autumn as
the new Executive Director of Greenpeace
International, while Michelle Ndiaye Ntab,
from Senegal, recently took the helm of the
'rainbow' organisation's three first offices in
Africa: Cape Town, Kinshasa and, opening
soon, Dakar.

What is your image of Africa?

Michelle Ndiaye Ntab: After a long time
as an Afro-pessimist, I now have a more
balanced view. True, there is a stagnating
Africa, an Africa of bad governance and
corruption, one that is desperately short
of visionary governments and whose civil
society, without a sounding board, is not
managing to make itself heard. But there is
also an Africa that is largely neglected by the
media, an Africa that is on the move. Take


N. 15 N.E. JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010


I Michelle Ndiaye Ntab. CGreenpeace

Burkina Faso, for example. Landlocked
and over-dependent on cotton, in the space
of a few years this country has managed
to diversify its agriculture to a significant
degree, exporting French beans and cherry
tomatoes to the European Union. And then


there is the Africa group's common stance
a few weeks before the Copenhagen climate
change conference, which was a first, and
the development decisions that have been
implemented since 2000-2001 by NEPAD
(New Partnership for Africa's Development),
in particular as regards motorways and fibre
optics. Africa is changing!

Telephone services, of course. But promoting
motorways in Africa? That will need some expla-
nationfor the Europeans in Greenpeace!

If we want to free regional markets, an
infrastructure must be provided which ena-
bles people and products to move from one
country to the next, especially when there
is no access by sea. It is quite absurd that
goods currently have to be transported via
Belgium or France to go from one African
country to another! If our markets open
up to one another, they will then be able to
freeze out certain products from developed
countries that massively undercut our local
prices. That said, environmental concerns






Civil Society on the move


are also becoming more important within
NEPAD.

It is sometimes said thatAfrica needs strong lead-
ers and cannot ia. the luxury of democracy.

If Africa is where it is today, it is because at
one time it was believed that it was not impor-
tant to have strong political institutions.
The important thing was the need to attract
investors and, with their money, to keep the
economy running. The problem is that now
Africa is being asked to do in fifty years what
Europe did in three centuries. The West
sometimes forgets that a nation is always
built in stages. It is my fundamental belief
that the coming of democracy goes hand in


hand with the emergence of a strong civil
society, strong parties and strong leaders.

What are Greenpeace's priorities in Africa?
Willyou adopt the saine methods as those prac-
tised by European and American supporters?

It all depends. In the DRC, for example, we
are working a lot with grass-roots communi-
ties from regions that have, until now, been
spared deforestation. In South Africa, we
are dealing with a more educated and aware
urban and semi-urban population, and so
there we can lobby the government directly.
We denounce certain political decisions or
the scheming of polluting industries, but we
also place a lot of emphasis on the alterna-


tives and their benefits. After just one year,
Greenpeace Africa already has 3,800 mem-
bers, all private individuals, each paying
5.50 per month. In the autumn of 2008
we carried out an extensive communication
campaign via community TV and radio sta-
tions, and it was very exciting to see how
quickly our profile rose across the continent.
If we continue to be so successful, in two or
three years we will be independent.
* Freelance journalist.



Keywords
Greenpeace; Africa; Michelle Ndiaye Ntab.


flCP ciuil society adopts



networking approach


At its meeting on 10 and 11 December 2009 in Brussels, the ACP Civil Society Forum decided to
set up a vast virtual network for dialogue between ail civil organizations and their focal points
in the 79 countries of Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific. The aim is to exchange information
on the major challenges facing the ACP at the halfway stage in their cooperation with the EU
within the framework of the Cotonou Agreement.


A t the opening of the meeting, Sir
John Kaputin, Secretary General
of the ACP group at the time,
declared: "Your participation in
the drawing up of regional and national
indicative programmes is vital, as is your


opinion on the analysis being undertaken on
the Cotonou Agreement at the halfway stage,
not to mention the negotiations on the eco-
nomic partnership agreements." Dominique
Delicour, of the European Commission's
EuropeAid cooperation office, invited the


Medical stock from a basic Health Unit in Aftout, Mauritania. EC/Caroina Martin Tirand


participants to take part in the regional
seminar, within the framework of structured
dialogue, which the Commission will hold
this year in Mali. She also invited forum
representatives to read the report drawn up
by the Commission's services on the partici-
pation of civil society (http://ec.europa.eu/
europeaid/what/civil-society/indexen.htm).

During the meeting -the third since the
forum was established in 1997 -the civil
society representatives complained about
the Commission's "complex and bureau-
cratic" procedures. They also appealed to
the Commission to involve experts from
the ACP more in the programmes concern-
ing them. "The Commission's practice of
sending European experts does not produce
exchange or knowledge transfer; on the
contrary, the numerous reports drawn up
are not used and are a waste of time and
money", pointed out one representative.
M.M.B.

Keywords
ACP Civil Society Forum; Sir John
Kaputin; Dominique Delicour.


COURIER












MnE i1r


ik


NIIII


A glimmer of recovery in 2010? Debswana I


Ji W hen Europe, America and
Japan are not buying dia-
monds, it means we have
no revenue. The result
is that we have had to make big cuts in our
budget. Firstly, the year-on-year budget: in
the last one the development part was cut by
5 per cent and the recurrent by 7 per cent.
We have had to forego some of the projects
that we wanted to embark upon", said the
minister. What's more, Botswana's Middle
Income Country status means that access to
international donor funds has become more
difficult over the past two years.

Diamond sales originally fell off in the
run-up to the holiday period at the end of
2008. "We had two periods when not a
single diamond was sold for two successive
months: October 2008 and Christmas 2008.
A number of mines closed and workers were
laid off. It did not make much sense to keep
on producing the diamonds when they are
not being sold and stockpiled. The price


was affected and there were no buyers even
at lower prices. Happily, we have started
selling diamonds again but we have not yet
caught up and are still at 2007 levels", said
the Minister.

Botswana's tenth National Development
Plan has been affected. This six-year devel-
opment plan approved in August 2009 start-
ed late because of revenue uncertainties.
"Even now, we do not think we are yet out
of the woods. The result is that we had to
draw down on our reserves. We are borrow-
ing much more than we have done before",
Minister Skelemani told us. He added that
borrowing was vital to keep on track some
of projects such as the construction of three
big dams in the southern part ofthe country
which has no water or rivers. The Minister,
however, said that spending cuts would not
affect the flow of government funds to pur-
chase of anti-retroviral drugs for the large
number of Batswana infected with the HIV/
AIDS virus.


N. 15 N.E. JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010







Trade


th -im n e, a er caia in vembr2 .0 Hipedit*e rhe l
tniv buies on a glba sae ba ---eh -en t e in 200 -vhl

say .dd.-. -aad Cie .xcuie sae ... nte- *o **13 b in 2008,


* .eaduat*e in the- Femihtw f frcssasih eo 0.4 pe cent-in

80 pe cen glba make e of th in 200 --ewl poal av ow

rog -im n rd an 50 pe cen of -ni 201 foe ulrcv ntecn


I Diamond mine, Botswana. eDebswana


> aggregation delayed

Since April 2009, the country has been able
to sell its diamonds again but is now looking
beyond government financing to develop its
diamond or minerals 'hub' operated by the
Diamond Trading Company of Botswana
(DTCB). The government has its sights set
on the private sector buying up to 49 per
cent of shares in DTCB. "This is one area
where the private sector should be quite
happy to join in. We had thought this should
basically be a government thing but obvi-
ously we can't go ahead this way anymore",
said the Minister.

The aim is a state-of-the art centre of excel-
lence for polishing, cutting and crafting


diamond jewellery and where aggregation
can also be carried out. Aggregation is the
blending of rough like-for-like diamonds for
sale with those from other parts ofthe world
such as South Africa, Canada, Tanzania
and Namibia with Botswana's. It was due
to get underway in the country from 2009.
"Aggregation has been moved back by one
year precisely because of the instability,
but it is definitely coming because we think
we produce the best gems by value. We do
not see why aggregation should be done in
places that do not produce diamonds", the
Minister told The Courier.

The December 2009 decision by UK-based
Firestone Diamonds plc, which has min-
ing operations in both South Africa and


I Tourism has so far held up. D Percival


Botswana, to start up commercial diamond
kimberlite operations in the BK11 mine in
northern Botswana is a sign of the sector
picking up -although in this case, it is a for-
eign, rather than a domestic concern that is
putting up new money for the mine's devel-
opment. Operations are due to begin ahead
of schedule in the first quarter of 2010 with
full production capacity of 1.5M tonnes of
diamonds to be in place in the third quarter
of 2010. Philip Kenny, the company's Chief
Executive Officer said in a press statement
that the decision was taken due to the pro-
jected shortfall in rough diamond supply
which is expected to drive diamond prices
higher in the coming years.

Botswana's tourism, another big revenue
earner, has so far held up, said Minister
Skelemani. This is in part due to the fact that
people tend to book holidays to Botswana
in advance and do not change plans at
the last minute, and also that the country
has unparalleled landscapes; the Okavango
Delta, the Chobe National Park and the
Central Kalahari Game Reserve. Botswana
is also hoping to reap benefits from the 2010
FIFA World Cup in neighboring South
Africa, having recently extended the airport
in its capital, Gaborone to take long-haul
jets from March 2010. D.P.




Keywords
Botswana; Phandu Skelemani; diamonds;
DTCB; FIFA 2010.


COURIER







Trade


A tariff deal between Latin American countries and the
European Union (EU) in December 2009 in the World
Trade Organisation (WTO) in Geneva hails the end of
a 15-year banana trade dispute, one of the longest-ever
global trade wars. Eastern Caribbean farmers hit out.


Banana seller. aReporters/AP I


T he core ofthe deal agreed by the EU
and Latin American Ambassadors
is a phased cut in the EU's banana
import tariff from the current rate of
f176/tonne to 114/tonne in 2017 at the earli-
est. It includes an initial reduction of 28/
tonne to f148/per tonne on the signing of the
deal by ail parties, expected in early 2010.

Latin American countries have in return
agreed to demand no further cuts in tariff
when the WTO's Doha Round of global
trade talks resumes. As part of the package,
the United States has also agreed to drop
ail its banana cases against the EU in the
WTO, some of which have been pending
since 1993.

When The Courier went to press, the EU
Council still had to approve the agreement
ahead of the signing the deal with Latin
American countries and the settlement
agreement with the US. Under the recent-
ly-ratified Lisbon Treaty, the European
Parliament must also give its consent. "This
is the best possible deal we could achieve. It
reconciles all parties' legitimate interests. I
know African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP)
producers will face challenges in adjust-



N. 15 N.E. JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010


ing to the new situation, but the EU will
do its best to help", said EU Development
Commissioner, Karel De Gucht.


> Compensation

The EU has pledged up to 200M to be dis-
bursed between 2010 and 2013 to improve
the competitiveness, economic diversifica-
tion and mitigate the social consequences of
adjustment in ACP banana growing states.
The EU says what was agreed in Geneva
both gives the ACP countries time to adapt
and will mean more predictability in the
banana market. Eastern Caribbean produc-
ers are not convinced.

"The countries in the ACP group which
export bananas to Europe are far from happy
with the 'deal'", says Secretary General of
the Windward Islands Farmers Association
(WINFA), Renwick Rose. He says that
Latin American exporters, dominated by
the US multinational trio of Dole, Del Monte
and Chiquita, have more than 80 per cent
of the European market for themselves. By
contrast, the Windwards; St.Vincent and
the Grenadines, St. Lucia and Dominica)
only have a one per cent share, posing no


threat to Latin American domination. He
adds: "Lowering the tariffs means that they
can market their bananas even more cheaply
than us thereby forcing our producers out of
business".

Rose fears that the "grossly inadequate"
compensation will take time to flow and
raises questions about whether it will actually
reach farmers. He says the pledged EU com-
pensation pot has to be shared by all produc-
ers in the ACP group including Cameroon,
Cte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Suriname and Belize.

The EU, ACP and Latin American coun-
tries also agreed in December 2009 on a
common approach on the so-called 'tropi-
cal' and 'preference erosion' products in
the on-going Doha Round negotiations in
the WTO where 'tropical products' will be
subject to deeper tariff cuts, while tariff cuts
for 'preference erosion' products of interest
to ACP countries will be conducted over a
relatively longer period. D.P.


Keywords
Bananas; Renwick Rose; WINFA;
Karel De Gucht; WTO; Doha Round;
Windwards.

















With her slender 6ft 2in
frame, beauty, elegance
and intelligence, the Greco-
Gabonese model Gloria Mika,
icon of the couturiers and
designers of luxury beauty
products and muse of famous
musicians, has just seen her
fame take a quantum leap.
Her appeal to the goodwill
of her fellow models in
setting up 'Guardian Angels
for Transparency' to oversee
the Gabonese elections last
August, and in other countries
where the people's choice
was on the point of being
denied, created quite a buzz
on the internet. Since then
Gloria Mika has been much
in demand, and has taken a
stand for a variety of causes,
always with diplomacy,
professionalism and courage,
even if it means making
enemies in the corridors of
power.




G I t.'llr ~\ l bl hli I.' I'! i, ,,r
1 I t- I 'I l ii *l`ui ilU. I i .
Ir,,.'. >.\Lh`.-iri li i. *I,`.i ` l 11.,, I, `. .
Slit l-.l r l' t li I i i l i lu i I l
1 11 l`. II. !.*,* `' t'.hl r uli>.l ,- ,' ll. i 1 .'.'i .
li. L `.' l k > lu N ,,!>1 \\. ,-',. .' ... **I L, il. I I
tl.' .lt ,I. ., -. 1 I. .. 1 r .'... ; l. i i- lit [I, 1
S 11l. Ih >. i' l`.-'.1 l, ', I l l lli',,, I l. il ,l-
III..AL. !`.' ." l t1>l Lb]`. I t l'll. [ l lll'..-- . I
. 1 [. li | rlt i 1 l ', Ll '. [ I iI!iL`..-LiL i,,u t. 'l i
*,*I l i tl. -u il .. ', 1 ,',.I- .I i > -1 u 1l
.1 l I.l. l. ,IMul I1 i i, l ilu ill *Ii I |'1. "-u. 1libI',


flight of the Guardian


flngel of Democracy


I l. _u lr, l l i i l I .i *** i l 'i Li .1 1
i ii i i- ; i ,I r.it..lt. h t-i .\.tl -i r i l*lt l i > l
I r l.* 1. ,I !I r--I '. *I 1 !'. l...r 1 .l* 'u, I l 1L
t ,ll ,' 1. ,, u 1 l, l .I .;. t l,,t 1 .'L ,,u l [ ,1 L ,,



\t i-i I l i.. 1.h thi ,u!-i.' l i t.l [1li l .
. ll. i l t. t i l Ili. h I .'., li-! u.,,u u -


I rM ,- : ,. 1H. l ., t, l'. , i i, ,..
. l.r ,,, ,, '. in .11\ .,' ,. ,', ,i, i 1 ,/.
.u.i r1 ,,,; .1i. ,1`. W .\ _.1. id ll!-. -.u i
u.'. ,]| l t- ul' .'. lil t .-Iiu`. 1 ,,t "h l ..u
i i i i li \\ i l l i i -u
uI'.1 hv.,.h Lb', !1'.',. ,! I 'lu. L t!',. !' ,. Lliu- Iu "
*Ih ..,.lh l. 1 11 .I 1 .l II| ,. I >\\ k .. l' ls I..,,u nl ',..
,I lu't- lu-t -',. I i! ui' I' .I. i l.,`l i, '
\ l'i l,. *'l i. l" I .ill '. I l ut- l.. i ,u l. i,,l il i


I.h,. l.r I. \ hli' 'l. l ii'iu *i '. i.,, i


COURIER


11 1 liq 1111111- 1;1







Zoom


Gloria Mika was born in Libreville, Gabon,
and her family moved to Senegal for three
years when she was six, a period ofher child-
hood which she remembers very vividly. At
the age of 15, she went to the Rocheambeau
French International High School in the
U.S., Washington DC, and three years later
went to live in Paris, where she attended
the Sorbonne University, taking a BA in
Communication and Public Relations. She
went on to complete her studies at the
American College in Athens, specialising
in the management of non-profit-making
organizations, and taking a course in politi-
cal analysis too. She is intending to present
her doctoral thesis on Gene Sharp, the theo-
rist ofthe end ofhistory, and his relationship
with the advocates of non-violence, Gandhi
and Martin Luther King.

At the tender age of 15, she had already par-
ticipated in a fashion show as part of a cul-
tural evening in Gabon. But it was when she
took part, at the age of 17 and just for fun, in
the Miss Metropolitan contest in Washington
D.C., where she was chosen as runner-up,
that she began to attract attention. Within
a short space of time, she was invited to two
relatively high-profile shows, at galas of the
World Bank and then the U.N., where she
met the Nigerian designer Alphadi, with
whom she maintains a close relationship.
When she came back to Paris, she met the


(In July, I met up with

the Tamils to give them

my support, advocating

the basic principles

of my movement,

that is, based on

non-violence>



Senegalese designer, Claire Kane, and then
all of the other major figures in fashion fol-
lowed.


> H different kind of icon

Gloria Mika has already been involved in
a number of development projects in poor
countries, like, for example, an educational
project in a Haitian shanty town. It was her
disappointment at the turn of events in the
campaign for the elections of 30 August
2009 in Gabon which drove her to take the
crucial decision to temporarily suspend her
modelling work and to launch, on the 20
July, her appeal for the 'Guardian Angels',
first on Facebook and then on her own
specially-created website. Just a few hours
later, the first registrations began to flow in,
and within a few days figures were already
in the hundreds. The time available was too
short to have an significant effect on the
transparency ofthe elections, but the frenzy
of interest sparked off by the appeal of this
iconic beauty led the worldwide media to
reveal the irregularities of the elections and
to publicise the instances of police brutality
with which they were riddled.

Gloria's new activities have well and truly
taken off, and she is now a different kind of
icon, who is listened to as well as admired.
She is careful to establish safeguards to avoid
the 'Guardian Angels for Transparency'
being taken over by individuals with their
own personal agenda or projects of a dubi-
ous nature. Members ofthe association must
be pacifists and must not be affiliated to any
political party. But now Gloria is in demand
everywhere: organizations and personalities
from Guinea, Congo, and the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, intellectuals and
activists, all appeal to her, asking her to take
part in their different activities. She speaks
at conferences and think tanks involving
experts, researchers and politicians, and
at events which even include Tamil activ-
ists. "In July, I met up with the Tamils to


I Gloria Mika in front of La Bastille, Paris, symbol of the
Declaration of Human Rights. Hegel Gouter



N. 15 N.E. JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010


give them my support, advocating the basic
principles ofmy movement, that is, based on
non-violence." Elsewhere she continues to
go all out to mobilise as many angels as pos-
sible. For a future campaign, 'Breaking the
Silence', based on the three wise monkeys
who will see, hear or speak no evil and relat-
ing this to the international community in
the aftermath ofthe elections in Gabon, she
enjoys the support of famous designers and
ofher model colleagues who also want to use
beauty in the service of democracy.


So many of the constant barrage of tel-
ephone calls she receives come from sources
worried about her safety that in the end she
asks if they have heard anything about a spe-
cific threat. "I'm not frightened because I
don't have any enemies. I just want to make
my own little contribution as a citizen to
help governments govern better. If anyone
wants to kill me, let them get on with it. The
only thing they'll have left is my corpse and
my disobedience." H.C.


Keywords
Gloria Mika; Gabon; Guinea; Congo;
elections; 'Guardian Angels for
Transparency'; Elite; Ungaro; Diesel;
Escada; Pierre Cardin; Alphadi; Paul
Mitchell; Kathy Heyndels; Yianos Xenis;
Misu Mitsu; Chris Aire; Cline Dion;
Wyclef Jean; Sweetest Girl; Akon; Wayne;
Hegel Goutier.























































I Installation at the 2009 UN Climate Change Conference, Copenhagen, Denmark. Reporters/UPP

The poorest and most vulnerable developing countries came to Copenhagen knowing they had

the least to offer and the most at stake. They came away with little.


Ji W e fought for everything
we came out with and
Sw as you can see we didn't
S come out with much",
Dessima Williams, representing Grenada
and the Alliance Of Small Island States
(AOSIS), told 192 nations in the early
hours of 19 December as the Copenhagen
climate summit crumbled to a close. But,
as did Ethiopia on behalf of the African
Union (AU) and Lesotho on behalf of the
Least Developed Countries (LDCs), she
urged those present to adopt the three-page
'Copenhagen Accord' announced 12 hours
earlier by US president Barack Obama.

The same accord had subsequently been
rejected by several developing nations
including Sudan, whose charismatic leader
Lumumba Di-Aping said it asked Africa
"to sign a suicide pact". Ultimately, the
accord was "noted", not adopted, by the


plenary and world governments agreed to
continue the international climate talks,
albeit with no deadline for their conclusion
or agreement that they should result in a
legally-binding treaty. "I will not hide my
disappointment. Our level of ambition has
not been met. There is no agreement on
the need for a legally-binding agreement",
a tired and defeated-looking European
Commission President Jos Manuel Barroso
told journalists. The accord "will not solve
the climate threat", he said.


> Poorest nations take a stand

The Copenhagen Accord and decisions to
continue talks under both the Kyoto protocol
and broader UN Framework Convention on
Climate Change (UNFCCC) were the main
results ofthe conference. The accord is weak
however, and vague on specifics. It details no
emission cuts, nor what share of long-term


financing will come from the public versus
the private sector. Fast-track funding pledges
currently amount to $25bn, not $30bn.

Explicit references to bunker fuels, a levy
on which could meet up to a quarter of
long-term financing needs according to
green transport group T&E, were scrapped.
Malawi had led LDCs in a push for refer-
ence to such a levy.

Some have suggested the chaotic experience
of the Danish summit could shift the inter-
national climate talks to a new forum, such
as the US-led Major Economies Forum
(MEF) or the G20. This would leave the
poorest without a voice just as that voice is
gaining volume.

Ethiopian prime minister Meles Zenawi,
who led Africa's first-ever joint negotiating
team in Copenhagen, said Africans were


COURIER







Our p^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^anet^^^SwK S^




THE COPENRGE HCCORD FORSTSS^

SCIENCE the acord rcognise MARKES: theaccord upport mar- nD yptBl^^^^^
t^^^hat glo!bal emprBtre isBei1^^^Bi^ 1111l *Mn kets, keein th Ioo open cap
limited to 2'C. A review i^^n 205 il^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^I an-rd scee an taes als fo MU RETSBr B^^EFT
cons^^^^^ ITi(de(j whe isther QiBC th goa 1hul 1e inentoa avato an ship ping. ^ ^^^^^
strengt^BBIhelHnBeMd SiEElM to 1.'C FIACIG deeoe contie 1i aH^^^^^^^^^^
MITIGATION: developed countries will prov^?idene[!HBB 11111on LUttrc 11fund-^^^^^^^
^^^^^^^file 202 [ emissi o WfB edBuct3iion pleges n^^Bg "prahn"U$0b o h hr assm r so
to^^^^^^^1 ^fthe UNFCCiiCMby heen o B JMIBM H* pT per^^Tio 2010-12, witht heBly poorest most^^^^^^^ 1rf tM^ehnical txsi n Copenha-!i^^^^^^^^^^
20^^^^^^^ 10.*Tjl 1o Jmuch and ho definedT i*W9sK vulne*IlM* wWaUBv eKvlHl t l gS*I*W ity.lW^^^^^f geWn c verngisue m(yfrolmKl ipeform ^^^^
up ^^^^^^y ^^^^^^^ iSlCnoify itS^igaionaciont edms olo oilsn onl S1Ob utwtotare eto
^^^^^^^ BtTsicall mitSTT eSMTith"poisi on o erb 22"frdvlSigcu -lgal-idn ret hs et
international consl tat=HB i on" ctos tre.ar ok i rgrs.Conr
a^^^^^^^B(3sid STTb|y TSTlopdntoswl eG V RA C :AU FCC"o i ge nsm mrvmnst
international mnitred 17hgn re Clmt Fud wil th KyotBo3ii^^^^^ nBti^n prtco' fflea DvJel M op-^^^^
ADAP^^^^^^* T ATI ON: develoSsji^[pedcutis mnaemtgto-rltdciaemetMcaim(C Mw hlt




- DE^^^^ l'gMi^FOR ESTA ION:asot para- countries are M qal rrepBK BTeBBent pid. this, coun tisha ckpoe
graph ^^^KM-says Reul n ilBPS iM ss^Kionsffrom ^^K^TECHO LOY tcnlg eh ilinftr eei rmdfr
Deforesta^^B t^iHo* n Ban Foes Deraa anppisTiT will be sejM t u oaclraepoetreitainfesadlas
tion (R^^^^^ E DD i^^ s "cruiaHl" and"psti ve tehnoloy devlopmet andtranser Th CDM xecutve bord wil als
incen^^^^^B^SMt^Bives ii-Pa "REDD+mecaim t eeopn aios eelptpdonmtodlg


there to negotiate, not stand by as victims. .. target to 30 per cent, suggesting its strategy
Ethiopia and France presented a financing for securing a meaningful deal had failed
plan calling for a global tax on financial dramatically.
transactions the Tobin tax and taxes on
aviation and shipping. African civil society UN climate chief Yvo de Boer insisted the
was present as never before, with Oxfam Copenhagen Accord was "politically incred-
campaigner, Tim Gore, saying the climate ibly significant" because it had involved doz-
talks increasingly resembled the interna- ens of world leaders in the climate change
tional trade talks. talks for the first time. It is this understand-
ing, that Copenhagen is the beginning of
The chaotic experience of the Danish sum- a beginning rather than an end, which
mit could shift the international climate Protester at the 2009 UN Climate Change Conference, prompted leaders from AOSIS, the AU and
talks to a new forum, such as the US-led Copenhagen, Denmark. Reporters/AP LDCs to back an accord some were ready to
Major Economies Forum (MEF) or the throw in the bin.
G20. This would leave the poorest without a to recognizing the need for substantial long- Freelance journalist.
voice just as that voice is gaining volume. term finance. But the EU, like Africa, failed
to see its ambitions materialise. Ultimately, Keywords
> EU climate strategy fails Europe was relegated to spectator status Climate change; Copenhagen; Africa
dramatitllas the US, China, India, Brazil and South Unione (UA); Least Developed Countries
(LDCs); Kyoto protocol; UN Framework
Africa did the deal. A frustrated Barroso Convention on Clate C amework
The EU and Africa were aligned on many said no one had shown interest in the EU's (UNFCCC); Jos ManuelBarroso; Meles
issues, from pushing for deep emission cuts offer to increase its 2020 emission reduction Zenawi; Yvo de Boer.


N. 15 N.E. JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010








eport '



.hni ".'e lit:,









1.
















ri hub connecting three worlds


rarely twice the size of Luxembourg. scattered across
ten islands, in a remote corner of the mid-Atlantic and
for the most part consisting of arid landscape (owing
to practically non-existent natural resources) and a
local population often forced to emigrate, Cape Verde has
achieved the great milestone of going trom one of the Least
Developed Countries (LDCs) to a Middle Income Country
(MIC). A poisoned chalice, no doubt, for a country which has
invested the enormous foreign aid it receives (predominantly
from the EU) in its internal development. This alone, however,
is quite an achievement. The secret of its success? Putting
strong governance and human rights at the heart of govern-
ment policy, to the extent that the 2009 Mo Ibrahim index
cites Cape Verde as a beacon of economic success and sound
governance. The real reason, however, or so you will be told
by those in power in the country, is to be found in its only
real resource: human capital whether living on the islands
or away from home. The locals (around 450,000) and those
who have left (numbering around 700,000) have constructed


a network, through which the Diaspora is a major actor in the
Cape Verdean economy.
But the country still faces a number of challenges: all-too-
palpable poverty, high rates ot unemployment, almost total
dependence in terms of tood and energy and a debt made ail
the more difficult to manage by the fact that the country will
not benefit much longer from the advantages which came
with its former LDC status. The answer? Give fresh impetus to
its role as a transit agent, which it has played since its incep-
tion. A road to the Americas, in particular South America, a
subcontinent with which the country has maintained strong
ties since the time ot Amilcar Cabral, and less than 3,000
km ot cabling away. A stone's throw trom continental Africa.
Finally, strengthened cooperation with Europe, thanks to its
belonging to the islands of Macaronesia, including the Spanish
Canaries (as well as the Porutguese Azores and Madeira archi-
pelago) at a mere 1,500km away. This is demonstrated by the
two-year-old Special Partnership between Cape Verde and the
EU, the only one of its kind among the ACP group.


COURIER





A -


Cidade Velha: in the Sao Francisco convent (restored with the aid of Spanish cooperation). c


A nation born of the first globalisation


eft alone to face the elements for
more than 14 centuries, except for
occasional landings by the Senegalese
or even, it is said, the Chinese, the
Cape Verde archipelago was not settled
permanently until 1460. It was then that
the navigator Diego Gomes took possession
of the archipelago. It became the property
of the Portuguese Crown in 1494. A land
of seafarers recruited for whale fishing and
a port of call for Portuguese vessels bound
for Brazil, from the beginning of the 16th
century Cape Verde also became a hub of
the slave trade between West Africa and
the New World. It is true that this chain of
islands -ten in ail, nine of which are now
inhabited -enjoys an "ideal" location: 600
km from Africa's most western point ("Cap-
Vert" in Senegal) and less than 2,600 km
from Brazil. It was from Ribeira Grande



N. 15 N.E. JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010


on the island of Santiago, where the slave
traders had to stop to pay duty and baptise
the slaves, that they then set off for the
Americas. The Cape Verdean settlers also
had slaves brought from the African conti-
nent to work on their plantations. This was
the beginning of a long and unique proc-
ess of the mixing or 'metissage' of the two
populations (European and African) trans-
planted to these virgin volcanic islands.




In 1533, Ribeira Grande became an autono-
mous diocese covering the whole of former
Guinea. The slave trade enabled the cotton
loincloth industry to develop on Santiago
and neighboring Fogo, the only inhabited
islands at the time. It was not until the 17th
century that people started to settle on the


I Cidade Velha : the 'pilhourino' where the recalcitrant
slaves were whipped. 0 Marie-Martine Buckens







report Cape Verde


In Porto Novo (Santo Antto island). O Mare-MartneBuckens

islands of So Vincente and Sal. The French,
Dutch and English traders, who were com-
peting for the monopoly on the African
coast granted by the Portuguese Crown,
used the loincloths as currency for procur-
ing slaves on the continent. In the middle of
the 17th century, Cape Verde's status as a
slave centre declined as the traffic moved to
the Guinean port of Cacheu. Thus deprived
of its principal source of revenue, Ribeira
Grande suffered its final blow in 1712 when
Jacques Cassard, the French pirate, sacked
the town. The capital was moved to Praia,
15 km from Ribeira Grande, now known as
Cidade Velha ('old town').

The 1866 Abolition of Slavery Treaty and
the separation of Guinea-Bissau from Cape
Verde was the death knell for the islands'
economy and sparked mass voluntary emi-
gration to the United States and -under
constraint of the Portuguese -to planta-
tions in their colonies of Angola and So
Tom and Principe. The departure of the
Portuguese colonialists enabled the Creoles
and the Blacks to accede to senior posts in
both religious and secular institutions.

Following the serious droughts of the early
20th century the archipelago entered one of
the darkest periods in its history, with the
Estado Novo ('New State') ofthe Portuguese
dictator Antonio de Oliveira Salazar (1889-
1970 and who ruled from 1933 to 1968). It
was under his regime that the 'greenshirts'
of his political police repressed any voices
raised in opposition, whether in Portugal or
in the colonies. Torture and deportations to
the 'death camp' of Tarrafal, on the island of
Santiago, became common. Despite the ban
on emigration, thousands of Cape Verdeans
managed to flee during the 1950s and
1960s, mainly to France, the Netherlands
and Belgium. It was in these countries that


most of the leaders of the Cape Verdean
independence movement were educated.




In 1956 in Bissau, along with four Cape
Verdean and Guinean patriots, the agricul-
tural engineer Amilcar Cabral, a native of
Santiago, founded the PAIGC, the African
Party for Independence of Guinea and
Cape Verde. Four years later, disregarding
UN General Assembly resolutions, Salazar
refused any dialogue on independence for
Cape Verde and Guinea. February 1963


The artistic village of Porto Madeira (Santiago
founded by the Cape Verdean artist Misa.
Marie Martine Buckens


saw the start of the armed struggle for
national liberation in Guinea-Bissau. The
Cape Verdeans and Guineans joined forces
in the resistance movement. Tarrafal prison
was soon full of African nationalists from
Cape Verde, Guinea and Angola.

On 20 January 1973, Amilcar Cabral was
assassinated in Conakry by traitors from
within the PAIGC. The perpetrators were
probably in the pay of the PIDE, the politi-
cal police of the fascist regime, although
this was never confirmed. In 1973 Guinea-
Bissau proclaimed its independence, fol-
lowed two years later, after the 'carnation
revolution' in Lisbon and the end of the
colonial war, by Cape Verde.

The adoption of the First Constitution,
which confirmed the PAIGC as the single
party, came in 1980. The coup d'etat in
Bissau in November saw the end of the plans
for a union of Guinea and Cape Verde. A
year later the PAIGV became the PAICV
(African Party for the Independence of
Cape Verde), with Marxist allegiance. In
February 1990, the PAICV announced that
it would be opening up to democracy. A
year later, the Movement for Democracy
(MpD), a party of more liberal persuasion,
demanded free elections that it went on to
win, appointing Antnio Mascarenhas as
president and Carlos Veiga as prime minis-
ter (currently leader of the opposition).


r The PAICV was returned to power in 2001
with Pedro Pires as president and Jos
r M Maria Neves as prime minister. Mr. Pedro
S Pires was re-elected in February 2006, beat-
-~'- ing former Prime Minister Carlos Veiga, the
I PAICV retaining a majority in the National
: Assembly. In his inaugural speech, Mr.
Neves restated his government's priorities:
S to encourage the growth and competitive-
. _. ness of the economy, to modernise the state
through civil service reform, to provide
training and jobs, to improve the health
d system and, finally, to recognize the family
as "the cornerstone of society". To facilitate
its vital relations with international financial
institutions, in 2006 Praia launched an aus-
S terity programme and, moreover, appointed
Cristina Duarte, previously president of
SCitibank in Angola, finance minister, and
Jos Brito, a former oil engineer, economy
minister and then foreign minister in 2009.
M.M.B.


Keywords
Diego Gomes; Cidade Velha; Amilcar
island) Cabral; Tarrafal; Salazar; Carlos Veiga;
PAICV; Pedro Pires; Jos Maria Neves.


COURIER


L






Cape Verde report


for development


The special partnership dating from November 2007 with Cape Verde sets the standard
for the way forward for every signatory of the Cotonou Agreement keen to strengthen its
cooperation with the European Union, states Josep Coll i Carbo, head of the European Union
Delegation in Praia.


hli par!nrship". C',ll i (.arb.j
:xplain'd, "'\\a' set up a[
thc rtLqu,.:t of ap .: Vrtdc in
[Ihu hlituf [iha [th1 ( .'[tonou
Agrccinin[ could bc lurlier >ic-cv.ip'd
t'ap: \V'.:rdJ sulihL [' linlk up -wilh Lhc
cl"."ctL, m1t.4l pr,,per'rus iani me.,- .ultur-
ali\ fliiiiliar arca I s[,ibiliiv. [thl luropean
Ilnlion. "l'hc lI wl s nEt [lthe ,nl\ i'rgalni nl
[L, rcsp 'nd p,'-it~e:, l,. [t is ili'llivi.e. nid
niLihcr stuishat: eulso sli.h.'n immi[iI lcnt
lu [he: inii[ia[\i c. al[hou)h for hsl[trical rea-
sIns P'ir[uaIl. Spain. FIran,.. IuxeLmbourg,
[hI Ntc[lhcrljiids and Aus[ria have -hiun [ht:
rea[i-[ iri ulviiie[il" i.primarilv Jue [L. [li
lIrge iumbhrs f .( qi'c VerJten- living in
[heSe n:[ins. ItJ r's, I. 'IJ



Ib i ".t i & .i' &. 7 lt i. 'i t'i J i,' p ir'" 'P in
! ",.,i,,h;



N. 15 N.E. JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010


I.: us nak. iL l,.:a.r ithai ih partnership \\a
based nil thll Co(tL u u A\grcclinc, }hicih
nliakL-s il pisi."hlI to sLL up n11\,- miilitiv.',
l'fr cL,,operatlin wh' .'h liadi no1 pr,:'iOulv
bhcn cmviagti \n'c ork Logclther ai .:quals.
puttinIg 'ur iI'Imm".n initrcs- n t he tahible
lhec lEuri'cpean Union >learl\ has tiratlcgi
initlrctL, boih cLnon'niL anti .',lnintLrcial.
Ir. Jdcfcni, buI in lEurpc iLhcrc i' a LcnJC'Ien
[.,rJis Ltrtuin c,,'nL..p[uIl disttriin -if
our rtlatioln- %ilh .\lrii. l'ht Eciiu o nit.
Par[neirship r n.\ct:imiin[- i EIPAs. ha[ \\
are in [lih pritcs- if nIeiup[Ia[Inl ;%vith [he
A(:C' mro,'up form part 'of [hi- ii[iai'.i, and
i\im 'vl hringing ths c., minf iciCs up ti date
,and ii iaki it po-_siblie, [lirugh v.in-irn
aireemntsni. ti g bpi' iiod [Lie d In r rcla-
[,nsliiip'. .'Cape \VerdJ is a true bridgelicad
for contin[tlen[ai \tri,.a and bn..ef is trin
a -[ra[ci. ,prescnti in [lie middle e ,t [he
Ailun[tc hcl1ping t.reuiie a ./'ne of s[abilryv
he[.een [lie tlirie. u.'n[inell[- n ils stuhili},.


COIFORIITY

WITH EUROPERfl

STHIIDRDS

The end of 2007 marked Cape
Verdes arrr.al on the international
stage and its promotion from the
grouLI of Least De eloped Countries
Vo the status of a iniddle-inc.ome
nation according to \i orld Bank
criteria The country also became
the 153rd member of the WV/orld
Trade Organisation iWTOi and
more importantly signed a special
partnership .'.ith the European Un-
ion ..,.hich should e..entuall / en-
able C:ape verde to deal .,.ilh Euro-







report Cape Verde


pean operators on an equal footing
Instead of piecenmeal actions this
partnership makes il possible to
better organise our technical and
normati e con ergence .'. .ih EU leg-
islation on the basis of si' pillars
e. plains Jose Luis M.onteiro Deputl
[Jational Authorising Officer for the
European De elopment Fund iEDFi
in the Cape Verde go ernment .I-
thoLigh normati e con ergence is
one of these si' pillars Praia prefers
[o ie Il as forming part of the other
fi e pillars namely good go..ern-
ance secuirit cooperation regional
integration the information and
kno,-ledge society and the combat-
ing of po erty This strategy is fLin-
damentally political in nature and in
addition to enhancing political cul-
tural and social cooperation aiis to
achie. e greater economic integration
, ith the outermost Atlantic regions
of the European Union in particular


One disappointment according to
Monteiro is that ..e ,.ere e. pecting
additional funds for this partnership.
but the only resoiirce earmarked for
this is the EDF .'.hich has not been
increased Despite that e -ill man-
age Cape Verde is also watching
, ith great interest the EU-Morocco
.Mssociation .Agreement the last
meeting of which resulted in a true
Cqualitati.e leap that Monteiro be-
lie..es should e...entually g,..e Moroc-
co a forin of semi-membership of the
European Union

. The pro Isic,Oil IroIralmiia Cl Euiiroc:-ean
,- miiiuniiv alJd I Caiie .erri i pro i.Je
11 il 5 mr..Iii rn l:ir Ihe- si;e1n l I r:. niii;rs.ih.p:. I
.,j i ,l 1f 51 mIalloii f[.r Ihe period :00o -
2013 ,.:,rresp )cniJ j ,ir. ihr. lOir EDFi
For deIgilI ul lihe lih EDF see Ihe [ullo'
.'.j a l..: le


however, is currently seriously endangered
by illicit trafficking, in the form of illegal
emigration, arms or drug smuggling and
money laundering. Major players have set
their sights on this region to enable them to
get closer to the West, but fortunately Cape
Verde has reacted to this danger with fore-
sight, and the government has, with the help
of our funding, set in motion a thorough
awareness-raising campaign and overhauled
its security systems.

This partnership is also -and I would like
to stress this point -an excellent exercise in
improving coordination between member
states and the European Union, imbuing
the action of each with greater coherence. As
such, a framework has been created which
benefits ail parties, and the EU Delegation
in Praia, with its newly-acquired status of a
Delegation in its own right, is now also able
to play a full part in this process.

You've talked about relations between the
European Union and Cape Verde, but what
about relations between the latter and the rest
ofAfrica?

Cape Verde can bring to West Africa and
ECOWAS (the Economic Community of
West African States) an Atlantic dimension
which compensates in part for the difficul-
ties posed by being part of a continent,
and adds a new dimension to the notion of
territoriality. In terms of the EPA negotia-
tions, Cape Verde has concentrated on the
services sector, while other members of
ECOWAS are more raw materials-focused,
which may in the long run enable a variable-
geometry agreement. Let us not forget that


Cape Verde also enjoys a strong relation-
ship with the Outermost regions (OR) of
Macaronesia, in particular the Canaries,
with which the archipelago shares impor-
tant synergies. The Frontex mechanism has
made it possible to significantly reduce the
illegal flow of emigrants via the Canaries.

What are Cape Verde's weak points?

Access to water and sanitation, on the one
hand, and on the other energy. These are
two areas in which the European Union is
providing support. Improvements in eco-
nomic performance have also resulted in a
greater divide between rich and poor, and
the Cape Verdean government is very much
aware of this.

And its strengths?

The ability of the Cape Verdean people to
function effectively anywhere, at home and
abroad. On a political level, I would high-
light the insight with which the government
has managed to 'de-ideologise' its foreign
policy. The political class is equally at ease
with representatives from the United States
and from China, to mention just two major
countries, and the fact that US Secretary
of State Hilary Clinton and the Deputy
Leader of the Chinese Communist Party
have recently visited Praia is proof of the
importance that these countries, in particu-
lar, attach to Cape Verde.
M.M.B.

Keywords
Josp Coll i Carbo; Cotonou Agreement;
EPAs; ECOWAS.


Left to right: Stefano Manservisi, European Commission Director General for Development, Jos Brito, Cape Verde's Foreign
Affairs Minister and Josep Coll i Carbo, Ambassador and Head of the EU Delegation to Cape Verde, during a reception
organised in Praia for Europe Day, May 2009. EC


COURIER






Cape Verde report


for continental


fifrica"


M ar tine Buckens


Interview with Jos Brito, Cape Verde's Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Cooperation and Communities


Cape Verde has decided to
deploy substantial funds
to attract investment. But
where, exactly? Primarily
in infrastructure ports,
airports, high-speed
communications to
transform the country into
a bridgehead for investors
attracted by the nearby
continent ofAfrica, which
has a predominantly young
population and is under-
equipped. Such investors will
core from the Americas, with
Brazil leading the way, as well
as from Europe and Asia.


t comes as no surprise to hear, by way
of introduction, Jos Brito explain that
against this background foreign policy
"represents a key instrument not just
in terms of development, but also with
regard to implementation of the strategy
to transform the country". Outlining his
approach, the Minister of Foreign Affairs
said: "Our nation has a stable political sys-
tem underpinned by a judicial system, which
is consistent and perfectible, and a public
administration which, due to the absence
of corruption, is an asset rather than an
obstacle to investment." The government is
focussing on its good management qualities,
widely recognized by the international com-
munity, to win over future partners. This
is because, in other respects, the country
hardly has an abundance of riches. "Human
resources are our only natural resource",
conceded Jos Brito.

Are you aiming to turn Cape Verde into an
international service centre?

What is Cape Verde? An archipelago with
a surface area of 4,000 km2 and a maritime


area of 550,000 km2 located at the cross-
roads between various continents. We want
to take advantage of our geostrategic loca-
tion. Cape Verde was one ofthe first nations
to embrace globalisationn" in the days ofthe
slave trade. The level of technology at the
time forced ships -and later aircraft -to
make a stop in Cape Verde. We would now
like to revive this historical situation in a
modern context. Look at maritime trans-
port, for example. Ports, in particular those
on the African continent, face increasing
difficulties receiving large containers. Our
country could act as a transhipment hub. We
also plan to make increasing security levels a
priority. This will serve us well, particularly
in trading with the US, which demands that
goods pass through secure ports.

This strategy also covers the fishing sec-
tor. I would like to turn the country into a
regional base for fishing services. We don't
have a continental platform and the species
of fish are essentially migratory. Pre-catch
is therefore not a profitable activity. Instead,
we aim to focus on upstream activities like
freezing and marketing. Essentially doing


N. 15 N.E. JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010







report Cape Verde


what Iceland has done buying, packaging
and re-selling fish products. The Chinese,
in particular, have a strong presence in this
sector. If we were able to sell our services to
their fleets and they were able to make my
strategy profitable, then why not?

New information and communications
technology (ICT) is another key element of
the strategy. There is already extensive fibre
optic coverage between the islands, and new
cables to South Africa, Europe and America
will be laid by the end of 2010, providing
us with access to a wide range of databases.
I have just returned from a trip to India,
where I put forward a strategic partnership
in ICT. There was interest in this. In this
context, our human resources -our only
natural resource -are vital in providing
added value for Cape Verde products. It is
essential that we strengthen our capacities
in this area to achieve our aim.

Is that to become a bridgehead for the sub-region?

Cape Verde only has a population of half a
million. That is not going to attract much
interest. The continent of Africa is therefore
of great importance to us strategically. We
are close to the West African market, which
has enormous potential for future growth.
Our integration into the sub-region is based
on this vision, which is actually nothing new.
It is something that Amilcar Cabral under-


stood. Achieving victory in Guinea Bissau
automatically meant independence for Cape
Verde. In this sense, the stability of the
sub-region is of fundamental importance.
Investors are not interested in regions where
there is unrest. This is where Cape Verde's
diplomacy plays a major role. Don't forget
that most of the agreements concerning
southern Africa -such as those on Angola
and Namibia for example -were negotiated
here. At the time of Apartheid, Cape Verde
allowed the aircraft of South African Airlines
to land in spite of the embargo. The same
for the Cubans en route to Angola. Lots
of issues have been resolved amicably in
the hotels of Praia, where everyone would
meet.

We are now applying this experience to
combating drug trafficking. Cape Verde was
the first African nation to successfully tackle
mafia networks. We have made this experi-
ence available to other western African
countries. This has produced an action pro-
gramme, which has become a 'bible' in the
fight against drugs. African countries are
more aware of the dangers of drug traffick-
ing. While they are transit countries today,
they risk becoming consumers in view of
their young populations. It is this way of
being 'useful' -also with regard to the issue
of people trafficking -which is of interest to
the European Union in the context of our
special partnership.


However, this opening up to the continent
is only possible now that Brazil has adopted
a genuine African policy, which will allow it
to diversify its exports.

Cape Verde does not have any natural resources,
but it could obtain some. You startedyour career
as an oil engineer, what is your view of oppor-
tunities in that sector? Has prospecting already
started along your coasts?

As far as that is concerned, I prefer to adopt
a prudent approach and tell myselfthat "our
human resources are our oil and these are
what should be refined." In view of environ-
mental issues in the developed world, there
will also be increasingly less demand for
polluting activities.

F', .i. what about your relations with China?

As elsewhere in Africa, China has a pres-
ence here. Whatever one might say, China
offers Africans an alternative option. The
days when only French or UK companies
operated here have gone. Today, options are
beginning to open up for Africa and it must
protect its interests. M.M.B.





Keywords
Jos Brito; Cape Verde.


mi




I.
m mu


I Mindelo harbour (Sao Vicente island). Marie-Martine Buckens


COURIER







eport


through the crisis"


Meeting with the Finance Minister of Cape Verde, Cristina Duarte


'itaic n in a rmcinolu area o.f llih
Atintk ti can, 'wIh \-urv lit-
llc fru'i w-atur, C .ap \' Verdi il
htuilvilv dicp,.n:diLii t'i h oulsid
w.rdi. hbith lfinaniiailv idiret f'Treigii
inversiniiiii aicuunts It r t 1 per cenit or
tl;)P, Inlli."n, -'iit hoiime hb., t.mirani's_
12 per ccnt anid dc-velopmicnt aid 11
pur Lcnit,, j.as vll ius r als 'upplics
% ilh Iiniiiiied fisllini and aori.ulture:
rcsuurcc,, [his .o'unirv inlade ulp 'It
griup ,t' i-lnds a is f'rccd tw 'nipouri
fiiod [ ii c Iter miore [h [;.vo-hirls ut'
ilt ncds Thie servit sctor 72 pecr
Lent t s c[.'n 'ml rcli- hei'il, i n
[lurism. ;vhilc Iintri-trui.uri dlcp,-ildis
on public l.'on.l ssiiniarl, hli. o [heilm-l
Seltes relv -mn ueuTeriial a,id. hilei i ,s
htpeuJ liha recn2t:lly dllnn un:.'cd pri. a-
rli-'ati'ns' illh v a pi- ilc-t' iiL npli.l In
',p'iLu l ail hcc handicaps. ini tilihanki
lr. a'unid nianagcnicnL iLt l' inJani4 c,
li th o.unrrv ha' hicn abile Lt rLetiii [tl-H
ontliJinutc ,'f maltr J''ii'r'. al',t are
cru ui l it iL ii dlnl,.: iale 'ur\-i'til.

I7i,, ha, rip, iird' ,''a alt_,'J M h\ lu,'
SIn ijt .ia" li '.itsi

C apc. VcrJ ia snail '.unlr\ cvath an
op.In tc.n.m. A\, suit, it '_as boundi [k
suftcr trr'nm the cI-fIlfe.s [ue ric -i-, niiamtcl
[hrougih lower rutenue in [thi ke,, sc.t,'rs
Lot dirci. fi'rign ilecstmenlt, [ourismi und
:-p',or[s. Still, Iv Itai'.'i naiageud i- r.ciatih-
cr thb -[rnr bv' iniaintuiiii our sirtn.;,,
,iadptt:i in 211,11, 't rigp'ro'us ini.agni-crl[
o t'public tunds lcf'.rc then, ur tinantc.is
',re in a J ar, suate. Ini 2t101, wve put in palui.t
.o'ndi[iliins that ['atour grti., llt, allit, inc us
tL athict, sustaincJ ccononiiii qr'c'krh over
ith past [hrce vears


1"Uati Jid Yt J. '?

We ii i'tk a,.itni orn s.ciral t'rints r ,\ sa\ "i-
muardedti [hie hudmit. ui particular hb, ligin-
uiLr internal prieu- 1,ane;:,, luel ,riand L
ivith uiilcrnaiiina il nllc s W't: ,lsi pr'te.t.icLt
vulncrable p.'rpulati'ns bh, doubling s,,.ial
peLnsitons. salarcs and rcducin li ih la
burdcn on u tiilic- In addition. ,c imple-
inintte.J ,i ccr;, amnbitiiou- public, itinr cscnint
prigranimme, doubling ii in [hrcet vstar- In
211ii0. veW -ignitr.iantl, rltduct.d business
ta\es. We tii'tk st ,.eral [cps tio tfsct [ias


los' in LJX r.3-Vnu. nl ,Labhv bv liarnls'-
inl add.iitinal resturLces bv hiuntli-
111. aii ippleal t[' .ur parinert' iii lith
iiillrnatii.nal conimmunil, 111 particular
Ihe lEur-,pcinn Unit-n. 'l' t recp,'ndcd
bh pro\-iding budIlt,.arv aid All lthes
nia-iur- arc b'ilsiered hb, t'iipruihtn-
silt mianaement:ll.i nif public. Ulainaccs
,inJ ,i ltaible ionll tar; p lit'.,, alklis tn
niion, [,i be -cint lihine [to fanmilics hb
[hb."cv b''hob hbc leti [hte L.uni[r',, whlici



IL',. J, \i', e ih s h,1'i/ t i i ii fr-tu -,

Our p.i' s,, lis cer[,ainl., hornei truin In
200'' ,iali dishurstmniens .-rt: ,.hiet:d.
A-s tiar ,as 2i1il aIs .Inccrn1d, W; have
a budget chich i, hbLi prudnt and
aaibuitu'. l'rudcnt. a"s wct f'rcsce an
S increa'c in current cX'cpnJiture +4 2
per tcni 1citLhin mnianagiuablu hlintis
I AnIJ imbi litu, as ,ur public in'.-1t-
InLIi -lltulJ nll.rC .a hv 21' 1 per cLIII
.,mplinrcd 1r. 2'0 PubliL d:bt hlitulJi
hlit'.-r art-unJ 12 per >.cnr. Ttins i' hillh.
'" agr d. but 'u Ltaain.abl]. a, il itri.:'
Ire',ii inv'.:-c L .'n! prt4llgraniniU a In l ult
Ireaiii opcradling budigtcs As far il' funid-
inm gos., nec aiun to pr rfit lfroiii ".'nie.s-
sionar\'' b' rrt wing t,'niid ains. lfro in cii li
wv. will L.onminute to beinctii flir ,nortier frI.
yvars (,!cn though ithie couunirv ia- gone
trmiin being an m iftKiall, poorr t.iuntrvy t a
inidJIe in.i'onit.e .,luntrv' [MIC] EIJ .
M.M.B.




Keywords
S-I l a I Dlh le. lt..ape' % (le Iiii.lite -.
tl l~l~


N. 15 N.E. JANUARY' FEBRUARY 2010


; r1l,". M,, [l,. r.







report Cape Verde


Rn fGEnCY FOR PROIOTIfIG IOUESTEIITS


To optimise its strategy. the government
has set up an agency, Cabo Verde Inves-
limentos, headed by the Cape Verdean
Ministry of Econonic Affairs. Its mission
is to attract potential investors by extol-
ling the archipelago as a safe destination.
'Our assets. explains Carlos Rocha,
head of the agency "are good macro-
econonic data and a currency, the es-
cudo, that is pegged to the euro". The
objective, he continues, is to 'develop a
major industrial centre the key parts of


which are in the process of being put in
place a major transfer port on the island
of So Vicente along vvith a new interna-
tional airport to supplement those on the
islands of Boa Vista and Sal The latter
are primnarly destinations tourist another
sector the government is building on "In
this particularly thriving sector the bulk of
investments are European' Europeans
are also appearing in another expanding
sector. ICTs


PREDOmInRITLY BUDGETARY RID


I N-n roasc ,,n t rinl AniiiA.. i und l ted t bl EUi < M.,i hanii..... i i.


Nearly 90 per cent of the development aid
allocated to Cape Verde by the European
Union (through the European De'elop-
ment Fund; EDFi is budgetary support
This record rate is proof of the confi-
dence Europe places in the economic
and budgetary management of the Cape
Verdean authorities, and deservedly so
It is above ail thanks to the European
Union, and also the Netherlands, that the
government has been able to improve its
system of governance and its budget",
explains Jos Luis Monteiro "This was
a fundamental action If Cape Verde is
better managed it is thanks to this fully
computerised, transparent system that is
also directly linked to the Court of ALdi-
tors Even the United States would like to
have it'


The bulk of this budgetary aid is to sup-
port Cape Verde's Growth and Poverty
Reduction Strategy (GPRSi and its good
governance programme The key objec-
tive of the GPRS is to ensure access to
basic social services such as health care,
education, water and sanitation for the
very poor, to reinforce vocational training
and to develop a social welfare strategy
At least E32 6M were set aside for the
GPRS and the governance programme
under the 10th EDF for 2008-2013 (the
total of which amounts to E51 M)

The E11 5M allocated to the special part-
nership should enable Cape Verde to
improve its secLirity system in order to
deal with the new rise in illegal trafficking
(drugs, people, money laundering, etc I


and to identify cooperation projects with
the other Macaronesian islands Madeira,
the Azores and the Canariesi

A total of El 1M must go toward funding
good governance initiatives in the five
Portuguese-speaking African countries
(PALOP) and Timor Leste

Two million euiros will help support the
non-state sector and El 8M should help
fund research and technical assistance
not included in the projects not to men-
tion the E'2M in reserve

ORGHAISED mOBILITY
In June 2008, the European Union and
Cape Verde signed a mobility partnership,
the first of two agreements ithe second one
being Moldovai to be signed by the Euro-
pean Union with a third country The aim
of the partnership was to strengthen legal
migration and better manage illegal emi-
gration from Africa to Europe, notably via
Fronte., the agency for the management
of the European Union's external borders
In parallel, a Schengen visa centre should
open in Praia in February Managed by
Portugal, it should initially represent coun-
tries such as Belgium Slo'enia Luxem-
bourg and the Netherlands ias France and
Spain have signed bilateral agreements
The visa facilitation centre should make it
possible for those, Cape Verdeans prima-
rily such as sports people and artists to
travel easily to Europe on short trips


COURIER






CapeVerde report


achieving its objectives"


Meeting with Carlos Veiga, leader of the Movement for Democracy

(MpD), the principal opposition party.


"The government has set
itself clear objectives for the
fight against unemployment
and poverty as well as for
growth. But it is a long way
from having achieved them."
The reasons, according to the
leader of Cape Verde's main
opposition party, essentially
lie in distrust of the private
sector on the part of the
governing party, the PAICV.

hen it comes to the objec-
tives, Carlo Veiga has no
complaints. He advocated
them himself when he was
prime minister, between April 1991 and
July 2000. It is how to achieve them that is


the problem. And the man who narrowly
lost the 2001 and 2006 presidential elec-
tions is determined to apply his methods if
the people give him their backing in 2011,
as he believes they are ready to do. Carlos
Veiga sees proof of this in his party's victory
in the 2008 municipal elections, in which
his MpD also won control of the capital
Praia. But the man who gracefully accepted
defeat at the hands of the PAICV in 2001
"political peace" is a reality in Cape Verde
-acknowledges that positive results have
been achieved "since the country's inde-
pendence". "That is clear", he says, "but
we want to go further". For example? "A
fair allocation of funds between central and
local government. At present 90 per cent
is controlled by the former and 10 per cent
by the latter, when it is to the local council
that most people go with their problems. We
want to reverse present government policy
that focuses on consumption, public aid or
indebtedness and imports, and concentrate
on production, investment and exports.


"IVlalle"Vlal unI"e umens
Even though much has been done to guar-
antee basic education, we must also promote
high quality education and create an envi-
ronment conducive to private investment."
One particularly urgent issue is to ensure
the viability of Electra, the public water and
electricity company, by setting up a public-
private partnership. M.M.B.


SOLfR CELLS FOR URTER TOWERS


Most of the water consumed by the
Cape Verdeans comes from desalinated
seawater This is a major burden on the
Electra budget that is 100 per cent de-
pendent on crude imports to produce its
electricity Yet the archipelago does have
water reserves even if the groundwater is
confined to small and heterogeneous de-
posits trapped within a complex network
originating in former lava flows Over the
past year Cape Verde has started using
energy produced by solar panels to pump
the water from these underground depos-
its storing it in water towers pnor to distri-
buLtion to the villages A number of such
projects have been carried out, thanks to
EU support, in the interior of the island of


Santiago and on Sao Nicolao Another
promising option is the building of dams
to retain runoff A dam has been built on
Santiago with the help ofthe Chinese, and
others are planned with the assistance of
Portugal

The ECOWAS Centre for Renewable En-
ergy has just set up its headquarters in
Cape Verde at a time when this energy
is slowly starting to make its appearance
in the archipelago Four wind parks have
been built or scheduled iSantiago, Sao
vicente, Sal, Boa Vistai for the produc-
tion of around 28 megawatts, equal to 18
per cent of the archipelago's total energy
production


N. 15 N.E. JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010


I l i % -Irr M.


ii iT, .-- ii ri lia qo i z la ri rJ pa
























Informal settlements, Praia. 0 MarieMartine Buckens

'Working together' In less than 20 years, Praia has seen

its population more than double, and is today home to
almost 140,000 people, a quarter of the archipelago's
population. The constant arrival of people from the countryside, leaving behind what is essentially
a form of subsistence farming, presents certain problems. The main social challenges, which the
Cape Verde government is attempting to overcome with the support of the EU, are concentrated
in the 'unofficial' districts springing up along the dried up river beds.


n February 2007, the local authority
launched a pilot project in the unofficial
districts of Praia with the help of the
Italian NGO, Africa'70, supported by
the European Development Fund (EDF).
The unemployment rate here is high, illegal
buildings do not have sewage systems, and
access to water and other services is at best
arbitrary. The project is based on three
approaches: social integration -with the
support of the highly active district associa-
tions -support for urban management, and
infrastructure -Africa'70's field of activity.


Gian Paolo Lucchi of Africa'70 said: "After
carrying out a diagnosis of the social and
technical requirements, we concentrated
our efforts on construction of retaining
walls, which enables all kinds of other
infrastructure work, such as construction
of access roads and routing of water. They
also help hold back flood waters in the rainy
season".

Africa'70 is a member of Cape Verde's
NGO platform. With 220 members, this
platform also receives EDF support. Mrio


THE EMERGENCE OF DERGUE FEUER


Dengue fever hit Cape Verde for the first
time in November 2009, infecting 12,000
people, six of whom died from this mos-
quito-transmitted virus, which thri-ed
after a particularly heavy rainy season
The measures taken by the healthcare
authorities held the epidemic in check
The opening of fiwe healthcare centres
in the capital a year ago funded by the
EU, for which healthcare is a priority in
its cooperation with the country provid-
ed relief for overrun hospitals Marganta
Cardoso, Director General at the Min-
istry of Health, explained "Apart from
the epidemic these centres enhance
primary healthcare in particular, which


is extremely important for rural immi-
grants confronted with urban life This
enables us to tackle the problems of the
least advantaged directly Around 3,000
people visit these centres each month'
Similar centres are planned for other is-
lands a measure, which together with
the improvement of the education sys-
tem, aims to settle the population on the
islands VWihat are the main challenges to
be overcome? She said 'The renewed
outbreak of transmissible diseases at a
time when we are starting to curb non-
transmissible diseases A lack of human
resources, in particular specialists"


Moniz, the platform's executive secretary,
said: "With a presence on all the islands,
the NGOs work with the 700 highly active
community associations. Working together
'djunta m' -is a deeply embedded tradi-
tion in Cape Verde". What is the platform's
role? Mario Moniz said: "To provide the
NGOs with the tools to identify and set up
projects. We have just approved the 2010-
2015 agenda, and have adopted a code of
ethics for the first time". What are its priori-
ties? Mr. Moniz explained: "Healthcare and
education, with the emphasis on professional
training". In the field ofhealthcare, the plat-
form is the main recipient, together with the
Ministry of Health, of a US$12M project
from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS. This
scourge has so far spared the archipelago,
which has an HIV rate estimated at 0.8 per
cent in 2005. M.M.B.


Margarita Cardoso (second from the left) with the team
of a health centre in Praia. O Marie MartineBuckens


Keywords
Praia; least advantaged districts; Africa'70;
NGO platform; healthcare centres.


COURIER
































Culture is everything, Manuel Veiga, Minister of Culture, tells us. We have no other natural
resources. An interview.

What do you understand by 'culture'?


Culture is essential, not just as art, but as
a way of life, a way of seeing things, and a
means of making contact, which is vital in
our part of the world. It's extremely impor-
tant because we have emerged from great
cultural dialogue. The fact that Cidade
Velha was recently given world heritage
status by Unesco says a great deal. A new
anthropology has been born out ofthe ongo-
ing exchange between Africans, initially as
slaves, and Europeans. We stay true to our
Creole culture, but remain open-minded.
We never show contempt for other people,
provided they conform to certain values,
because we are, in one way, 'other people'
too. Conversely, foreigners love us because
they find a thread here that leads them back
to their own culture.

Would the music be the thread?

Yes, it may well be, even though music came
after our language. Cape Verde Creole devel-
oped from Portuguese, and what I would
call an underlying structure of African lan-
guages, as the black slaves were ethnically
dispersed across the Portuguese colonies to
prevent them from communicating. But all
human beings possess an internal strength,
when faced with constraints, which enables
them to display creativity, with the need
to communicate being the strongest. The
Creole language is the fundamental char-
acteristic of our identity. Having said that,
we are renowned for our music and Cesaria
Evora is our ambassador. M.M.B.

Keywords
Culture; Manuel Veiga; morna; batuque;
coladeira; funana; Santo Antao; Mindelo.



N. 15 N.E. JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010


FROm mOROH TO BRTUQUE


'The bare-footed singer had to take Lis-
bon, and then Paris by storm in order for
the West to discover 'morna', the music
inspired by the PortLigLiese fados But
Cesaria Evora is not the only performer
to sing it. Ail Cape Verde islanders talk
with great feeling about lido Lobo who
died in 2004 at the age of 51 He vvas
regarded as the islands' greatest singer.
Coladeira' emerged in Mindelo. Cape
Verde's 'capital' of song in the 1930s.
An upbeat version of 'morna mixed


with polka, it is often played at carnival
time Funana comes from the island of
Santiago. and has a much more Afncan
sound. It wasthe music of the slaves, and
of rebellion Probably the archipelagos
oldest musical genre 'batuque cones
from African music and dance rituals,
and is mainly performed by vomnen Lots
of young singers have been captivated
by its charm, including Mayra Andrade
Lira and Tchake


SAITO IInTO THE mHIGICLL ISLROD


The volcanic island of Santo Anto nses
majestically opposite Mindelo, the capi-
tal of Sao Vicente Arriring by boat in
Porto Novo, the island seemsto be noth-
ing but steep and and ridges From the
port you take the new road (photo page
48i, which was opened with great cer-
emony on 9 May 2009 in front of a crowd
which e'en included members of Cape
Verde's diaspora who had returned for
the occasion Funded by the European
Union, and with the support of Luxem-
bourg, Italy and the Cape Verde gov-
ernment the road runs along the coast,
which is wild and magnificent, connect-
ing the north and south of the island The


long-term benefits it offers are twofold
Firstly, itenables farmers because once
you leave the coast, there is a fertile hin-
terland where sugar cane, bananas and
lots of other products are grown to ex-
port their products to the other islands
Secondly, it will attract tourists inter-
ested in natural surroundings Some are
already here, travelling the roads that
criss-cross the hinterland, alongside the
old dormant craters at the island's cen-
tre Manuel veiga explained 'People
do not just come here for the sunshine
Through culture and meeting the people,
we can strike the right balance and turn
tourism into a development tool '






discovering Europe


H ?'
.. ..... i li. -'








oldest inhabited city


il t 1 ii l....i.IIt1. Il- 1 L.Plu I. Ii Ui Ir i i lur% 'I
l u L hI.i -I..1.. i- I 't IttII.lI'II [L j..i ii

Ill... I'' K ril-'ilu'. 1'. Il, 1.lkr .l u

li -, lu in ful l
lud.\., h* h i N1'.. I'c'lcfl[ I:, 'I 'I i. ,l











t ,,!!

[lk !lil. c III lM Il Lh I ll I:U C'I L .IIi k i



IU~r r'i Iii' L,.t 't','rI t)j i.i,. fu
1.'c .,. -1 t ci. -i Ilthlt.h! lh. pur, r1' i h Il
Pli c-u i ,Li,. i t.i N lt iil, i i.. -illu' .N Ii,





il'r,,ili r-, I.c -mi- i u I


p1- tili N.l h I, r ''' ,. ,...i ii- 1


I1!c rl L I I' hl i 'r.u i hi hulcli lr


IUClui r.. 'plc *i.t 'n 'n.!i. I utc',. Il' '.1

.,. 1i .ri inn II' i i h c ti i ..' 'lt, k ''i hciu


t, h,~r. r' hi;c. i!!!.~!~ l''II~l. III
I I -


COURIER






1-1.:. .: discovering Europe


to be





discovered


D Percival


Name Europe's oldest
inhabited city. Athens, Thebes
(Greece), Cadiz (Spain) or
Larnaca (Cyprus)? Few would
pick Bulgaria's second city,
Plovdiv, which lies 150 km
south east of capital Sofia,
also listed as the sixth oldest
inhabited city in the world in
the Time Out Guide* The
World's Greatest Cities. All
its fascinating layers of history
which date back between
6,000-8,000 years await your
discovery.



rom Thracian times to the Bulgarian
revival of the 19th Century, Plovdiv,
which lies astride the banks of the river
Maritza, has changed its name more
times than it has hills. It was originally known
as 'City of the Seven Hills' although one has
since subsided.


N. 15 N.E. JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010


Archaeologists have discovered fine pottery
and other everyday objects dating back to
the Neolithic age and it was already an estab-
lished settlement in the 7th Millennium BC.
The Thracians called the city Eumolpias; it
was known for its production of wine and
honey and jewellery crafting. In 342-341
BC, the town was conquered by Philip II of


Remains of Roman Stadium, Plovdiv.


Macedonia and given the name Philippopolis
and subsequently Pulpudeva. The Romans
conquered the city in the first century AD
and renamed it Thrimonzium (referring to
the fact that it then lay on three hills). The
excavated Roman amphitheatre now incon-
gruously overlooks a busy highway. In the
hot summer months (winters can be bitingly
cold), it stages open-air concerts, opera and


classical drama. A Roman stadium is also
partially visible in the city centre.

The Huns ruled the town in the 447 AD and
in the 6th Century the Slavs settled in the
Balkan peninsular and gave the city the names
Pulden and Plundiv. In 815 AD, Khan Krum
of Bulgaria seized the city's fortress and it
was fully incorporated into the Bulgarian
Empire in 834 AD, only to be reconquered
by the Byzantine Empire. The five centuries
that followed saw it change hands between
Bulgaria and Byzantium. Plovdiv was also on
the path of the crusades, the city demolished
and plundered by crusaders on their way to
Mecca. In 1385, the town fell to the Ottoman
Empire and the city was known as Phillibe.
It was to remain part of the Empire for the
next 500 years. At that time, the city had over
55 mosques. The Dzhumaya Mosque which
still stands in the centre is one of the oldest
Ottoman buildings in the Balkans.



In the 19th century, Plovdiv was at the
heart at the Bulgarian renaissance from the
Ottoman's cultural oppression, including the
opening of the first Bulgarian publishing
house in 1855 from which printed books,
newspapers and magazines were circulated


I Mural, Plovdiv, depicting Ottoman presence.


D D Percival







discovering Europe Plovdiv


around Bulgarian lands. The Bulgarian revo-
lutionist,Vassil Levski, organised a revolution-
ary committee in Plovdiv. During this period,
wealthy merchants built houses in a Bulgarian
Renaissance style with unique ceilings carved
in wood which have been exquisitely restored,
and are breathing life into Plovdiv's OldTown.
The ethnographic museum, in the house ofA.
K..- r: ... :.. -...: ., gives an insight into the city's
riches at this time.

The city was liberated from the Ottomans
by the Russians in the battle of Plovdiv,
1878. The Treaty of San Stefano of the same
year founded the Principality of Bulgaria,
gathering ail lands with a predominantly
Bulgarian population. Plovdiv was declared
the capital of the new state and the centre
of the new Russian temporary government.
However, the Treaty was subsequently modi-
fied in Berlin and the newly liberated country
was divided into Bulgaria with Sofia as its
capital and Eastern Rumelia Province with
Plovdiv as capital -under the military and
political control of the Turkish sultan while
Macedonia was returned to Turkey. This
carve-up was short-lived. The Unification
of Bulgaria was proclaimed on 6 September
1885. In 1892, the first international fair -
Bulgarian exhibition was held in Plovdiv
with international participants. This tradition
has kept on and Plovdiv International Fair
now has a permanent building in the city and
each year hosts many exhibitions attracting
international participants.


I Houses of wealthy merchants, Plovdiv. D Percival


Detail on 19th century merchant's house, Plovdiv Old
Town. CD Percival


During the Second World War (1939-
1945), the pro-Nazi Bulgarian government
announced in 1943 the deportation of all
Bulgaria's 50,000 Jews. Thanks to the cour-
age of a number of individuals including
Archbishop Krill of the Orthodox Church,
the government finally backed down. The
bulk of the country's Jews chose to emigrate
to Israel following the war.**

When the Nazis left Bulgaria in 1944, the
country came under Communist power and
formed a very close relationship with the
former Soviet Union. A monument of a
Russian soldier still starkly sits on one of
the city's peaks. Another layer of Plovdiv's
history was laid when it staged a major anti-
Communist demonstration, one ofthe events
which led to the toppling of the Communist
regime in November 1989. This is why city
is sometimes referred to as the 'blue' (demo-
cratic) capital of Bulgaria.

Another layer of the country's history is
now being laid post-Communism and since
Bulgaria's membership of the EU in 2007**.
D.P.
* Time Out Guide, The World's Greatest Cities. Sep-
tember 2009, 350 pages, Edition 1.
** 'Beyond Hitler's Grasp: The Heroic Rescue of Bu-
larian Jews' by Michael Bar-Zohar, 1998.



Keywords
Plovdiv; Bulgaria; Thracians; Ottomans.


SHfRInG EU MEmBERSHIP EXPERIEnCE


The Scifia-based European Insttiute .. as
set up in 1'i'iT, P ith the financial suLppcort
of the founder of the Open Soci:et. Insti-
lult Georga e Sros Il as one of the first
non-go erniiental bodies campaaigning
for EBulgarias European integration Iro.
financially independent it is working on a
nuLlber of pIroje.ts to pass on its e peri-
ence of the process of accession [o the
EU good and bad to its Balkan neigh-
boaur epilains its Director Lubo Pa-
na c.to...a P ho is a former depl. ut finance
minister in her country


Its '.ebsite *, Europe bg is cne of the
inost consulted in EBulgaria on European
niatters At the beginning the idea as
to collect t ail sorts of information about the


negotiation process says Lub'.. Pana-
yatco a VVith the European Parliaments
iEPi financial support the Institute has
aiso set up an interact .,,.,ebsite lunk-
ing upLI Bulgarian and other members of
the EF in contact ith the pLublic .,.. '.
europarliament europe bg


It is aiso pro hiding technical support to
Bulgaria s rtlinistr, of Regional ,.oo.pera-
tion under a cross-border .ooperation
project ,,.i,,h rlacedonia" whichic h is gu..ing
assistance and training to its neighbour
*on ho. t.o generate projects ideas and
apply for grants fie, projects in the pipe-
line include job inaps e< plains Borsial..
lMa..1ro the Institute s Director of Interna-
iic.nal Prograuummes and Frojects to Inafe


it easier for Romanians and Bulgarians
to find jobs in the market of its neighbour
throuLgh the help ofa '.ebsite


The Institute has a long eperience in
anti-discri.rnnaltin issues and is currentlyy
workingg on a project to counter gro u ing i-
olence .n schools Lubo Fanayatc a says
that iclence is especially incited throuLgh
message sent by mobile phones She
part, puis this do n [o recent transfor-
mnations in Bulgarian society E erything
is changing but not oni/ for the g.cd she
says

F.,r u :,r.- ._ a --r,:,.l. ,lll., l li-u. .- l
'll. Ji ui:,: i. rln.. i iin Ih- EI. lu rh icel, r 1i

[r.:.lm Gru .:e


COURIER

























I I

o ii a iiW i aiTII t




Valley of the roses near Plovdiv. Reporters

The province of Plovdiv is historically a vibrant commercial centre and at a trading crossroads
between the European Union and to the east, Turkey and the Middle East. It has gained a repu-
tation for the manufacture of non-ferrous metals, fertilisers, pharmaceuticals, food and wine and
rose oil. Over the past 20 years, like the rest of Bulgaria, the region has adapted from a state-
run economy and since 2007, to the more exacting production and import standards as a result
of EU membership, says Angel Hronev, Head of the Information Centre of Plovdiv's privately-run
Chamber of Commerce and Industry, in an interview with The Courier.

traditional industries such as food, Sofia. A phenomenon of EU membership is
wine and tobacco are all adapt- that young people do not stay and farm in
ing to the EU market. Due to a Bulgaria but now go to other parts ofthe EU,
huge amount of cheap diesel from where wages are higher, to work as seasonal
.,. the former Soviet Union, in the late 1980s, farm labourers.
Bulgaria was the number one in Europe for
the production of greenhouse vegetables."We >
1 had a very good state-run cooperative sys-
tem prior to 1989 especially concerning the 'The Valley of the Roses', north of Plovdiv,
planting of vegetables and grain", explains is planted with rose bushes which produce
Angel Hronev. Pre-accession to the EU, the rosa damascana (damask rose), tradition-
Bulgaria received funding from the EU from ally picked in June. As many as 3,000-5,000
SAPARD (Special Accession Programme for kg of flowers (more than a million flowers)
Agriculture and Rural Development) which are needed to produce just 1 kg of rose oil.
h bas helped the country adapt its agricul- "Because ofvery specific conditions, the qual-
ture to new EU rules and regulations, to ity of rose oil can be found nowhere else in the
enhance efficiency and competitiveness and world", says Hronev. A variety of local rose
boost employment in the sector. "Although products include shampoos and rose jam!
there were a few shortcomings with the
programme, it brought new cultivation and Also rapidly gaining an international reputa-
introduced new technologies, especially in tion are wines of the Thrace valley in Plovdiv
irrigation", says Hronev. Even so, there has province. During the era of the state-run
Angel Hronev, Head of the Information Centre, Chamber been a rural exodus and 1.5M of Bulgaria's economy, one or two state-run companies
of Commerce and Industry, Plovdiv. CD Percival 7.5M population now live in the capital, had a monopoly and produced cheap wines,


N. 15 N.E. JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010



























1 Tobacco growing. Reporters


especially for the market ofthe former Soviet
Union, explains Hronev. In the late 1980s,
Bulgaria was the second largest exporter of
wines. The country now faces strong com-
petition from Chile, Argentina and South
Africa which are even found on supermarket
shelves in Bulgaria -particularly 'whites' since
Bulgarians still prefer domestically-produced
'reds'. "The issue is to improve quality",
explains Hronev. Recent years have seen a
glut in Bulgaria's wine production since mak-
ing your own wine has been in vogue and is
almost second nature to Bulgarians. "Wines
were produced for which there was no mar-
ket", says Hronev. To improve the quality of
wines for the EU and other markets, experts
were sought and now some very good local
wines are produced in Plovdiv province in
the 6-8 bracket. They include the Castra
Rubra winery's Via Diagonalis, developed
with the help of French wine consultant,
Michel Rolland. The Bessa T.1.-. % winery, just
40 kilometres from Plovdiv, has developed
the Enira label with German investment and
technical expertise. With the added cachet
that Dionysus, God of wine, was from the
Thrace valley, Hronev also sees the provinces
huge potential for wine tourism.


The profile of the typical investor in Plovdiv
has changed since Bulgaria's became part
of the EU in 2007. Whereas in the 1990s,
investor money largely came from neighbour-
ing Greece and Turkey, Hronev notes more
interest from EU member states further
to the west, largely because overheads and
labour still remain cheaper in Bulgaria. "Italy
is one of the few countries that have a spe-
cial nationally-funded programme to transfer
business from one region ofthe EU to anoth-
er", says Hronev. "Italians feel comfortable
here and invest in cosmetics and perfumery,
food, coffee, ice cream and machinery", he
adds. Under a similar German government
programme, one businessperson is producing
machine building parts for German industry.

With its huge historical interest (see arti-
cle on history), Plovdiv's tourism potential
remains relatively untapped but its expansion
will depend on improved infrastructure such
as better road connections inside Bulgaria
and with the rest of the EU, and improved
frequency of low-cost flights into Plovdiv
if it intends to grab the EU short vacation
destination market. A new road crossing with
Greece has just opened up which puts the


Greek coastline within two to three hours
reach of Plovdiv but there is still no fast high-
way between Plovdiv and Bulgaria's coast-
line to the east, popular with holidaymakers
from other parts of the EU. The Rhodope
Mountains in the south of the province have
both ski and spa resorts.

Despite the financial crisis having affected
Bulgaria's construction industry which was
booming two to three years ago and resulted
in unemployment below zero per cent, at just
6.76 per cent, the city nevertheless still has
one of the lowest rates of unemployment in
Bulgaria. "Plovdiv is going to develop. If we
manage to take advantage of all the oppor-
tunities we have, it will do very well", says
Hronev. D.P.
www.pcci.bg






Keywords
Plovdiv; Chamber of Commerce and
Industry of Plovdiv; Angel Hronev;
Plovdiv International Fair; VINARIA;
Michel Rolland; FIFA World Cup.


UIlnRIR CELEBRRTIIG SOUTH RFRICRH WIEI

South frc..s is to participate as an organising partner country
in Pic. di s annual International E hibition o.f 'ine-Gro ing and
\JUne Producrtion I,'IIJARIA 1.4-17 March 2010 to be held in
preirnses of Plo...di s international fair ',oulh African ines are
increasingl, popLilar in the EiBulgaran imariket VVine is c:urrentl
third in the list of ScO ith Africa s global eq, ports and ranks ninth in
the Iust of top ine pr oducingL couLintries n the ..orld th an an-
nual production of 10r hectolitres L,'IJ ARIA is expected to boo: t c.
relations bet..een Bulgaria and South Africa The organisers
say that vlIJARIA-oers ,.ill be able to taste the ine in hosen b.
South Africa for the FIFA \ Jorld C up
. ., :i r b,:l -n ,, ni un.,iriuj ,' e .: ,, j-..'i lle. ,- m W "i u- l 'b. .l :l. 'll "' ''l l" l- lI- ";, '1 ': .',' "


COURIER






S discovering Europe


discrimination of the Roma?


The Roma in Bulgaria make
up the country's second largest
minority or 4.7 per cent of the
population. According to official
figures, the Stolipinovo area of
Plovdiv has one of the largest
concentrations of Roma. Non
Governmental Organisations
(NGOs) claim discrimination
against the Roma, whereas other
commentators say that feeling
of antagonism between Roma
and the Bulgarian majority
population derives more from a
Romani reluctance to integrate
into modern society.

h.. I[ll''L ..!1i4,l.u I' lll. ..Tulu 1i1
l_'." 1,, ,i,11 i1"i I ,, l' 1 _' u I 1
.11 i [c.u l it. I.i .ul I ..i [ 'ic-










I.. : 1 .i id iu : -i. i I u- 'i ii .lu lu ['.Ii-.,
iui. r.-. lu, 1 ,'.I,.. ,.. Ii i .l. ui l l lu [ u 'ln i .1L

'l lu .i l', %' ll iul il'l, -i i l 1 ih. l I l-il








' I luic .. I' L' ,.. h.. iLL 1,! -il c i. l i.u, .. L



. i ,. ... I .. '. lu i. 1i i L i[ i i


t 1. l l I l.I. -i l lr I ,lli I l.IJ ",,'. li l [ u -
,I,,1 I l [i i ll[J ." .. i. ,,e .1 i.1 i h ,i ", l Ui.' 1i l h llj
J'l' ,I'| i li )J Ii1.,.1'1i ll.Ill l lu h Jl .iL J',u L
N I. i0 *, I I h II.l'i R .i ii ', I ,.- ,,.I .1. i
, li.q ull i ..l -

.\n'_.l > ;,., .." .i ..nl ,uhl.it l. tli,. N > I; '


UL '. I t1 1.11 ,.' 11 l l ,.' 1'.1 lt'. +-1 ,,t 1 1 il l 't 1 1 1 ,,I

l 1,11.1. ll., L .: i t ,J i 1r..- 1 ri, i. ii l ,,Li.., 111

. ll" ,.+t .1 l l*1.1" u [.1 iI*.,: I.., ik L ,. 1 '..r;',
,, Ilii. i...,.,,_ll h", ,I_ ',., ".",. .illi, i;i ,.-. -





\\. 1 Il.E. .14t IUAR, FEEIRUAR', ._010


> Unemployment






fic i ii tIir Il 1<'u .1c .l.''''''i'.u.t.
iliii tl[c'nr ii-iui iiu, i iiL[ iI 'i [. I hut th..r










,I.lli' C Llk lf i LLiiuICu. ind hl I i.ur III rJ j-

I u1 *i 'ulul~\ ..il rhil.




iui.!!l!!. l I.. [ii..I. .. h..I~ .'r !! lr!'un lu n..!!I~
I~~~~~~~~' uh.' l--1i .... 1~i..i'* 1 i.lk.



i h. 1 uil i p 'l I i i- .1 .




Ill .u.u -' 1, .-. illi ..l, lii
-1 il .- .iul 1 ,I l .. 1. Ill, 'Cc I li i h.q ..


EUROPERII ROfIRI

RIGHTS CENTRE



h and hL, i.a .hn r tQ 3Rjh L n:-f
aR.:.uv 5t an nt.--rnat,.:.nal i-ti -
W- r-u-t:-ntn rLIuinci '-:J tra t,b.:.urci
-.Lr :J HLiuuYuan RuCihtl; l.:.iund un la -
-:-fir a i rr-t-L ..iht br h-t- ERR(-
-:-n rj--haf -:J th'- R.:iiiani e.ht F:.:.in-
dlat.:.n and 8LiCl5rugf Brlrn-- -ie-t--
an --r F3t.hiurn--:- :- -tr h-t- unhriuuYu3n--
and d--.-r3dn.n tur-tii--n[ '-:J thrt-t-

h.1. hal >-t--t-n d--t-.n--d un :1 -t-
.:iut.l:. un 8iuLIcra ERRl L 3 i;.:.
r-t-.:-tni 3 rd--d an lj.,u i trh- [h-t
'C-LiL'-lP 'l t-r -R--t- s a rj l.:.r un-

uncl 3rjiz.-t- and j-t- -ti: _uc u .:i:
r. 5hin~ ;9 t':~lt utandl nf.ur- n:ih-n- R






u-uiL- r,- B..- un,l f l.J1 H-r l Ir. P. -u I i.. lr.


PIL


1. ~I



i: i-ii i 1ii11i-ii I,~l.j,,,i ~11,i,,.1.~ i.. Fiiii i: iiiii:I Iiiii.j~ :i~ III.III





J--&crering Europj, A' M EIUTO UIPABJ CIT


*'""E IL'.


Bulgaria's government was
poised to give the go-ahead
to its first-ever bi-lateral
development strategy when
we visited the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs in Sofia mid-
January 2010. Going to press,
an "ordinance paper" was
awaiting the approval of
Bulgaria's Council of Ministers
at the start of 2010. This is
expected to lead to approval
of funds by the country's
Ministry of Finance for pilot
development projects in six
countries bordering Bulgaria,
earmarked to be the initial
beneficiaries of the country's
new policy.


'iflU Tii


programme on


the launch pad


%i lic ill VUmi Il,: ii1111 q

t.. 17 l .ic ,rit ~ d
ii,,1.11 t .. i 2c.,I.. 17 , ~ '


lIul'.,. \l'r liriii.-iii illd \.i t ILI
i i'.* I,.,.~ .i~i.i K ,,1 j hd i


COURIER







Bulgaria discovering Europe


Macedonia*, Kosovo and Serbia; and to the
east, Moldova, Armenia and Georgia. Boyan
Belev told us that thought had been given to
including a sub-Saharan African country
on the list -Angola, with which Bulgaria
has former ties -but this plan has been
dropped for the moment, partly because
Angola is seen to be an "aid darling", and
partly because at this kick-off stage, Bulgaria
does not want to spread its funds too thinly,
believing that it can be more useful in coun-
tries which whom it has special cultural
affinity and experience such as the transfor-
mation of state-run economies.




With a limited number of personnel, the
country's Development Department cur-
rently has its work cut out. Since becoming
an EU member, it has to prepare and partic-
ipate in the EU's Ministerial meetings with
the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP),
in EU Development Ministers' meetings
and those of General Affairs as well as relat-
ed working parties, meetings on the EU's
neighbourhood policy** and on the stability
instrument***.

Presently Bulgaria commits just 0.06 per
cent of its GNI (figure for 2008) to develop-
ment aid. Boyan Belev indicated that the
country would be unable to meet the target


of 0.17 per cent of GNI by 2010, although
the GNI level is expected to rise this year
since the country will be a first-time con-
tributor to the 22.682bn 10th European
Development Fund (2008-2013) for ACP
states. The total estimated contribution of
Bulgaria to the 10th EDF is 31,754,800, to
be staggered over the next three years.

The country's bi-lateral policy may still be
awaiting lift-off, but it does provide some
funding currently to the EU's general devel-
opment activities through the amount paid
into the EU's overall budget. Bulgaria pro-
vides 4.5 per cent ofthe EU kitty.

Boyan Belev says that venturing into the bi-
lateral development field is a "learning exer-
cise" for his country. The "ordinance paper"
on the table of Bulgarian Ministers follows
a draft strategy paper on development policy,
published in the same year that the country
joined the EU. The draft highlights that the
country's development policy should based
on achieving the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs) in poorer countries and that
Bulgarian international development coop-
eration be consistent with political com-
mitments made in the framework of both
the UN and the EU. It states Bulgaria's
support for poverty eradication and sustain-
able development and the strengthening of
developing countries' economies.


Boyan Belev says that his country does not
lack experience in development policy. In
the mid-1980s, it was an important donor
to over 40 countries in Asia, Africa and
Latin America and the country's state-
owned companies were present in all three
continents.

Sub-Saharan Africa and other countries
may eventually join an expanded list of
recipients, particularly given the EU's com-
mitment to steer 50 per cent ofthe increased
development aid to the continent, indicated
Boyan Belev. D.P.

* On the concerns of Greece, the European Union
recognizes the Republic of Macedonia as the "former
Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia".
** The neighbourhood policy covers co-operation
with: Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Egypt,
Georgia, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Moldova,
Morocco, Occupied Palestinian Territory, Syria,
Tunisia, and Ukraine. Find out more: http://ec.europa.
eu/world/enp/index en.htm
*** The EU's instrument for stability was adopted
in 2007 and provides support for conflict pre-
vention, crisis management and peace building.
Find out more: http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/what/
index en.htm
To find out more about BPID: www.bpid.org



Keywords
Boyan Belev; Bulgaria; TRIALOG;
CONCORD; Presidency Fund.


11 EXPIInDInG n00 PLATFORM


. ..


'il ',, P ,i 11,I ,1 -- 1 , ,1.r I I Im n, 1.


Dimitar Soaire is the ery .O'mmitted
part-time head of the Bulgarian Flarforni
for International De elopment I BPIDi set
Lup at the beginning 2009 for lion Go..-
ernmental De elopinent Organisations
iNJGDOsi The BPID as originally fLind-
ed by the EU s former Presidenc FuLnd
and TRI.L CiG the umbrella 1JGi plat-
forni for EU ne.. comer states. Ils current
financial support until April 2010 comes
from the European o[Jn Go ernmental
Organisation Confederation for Relief
and De..elopment iC.J.CORDi of hich
Bulgaria is seeking membership Dinitar
Sotiro fully supports the aim of Bulgar-
,a s de..elopment policy in not aiminng too
big al the start bit adds that a strategy
in place and a specialised de..elopiment
policy '.ith more personnel to direct it
are both ital


The burgeoning E.PID currentl/ numbers
20 members They inclde CA4PE BuLl-
garia Caratas BuElgaria the Bulgarian
Ped C'oss and the Bulgarian Gender
Pesearch Foundation Dimitar 'otiri
says that the Bulgaria can iimpart a lot of
kno ,.ledge to its de..eloping nations such
as the processes in ol..ed in merging
ith EU economies The plarformi orks
On such Issues as de..elopment educa-
tion health gender issues en ironment
and sistainabilit/ In c lober 200C9 the
BPID organized a round table on the
Participation of Bulgarian Cr..ii l ocety
in EU De elopment Cooperation ., here
other couLntries suLch as Japan and the
UK. ere in...ted to share ,,th Bulgarian
participants details of ho they organise
bi-lateral de elopment police.
S.-e in..re b|ld J.r.l


N. 15 N.E. JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010


L~IILI

c~- r











Sandra Federici


Hf meeting Place




for fifrican Culture

Creative Africa Network (CAN) provides a virtual platform which connects creative operators
both within Africa and throughout the world, giving visibility to talented people in the fields of
architecture, dance, design, fashion, film, fine art, literature, music, new media, performing arts
and photography.


CAN* is a puma.creative initiative,
and is sustained by this famous
sport-lifestyle factory. It is based
on 2.0 technology and is one of
the most lively, up-to-date and frequented
of ail of the virtual platforms on African
culture. The project aims to connect the
African creative world to an interdiscipli-
nary network, which extends throughout
Africa and beyond. Through the principles
and technologies of today's information
society, it also aims to provide shared and
free self-produced content and information.
This social networking website has an intel-
ligent and intuitive structure which allows
users to create their own profiles, with text,
photos and links. In this way the website is
producing itself and is growing every day.
It is interesting to see who is there, who is
not there, and who is a fan of whom. When
consulting the profile pages of projects,
institutions, individuals or exhibitions, the
viewer can "become a fan". The "calendar"


section is one of the most useful, featur-
ing news of events, art and film festivals,
awards, reviews, calls for artists and other
opportunities, as well as providing profes-
sional information and updates on cultural
liaisons, which are valuable to both estab-
lished and emerging artists.

The 'library' section contains information
on 300 important books and brochures, as
well as the profiles of around 200 'librarians'
They add their names to the page dedicated
to the books they own. The website aims
to create a true "shared, non-centralised
library", through the "lending and borrow-
ing (of books) by members". It is not clear,
however, how well this works.

Christine Eyene (former Publishing Director
of the French journal Africultures) is the edi-
tor of CAN. She updates the site with infor-
mation on the main cultural events and,
along with Mark Coetzee, Chief Curator


of puma.creative, promotes collateral ini-
tiatives. One important project promoted
through Creative Africa Network is "The
puma.creative Mobility Awards", which aims
to facilitate the participation of both emerg-
ing and established artists, art professionals
and arts organizations in major national and
international art events.

Amongst the numerous winners ofthe 2008
and 2009 Mobility Award are important art-
ists such as Barthelemy Toguo and Goddy
Leye from Cameroon, the Nigerian curator
Bisi Silva and the two most important Afro-
American artists: Kara Walker and David
Hammons.
* CAN is a partner of the Creative Caribbean Network.
http://www.creativeafricanetwork.com/

Keywords
African Culture; virtual platforms;
contemporary art; Christine Eyene; Mark
Coetzee.


COURIER





Creativity


rn
















SCD






The 8th Bamako
Encounters the
Biennial Exhibition
of African
Photography,
which took place
from 7 November
to 7 December
2009 in Bamako,
were organised
by the Ministry of
Culture in Mali,
in collaboration
with Culturesfrance
(Paris), with finan-
cial, technical and
media support
from many local
and international
corporate bodies.


N. 15 N.E. JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010

























































cy~wul Ub

Arican photography; borders; art;
Iuture; exhibition; award.

































.. .. .. . .. .. .... .. .. .


I







lllralm


'juil


J1111


'i


-r-


II













Words from Readers


Science can have a place in the economic
development ofACP countries.

It is not possible to continue saying that sci-
ence is out of reach of developing countries.
Investments, funding and science are the
rights ofACP countries.

Juan Antonio Falcn Blasco


Furthermore, on his death bed in 1998,
the discoverer revealed he held another
Ishango rod. It was only in 2007 this second
Ishango rod was made public. And still few
people know about it. It certainly is not a
"darling".

Dirk Huylebrouck


Dear Sir/Madam,


Dear Sirs,


You wrote "It [the Ishango rod] would
become the darling of archaeologists". The
opposite is true: the rod was kept on the
19th floor of the archaeology museum for
about 50 years, and nobody paid attention
to it. Until mathematicians revealed it and it
was finally put in exposition.


This is to comment on Eritrea, my country of
origin. I also have UK citizenship and I live
and work in London. I strongly oppose any
interference on the internal matters of my
country by any outsider for any reason as the
ambassador of Eritrea to the EU countries
rightly said that Eritrea is the most stable and
peaceful country in the whole of Africa.


Now, what are the problems with religion,
race and human rights in Eritrea? None.
Human rights are abused widely by the
superpowers such as USA and the UK in
Iraq, Afghanistan and many other places ...
Please do not try to blame Eritrea for any-
thing as the country is trying to build its life
back from ruin to recovery as priority.

Thank you,
Kelati Measho (Eritrea)






We are interested in your point
of view and your reactions to the
articles. So do tell us what you think.


zoo- i- -7 -i -s s : :-. p.


agenda

MARCH-MAY 2010


> 26- 5th Meeting of Spanish
28/3 and African Women World
for a Better World
Socio-cultural event to be held in
Valencia, Spain.
www.eu2010.es/en

> 27/3 18th session of the ACP-EU
1/4 Joint Parliamentary Assembly
Magma Confernce Centre, Costa
Adeje, Tenerife, Spain
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/
intcoop/acp/




> 23/4- Edition II 'Africa lives'
June Festival celebrating the 50th


anniversary ofthe independence of
African countries. Opening
ceremony in Barcelona, Spain.
www.eu2010.es/en

> 21- Africa-EU Energy Partnership:
23/4 Ministerial High Level Meeting
Vienna, Austria

> 27/4 14th Africa-EU Ministerial
Troika
Luxembourg, Luxembourg

> 28/4 Workshop on employment,
social protection and decent
work in Africa
Organised jointly by the European
Commission and the African Union
Commission, in cooperation with
interested EU and AU member
states, Nairobi, Kenya.


) 19- Better Training for Food Safety
23/4 regional workshop
Kampala, Uganda




> 19- IST-Africa 2010 Conference &
21/5 Exhibition
Fifth in an annual ICT conference
series bringing together senior rep-
resentatives from leading commer-
cial, government & research organi-
sations across Africa and from
Europe, Durban, South Africa.
http://www.ist-africa.org/
Conference2010/default. asp


COURIER





Ill~




iii ~ 1111 II


The lists of countries published by The Courier do not prejudice the status of these countries and territories now or in the future. The Courieruses maps from a variety of sources.
Their use does not imply recognition of any particular boundaries nor prejudice the status of any state or territory.


l .










CARIBBEAN
Antigua and Barbuda The Bahamas Barbados Belize Cuba Dominica Dominican
Republic Grenada Guyana Haiti Jamaica Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint
Vincent and the Grenadines Suriname Trinidad and Tobago


- -- -- ---- -- -- ----------- -----------















PACIFIC
Cook Islands Federated States of Micronesia Fiji Kiribati Marshall Islands Nauru Niue
Palau Papua New Guinea Samoa Solomon Islands Timor Leste Tonga Tuvalu Vanuatu


AFRICA
Angola Benin Botswana Burkina Faso Burundi Cameroon Cape Verde Central African
Republic Chad Comoros Congo (Rep. of) Cte d'Ivoire Democratic Republic of the
Congo Djibouti Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Ethiopia Gabon Gambia Ghana Guinea
Guinea-Bissau Kenya Lesotho Liberia Madagascar Malawi Mali Mauritania Mauritius
Mozambique Namibia Niger Nigeria Rwanda Sao Tome and Principe Senegal
Seychelles Sierra Leone Somalia South Africa Sudan Swaziland Tanzania Togo
Uganda Zambia Zimbabwe


EUROPEAN UNION
Austria Belgium Bulgaria Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France
Germany Greece Hungary Ireland Italy Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Malta Netherlands
Poland Portugal Romania Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden United Kingdom






SL
: .


i :. .' i :.. .i....
x.... .... .. ..


ri


"-

J6 A


~

c


I


R~i; !

PAGE 1

N. 15 N.E. – JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010REPORTCape Verde A hub connecting three worldsDOSSIERG20 and developing countriesDISCOVERING EUROPEEU meets East in Plovdiv

PAGE 2

Editorial Board Co-chairs Sir John Kaputin, Secretary General Secretariat of the African, Caribbean and Pacic Group of States www.acp.int Mr Stefano Manservisi, Director General of DG Development European Commission ec.europa.eu/development/ Core staff Editor-in-chief Hegel Goutier Journalists Marie-Martine Buckens (Deputy Editor-in-chief) Debra Percival Editorial Assistant and Production Okechukwu Romano Umelo Contributed in this issue Elisabetta Degli Esposti Merli, Sandra Federici, Tim Graewert, Philippe Lamotte, Joshua Massarenti, Anne-Marie Mouradian, Andrea Marchesini Reggiani, Detlef Sonnenberg Project Manager Gerda Van Biervliet Artistic Coordination, Graphic Conception Gregorie Desmons Public Relations Andrea Marchesini Reggiani Distribution Viva Xpress Logistics www.vxlnet.be Photo Agency Reporters www.reporters.be Cover Leaving Mindelo. Marie-Martine Buckens Design by Gregorie Desmons Back cover Card game at the Mindelo market. Marie-Martine Buckens Contact The Courier 45, Rue de Trves 1040 Brussels Belgium (EU) info@acp-eucourier.info www.acp-eucourier.info Tel : +32 2 2345061 Fax : +32 2 2801406 Published every two months in English, French, Spanish and PortugueseFor information on subscription, Go to our website www.acp-eucourier.info or contact info@acp-eucourier.info Publisher responsible Hegel Goutier Consortium Gopa-Cartermill Grand Angle Lai-momo The views expressed are those of the authors and do not represent the ofcial view of the EC nor of the ACP countries. The consortium and the editorial staff decline all responsibility for the articles written by external contributors. Cultural centre promoting artists from countries in Europe, Afriand cultural exchanges between communities through performance arts, music, cinema, to the holding of conferences. It is a meeting place for Belgians, immigrants of diverse Espace Senghor Centre culturel d’Etterbeek Brussels, Belgium espace.senghor@chello.be www.senghor.be www.acp-eucourier.infoVisit our website! the magazine in pdf and other news Privileged partners

PAGE 3

The magazine of Africa Caribbean Pacific & European Union cooperation and relations Table of contentsTHE COURIER, N.15 NEW EDITION (N.E)N. 15 N.E. – JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010 PROFILEMohamed Ibn Chambas, newly-appointed Secretary General of the ACP Group 2 Andris Piebalgs, new EU Development Commissioner 3EDITORIAL 5TO THE POINTMichle Duvivier Pierre-Louis, Former prime minister of Haiti: An architect of Haiti’s difficult renaissance 6ROUND UP 8DOSSIERFrom a G20 of the poor to a G20 of the rich 13 In search of a global governance organisation involving developing countries 14 G20: 5 out of 10 for financial reform; 3 out of 10 for support to poor nations 15 International Finance Corporation branches out 18 “I believe we should have a G180”: Interview with Luxembourg MEP Charles Goerens 20INTERACTIONFiscal reforms in developing countries 21 “Trade talks must reflect a new global consensus 23 on hunger” Overhaul of EU fisheries agreements in 2012? 24 ‘Green’ Ghanaian timber for Europe 25 Overseas Countries and Territories receive the emancipation cure 26 EU funds for 13 ACPs to cushion the impact of the economic crisis 27 Opinion: Newcomers to ACP-EU partnership draw on 30 years of ties 28 Cultural policy: Operators engage in networking activities 29 Securing a role for local authorities, the third party 30CIVIL SOCIETY ON THE MOVEGreenpeace sets up in Africa 31 ACP civil society adopts networking approach 32TRADEGlobal crisis chips Africa’s gem 33 Eastern Caribbean farmers slate “done deal” 35ZOOMGloria Mika, supermodel: Flight of the ‘Guardian Angel of Democracy’ 36OUR PLANETCopenhagen climate summit: Darkness before dawn 38REPORT Cape Verde: A hub connecting three worlds 40 Unique and proud: A nation born of the first globalisation 41 Setting the standard for development 43 Becoming a bridgehead for continental Africa 45 Sound management that got us through the crisis 47 The government is a long way from achieving its objectives 49 “Djunta-M!” 50 “Saudade” and natural beauty 51DISCOVERING EUROPEPlovdiv: New ventures for Europe’s oldest inhabited city 52 Waiting to be discovered 53 From Dionysus to the damask rose – Plovdiv’s riches 55 How to integrate and end discrimination of the Roma? 57 Bulgaria’s development programme on the launch pad 58CREATIVITYA Meeting Place for African Culture 60 A Window on Contemporary Photography: The 8th Bamako Encounters 61FOR YOUNG READERS Haiti in black and white and colour 63YOUR SAY/CALENDAR 64

PAGE 4

2 A strong leader open to dialogueMohamed Ibn Chambas, Newly-appointed Secretary General of the ACP GroupThe new Secretary General of the ACP Group, who is to take office on the 1st March 2010, is Mohamed Ibn Chambas from Ghana and President of the ECOWAS Commission (Economic Community of West African States) since 2007. He was previously the regional body’s Executive Secretary, a post he held from 2002. In ECOWAS, Chambas has taken a firm stance in relation to abuses committed against democracy in the region, most recently in Guinea and Niger. The new SG is expected to con tinue his firm stance towards this type of abuse in all ACPs. In particular, it is the view of Chambas that, a “zero toler ance” policy should continue to be applied as regards the coup d’tat carried out by the Guinean military regime, which seized power in 2008 in the aftermath of the death of President Lansana Cont. “We wish to make it absolutely clear that as long as it is the army that is overseeing the transi tion, it will remain difficult for ECOWAS to work with the government”, he declares. Chambas has shown the same firmness in relation to the de facto government in Niger which enacted in 2009 its own agenda for elections, making it explicit that the organisation will refuse to recognise the results of these elections. In both cases, however, Chambas also employed a great deal of ingenuity to seek out a means of ensuring an honourable way out for the guilty parties. These actions are the mark of a man who understands the need for a firm hand, but also appreciates the need for dia logue, and these qualities will prove extremely useful to the ACP Group. The cohesion of the Group depends in no small measure on the firm leadership of the Secretary General. This is especially so as he accedes to the post at a crucial time for the ACP Group. Strong leader ship is required in view of the challenges to the unity of the ACP Group posed by ongo ing negotiations on the various regional trade packages between the EU and African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) regions. The Cotonou agreement (20002020) governing relations between the EU and ACP states remains intact. A mid-term review of the agreement is now taking place and will complete by the end of February 2010. Chambas is multi-skilled hav ing previously held posts as a lawyer, diplomat, politician and academic. He has degrees in Political Science from the University of Ghana, Legon and Cornell University at Ithaca, New York (MA 1977, Phd 1980) and a law degree from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio. He has previously worked in teaching positions in the United States and practised law with the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland (US) before returning to Ghana where he became a schools administrator. In 1987, he became Ghana’s Deputy Foreign Secretary. He served as Member of Parliament for Bimbilla (Ghana), 1993-1996, for the National Democratic Congress party and between 1993-1994, he chaired the Foreign Affairs Committee in Parliament. He became a mediator between warring parties of the Liberian Civil War of the 1990s and sub sequently the Ivorian Civil War. He lost his seat in Ghana’s par liament in 1996 but returned to government as Deputy Minister of Education 1997, a post he held until 2000. On regaining his parliamen tary seat in 2000, he worked within parliament to facilitate the transition to constitutional governments respectively in Nigeria, Sierra Leone and The Gambia. In 2002, he became the Executive Secretary of the ECOWAS Commission ahead of the body’s restructuring and the creation of the new post of ECOWAS President in 2007. Debra Percival and Hegel Goutier P rofile Mohamed Ibn Chambas. ACP Secretariat

PAGE 5

N. 15 N.E. – JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010 3 Andris Piebalgs, New EU Development Commissioner P rofile Development policy not to be manipulated by foreign policy It may seem strange to have selected a development com missioner from a state that recently joined the EU”, the Latvian Andris Piebalgs noted with a cer tain humour and modesty in his speech at the European Parliament. Speaking alter nately in English, French and German, however, the new Development Commissioner, formerly a European Energy Commissioner, demonstrated a full command of his new projects and explained his motives for championing them, despite all the obstacles. > Member states must meet their commitmentsAndris Piebalgs’ first priority will be to face the challenge of meeting the Millennium Development Goals and poverty eradication objectives that have been jeopardised by the impact of the economic and financial crises. “At the Brussels Summit in December, EU heads of state and government confirmed their commitment to devote 0.7 per cent of GDP to public develop ment aid from the year 2015. They will need to be reminded of this, and I will not hesitate to point the finger at states that fail to fulfil their commitments,” the Commissioner made clear, following in the footsteps of Louis Michel. Specific aid for developing countries exposed to the devastating effects of global warming will be funded sepa rately with additional finance, specified Piebalgs, who favours the idea of a Tobin tax (a tax on international currency transac tions) and also declared his sup port for the inclusion of the EDF within the budget, stating that this “should have been done sev eral years ago”. > Improved handling of EPA negotiationsAndris Piebalgs will continue efforts to strengthen the effec tiveness of aid by taking advan tage of the new opportunities offered by the Lisbon Treaty. As “there is no point giving money with one hand and taking it back with the other”, he will ensure that the goal of eradicating pov erty worldwide is not compro mised by other European Union policies, particularly in the fields of fishing, agriculture and trade. Piebalgs claims that, should it be necessary, he will draw the attention of the EP Foreign Affairs Committee to any incon sistencies, taking advantage of the fact that he, as Development Commissioner, now repre sents the Commission on this body. As far as the controversy about Economic Partnership Agreements with ACP countries is concerned, Piebalgs admitted that “to start with the negotia tions were difficult”, attribut ing this to “our many errors in communication, for which we then had to pay the price”, and insisting that we must “explain more clearly to our African part ners how the EPAs constitute an opportunity for development”. The fact that the current Trade Commissioner, Karel De Gucht, was formerly responsible for development should facilitate this dialogue.> Encouraging political dialogueThe Commissioner showed significant diplomatic skills and a refreshing desire to avoid political cant. How does he intend to respond in cases where aid is diverted by regimes that violate human rights? Imposing new conditions on our partners would be counterproductive, believes Piebalgs, who prefers the use of political dialogue and, in cases where democracy is threatened, the suspension of cooperation through the imple mentation of the provisions of the Cotonou Agreement. While he hopes never to find himself in the situation of Karel De Gucht, banned from entering the Democratic Republic of the Congo in December for express ing his doubts over the proper use of aid, he assured the public that he would not hesitate to “speak the truth”. There is, however, one potential ly difficult issue about which the Commissioner was still unable to provide details, namely the precise division of roles within the new structure of European foreign policy, including within European Union delegations. He did guarantee, though, that all decisions would be “made in close consultation with the High Representative, Catherine Ashton”, and also reassured Members of Parliament keen to see the Development Commissioner exert his author ity: “Don’t worry. Development policy will not be manipulated by foreign policy!”Anne-Marie Mouradian Debra Percival and Hegel GoutierAndris Piebalgs. EC “

PAGE 6

Haiti, Cit Soleil, 1994, after hurricane. Hegel Goutier

PAGE 7

N. 15 N.E. – JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010 5 T he Courier had to make a last-minute change to the contents of this issue to include an article on the hell that descended on Haiti on 12 January. During the weeks since the earthquake, more information has circulated on this country, its people, its history and its culture than ever before. The works and citations of all those who had sought to present this Caribbean republic in a more just light, generally without success, were all invoked. From Andr Malraux, Andr Breton or Jean-Paul Sartre to Sergue Mikhalovitch Eisenstein, director of ‘The Battleship Potemkin’ and whose screenplay ‘Jean-Jacques Dessalines’ on the author of Haitian independence he never succeeded in bringing to the screen, to his great chagrin, although it remained a reference in the university courses he later gave. From Santana to Anas Nin, from Aim Csaire or Lopold Cedar Senghor to Bill Clinton ... they all, in one way or another, considered Haiti’s contribution to the world to be exceptional. We discovered the violence to which Haiti had been subjected, the first country in the New World to experience the very first globalisation after 1492 and two years before it occurred in Cape Verde, the subject of this issue’s report. Haiti experienced torments and the most barbarous form of slavery that began with the arrival of Christopher Columbus, inflicted by constant threats from various powers throughout the 19th century and occupation by the Americans in the early 20th century. Also the struggles for freedom, including its support for the United States for independence in 1776, before its own independence, and the massive aid in terms of men, money and munitions for Bolivar and the liberation of South America. In the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, the familiar clichs of Haiti were repeated; this accursed land that has known nothing but chaos. All the governments were tarred with the same brush, forgetting the elections and democratic governments dating back to the 19th century: from Nissage Saget in 1870-1874 to Tiresias Simon Sam from 1896 to 1902 – admittedly sometimes alternating with the most uncompromising of regimes – not to forget the period of enlightenment under Dumarsais Estim from 1946-1950. Then the intellectuals and a growing number of journalists started to tell the true story of this land, its people, its riches, its modest but not insignificant contribution to humanity, its many great writers, and its artistic heritage. Also highlighted are the beginnings of a renaissance in recent years, including 13 international prizes for literature and its writers in 2009 alone. The country’s progress too has been exemplified in terms of the political governance of recent years that has largely convinced the international community. Michle Pierre-Louis is testimony to this fact, still prime minister before the earthquake when she granted The Courier the interview published in this issue. But for many it was the disaster that gave the opportunity to discover the truth about Haiti. Were it not for this improved governance the solidarity on the part of the world community may not have been so great. Meeting in Montreal on 25 January, the donor countries may not have been so unanimous in deciding that the Haitian Government was best placed to manage the funds to rebuild the country, following the lead of the European Union that had already granted its support in the form of budgetary aid, a kind of mark of approval. The Haitian Government says it is ready to begin reconstruction on more solid bases. One example of this is the Haitian president’s urging of the World Food Programme in particular that emergency food aid should not destabilise local production and be used mainly to constitute stocks. This is not so removed from the problem raised in our articles on the global consensus against hunger or fishing agreements or even climate change. The reason the choices made by Haiti at this point in time have the backing of donors is that global governance has made notable progress in recent times, despite major apprehensions that remain justified. Our dossier on the G20 and developing countries illustrates this. Does this mean that good can come from misfortune? It depends. Only time will tell. Hegel Goutier Editor in chief Can good sometimes come from misfortune? Editorial

PAGE 8

Michle Pierre-Louis was prime minister of Haiti from September 2008 to the end of October 2009, and was particularly noted for her implementation of the reform policy put into place by President Ren Prval. One element of this policy was to furnish the country with a new image as a tourist destination. Note that it was between Miami and Labadee in Haiti that the new largest liner in the world, Oasis of the Seas , property of the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line with a capacity for 6,500 passengers, made its maiden voyage. Duvivier Pierre Louis has spent a large part of her working life outside politics in civil society and is acutely aware of the collateral effects of reform on the most vulnerable. Is the worst now over for Haiti, or does the coun try still suffer from an image problem? The country remains extremely fragile despite the progress made. As regards the uncertainties, I prefer to focus on dayto-day problems, and as far as image is concerned, I think one of the key events of recent times was the forum for US inves tors, organised in Haiti by former President Clinton as special UN envoy for Haiti. This attracted 250 participants. What do you see as your government’s achieve ments and, more widely, those of the three years of the Ren Prval presidency? First of all, security and stability. When President Prval came to power in 2006, the country was still in the grip of gang violence, with the ‘Baghdad operation’ plunging the An architect of Haiti’s difficult renaissanceOne of the political notables to attend the European Development Days in Stockholm in October 2009, Michle Duvivier Pierre-Louis is above all a symbol of the recovery of Haiti’s credentials as a democratically-governed country. Our interview with the former prime minister took place before the earthquake which destroyed Haiti and put in danger the country’s renaissance which had begin to take place over the past 2-3 years. Among other activities at the EDD event, she was invit ed to hand over one of the European Commission’s prestigious Natali Prizes for Journalism, a true sign of the times for a country that not long ago was itself plagued by human rights violations.* T o the point Michle Duvivier Pierre-LouisFormer prime minister 6 Hegel GoutierMichle Duvivier Pierre-Louis. EC

PAGE 9

7 N. 15 N.E. – JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010country into terror, including kidnappings, killings, rape and arson. The president adopt ed a strategy that produced positive results, namely appealing to the opposition to form a kind of government of national unity. The help of Minustah** made possible both the reform of the police, with an increase in manpower from 5,000 to 10,000, and the fight against the corrupt practices of police officers involved in the gangs and in drug trafficking. Serious progress was made in dealing with these gangs. Nightlife has returned to Portau-Prince today: before it was like a graveyard after eight in the evening. Doesn’t the situation of extreme poverty in itself pose a threat to security? Absolutely. Haiti receives humanitarian aid, and it is not through humanitarian aid that a country is developed. That is why, in Washington at the donors’ conference in April 2009, I proposed a change to the coop eration paradigm. It is private, public, for eign and Haitian investment that will make it possible to kickstart the development proc ess. We are criticised for creating low-paid jobs, but we are still paying the price today for having invested so little in education. We do not have the technical capacity to build a road infrastructure or to protect our coconut or banana crops against infection. These are truths that are sometimes not what we want to hear, but I prefer to state things as they are even if it pains me to do so. We took essential measures which were linked to conditions required to access external financing. When Aristide left office, the ratio between the taxes on income and goods and GDP was 6.5 per cent, and today it is 10.9 per cent. In the wider Caribbean region, the norm is around 15 per cent or even 18 per cent. Over the past two years we have managed to fund our operating budget out of the public treasury, that is, from income tax and taxes on goods combined, and it has been a Michle Duvivier Pierre-Louis and US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton speak to reporters at the US State Department. Reporters/AP T o the point very long time since this has been the case. Unfortunately, between 65 and 70 per cent of the budget’s public expenditure continues to be met by international aid. Our work is making it possible to build up confidence among citizens, but we are now at a cross roads. By that, I mean we could just as easily take a step backwards as a step forwards. I can perfectly understand impatience on the part of the population and elected rep resentatives. I took office at a time when four hurricanes in a row had destroyed eve rything. The international community esti mated the losses at a billion US dollars, or 14 per cent of GDP, and the UNDP launched an emergency appeal to raise $US107M. At the donors’ conference in April, we received promises of around $US400M, but since then – and it is now eight or nine months ago – we have not even received $US100M. Wasn’t the Haitian Government ‘more Catholic than the Pope’ in pursuing reforms when one sees the latitude that the rich countries have allowed with regard to liberalism in the face of the economic crisis? The countries that adopted such latitude had the capacity to do so. What measures could we take? We bore the full brunt of opening up our markets, and it was very hard. When, at the request of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, we deregulated all imports into the country, we killed off a large proportion of national production. Rice from Miami was selling at a tenth of the price of local produce. But that was the price to be paid. The Paris Club cancelled $US1.2bn of the Haitian debt. In 2006, the country was still in the grip of gang violence, with the ‘Baghdad operation’ plunging the country into terror. But we are now at a crossroads. By that, I mean we could just as easily take a step backwards as a step forwards. Keywords Michle Duvivier Pierre-Louis; Hati; EU Development Days; Ren Prval; Oasis of the Seas; Labadee; Royal Caribbean Cruise Line; Citadelle Laferrire; Hegel Goutier. We know that investment is the only way to bring about genuine development. The textile industry is on the right track. We are also working to promote tourism, in the entire country and not just in hotspots like Labadee where the huge liners of the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line bring in thousands of tourists every week, particularly among the Haitian diaspora. For example, we are cre ating infrastructure to attract them to visit the Citadelle Laferrire, a national treasure and a UNESCO world heritage site. The Taiwanese are also now investing in the south of the country. But it will be difficult to compete with Cuba and the Dominican Republic as a mass tourism destination, and I am not even sure I regard this as desirable.* See also article on aftermath of Haiti earthquake: ‘Africa mobilises for Haiti ’, p. 8. ** French acronym – The United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Haiti.

PAGE 10

R ound up South Africa has been at the fore front of the continent’s effort, reacting with great speed not only in announcing financial assistance but by rushing rescuers and health pro fessionals to Haiti to help to tackle the immediate emergency, closely followed by specialist expertise, including experts in the identification of bodies, and finally the humanitarian aid teams themselves. On the morning of the 14 January, only a little more than 24 hours after the earth quake, a team of 40 rescuers specialised in different fields called "Rescue South Africa" took off from Waterlook Airforce Base, where President Jacob Zuma had gone personally to see them off, express ing his gratitude for the work they are now doing in the name of South Africa. Zuma also appealed to every South African to contribute help in one form or another to the Haitian people. The telephone com pany Vodacom , South Africa, has financed this rescue team to the tune of 1.5M rand (US$202,000), and another team of ten specialists in trauma and different types of surgery, "Gift of the Givers", left for Haiti on the 14 January, taking with them a variety of material, including tents, water purification tablets, energy supplements and medicines, to the value of 5M rand (US$655,500). The South African Red Cross has also launched an appeal for 30M rand (US$4M). South Africa’s example has been widely followed elsewhere on the continent, and with similar speed. On the 15 January Gabon, too, announced the sending of substantial aid, accompanied by a state ment from the Council of Ministers speci fying that this was "emergency aid of US$1M for our brothers, who have only just recovered from both a long and mur derous civil war and terrible and deadly flooding". > Senegalese parliament votes in favour of right of settlement in Senegal for Haitians The president of Senegal, Abdoulaye Wade, has decided to allocate US$500,000 to Haiti, and captured the headlines by announcing that Haitians would be wel come in his country. "Africa should offer Haitians the right to return to their home. This is a question of rights, and we must not be grudging in our giving". It is likely Africa mobilises for Haiti8 To an unprecedented extent as far as a humanitarian cause outside the continent is concerned, Africa has rallied to the aid of Haiti since the earthquake that laid waste to the country on the 12th January 2010 and caused probably more than 200,000 deaths, leaving millions more wounded and homeless. Even those countries suffering a very difficult economic situation them selves have made their contribution to this display of generosity. In the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, the EU released 3M of emergency aid from ECHO, the Euro pean Commission's humanitarian office, swiftly followed by a further pledge on 18 January of 429M. of short and longterm assistance. On 25 January, the current Spanish Presidency of the EU announced the dispatch of a 300-strong gendarmarie force to Haiti, operating un der the European flag, to help maintain order following the quake. At the same time, EU Foreign Ministers agreed to create a coordination cell, EUCO-Haiti, to exchange information about the civil and military resources contributed by in dividual EU states. E ME RG E N C Y AID FRO M THE EURO PEA N U N I ONHegel GoutierLeft and Right: Hegel Goutier, Middle: Reporters/AP

PAGE 11

9 N. 15 N.E. – JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010 Round-up that Mr Wade hopes that the costs of this "repatriation" of Haitians would be taken care of by the international com munity. Criticised by an opposition party which labelled his proposal as “absurd”, Wade pointed out the example of Liberia, populated by black people from North America, and he had the backing of the Senegalese parliament, which voted unan imously on the 22 January for this "right to return" for Haitians, and in addi tion promised US$100,000 to Haiti from its own resources, exhorting the whole Senegalese population to offer the equiva lent of a day’s pay to the aid efforts in Haiti. The parliament also lent its support to plans for a major national telethon to help the Caribbean nation. Nigeria has made available to the United Nations mission in Haiti a contingent of 121 soldiers, to provide assistance with operations to rescue victims. The vicepresident, Goodluck Jonathan, underlines his country’s commitment: "As the inter national community mobilises in aid of Haiti, it can count on Nigeria's support", and backed this up by releasing an initial sum of US$67,000 of aid for Haiti. Benin, a nation ruled by a royal family which produced the architect of Haitian independence, Toussaint Louverture, also launched a telethon in aid of Haiti, and in addition its government has decided to provide assistance for 50 Haitian stu dents who attend university in Benin, and to increase the number of its police officers serving in MINUSTAH (United Nations Sabilisation Mission in Haiti), as well as sending soldiers to take part in the MINUSTAH mission. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has contributed up to $2.5M to the special fund set up by the United Nations, a very generous amount considering the difficulties which the country is under going. This offer has also received the support of the opposition party "Union du Congo", though this was not entirely unanimous. Many Congolese, however, support the gesture of their president and the words of Mgr Ilunga Mutuka, who made clear in a statement on behalf of the Church of Christ in Congo (CCC) that "the Democratic Republic of the Congo still has a vivid memory of the contribu tion of many Haitians to the education of Congolese youth in the wake of the inde pendence of the country in 1960". Equatorial Guinea has released US$2 of aid for Haiti, to be administered through the United Nations fund, while Congo has announced a contribution of one million dollars, matching the respective offers of Gabon and Namibia. Mauritius, on the other hand, has donated an addi tional US$500,000 to the fundrais ing operation set in motion by Caritas Mauritius. Botswana has contributed up to US$150,000, Rwanda and Namibia US$100,000 each, and Liberia US$50,000, and other countries such as Zambia and Gambia, have also shown their solidarity with generosity. The list of donors contin ues to grow. The African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States has decided to dedi cate to Haiti 60M for natural disas ters provided for by the European Union. It also plans to ask the EU to mobilise for Haiti’s benefit an even more significant portion of so far un used European aid earmarked for the ACP Group.SOL IDA R IT Y OF THE ACP G ROU PTop-left: Reporters/Laif, Top-right: Hegel Goutier, Bottom left and right: Reporters/AP

PAGE 12

“Special attention will be devoted to West Africa, a priority region for Spain”What are the Spanish Presidency’s priorities towards ACP countries? The major priority of the Spanish Presidency regarding ACP countries will be the 2nd Revision of the Cotonou Agreement. Negotiations for the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) will continue. Special attention will be devoted to West Africa, a priority region for Spain, emphasising here development measures. Two major meetings will be held under our Presidency with ACP countries: the Joint EU-ACP Parliamentary Assembly (Tenerife), and the Joint ACP-EU Council (Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso). How important is it to put the Doha round on track? The EU’s trade policy is characterised by its support for free trade, within the framework of international rules supported by all. The reference point for the drawing up of trade policies is the World Trade Organisation and, in particular, the Doha Round of mul tilateral trade talks. The Spanish Presidency attaches great importance to unblocking this negotiation process and is commit ted to reaching an agreement on issues for negotiation in the first half of the year. This objective is also shared by the EU. Under its Common Commercial Policy (CCP), it gives priority to a multilateral approach, which does not discount, however, other forms of negotiation such as free trade areas on both bilateral and regional scales. Would you like to see Cuba become a member of the Cotonou Agreement? This is a possibility that has already been considered in the past, but the decision to apply for adherence to the Group rests with the Cuban authorities. Our goal is, in any case, to foster relations between the EU and Cuba. The European Commission is to put pen to paper on reform of the EU’s Fisheries Policy. What changes would the Spanish Presidency like to see, particularly with regards to illegal fishing in ACP waters? From 1 January 2010, Council Regulation (EC) No 1005/2008, of 29 September 2008 establishing a Community system to prevent, deter and eliminate illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, came into force and is applicable not only in Community waters but also in waters subject to the jurisdic tion or sovereignty of third countries. This is the main tool of the Common Fisheries Policy to combat and eliminate illegal fish ing. The Spanish Presidency is aware of the importance of the economic, social and envi ronmental viability of fishing activities and emphasises that it will be attentive towards the exploitation of fishing resources based on sustainability criteria both at the Community and at international levels. Will you launch any initiatives in the area of gender equality in EU development policy? Apart from promoting the adoption of an EU position in view of the special ses sion to revise the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to hold in New York next September, during its Presidency Spain will promote progress in European pol icy with reference to certain MDGs, for instance, MDG3: Promote gender equality and empower women. We shall support the approval of the ‘EU Action Plan on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment’ which aims to enhance the effectiveness of EU gender policies and programmes to promote equality and the empower ment of women in developing countries. In March, in Valencia, we are hosting the 4th Europe-Africa ‘Women for a Better World Meeting’.In the rotating EU presidency Chair from 1 January to -30 June 2010, Spain’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Miguel ngel Moratinos Cuyaub, replies to our questions on ACP issues. Round-up Debra Percival and Marie-Martine Buckens 10 La Puerta de Alcala square, Madrid, marking the start of the Spanish rotating EU Presidency. Reporters/AP Miguel ngel Moratinos Cuyaub. Courtesy of the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation.

PAGE 13

The Lisbon Treaty took effect on 1 December 2009. In the com ing months its implementation will make it possible to answer certain questions concerning its impact, including on relations with the ACP countries. One of the treaty’s principal innova tions is the creation of the post of High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the holder also being Commission Vice President responsi ble for Foreign Affairs. The incumbent, Catherine Ashton will conduct and coor dinate political dialogue with non-EU countries and ensure a coherent foreign policy. The Development Commissioner, Andris Piebalgs, and Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Disaster Response, Kristalina Georgieva, will work closely with her. It remains to be seen how these different posts will interconnect in practice. The treaty widens the common priority objectives of the EU’s external action to include reducing and eradicating poverty. This is proof, say some observers, that development will be a policy in its own right. Others underline the risk of it becoming no more than an instrument in the service of external relations. “I remain confident until we see otherwise. I am not saying that devel opment has nothing to do with external pol icy, but the question I ask myself is whether the autonomy of development policy will be maintained”, warned Louis Michel.> Preserving the acqui s*The disappearance from the Lisbon Treaty of any reference to the ACP Group, which had existed since the Maastricht Treaty (1992), caused some concern. This was expressed in the letter sent on 23 November by Eunice Kazembe, President of the ACP Council, to the Presidents of the European Commission and Council. For his part, Wilkie Rasmussen, ACP Co-President of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly, considered such fears to be premature, while adding: “But I am not nave. We must fight to preserve the acquis of our relations.” One of the principal challenges facing the High Representative will be to set up the European External Action Service, a genu ine European diplomatic service under her authority. This colossus will ultimately, by around 2014, consist of the 10,000 civil servants of the Council, Commission and diplomatic services of the Member States. A first visible sign of the change is that, since 1 December, some 130 European Commission external delegations have become EU del egations. These will grow progressively with the addition of representatives of the Council and the Foreign Ministries of the Member States. Questions are naturally being raised regarding the impact on delegations in the ACP countries where the granting and pro gramming of aid is currently managed by the Development Directorate-General. Another innovation is that for the first time the treaty introduces a specific legal basis for humanitarian aid. For its part, the European Parliament will have increased budgetary powers and wider competences in fields such as humanitarian aid and immigration. In this new configuration of the EU’s exter nal action, the personality of the High Representative and of the Development and Humanitarian Aid Commissioners will clearly play a major role in determining their relations in practice. * The ‘essence’ of the agreement. Keywords Lisbon Treaty; development cooperation; ACP. Round-up Catherine Ashton: High Representa tive for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Vice President of the Euro pean Commission. Born in 1956, Brit ish, a member of the Labour Party, she first worked for non-profit organisations. A member of the House of Lords since 1999, she was junior minister, succes sively, at the Ministries of Education, Constitutional Affairs and Justice. In 2008, she very capably took over from Peter Mandelson as European Trade Commissioner, being much appreciated for her willingness to listen during trade negotiations with the ACP. Andris Piebalgs: Development Com missioner. A qualified physicist, aged 52, he was successively Minister of Edu cation and Minister of Finance in Latvia before being appointed Ambassador to the European Union and Undersecretary of State for EU Affairs. Appointed Euro pean Energy Commissioner in 2004, his responsibilities included the AfricaEurope Partnership for Energy. Kristalina Georgieva: Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response. Just as The Courier was going to press, Bulgaria appointed a new Commis sioner to replace Roumiana Jeleva, who withdrew as Commissioner-designate after failing to impress when she ap peared before the European Parliament. The new Commissioner is Kristalina Georgieva. Currently Vice President of the World Bank, she has a Ph.D. in eco nomics and an M.A. in political economy and sociology from the Sofia University of Economics. She has also carried out research and studies on environmental policy and economics at the London School of Economics and at the Mas sachusetts Institute of Technology. Her new portfolio covers humanitarian aid, which was co-managed with develop ment under the former Commission, and the new field of civil protection originat ing from a competence created by the Lisbon Treaty.T HE N EW KE Y F I GUR ES I N EURO PEA N C OO PE R ATI ONL isbon Treaty: the new order of cooperation11 N. 15 N.E. – JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010Anne-Marie MouradianBanner announcing Lisbon Treaty. Reporters/AP

PAGE 14

E U-ACP cooperation at a turning pointUnsurprisingly, the intro ductory speeches at the 18th session of the ACPEU Joint Parliamentary Assembly, held in Luanda from 30 November to 3 December, raised many questions regarding the future form of ACP-EU cooperation. The Assembly adopted a closing declara tion that is a genuine plea to strengthen the objec tives for combating pov erty and for preserving the acquis* and solidarity of the ACP Group. The entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty and the completion, in 2010, of negotiations for a review of the Cotonou Agreement will be two new turning points, stressed Louis Michel, European Co-President of the Assembly. For his part, Wilkie Rasmussen, then the ACP Co-President, argued for the Economic Partnership Agreements to include measures to help the ACP countries face the future opening up of their markets. The Assembly adopted three reports. It calls for improved representation for the developing countries, especially in Africa, within international institutions and on the IMF and World Bank governing bodies. It recommends that the impact of the finan cial crisis on the ACP countries should be reduced by seeking new sources of funding for development, such as the introduction of an international tax on financial trans actions. Finally, the report on social and cultural integration and the participation of young people calls for guarantees of improved access to education and jobs for the 15-24 age groups. > Madagascar and N iger The JPA also condemned the coup d’tat in Madagascar and called for the return to constitutional order by all the parties com ing together in a spirit of consensus to put an end to the crisis. It regretted “the intran sigence of Mr. Rajoelina, who seems to be the hostage of his clan” and “the demands of the exiled president, Mr. Ravalomanana, who shows an inappropriate lack of realism”. It recommended individual sanctions in the event of failure to respect the undertakings given in Maputo and Addis-Ababa. The JPA also called on the authorities in Niger to “return to constitutional order as soon as possible and release all political pris oners, including Members of Parliament and opposition leaders”. The delegations from Madagascar, Niger and Guinea-Conakry were only present at this session as observers without voting rights and not as full mem bers of the Assembly. A.M.M. * The ‘essence’ of the agreement. Round-up 12 Keywords Joint Parliamentary Assembly; Luanda; new European Commissioners. Luanda. Reporters

PAGE 15

F rom a G 20 of the poor to a G 20 of the richIn the aftermath of the world financial crisis towards the end of 2008, the G20, made up of the Finance Ministers of rich and emerging nations, set itself up as a potential regulator of world finance. At the time of its creation in 1999, the G20 was conceived as a simple forum for consultation aiming to promote international economic and financial stability. Once the crisis was over and its evolution into a forum for heads of state, it became an embryonic organ of world economic government. The year 2003 saw the formal establishment of another grouping, also called the G20, which had begun as an associa tion in 2000. This organisation was quite differ ent – it was essentially an association of poor countries, with an additional group of emerging ones, and its sphere of action was fundamentally the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Certain members of this group, such as Brazil, China and India, were to use this as a jumping-off point, and they now form part of today’s G20. In the interim their economies had grown significantly, positioning them in some cases closer to the rich countries than to the poor. 13 N. 15 N.E. – JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010 The G20 (developing and emerging countries) was essentially a consor tium of nations in different stages of development which believed that their interests were not sufficiently taken into account by world financial institutions. The 4th Ministerial Conference of the WTO in Doha threw up a surprise in the emergence of a bloc of developing countries, members of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP), the African Union (AU) and the group of Least Developed Countries (LDC). Initially this was an alliance against ‘green room’ negotiations, the secret meetings between major powers at the former General Agreements on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and WTO talks from which these countries were generally excluded. Among the objec tives of these nations was to obtain WTO exemptions, in particular as regards nonreciprocal trade benefits, which most of them enjoyed in their relations with the European Union. In some areas their interests and aims coincided with those of a number of Asian and South American countries. Just before the 5th Ministerial Conference of the WTO in Cancn, a G20 of “develop ing and emerging” countries was formally announced, with 23 member countries (five from Africa, six from Asia and twelve from Latin America)*. Their declared goal was to prevent a hidden agreement between rich countries before the Cancn con ference and to open the way to wider agricultural negotiations in the WTO. While the Cancn results were consid ered a disappointment, the group con tinued its work, coordinating its actions D ossier Hegel GoutierPlenary session, Summit on Financial Markets and the World Economy, Washington DC, 2008. Reporters/AP

PAGE 16

14 D ossier G20 and developing countrieswith different organisations of develop ing countries, namely the ACP, LDC, SVEs (Small, Vulnerable Economies), Cotton-4 (Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali), G-33, NAMA-11 (Market Access for Non-Agricultural Products), Caricom (Caribbean community). This new forma tion set itself the initial objective of working to ensure that the development agenda be endorsed by the multilateral trade system. After the eruption of the world financial crisis, the epilogue to a series of crises which had seriously affected developing nations, the lobbying of the G20 of “developing and emerging” countries helped to lead to an enlargement of the G20 of developed nations and the creation of a larger group of emerg ing nations. Six countries are members of both groups: South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, China, India and Mexico. * Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania andZimba bwe; China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Philippines and Thaland ; Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. The study’s view is that all but the very poorest developing countries benefited from the strong growth in the world economy from 1990 until just before the eruption of the finan cial crisis in 2008. Paradoxically, the third world debt crisis of 1982 and those of Brazil and Argentina which broke out between the end of the 1990s and in the years immedi ately after the turn of the century, also all occurred around the same period. Financial globalisation is a source of instability which places nations and people in competition with one another, and it may be surmised that the effects of this process are at their greatest in the young republics of Africa in particular. > A combination of G 20 and IM F ?A number of existing institutions will have to be adapted and others set up if an improved framework for global governance is to be established. There will be a need for a cen tral organisation to provide leadership and guidance to specialised bodies, and while this central institution does exist in embry onic form in the G8, G20, and IMF, none of these is at present sufficiently resourced to take on the role required. To function successfully, this organisation must have effective sanctions at its disposal. The WTO alone is capable of performing this role, but in practice sanctions have been applied almost exclusively to small countries. The IMF is too dependent on the US and the UN lacks the power required, while the G7/ G8, for its part, implies the dictatorship of the rich nations. The G20 is more in accordance with the new power relationships in the world, and its members constitute 90 per cent of GDP and 65 per cent of world population. Its weakness, however, is what the authors of the study call “the great absentees”, such as Spain, Iran or Nigeria, and indeed whole regions of the world play no role in it. Neither has the organisation so far produced a great deal in terms of significant specific results. An economic and financial committee under the combined leadership of the IMF and the G20 could be one solution to this conun drum. Such a committee would include the countries of the G20, but would also be enriched by representatives of regions which are at present under-represented, especially Africa. While “the G20 has travelled a long way in the right direction”, the study won ders whether “the leaders of the G20 will have enough will and constancy to carry out reform in the face of the many challenges ahead”. H.G. * Notes presented at the ENA (Ecole Nationale d’Administration, Strasbourg, France), 9 December 2009.In search of a global governance organisation involving developing countries In their study ‘The G20 and the regulation of the world economy’ Catherine Mathieu and Henry Sterdyniak of the OFCE (French Economic Observatory)*, an economic and political science research centre in Paris, hold the view that developing countries, with the exception of the very poorest, had initially benefited from financial globalisation, before coming to experience its downside. The authors went on to explore possible channels for the creation of a new form of world financial governance which is fairer on poor countries. Keywords Catherine Mathieu; Henry Sterdyniak; OFCE; ENA; globalization; world financial governance; Africa; G20; Hegel Goutier. From left: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Liberian President, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and Nigerian Finance Minister Mansur Muhtar. Reporters/AP Keywords G20; financial crisis; WTO; ACP; LDC; SVE; Cotton-4; G-33; NAMA-11.

PAGE 17

G 20 5 out of 10 for financial reform In an exclusive interview with The Courier , Ngaire Woods (pronounced Nyree), a New Zealand-born British academic who is Director of the Global Economic Governance Programme and Dean of Graduates at University College, Oxford, gives a short history of the G20 and assesses its relevance and successes to date. She concludes that the G20 serves a useful purpose in placing crucial subjects on the agenda of World Bank (WB), International Monetary Fund (IMF) and United Nations (UN) meetings. But she gives it 5 out of 10 for reform of the global financial system and only 3 out of 10 on its ability to ease the impact of the crisis in developing economies. Ngaire Woods’s recent publications include; The Politics of Global Regulation* Inequality, Globalization, and World Politics**, Explaining International Relations since 1945***, The Political Economy of Globalization****, The Glo-balizers: the IMF, the World Bank, and their Borrowers*****. Her expertise in global governance covers a wide range of subjects from the global economy to climate change.15 N. 15 N.E. – JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010G20 and developing countries D ossier Interview with Ngaire Woods, Oxford ProfessorCourtesy of Ngaire Woods. 3 out of 10 for support to poor nations

PAGE 18

16 Is the G20 just papering over the cracks or does it offer a real way forward in dealing with the global financial crisis? To imagine that the G20 offers reconstruc tion of the system of global governance is in my view completely wrong. People look upon it as a complete revolution in global governance. This isn’t so: it just recognises a power shift in the world and the need to have a different informal group of great powers making strategic decisions. The G20 has no formal authority to make decisions. It has no implementing capacity to make decisions and few of its members would agree to it being used in that way. When former US President George Bush called the first G20 leaders’ meeting in November 2008 (ed: in Washington), it was through the recognition that the financial crisis required an immediate global coordina tion of policies which would be credible to the market and investors. This initial meeting successfully gathered leaders very quickly. The first G20 Summits came out with action plans which charged different institutions and governments to do specific things. The G20’s Finance Ministers have been meeting for 10 years. After the financial crisis in 1997, the G7 already recognised that they had to have a wider group which would come up with global solutions to the financial crisis. The London Summit in April 2009 followed up the action plan of the first G20 meeting and pushed it forward. Its main achieve ment was to get an agreement that major economies would contribute credit lines to the IMF. They collectively agreed to inject money into the global economy to stop the crash. The first thing was to stop the world economy from seizing up; the second was to start thinking immediately about how to regulate finance in order to prevent another crisis becoming a major one; the third was to find ways to mitigate or to reduce the impact of the crisis on developing countries; and the fourth was to reform international institutions because the very fact that they had to meet at the G20 as opposed to meet ing within the IMF, for example, was to put out a signal that reform of international institutions was necessary. At the third meeting in Pittsburgh, there was much more of a focus on jobs because the industrialised countries feared that unemployment would become more acute. So it went back to the number one point on the agenda: stopping the economy seiz ing up. There was less focus at the G20 in Pittsburgh on how the crisis was affecting developing countries. The major agreement to come out of Pittsburgh was that Brazil, China, India and Russia (the BRIC), would contribute to credit lines of the IMF in return for more reform of the IMF. As you said, the IMF moved slowly. Do you think the IMF and World Bank have got to grips with the crisis? Inside the IMF and World Bank there is tremendous motivation and determination to try to get as much money as possible to developing countries. What is slowing the IMF and World Bank down is that the powerful countries, the member countries, have been slow to give these institutions the resources and mandate to act, to move quickly particularly in respect to the poor est countries. The WB has been left trying to deal with this crisis by simply frontloading speeding up already agreed loans. So it has not been given the additional resources to pump into developing coun tries. The IMF was directed by powerful countries to deal with the financial crisis in countries in the European area and that means that some 80 per cent of the money that the IMF has lent since the crisis began has gone to countries in the European area, and only between about two or three percent has gone, for example, to African countries. What does the future hold for the G7 and G8? I think the G8 at the leaders’ level is dead. It can keep on meeting but it is fairly irrelevant as an institution. The G7 Finance Ministers’ group is probably going to survive because it is the powerful way for the G7 countries to coordinate their position within the G20. They give it more power than the G20. But if the G7 Finance Ministers continue to meet, what they risk is pushing the emerg ing economies into a similar counter group. That is what we saw at the G20 Finance Ministers’ meeting in London earlier this year where the G7 countries had met to pre pare their own position. The BRIC also met to prepare their position. It could polarise the G20 in two camps. If the G20 has no real authority, what is the main interest of countries such as China or Brazil in being part of this club? Their interest is to ensure that they can influence strategic decisions and I think the fact they have participated to the G20 Finance Ministers’ group in the last ten years has given them an experience of how to use this kind of grouping, which is prov ing interesting. The crisis in 1997 was a crisis in emerging economies; it was South Korea, Brazil and so forth and Russia who were in crisis. But this crisis is different. The crisis itself is a crisis in the G7, in United States, Great Britain and Europe. At D ossier G20 and developing countriesNgaire Woods and Donald Kaberuka, African Development Bank President. EP

PAGE 19

the end of the day the emerging economies are very well placed, not least because they have already been in crisis themselves and are hence able to better protect themselves against this crisis. When the 2008 crisis arrived, these countries were in a much stronger position because they had reserves; they had taken measures which have pre vented the crisis from hitting them too hard; they have had experience in engaging in the G20 Finance Ministers’ group. We have also seen emerging economies become more assertive; which had not been the case in the global network before then. Are China, India and Brazil really standing up for the developing nations? You are right. They say that they are but what strikes me in the G20 leaders’ sum mit, is that the main voice for developing countries has actually probably come from the presidents of the WB, the Managing Director of the IMF and from the African Union representative. They have been say ing, “Look this is a development emergency, we have to do something about it”. But in my view, the G20 has not performed well vis--vis developing countries. They have done very well in preventing the wealthy economies from seizing up. They coordi nated quickly and they took some decisive cooperative action. I think they get high marks for that. They have done a little bit we can give them 5 out of 10 on financial regulatory reform. But when it comes to easing the impact of the crisis on develop ing economies, I would probably give them 3 out of 10 because they have been high on promises but low on delivery. How important was the role played by South Africa and African Union in the G20 leaders’ meetings? Were they merely spectators? They were not in a great position of power particularly because in these first three meetings the wealthy country governments have been so focused on their own crisis. The Pittsburgh summit was focused on the unfolding economic crisis inside United States and inside Europe. It has been quite difficult, particularly for African govern ments who are facing a real crisis as a result of the financial crisis. It has been very dif ficult for them to put their needs on the agenda and have them given priority. H.G.* Mattli, W. and Woods, N. (co-Author), The Politics of Global Regulation, Princeton University Press March 2009. ** Woods, N. (Co-Author) Inequality, Globalization, and World Politics, Oxford University Press, 1999. *** Woods, N. (Co-Author), Inequality, Gl ; Explaining International Relations since 1945, Oxford University Press, 1996. **** Woods, N., The Political Economy of Globalization, Macmillan, 2000. * **** Woods, N., The Globalizers: the IMF, the World Bank, and their Borrowers, Cornell University Press, March 2006. 17 N. 15 N.E. – JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010G20 and developing countries D ossier Keywords Ngaire Woods; economic governance; Oxford; G20; Hegel Goutier. ReportersBrazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Chinese President Hu Jintao and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan. Reporters

PAGE 20

18 In the following interview with The Courier in Brussels, she tells us that the IFC is seek ing new partnerships with bilateral and mul tilateral partners because there is now little money sitting around in public coffers. Rachel Kyte says that these are “interesting times for international financial architecture” with a need for an even sharper focus on the poor the least resilient in the crisis and for more innova tive instruments. In the wake of the crisis in October 2008, a lack of finance for infrastructure quickly emerged and at the end of 2008, the IFC also calculated a $U S 1.8bn shortfall of financing for the microfinance industry. Kyte says that since the big trade banks had repatriated most of their capital back to Europe instead of putting it into credit services in emerging markets, the IFC’s Board immediately tripled its trade financ ing to $US3bn. A microfinance facility was also created with the Germans, with a first International F inance Corporation branches out Rachel Kyte is Vice-President of Business Advisory Services for the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the arm of the World Bank (WB) that provides finance and advice for private investment in developing countries. She joined the Washington-based organisation nine years ago as an ombudsman, investigating complaints about projects, moving on to become Director of the Environment Department before her current posting. tranche of a $US500M which helped extend finance to 30 highly successful commercial ly-based micro-finance institutions around the world, a special initiative the IFC now wants to repeat. What was the IFC’s remit following the Pittsburgh G20 meeting? In its financial inclusion paragraphs in Pittsburgh, the G20 expressly asked us to help. The question was, how do you extend financial inclusion even at a time of a retreating global economy? How do you make sure that the poor do not suffer more? We are nearly five years away from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and are a long way from achieving them, so how do you keep fighting poverty at a time when there are far fewer resources to go around? One issue is how to increase the amount of smart regulation that allows finance to be accessible to the poor. This G II F : A N I F C/EC I NNOV ATI ON The Global Index Insurance Facility (GIIF) is a new joint initiative between the IFC, European Commission (EC) and the Dutch Government. It provides funds to insure against certain catastrophic events, de pending on their severity. For example, insurance will be paid out in the event of a wind storm of a certain category, or an earthquake registering a certain magni tude on the Richter scale. Jean Philippe Prosper, IFC Director for Eastern and Southern Africa, says, “The Global Index Insurance Facility will help protect farm ers and vulnerable communities against natural disasters that can wipe out their livelihoods and trap them in poverty. IFC is committed to helping extend financial products and services to places where the private sector is at the early stages of development, creating more opportunities for people that need them the most”. The EC has put 24.5M into GIIFs trust fund which is also supported by the Netherlands. Find out more: www.ifc.org D ossier G20 and developing countriesRachel Kyte. IFC is a discussion about how to extend access both by making smart regulation (such as a collateral register). Secondly, if more money were put on the table, it’s a matter of help ing Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) best channel this through supply chains by assisting big companies in extend ing their backward linkages to create more jobs in SMEs and also looking specifically at the needs of women who are owners of SMEs, but have problems getting access to markets and credit. Have you brought in any new instruments in the wake of the crisis? There are three big innovations. One has been to create more funds for our own account; setting up equity accounts with more people on board, for example the equity structure fund with Germany’s par ticipation. All co-operation partners now sit down, agree on the problem and co-create.

PAGE 21

The second is the global trade liquidity pool; it is not a new instrument in itself but the number of partners and the ambition are very new. Thirdly, we have created an asset management company. This is not on our own account. It is a wholly-owned sub sidiary. This allows us to leverage sovereign funds, public pension funds and privatelymanaged pension funds to invest alongside us. We provide the flow and these funds will be able to take 50 per cent of equity. It is another way of bringing more capital into emerging markets in a responsible way at a time when it is just not flowing on its own. We understand there is at least $US5 trillion worth of public pension funds assets under management in Europe that have some kind of requirement of sustainability, as well as pension funds that need to grow in order that we can all have our pensions. They have to produce a return to the beneficiary and they have to be green which means that over time they need to be invested more in emerging markets and in sustainable companies. Can you tell us more about the IFC’s initiatives to promote women’s business activities? We are helping banks invest in them as entrepreneurs because it’s smart business. We are also about to launch what I call a new ‘public good’ – that actually helps people understand how to ensure that when they reform the regulatory environment for SMEs, it is done in such a way that women in business benefit as well. We have tradi tionally been very gender blind in regulatory reform for SMEs. For example, you can set up a collateral register but in countries where women are prevented from raising collateral, how do you create such a regis ter that takes into account the ability of a woman to collateralise movable assets such as jewellery, or a fixed asset that might mean a change in the law around ownership of land? If you go in with your eyes wide open, you can have much more effective regula tion. Over 60 per cent of SME owners in Africa are women. We will be launching this work over the next few weeks. I am hoping it will be taken up by everybody who is in the SME business. Do you forecast a second global crisis? We see a long, hard road out of this with complete restructuring of certain supply chains in some industries that had overcapacity – including downsizing as a result of recession, for example, in the apparel industry. We are concerned about how to stimulate credit in emerging markets and how to enable good firms to access credit. It is not going to be easy. The Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is not the only source of invest ment. We have just been to India and were all struck with the opportunities for Indian investment in Africa. You are going to see a lot more south-south investment. D.P. Keywords Rachel Kyte; IFC; global crisis; SMEs; microfinancing. 19 N. 15 N.E. – JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010G20 and developing countries D ossier Young women studying dressmaking in Project Credit Femmes school, Dakar, Senegal. Reporters/ Lehtikuva Oy Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh speaks at the 2008 India-Africa Forum Summit. Reporters/AP

PAGE 22

20 You are critical of the G20. Why is that? The G20 has pretensions of replacing the United Nations. As it includes just 10 per cent of the world’s countries, it is hardly very representative. If you do not belong to the club of rich nations, you do not have the right to be heard. Is this good governance? The European Union could have made the difference. It should allow the other EU Member States, and not just the rich ones, to take part in the initial phase of the decision-making process, which is not the case at the moment. This is true for the African, Caribbean and Pacific nations. South Africa, the only ACP member of the G20, is not really representative of the ACP group. What is the solution? I believe we should have a G180, which would include all the nations that have been left out. I have just returned from a conference on security and development, a major issue in these times of crisis (and the subject of a report by Charles Goerens – editor’s note), because development cannot be achieved without security, and vice-versa. Everything depends on a nation’s governance and wealth. Where this is lacking, the system does not function well enough to allow the state to govern properly. Poverty is therefore the underlying reason for all insecurity. This is where we need to start addressing the problem. It is an arduous, low-profile job, but it helps to keep the peace. I firmly believe this is the right approach. Having said that, I still believe that Africa has never been as well governed as at present with the exception of regions like Kivu and Darfur, where freedoms are flouted and access to wealth is limited. Africa can be seen as an enormous institutional building site. We are the only ones who cannot see this. They need our help. I support the need to open Africa up to the world, but in a well-managed way. An Africa which is open without being sold off. What can Europe do? Europe’s ability to listen and show prudence is its strength, but also its weakness. Europe missed an opportunity to position itself on the international stage between 4 November 2008 – the date of Barack Obama’s election – and 20 January 2009, the date of his investiture as President of the USA. Europe also lacks clear vision when it comes to positioning itself in international organisations, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Take the Chinese, for example, who inundate the informal African markets with manufactured goods, thanks to a chronically undervalued currency, while still adhering to the WTO’s anti-dumping rules. Instead of suppressing the Africans, we should be helping them get themselves back on their feet. And Europe can play its part here by joining forces within the IMF to address the issue of currency parity.“I believe we should have a G180” Marie-Martine Buckens There will be deadlock unless all countries, including the smallest and poorest, are involved in the decision-mak ing process. This is essentially the view of Luxembourg MEP Charles Goerens, a member of the Environment Committee and Vice-Chairman of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly, who has a strong interest in Africa and African agriculture. An interview. Keywords Charles Goerens; security; development; G20; G180. D ossier G20 and developing countriesCharles Goerens. EP Reporters

PAGE 23

F iscal reforms in developing countries I nteractionOrganised by Eva Joly, chair of the European Parliament Development Committee, and Karel De Gucht, former European Commissioner for Development, a conference on good fiscal governance was held on 9 December 2009. The many experts present included Lszl Kovcs, European Commissioner responsible for Taxation, Abou Bakar Traore, the Malian Minister for Mines, representatives of the Spanish government, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and international Non-Governmental Organisations. Two inescapable realities provided the starting point for the debate. While taxation is the best means of achieving development by enabling countries of the South to be less dependent on international aid, in practice these coun tries have rarely succeeded in putting into place an efficient tax system. On the contra ry, tax evasion and the flight of capital to tax havens cause them to lose billions every year that could have been used to build schools, hospitals, roads and fund other development projects. The cause lies in corrupt practices among Africa’s elite coupled with the finan cial dishonesty and banking secrecy found in the countries of the North. “Victims of tax evasion, fraud when engag ing in cross-border trade or the putting into place of tax incentives aimed at attracting investment capital, the developing countries are believed to be losing US$385bn every year”, stressed Joly. “The black economy – which by definition avoids all tax – reduces the tax base. In Kenya, for example, 60 per 21 N. 15 N.E. – JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010 Participants at the 2009 Tax & Development Conference, jointly organised by the EP Development Committee and EU Commission. EP

PAGE 24

22 cent of the country’s tax revenue comes from just 0.2 per cent of the population, this being insufficient to collect sufficient resources to meet the country’s vital needs.” Karel De Gucht believes tax evasion cur rently represents at least three times the amount of development aid. In the face of such a situation, the priority is to correct the weakness of the tax sys tems of developing countries. This requires long-term investment – a tax administration cannot be reformed in a year – which is not only the responsibility of the governments concerned but also of donors. Currently just 0.2 per cent of public development aid goes towards improving tax systems. However, recently there has been some progress. “We have made more progress over the past 10 months than in the past 10 years”, explained Jeffrey Owens, Director of the OECD’s Centre for Tax Policy and Administration. Recalling the commitments made at the G20 in London in April 2009 to bring tax havens into line, he urged NGOs to keep up their pressure on politicians. Another initiative, which is all the more important as it comes from the South, is that African countries have decided to take their destiny into their own hands by launching the African Forum on Tax Administration in November 2009. The launch of this network, with support from the OECD and European Union, should enable senior African tax officials to set out Africa’s tax needs and priorities and to develop and share best practices to strengthen capacities in this sector. “I hope that this conference will have served to generate genuine awareness of the situation and will force the European Commission to take more account of ‘tax and development’ in its proposals in the future”, concluded Joly. This dynamic MEP and former magistrate is also determined to fight to oblige multinational companies to provide details in their annual reports of the activities, revenue and taxes paid per country. A.M.M. http://ec.europa.eu/development/services/ events/tax_development/index.htmEva Joly, chair of the European Parliament Committee on Development and Karel De Gucht, former European Commissioner for Development. EP Interaction ACP-EU Keywords Fiscal governance; Lszl Kovcs; Abou Bakar Traore; taxation; Eva Joly; Jeffrey Owens; OECD; Anne-Marie Mouradian; Karel De Gucht.

PAGE 25

23 N. 15 N.E. – JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010“Trade talks must reflect a new global consensus on hunger” In Rome”, explains Olivier De Schutter, “all the sensitive questions were brushed aside. Some difficult questions were hardly raised at all, often passed over in silence or put on hold while awaiting the results of further studies. These were: the problem of agro-fuels, land speculation in southern countries and international trade reforms although I should emphasise that questions of world trade bear a more com plicated relationship to food than people usually acknowledge”. How do you see the future? Over the coming months we must look at these fundamental issues. But with whom and adopting what approach? These ques tions remain unanswered. On the other hand, what is new, and this should be emphasised, is that the Committee for World Food Security is now firmly in place. It has existed since 1996 but to date had been ineffective as it only included constitu ent states. It was a talking shop that lacked visibility and took no decisions. It has now been reformed to include the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank (WB) and the World Trade Organisation (WTO), along with organisations repre senting civil society. It is a kind of miniparliament which will provide for increased coordination through the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme). Food security inevitably raises the question of international trade. How do you regard the still thorny negotiations on this point within the WTO? I believe that, unfortunately, international trade will be held up as a panacea when in fact it risks fooling people. We are confronted with a declaration that both says we are going to help ‘small countries’ and which presents international trade as a catch-all solution, when in practice, countries that wish to increase their exports, and thus their ability to gain access to foreign markets, create food insecurity inside their own countries. The small countries are often the ones that lose out. If they increase their exports they have to increase their own investments and small producers end up being the losers. We are faced with competition for access to the best land and water. The key issue here is protec tionism. I suggest a solution that gives coun tries the right to protect their agriculture. The problem is that we are seeing a fall in tariff protection due to bilateral agreements and to the demands of donors. Southern countries have not used all the WTO’s flexible mechanisms. This allows them to export bananas or cotton, but to what effect? It doesn’t make it possible for devel oping countries to pursue more sustainable agriculture. This is where the main cause of a lack in food security lies. M.M.B. Keywords Food security; Olivier De Schutter; FAO. Marie-Martine BuckensAt the end of 2009, the FAO announced that the number of malnourished people in the world had hit the billion mark. From Rome – where the last Food Summit was held in November – to the Copenhagen Climate Conference in December, the issue of food security was yet again on the table. To no great effect, despite warnings from UN experts, including Olivier De Schutter, Special Rapporteur on the right to food. We interview him here. “ACP-EU Interaction Courtesy of www.afronline.org and Damien Glez, www.glez.org.

PAGE 26

24 O verhaul of E U fisheries agreements in 2012? A 2009 ‘green paper’ of the European Commission’s Directorate General for Fisheries and Maritime Resources involved a very public consultation on the way ahead, including scientists, civil society and many interested individuals. The European Commission is now drawing up an impact assessment on the CFP, based on the consultation, which includes the future nature of agreements with non-EU countries. EU boats have a long tradition of fishing in West Africa to meet a dependency on imported fish which provide two-thirds of requirements. On joining the EU in 1986, the bi-lateral fisheries agreements of Spain and Portugal with African nations were brought under the EU umbrella. These agreements – essentially licences to fish for compensation – were given a facelift in 2002 and renamed ‘Fisheries Partnership Agreements’ which placed more of an accent on developing the artisanal fishing sector in African nations. The SSNC study says that the agreements with other nations cost the EU more than 150M during 2009, or 16.8 per cent of the EU’s total fisheries budget, involving some 718 vessels mainly from Spain, France and Portugal. It questions whether the agree ments promote sustainable development based on an assessment of their impact on West African nations – Mauritania, Guinea, Senegal and Guinea Bissau. “The concept of fisheries and fish as a pre-requisite for food security seems to be forgotten, dominated by the states with big commercial interests”, finds the SSNC. Demersal species and other fish stocks have been over-fished and the SSNC also casts doubt over whether the EU money goes to developing the sector in West Africa. > “ R eal partnerships”The SSNC wants to see “real partnerships based on coherence between fisheries, devel opment and trade policies”, suggesting that agreements should better manage fish stocks and develop the sector. To make this hap pen, it wants the European Commission’s Directorate General for Development to take part in future negotiations, rather than leaving them to the DG for Fisheries and Maritime Affairs. And because of the nature of stocks which obviously cross boundaries, it recommends that future partnerships be drawn up on a regional basis. The SSNC also wants all EU governments to be actively involved in negotiations – not just be left to nations with a vested inter est in exploiting stocks – and it says there should be an end to subsidies for EU boats. Priority should be given to developing the West African sector and small-scale fish eries in particular with local community involvement to prevent further depletion of resources. Only when surplus stocks have been properly documented should com mercial agreements be negotiated: “Should there be a shortage of fish, it is the West Africans who have the right of precedence to their own fish”, says the SSNC study. D.P.2010 will see the European Union put pen to paper on the blueprint of the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) which is expected to include a new approach towards fisheries agreements with non-EU countries from 2012. An in-depth evaluation of the existing agreements with West Africa, ‘To draw the line – EU Fisheries Agreements in West Africa’, by the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC), highlights some of the deficiencies in the current agreements. Keywords Fisheries agreements; Swedish Society for Nature Conservation; Mauritania; Guinea; Senegal and Guinea-Bissau. Interaction ACP-EUFishing boats, Saint-Louis, Senegal. Reporters/Photononstop

PAGE 27

‘ G reen’ G hanaian timber for EuropeAt the end of 2010, the first shipments of timber from Ghana – certified ‘legal and sustainable’ – will be arriving at European ports. This is a major first, the result of several years of negotiations with the European Union (EU) and an example that is likely to be followed by others. More Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs) are soon to be signed, starting with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). It was on 20 November 2009 in Brussels that the VPA between Ghana and the EU was signed by Mrs Nana Bema Kumi, Ghana’s Ambassador to the EU, European Environment Commissioner, Stavros Dimas and Swedish Agriculture Minister, Eskil Erlandsson, President of the EU Council at the time. The agreement concerns the Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT) action plan. Introduced by the EU and the Member States in 2003, this aims to increase the capacity of developing countries to control illegal logging in their forests by improving national sovereignty as well as to reduce the recurrent problem of trade in illegal timber between these coun tries and the European Union. FLEGT provides a legal framework for control and monitoring that makes it pos sible to guarantee that all the timber that arrives in the EU market is legally acquired and exported in accordance with the laws of Ghana. The agreement also creates a national legal assurance system for all tim ber and timber products commercialised in the EU as well as in Ghana or in non-EU countries. It also provides for independent third party audits of the entire verification system. These audits will be made pub lic. The system is often compared to the Kimberly process that was introduced in 2003 and whose certification system aims to prevent trade in diamonds from conflict zones. The European Commission has neverthe less warned that successful implementa tion of the agreement will require political commitment, investment in a number of areas and strengthened regulatory systems. A programme financed by the European Commission, France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the World Bank will supplement Ghana’s own resources to assist the country in implementing the agree ment. Five other countries are currently at the negotiating stage – Cameroon, Liberia, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia – and two others are engaged in preliminary dis cussions, namely Gabon and the Central African Republic. M.M.B. The EU imports almost half of the forestry products exported by Ghana, a market estimated to be worth 350M a year. Timber is Ghana’s fourth largest source of export revenue, after gold, tourism and cocoa. Keywords FLEGT; timber; Ghana; EU; DRC. Children play with toys transporting wood, Ghana. Reporters/LAIF 25 N. 15 N.E. – JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010Africa Interaction

PAGE 28

26 It is in keeping with the spirit of the times. After having launched the major initiative of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States, the European Union has decided to review the association that links it to the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs). The new recommended partnership has three main objectives: increased competitiveness, reduced vulnerability and the opening up of the OCTs to other cooperation partners. In 6 November 2009 the European Commission presented its communication on a new partnership between the EU and the OCTs (http://eur-lex.europa.eu/ LexUriServ/LexUriServ.douri=COM:2009 :0623:FIN:EN:PDF). This new communi cation comes against the backdrop of the reflection initiated by the Commission in June 2008 following publication of a ‘Green Paper’ on relations between the EU and the OCTs. It takes stock of these consultations and presents the components for a new part nership with a view to replacing the present Overseas Association Decision that expires in December 2013. The aim is to continue this reflection in 2010 and 2011, in partner ship with the OCTs and the Member States to which they are linked (Denmark, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom), so as to be able to draw up concrete legisla tive proposals to modify the present associa tion by the end of 2013. > ExceptionsIn regard to this consultation, the Commission notes that: “A common opinion is that the current anti-poverty focus in rela tions between the EU and the OCTs no longer corresponds to the reality in the field and should be replaced by a new approach. The unique relationship between the OCTs and the EU should be the cornerstone of such a new logic. It should take due account of the OCTs’ specificities, in particular their economic and social development, diver sity and vulnerability, as well as their envi ronmental importance. It should also aim to strengthen their resilience and enhance their competitiveness”. There are exceptions, however. In the case of Anguilla, Mayotte, Montserrat, Saint Helena, the Turks and Caicos Islands and Wallis and Futuna, the Commission acknowledges that maintaining “an antipoverty approach might be justified” insofar as they fulfil the conditions for development assistance. Regarding trade and financial coopera tion, the Commission proposes to maintain current anti-reciprocal tariff preferences granted to the ACPs, “without prejudice to any revision necessary”. This would be the case, for example, if an OCT decided to join an EPA concluded between the EU and a regional ACP group. It thus notes that “the Cariforum-EU EPA already allows OCTs to be brought within the scope of the agree ment. Should an OCT and its Member State so request, the Commission would agree to include that OCT within an EPA”. M.M.B. Keywords OCTs; EPA; EU; new partnership; ACP. O verseas Countries and Territories receive the emancipation cure Interaction OCT-EUMamoudzou, Mayotte. Reporters/Image Source

PAGE 29

27 N. 15 N.E. – JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010ACP-EU Interaction E U funds for 13 ACPs to cushion the impact of the economic crisis (In Million Euros) V-FLEX FLEX Other EDF nancing Total Benin 25.00 1.40 26.40 Burundi 13.60 13.60 Central African Republic 7.60 7.60 Comoros 4.70 0.33 2.24 7.27 Ghana 35.00 35.00 Grenada 5.00 0.29 5.29 Guinea Bissau 8.00 3.18 11.18 Haiti 30.00 30.00 Malawi 25.00 25.00 Mauritius 10.90 10.90 Seychelles 9.00 7.50 16.50 Sierra Leone 12.00 12.00 Zambia 30.00 30.00 Total 215.80 5.93 9.74 230.74 V-FLEX’, an initiative adopted by the EU in August 2009 to cushion the impact of the economic crisis on ACP coun tries, has an overall budget of 500M. “The Vulnerability-FLEX mechanism is the EU’s swift response mechanism to help countries maintain priority spending, thereby assist ing the worst-affected countries to reduce the social cost of the crisis”, said Karel De Gucht, EU Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid. EU officials say the remaining budget will be allocated during 2010. The funds will be injected directly into ACP governments’ budgets so that they can keep up lev els of public spending, particularly in social sectors, without jeopardising macr oeconomic stability. For ACP states which requested V-FLEX funding, the EU based its calculations on forecasted fiscal losses and other vulnerability criteria. EU officials say the mechanism is aimed at countries with a high degree of economic, social and politi cal vulnerability and with the right policies in place to deal with the crisis. For the same purposes, a handful of countries from the same list of beneficiaries will also receive further smaller amounts from the European Development Fund (EDF) and from a ‘FLEX’ mechanism to support fluctuations in export earnings (see table below for coun tries and corresponding amounts). D.P.Eleven African and two Caribbean countries are the initial beneficiaries of 215M from the EU’s Vulnerability-FLEX (V-FLEX) finance mechanism for African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) nations, it was announced in December 2009. They are: Benin, Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Comoros, Ghana, Grenada, Guinea Bissau, Haiti, Malawi, Mauritius, the Seychelles, Sierra Leone and Zambia (see table). V-FLEX = Vulnerability FLEX instrument FLEX = Support for fluctuations in export earnings EDF = European Development FundTable: F inancing of ACP countries in response to the crisis (E U sources) “Children walk past a dilapidated colonial building, Bissau, Guinea-Bissau. Reporters/AP

PAGE 30

Keywords Bulgaria; Poland; Slovakia; South Africa; FRELIMO; MPLA. 28 Bulgaria is a newcomer to the EU-ACP partnership. As an economy in transition, it has itself been a recipient of foreign aid for the past 20 years. Nonetheless the Balkan state gained experience in development cooperation when the Communist regime was in power. From the early 1960s until the end of the 1980s, Bulgaria was a donor of development aid to over 40 countries including some in sub-Saharan African nations. Some other Eastern European newcomers have similar ties. From 1946-1990, it was active in aiding the African independence movements in countries such as South Africa, Zimbabwe (the former Rhodesia), Namibia, Angola and Mozambique. Although there were no diplomatic relations at gov ernment level, leaders of the Bulgarian Communist Party actively supported the liberation movements in these countries with the aim of encouraging them to incor porate socialist policies into their political programmes. South Africa’s African National Congress (ANC) established relations with Bulgarian government officials and NGOs in the early 1970s. Four years after his appointment as Secretary General of the ANC, Alfredo Nzo, who served as foreign minister under the government of Nelson Mandela, went on a state visit to Bulgaria in 1973. In subse quent years, ANC delegations were regular ly invited to party congresses in Bulgaria’s capital, Sofia. The Bulgarian government provided humanitarian and military aid to the ANC and on several occasions, publicly expressed its solidarity. On the independence of Angola and Mozambique in 1975, Bulgaria concluded respective treaties of friendship and cooperation with both countries. Bulgaria pro vided scholarships to African students and in some countries set up joint enterprises (i.e. Bulgarian-Nigerian companies). Most former socialist nations followed simi lar development policy goals. In the 1970s, Poland actively supported the concept of the ‘New International Economic Order’. Despite being a socialist country, Poland successfully forged relations with African leaders who were opposed to Communism. Other Socialist bloc nations focused more on partnerships with Communist movements. The Hungarian Socialist Workers Party, for example, concluded inter-party cooperation agreements with Mozambique’s Liberation Front (Frente de Libertao de Mocambique – FRELIMO) and Angola’s Popular Liberation Movement (Movimento Popular de Libertao de Angola – MPLA). But are there any connecting factors between the policies of Socialist governments decades ago and the development policies of today’s EU newcomer member states from eastern Europe? The personal career of the former Slovak foreign minister Eduard Kukan (in office 1998-2006) suggests that the answer to this question is yes. Kukan was a Czechoslovakian diplomat from 1964 until 1991 and dealt mainly with his country’s relations with different African countries. As his country’s foreign minister, he made use of his language skill in Swahili, which he learnt while studying at Moscow’s State Institute of International Relations. Hence today’s political leaders may rely on quali fications and personal contacts, acquired in the past, to revive the partnership of their states with certain ACP countries.* Freelance journalist. N ewcomers to ACP-E U partnership draw on 30 years of tiesTim Graewert*Opinion Interaction ACP-EUAndrei Gromyko (foreground right), then Foreign Minister of the former Soviet Union, meeting with Marcelino dos Santos, founding member of FRELIMO and then Mozambican minister for development and economic planning, Moscow, 1977. Reporters/Novosti

PAGE 31

The first European Cultural Forum planned within this Agenda was held in Brussels on 29 and 30 September 2009, and addressed, amongst others, the issue of the rela tionship between culture and develop ment. This issue was discussed by Odile Quentin, Director General for Culture, and Stefano Manservisi, Director General for Development. Mr. Manservisi described the shift that has been taking place in this rela tionship. Culture used to be last on the list of importance in terms of development policy, but now constitutes a transversal approach, due to the recognition of its key role in creat ing the correct foundations for dialogue. The workshops of the Forum involved cul tural analysts from ACP countries, and interesting comparisons were made between the Culture programme (targeted at Europe) and the ACPCultures programme (targeted at ACP countries). The ACPCultures pro gramme has not been operating for long, and therefore has less experience, with less funding available for a greater number of countries (6M for the 79 ACP countries, compared to 400M for the 27 European countries). ACPCultures also has lower visi bility among the target audience of citizens. Francisco D’Almeida (of the Culture and Development Association) communicated the impatience of African field operators, and their desire to witness the concrete application of local and national policies which benefit their day-to-day cultural activities, and also to enjoy a better struc turing of national and interregional mar kets. The topic of visas for non-European operators was also discussed. The European cultural platforms, which are engaged in the political lobbying of their governments, were cited as an interesting model. Indeed, networking is now a working prac tice which is applied to all cultural projects. At the 3rd World Culturelink Conference , which was held in Zagreb from 13 to 15 November 2009, discussions were held on the status of cultural networks in relation to national and transnational policy-making. Culturelink Network is an institution which is funded by UNESCO and the Council of Europe, and its members highlighted the importance of the redefinition of cultural policies in the current period in which tech nology facilitates interaction and shapes cultural practices in a constantly chang ing landscape of digital communication. Key issues concerning the value of cultural networks in sustainable development strate gies were emphasized through examples from Latin America (The Latin American Network of Art for Social Transformation) and Africa (The ARTerial Network). Therefore, the networking activities carried out between operators represent a prior ity for cultural policy, and are essential to address the urgent needs of cultural indus tries in the south of the world.* Res. of the Council of 16th Nov. 2007, on a European Agenda for Culture, in The Official Journal of the EU C 287/1, 29.11.2007.Culture is a fundamental tool for the EU’s external relations. This is one of the themes that has been emerging since 2007, when the Council approved an Agenda for Culture*, based on three ambitious sets of objectives: cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue; culture as a catalyst for creativity; and culture as a key component in external relations. Cultural policy: O perators engage in networking activitiesAndrea Marchesini Reggiani Keywords European Cultural Forum; Culturelink Network. 29 N. 15 N.E. – JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010ACP-EU Interaction EC

PAGE 32

30 Securing a role for local authorities, the third partyGovernments and experienced non-governmental organisations apart, local and regional author ities must also take part in resource management for cooperation for development, in order to make the process more effective. This was the idea behind the ‘Conference on Decentralised Cooperation’, which took place under the auspices of the Committee of the Regions in Brussels on 2 December 2009, in collaboration with the European Commission. Among the important deci sions taken at this meeting was the establishment of a political dialogue on decentralised coop eration which should eventually lead to greater consideration of the wishes of both European local authorities and beneficiary nations when it comes to planning EU aid.Conference on Decentralised Cooperation Participants from all of the continents met in Brussels at the Committee of the Regions, a European Union institution, with a view to discuss ing projects, programmes and future per spectives for decentralised cooperation, but above all to define the role played in the whole process by local authorities. In the opinion of the Commissioner for Development of the European Commission, Karel De Gucht, “Local and regional authorities bring with them a valuable view point and unique experience and abilities as far as action on questions of development is concerned”. His view won the backing of Luc Van den Brande, President of the Committee of the Regions, who stated that “NGOs are already highly active in this field. We should not aim to imitate them, but rather to focus our efforts on quality of management of development aid among our partners at a local and regional level”. On top of the general debate, four round tables formulated recommendations: Effectiveness of aid. A “good” project is one which is defined by people accord ing to their specific needs. It is there fore necessary to take local authorities into account in the drafting of European development policy. Local governance. This implies the par ticipation of all local and regional actors, governments, civil society and the general population. Local authorities must admin ister a portion of the aid, which should not, for example, allow for budgetary aid. Energy. Local action is particularly important as far as protection of the environment and climate change, is con cerned. Examples of this can be found in the energy independence of the city of So Paulo, Brazil, which produces exactly 45 per cent of its own energy require ments, or the reforestation process in Paris, France. Millennium Development Goals – Health. Only very rarely do local authori ties take part in the planning of health policy, and it is vital that this should change. The immediate decisions announced at the close of the meeting were the following: the compilation of an ‘atlas’ listing coop eration programmes and projects involving European local authorities; the continua tion of the process of dialogue following the initial meeting; and the setting up, among other initiatives, of an Internet forum on the subject of European funds for decentralised cooperation. In a declaration made by the Director General for Development, Stefano Manservisi, the European Commission made a significant commitment to work towards a greater integration of the views of local and regional authorities in EU policy, within the framework of United Nations action on the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) in 2010. H.G. Keywords Committee of the Regions; European Commission; Conference on Decentralised Cooperation; WCO; Karel De Gucht; Stefano Manservisi; Hegel Goutier. Interaction ACP-EUKhalifa Sall, Mayor of Dakar, Senegal, at the ‘Conference on Decentralised Cooperation’, Brussels. Committee of the Regions

PAGE 33

Greenpeace sets up in Africa C ivil Society on the moveLong established in Europe and the Americas, Greenpeace is now making its presence felt in Africa, tackling climate change, deforestation and overfishing. The rationale behind this move is that a better management of natural resources should be beneficial, in the long run, to food security and combating poverty. News from Greenpeace in recent months has certainly shown a very African slant. The South African Kumi Naidoo, holder of a doctor ate in political sciences from the University of Oxford, was appointed last autumn as the new Executive Director of Greenpeace International, while Michelle Ndiaye Ntab, from Senegal, recently took the helm of the ‘rainbow’ organisation’s three first offices in Africa: Cape Town, Kinshasa and, opening soon, Dakar. What is your image of Africa? Michelle Ndiaye Ntab: After a long time as an Afro-pessimist, I now have a more balanced view. True, there is a stagnating Africa, an Africa of bad governance and corruption, one that is desperately short of visionary governments and whose civil society, without a sounding board, is not managing to make itself heard. But there is also an Africa that is largely neglected by the media, an Africa that is on the move. Take Burkina Faso, for example. Landlocked and over-dependent on cotton, in the space of a few years this country has managed to diversify its agriculture to a significant degree, exporting French beans and cherry tomatoes to the European Union. And then there is the Africa group’s common stance a few weeks before the Copenhagen climate change conference, which was a first, and the development decisions that have been implemented since 2000-2001 by NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa’s Development), in particular as regards motorways and fibre optics. Africa is changing! Telephone services, of course. But promoting motorways in Africa? That will need some expla nation for the Europeans in Greenpeace! If we want to free regional markets, an infrastructure must be provided which ena bles people and products to move from one country to the next, especially when there is no access by sea. It is quite absurd that goods currently have to be transported via Belgium or France to go from one African country to another! If our markets open up to one another, they will then be able to freeze out certain products from developed countries that massively undercut our local prices. That said, environmental concerns Interview with Michelle Ndiaye Ntab, Greenpeace Africa Executive Director and expert in governance, health and development Philippe Lamotte*31 N. 15 N.E. – JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010Michelle Ndiaye Ntab. Greenpeace Greenpeace activists at the 2007 EU-Africa Summit, Lisbon, Portugal. Reporters/AP

PAGE 34

32 are also becoming more important within NEPAD. It is sometimes said that Africa needs strong lead ers and cannot afford the luxury of democracy. If Africa is where it is today, it is because at one time it was believed that it was not impor tant to have strong political institutions. The important thing was the need to attract investors and, with their money, to keep the economy running. The problem is that now Africa is being asked to do in fifty years what Europe did in three centuries. The West sometimes forgets that a nation is always built in stages. It is my fundamental belief that the coming of democracy goes hand in hand with the emergence of a strong civil society, strong parties and strong leaders. What are Greenpeace’s priorities in Africa? Will you adopt the same methods as those prac tised by European and American supporters? It all depends. In the DRC, for example, we are working a lot with grass-roots communi ties from regions that have, until now, been spared deforestation. In South Africa, we are dealing with a more educated and aware urban and semi-urban population, and so there we can lobby the government directly. We denounce certain political decisions or the scheming of polluting industries, but we also place a lot of emphasis on the alterna tives and their benefits. After just one year, Greenpeace Africa already has 3,800 mem bers, all private individuals, each paying 5.50 per month. In the autumn of 2008 we carried out an extensive communication campaign via community TV and radio sta tions, and it was very exciting to see how quickly our profile rose across the continent. If we continue to be so successful, in two or three years we will be independent.* Freelance journalist. Keywords Greenpeace; Africa; Michelle Ndiaye Ntab. Civil Society on the move ACP civil society adopts networking approachAt its meeting on 10 and 11 December 2009 in Brussels, the ACP Civil Society Forum decided to set up a vast virtual network for dialogue between all civil organisations and their focal points in the 79 countries of Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific. The aim is to exchange information on the major challenges facing the ACP at the halfway stage in their cooperation with the EU within the framework of the Cotonou Agreement. A t the opening of the meeting, Sir John Kaputin, Secretary General of the ACP group at the time, declared: “Your participation in the drawing up of regional and national indicative programmes is vital, as is your opinion on the analysis being undertaken on the Cotonou Agreement at the halfway stage, not to mention the negotiations on the eco nomic partnership agreements.” Dominique Delicour, of the European Commission’s EuropeAid cooperation office, invited the participants to take part in the regional seminar, within the framework of structured dialogue, which the Commission will hold this year in Mali. She also invited forum representatives to read the report drawn up by the Commission’s services on the partici pation of civil society (http://ec.europa.eu/ europeaid/what/civil-society/index_en.htm). During the meeting – the third since the forum was established in 1997 – the civil society representatives complained about the Commission’s “complex and bureau cratic” procedures. They also appealed to the Commission to involve experts from the ACP more in the programmes concern ing them. “The Commission’s practice of sending European experts does not produce exchange or knowledge transfer; on the contrary, the numerous reports drawn up are not used and are a waste of time and money”, pointed out one representative. M.M.B. Keywords ACP Civil Society Forum; Sir John Kaputin; Dominique Delicour. Medical stock from a basic Health Unit in Aftout, Mauritania. EC/ Carolina Martin Tirand

PAGE 35

G lobal crisis chips Africa’s gemWhen Europe, America and Japan are not buying dia monds, it means we have no revenue. The result is that we have had to make big cuts in our budget. Firstly, the year-on-year budget: in the last one the development part was cut by 5 per cent and the recurrent by 7 per cent. We have had to forego some of the projects that we wanted to embark upon”, said the minister. What’s more, Botswana’s Middle Income Country status means that access to international donor funds has become more difficult over the past two years. Diamond sales originally fell off in the run-up to the holiday period at the end of 2008. “We had two periods when not a single diamond was sold for two successive months: October 2008 and Christmas 2008. A number of mines closed and workers were laid off. It did not make much sense to keep on producing the diamonds when they are not being sold and stockpiled. The price was affected and there were no buyers even at lower prices. Happily, we have started selling diamonds again but we have not yet caught up and are still at 2007 levels”, said the Minister. Botswana’s tenth National Development Plan has been affected. This six-year devel opment plan approved in August 2009 start ed late because of revenue uncertainties. “Even now, we do not think we are yet out of the woods. The result is that we had to draw down on our reserves. We are borrow ing much more than we have done before”, Minister Skelemani told us. He added that borrowing was vital to keep on track some of projects such as the construction of three big dams in the southern part of the country which has no water or rivers. The Minister, however, said that spending cuts would not affect the flow of government funds to pur chase of anti-retroviral drugs for the large number of Batswana infected with the HIV/ AIDS virus.Diamond-dependent Botswana, a land-locked country with a population of just under two million, saw its economic sparkle fade in 2009. The precious gems have long been a mainstay of the economy, providing half of government revenue and 70 per cent of foreign exchange and contributing to the country’s enviable social development which has almost become a model for the rest of Africa. Some diamond mines have been forced to close in the wake of the global economic downturn. Moving into 2010, there was a glimmer of recovery, but the jolt has now caused a change of course in government plans for the sector with a call for more private sector participation in the creation of a diamond centre of excellence where Botswana will cut, polish and craft its own diamonds, said Phandu Skelemani, Botswana’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, in a recent interview with The Courier in Brussels. “ T rade33 N. 15 N.E. – JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010Debswana’s headquarters, Gaborone. D. Percival A glimmer of recovery in 2010? Debswana

PAGE 36

> Aggregation delayed Since April 2009, the country has been able to sell its diamonds again but is now looking beyond government financing to develop its diamond or minerals ‘hub’ operated by the Diamond Trading Company of Botswana (DTCB). The government has its sights set on the private sector buying up to 49 per cent of shares in DTCB. “This is one area where the private sector should be quite happy to join in. We had thought this should basically be a government thing but obvi ously we can’t go ahead this way anymore”, said the Minister. The aim is a state-of-the art centre of excel lence for polishing, cutting and crafting diamond jewellery and where aggregation can also be carried out. Aggregation is the blending of rough like-for-like diamonds for sale with those from other parts of the world such as South Africa, Canada, Tanzania and Namibia with Botswana’s. It was due to get underway in the country from 2009. “Aggregation has been moved back by one year precisely because of the instability, but it is definitely coming because we think we produce the best gems by value. We do not see why aggregation should be done in places that do not produce diamonds”, the Minister told The Courier. The December 2009 decision by UK-based Firestone Diamonds plc, which has min ing operations in both South Africa and Botswana, to start up commercial diamond kimberlite operations in the BK11 mine in northern Botswana is a sign of the sector picking up – although in this case, it is a for eign, rather than a domestic concern that is putting up new money for the mine’s devel opment. Operations are due to begin ahead of schedule in the first quarter of 2010 with full production capacity of 1.5M tonnes of diamonds to be in place in the third quarter of 2010. Philip Kenny, the company’s Chief Executive Officer said in a press statement that the decision was taken due to the pro jected shortfall in rough diamond supply which is expected to drive diamond prices higher in the coming years. Botswana’s tourism, another big revenue earner, has so far held up, said Minister Skelemani. This is in part due to the fact that people tend to book holidays to Botswana in advance and do not change plans at the last minute, and also that the country has unparalleled landscapes; the Okavango Delta, the Chobe National Park and the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. Botswana is also hoping to reap benefits from the 2010 FIFA World Cup in neighbouring South Africa, having recently extended the airport in its capital, Gaborone to take long-haul jets from March 2010. D.P. The economic downturn has affected the diamond trade, a very capital in tensive business, on a global scale, says Freddy J. Hanard, Chief Executive Officer of the World Diamond Centre (WDC) in an interview with The Courier. Headquartered in the Flemish town of Antwerp, Belgium, the WDC holds an 80 per cent global market share of the rough diamond trade and 50 per cent of the trade in polished diamonds. The first months of 2009 were particularly difficult with producers reducing production and cutting sales, says Hanard. He says that Antwerp has resisted well with just a 25 per cent cut in its trade in both rough and polished diamonds from January-No vember 2009. His predictions for the glo bal rough diamond trade in 2010? “While sales amounted to $US13.4bn in 2008, they will probably drop to $US7.5bn this year and rise to $US12.5bn in 2010”. He forecasts a slight rise of 0.4 per cent in the global trade of polished diamonds in 2010. “We will probably have to wait until 2011 for full recovery, on the con dition that we are not hit by yet another financial crisis. Diamond sales will not be driven directly by ultimate consumer demand, but by availability of financing”, says Hanard. A RO CK Y 2010 Keywords Botswana; Phandu Skelemani; diamonds; DTCB; FIFA 2010. T rade 34 Diamond mine, Botswana. Debswana Tourism has so far held up. D. Percival

PAGE 37

35 N. 15 N.E. – JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010 A tariff deal between Latin American countries and the European Union (EU) in December 2009 in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Geneva hails the end of a 15-year banana trade dispute, one of the longest-ever global trade wars. Eastern Caribbean farmers hit out. The core of the deal agreed by the EU and Latin American Ambassadors is a phased cut in the EU’s banana import tariff from the current rate of 176/tonne to 114/tonne in 2017 at the earli est. It includes an initial reduction of 28/ tonne to 148/per tonne on the signing of the deal by all parties, expected in early 2010. Latin American countries have in return agreed to demand no further cuts in tariff when the WTO’s Doha Round of global trade talks resumes. As part of the package, the United States has also agreed to drop all its banana cases against the EU in the WTO, some of which have been pending since 1993. When The Courier went to press, the EU Council still had to approve the agreement ahead of the signing the deal with Latin American countries and the settlement agreement with the US. Under the recent ly-ratified Lisbon Treaty, the European Parliament must also give its consent. “This is the best possible deal we could achieve. It reconciles all parties’ legitimate interests. I know African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) producers will face challenges in adjust ing to the new situation, but the EU will do its best to help”, said EU Development Commissioner, Karel De Gucht.> CompensationThe EU has pledged up to 200M to be dis bursed between 2010 and 2013 to improve the competitiveness, economic diversifica tion and mitigate the social consequences of adjustment in ACP banana growing states. The EU says what was agreed in Geneva both gives the ACP countries time to adapt and will mean more predictability in the banana market. Eastern Caribbean produc ers are not convinced. “The countries in the ACP group which export bananas to Europe are far from happy with the ‘deal’”, says Secretary General of the Windward Islands Farmers Association (WINFA), Renwick Rose. He says that Latin American exporters, dominated by the US multinational trio of Dole, Del Monte and Chiquita, have more than 80 per cent of the European market for themselves. By contrast, the Windwards; St.Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Lucia and Dominica) only have a one per cent share, posing no threat to Latin American domination. He adds: “Lowering the tariffs means that they can market their bananas even more cheaply than us thereby forcing our producers out of business”. Rose fears that the “grossly inadequate” compensation will take time to flow and raises questions about whether it will actually reach farmers. He says the pledged EU com pensation pot has to be shared by all produc ers in the ACP group including Cameroon, Cte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Suriname and Belize. The EU, ACP and Latin American coun tries also agreed in December 2009 on a common approach on the so-called ‘tropi cal’ and ‘preference erosion’ products in the on-going Doha Round negotiations in the WTO where ‘tropical products’ will be subject to deeper tariff cuts, while tariff cuts for ‘preference erosion’ products of interest to ACP countries will be conducted over a relatively longer period. D.P.Eastern Caribbean farmers slate “done deal” Keywords Bananas; Renwick Rose; WINFA; Karel De Gucht; WTO; Doha Round; Windwards. T rade Banana seller. Reporters /AP

PAGE 38

Z oom Flight of the Guardian Angel of DemocracyGloria Mika Supermodel Gloria Mika had been in Paris for a week, moving back and forth from Athens, where she also lives. It was clear that she hadn’t had time for much sleep, and had had to hurry to make it to her rendezvous with The Courier at the Gare du Nord. We were soon to learn that she does a lot of her work at night. Her satin complexion, with an almost child like freshness, and the slight pearliness of her lips betrayed only the faintest touch of make-up, and she was wearing casual clothes without ornamentation, presumably to mark a difference between the angel of desire who casts a spell on the catwalk and the guardian angel of civic society. This was almost a day of relaxation for her: all she had to do was to buy a ticket for a short trip to Ghana leave her application for a visa at the embassy and in the afternoon meet up at the Bastille with a group of African intellectuals and activists, most of them from Guinea. At 29 years of age, the supermodel has 10 years on the catwalk behind her, working with top agencies like Elite , top coutu riers Ungaro, Diesel, Escada, Pierre Cardin, Alphadi, Paul Mitchell, Kathy Heyndels, Yianos Xenis and Misu Mitsu, and jewellers such as Chris Aire de Los Angeles, through whom she met up with Cline Dion. She has been the face of L’Oral, the prestigious beauty products company, and the muse of international stars like Wyclef Jean, founder of the Fugees, in his videoclip Sweetest Girl , alongside other major figures, Akon and Lil Wayne. She has been sought out for films and has even aroused the interest of one of the very top American film directors. With her slender 6ft 2in frame, beauty, elegance and intelligence, the GrecoGabonese model Gloria Mika, icon of the couturiers and designers of luxury beauty products and muse of famous musicians, has just seen her fame take a quantum leap. Her appeal to the goodwill of her fellow models in setting up ‘Guardian Angels for Transparency’ to oversee the Gabonese elections last August, and in other countries where the people’s choice was on the point of being denied, created quite a buzz on the internet. Since then Gloria Mika has been much in demand, and has taken a stand for a variety of causes, always with diplomacy, professionalism and courage, even if it means making enemies in the corridors of power.36 Courtesy of Gloria Mika.

PAGE 39

Gloria Mika was born in Libreville, Gabon, and her family moved to Senegal for three years when she was six, a period of her child hood which she remembers very vividly. At the age of 15, she went to the Rocheambeau French International High School in the U.S., Washington DC, and three years later went to live in Paris, where she attended the Sorbonne University, taking a BA in Communication and Public Relations. She went on to complete her studies at the American College in Athens, specialising in the management of non-profit-making organisations, and taking a course in politi cal analysis too. She is intending to present her doctoral thesis on Gene Sharp, the theo rist of the end of history, and his relationship with the advocates of non-violence, Gandhi and Martin Luther King. At the tender age of 15, she had already par ticipated in a fashion show as part of a cul tural evening in Gabon. But it was when she took part, at the age of 17 and just for fun, in the Miss Metropolitan contest in Washington D.C., where she was chosen as runner-up, that she began to attract attention. Within a short space of time, she was invited to two relatively high-profile shows, at galas of the World Bank and then the U.N., where she met the Nigerian designer Alphadi, with whom she maintains a close relationship. When she came back to Paris, she met the Senegalese designer, Claire Kane, and then all of the other major figures in fashion fol lowed. > A different kind of iconGloria Mika has already been involved in a number of development projects in poor countries, like, for example, an educational project in a Haitian shanty town. It was her disappointment at the turn of events in the campaign for the elections of 30 August 2009 in Gabon which drove her to take the crucial decision to temporarily suspend her modelling work and to launch, on the 20 July, her appeal for the ‘Guardian Angels’, first on Facebook and then on her own specially-created website. Just a few hours later, the first registrations began to flow in, and within a few days figures were already in the hundreds. The time available was too short to have an significant effect on the transparency of the elections, but the frenzy of interest sparked off by the appeal of this iconic beauty led the worldwide media to reveal the irregularities of the elections and to publicise the instances of police brutality with which they were riddled. Gloria’s new activities have well and truly taken off, and she is now a different kind of icon, who is listened to as well as admired. She is careful to establish safeguards to avoid the ‘Guardian Angels for Transparency’ being taken over by individuals with their own personal agenda or projects of a dubi ous nature. Members of the association must be pacifists and must not be affiliated to any political party. But now Gloria is in demand everywhere: organisations and personalities from Guinea, Congo, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, intellectuals and activists, all appeal to her, asking her to take part in their different activities. She speaks at conferences and think tanks involving experts, researchers and politicians, and at events which even include Tamil activ ists. “In July, I met up with the Tamils to give them my support, advocating the basic principles of my movement, that is, based on non-violence.” Elsewhere she continues to go all out to mobilise as many angels as pos sible. For a future campaign, ‘Breaking the Silence’, based on the three wise monkeys who will see, hear or speak no evil and relat ing this to the international community in the aftermath of the elections in Gabon, she enjoys the support of famous designers and of her model colleagues who also want to use beauty in the service of democracy. So many of the constant barrage of tel ephone calls she receives come from sources worried about her safety that in the end she asks if they have heard anything about a spe cific threat. “I’m not frightened because I don’t have any enemies. I just want to make my own little contribution as a citizen to help governments govern better. If anyone wants to kill me, let them get on with it. The only thing they’ll have left is my corpse and my disobedience.” H.G. In July, I met up with the Tamils to give them my support, advocating the basic principles of my movement, that is, based on non-violence Keywords Gloria Mika; Gabon; Guinea; Congo; elections; ‘Guardian Angels for Transparency’; Elite; Ungaro; Diesel; Escada; Pierre Cardin; Alphadi; Paul Mitchell; Kathy Heyndels; Yianos Xenis; Misu Mitsu; Chris Aire; Cline Dion; Wyclef Jean; Sweetest Girl; Akon; Wayne; Hegel Goutier. 37 N. 15 N.E. – JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010 Z oom Gloria Mika in front of La Bastille , Paris, symbol of the Declaration of Human Rights. Hegel Goutier Courtesy of Gloria Mika.

PAGE 40

38 O ur planetThe poorest and most vulnerable developing countries came to Copenhagen knowing they had the least to offer and the most at stake. They came away with little.Darkness before dawn We fought for everything we came out with and as you can see we didn’t come out with much”, Dessima Williams, representing Grenada and the Alliance Of Small Island States (AOSIS), told 192 nations in the early hours of 19 December as the Copenhagen climate summit crumbled to a close. But, as did Ethiopia on behalf of the African Union (AU) and Lesotho on behalf of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), she urged those present to adopt the three-page ‘Copenhagen Accord’ announced 12 hours earlier by US president Barack Obama. The same accord had subsequently been rejected by several developing nations including Sudan, whose charismatic leader Lumumba Di-Aping said it asked Africa “to sign a suicide pact”. Ultimately, the accord was “noted”, not adopted, by the plenary and world governments agreed to continue the international climate talks, albeit with no deadline for their conclusion or agreement that they should result in a legally-binding treaty. “I will not hide my disappointment. Our level of ambition has not been met. There is no agreement on the need for a legally-binding agreement”, a tired and defeated-looking European Commission President Jos Manuel Barroso told journalists. The accord “will not solve the climate threat”, he said.> Poorest nations take a standThe Copenhagen Accord and decisions to continue talks under both the Kyoto protocol and broader UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) were the main results of the conference. The accord is weak however, and vague on specifics. It details no emission cuts, nor what share of long-term financing will come from the public versus the private sector. Fast-track funding pledges currently amount to $25bn, not $30bn. Explicit references to bunker fuels, a levy on which could meet up to a quarter of long-term financing needs according to green transport group T&E, were scrapped. Malawi had led LDCs in a push for refer ence to such a levy. Some have suggested the chaotic experience of the Danish summit could shift the inter national climate talks to a new forum, such as the US-led Major Economies Forum (MEF) or the G20. This would leave the poorest without a voice just as that voice is gaining volume. Ethiopian prime minister Meles Zenawi, who led Africa’s first-ever joint negotiating team in Copenhagen, said Africans were Climate change“Detlef Sonnenberg*Installation at the 2009 UN Climate Change Conference, Copenhagen, Denmark. Reporters/UPP

PAGE 41

39 N. 15 N.E. – JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010 there to negotiate, not stand by as victims. Ethiopia and France presented a financing plan calling for a global tax on financial transactions – the Tobin tax – and taxes on aviation and shipping. African civil society was present as never before, with Oxfam campaigner, Tim Gore, saying the climate talks increasingly resembled the interna tional trade talks. The chaotic experience of the Danish sum mit could shift the international climate talks to a new forum, such as the US-led Major Economies Forum (MEF) or the G20. This would leave the poorest without a voice just as that voice is gaining volume.> E U climate strategy fails dramaticallyThe EU and Africa were aligned on many issues, from pushing for deep emission cuts to recognising the need for substantial longterm finance. But the EU, like Africa, failed to see its ambitions materialise. Ultimately, Europe was relegated to spectator status as the US, China, India, Brazil and South Africa did the deal. A frustrated Barroso said no one had shown interest in the EU’s offer to increase its 2020 emission reduction target to 30 per cent, suggesting its strategy for securing a meaningful deal had failed dramatically. UN climate chief Yvo de Boer insisted the Copenhagen Accord was “politically incred ibly significant” because it had involved doz ens of world leaders in the climate change talks for the first time. It is this understand ing, that Copenhagen is the beginning of a beginning rather than an end, which prompted leaders from AOSIS, the AU and LDCs to back an accord some were ready to throw in the bin.* Freelance journalist. Our planet S CIE N CE: the accord recognises that global temperature rise should be limited to 2C. A review in 2015 will consider whether the goal should be strengthened to 1.5C. M I TIGA TI ON: developed countries will file 2020 emission reduction pledges to the UNFCCC by the end of January 2010. How much and how defined is up to them. Developing countries will notify mitigation actions, to be domes tically monitored with “provisions for international consultations”. Actions aided by developed nations will be internationally monitored. A DAPT A T I ON: developed countries agree to provide “adequate, predicta ble and sustainable financial resourc es, technology and capacity-building” to help developing countries adapt. D EF ORES T A T I ON: a short para graph says Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degrada tion (REDD) is “crucial” and “positive incentives” – a “REDD+ mechanism” – are needed to mobilise financial resources from developed countries. M ARKE T S: the accord supports mar kets, keeping the door open to capand-trade schemes and taxes, also for international aviation and shipping. F I N A N CI N G: developed countries will provide new additional fast-track fund ing “approaching” US$30bn for the period 2010-12, with the poorest, most vulnerable countries getting priority. Developed countries also “commit to a goal of mobilising jointly US$100bn a year by 2020” for developing coun tries. GO VERNA N CE : A UNFCCC “Co penhagen Green Climate Fund” will manage mitigation-related climate finance flows to developing countries. New multilateral funding for adaptation will be subject to a governance struc ture where developed and developing countries are equally represented. TECH NOLOG Y: A “technology mech anism” will be set up to accelerate technology development and transfer to developing nations.T HE CO PE N HA G E N A CC OR D There was some progress on draft technical texts in Copenha gen covering issues from reform of the carbon market to REDD. But without agreement on a new legally-binding treaty these texts are works in progress. Countries did agree on some improvements to the Kyoto protocol’s Clean Develop ment Mechanism (CDM), which lets rich countries cut emissions in poor countries instead of at home. Africa currently accounts for less than two per cent of CDM projects. To change this, countries that lack projects will in future benefit from deferred project registration fees and loans. The CDM executive board will also develop top-down methodologies and simplify additional requirements for the smallest projects.F OR ESTS AN D CARBON MA R KETS L E F T HANGI NG Keywords Climate change; Copenhagen; Africa Unione (UA); Least Developed Countries (LDCs); Kyoto protocol; UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC); Jos Manuel Barroso; Meles Zenawi; Yvo de Boer. Protester at the 2009 UN Climate Change Conference, Copenhagen, Denmark. Reporters/AP

PAGE 42

R eport A hub connecting three worldsCape Verde Barely twice the size of Luxembourg, scattered across ten islands, in a remote corner of the mid-Atlantic and for the most part consisting of arid landscape (owing to practically non-existent natural resources) and a local population often forced to emigrate, Cape Verde has achieved the great milestone of going from one of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) to a Middle Income Country (MIC). A poisoned chalice, no doubt, for a country which has invested the enormous foreign aid it receives (predominantly from the EU) in its internal development. This alone, however, is quite an achievement. The secret of its success? Putting strong governance and human rights at the heart of govern ment policy, to the extent that the 2009 Mo Ibrahim index cites Cape Verde as a beacon of economic success and sound governance. The real reason, however, or so you will be told by those in power in the country, is to be found in its only real resource: human capital – whether living on the islands or away from home. The locals (around 450,000) and those who have left (numbering around 700,000) have constructed a network, through which the Diaspora is a major actor in the Cape Verdean economy. But the country still faces a number of challenges: all-toopalpable poverty, high rates of unemployment, almost total dependence in terms of food and energy and a debt made all the more difficult to manage by the fact that the country will not benefit much longer from the advantages which came with its former LDC status. The answer? Give fresh impetus to its role as a transit agent, which it has played since its incep tion. A road to the Americas, in particular South America, a subcontinent with which the country has maintained strong ties since the time of Amilcar Cabral, and less than 3,000 km of cabling away. A stone’s throw from continental Africa. Finally, strengthened cooperation with Europe, thanks to its belonging to the islands of Macaronesia, including the Spanish Canaries (as well as the Porutguese Azores and Madeira archi pelago) at a mere 1,500km away. This is demonstrated by the two-year-old Special Partnership between Cape Verde and the EU, the only one of its kind among the ACP group.A report by Marie-Martine Buckens40

PAGE 43

U nique and proudA nation born of the first globalisation Left alone to face the elements for more than 14 centuries, except for occasional landings by the Senegalese or even, it is said, the Chinese, the Cape Verde archipelago was not settled permanently until 1460. It was then that the navigator Diego Gomes took possession of the archipelago. It became the property of the Portuguese Crown in 1494. A land of seafarers recruited for whale fishing and a port of call for Portuguese vessels bound for Brazil, from the beginning of the 16th century Cape Verde also became a hub of the slave trade between West Africa and the New World. It is true that this chain of islands – ten in all, nine of which are now inhabited – enjoys an “ideal” location: 600 km from Africa’s most western point (“CapVert” in Senegal) and less than 2,600 km from Brazil. It was from Ribeira Grande on the island of Santiago, where the slave traders had to stop to pay duty and baptise the slaves, that they then set off for the Americas. The Cape Verdean settlers also had slaves brought from the African conti nent to work on their plantations. This was the beginning of a long and unique proc ess of the mixing or ‘metissage’ of the two populations (European and African) trans planted to these virgin volcanic islands. > Treaty and piratesIn 1533, Ribeira Grande became an autono mous diocese covering the whole of former Guinea. The slave trade enabled the cotton loincloth industry to develop on Santiago and neighbouring Fogo, the only inhabited islands at the time. It was not until the 17th century that people started to settle on the 41 N. 15 N.E. – JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010 Cidade Velha : the ‘pilhourino’ where the recalcitrant slaves were whipped. Marie-Martine Buckens Cidade Velha: in the So Francisco convent (restored with the aid of Spanish cooperation). Marie-Martine Buckens Cape Verde Report

PAGE 44

islands of So Vincente and Sal. The French, Dutch and English traders, who were com peting for the monopoly on the African coast granted by the Portuguese Crown, used the loincloths as currency for procur ing slaves on the continent. In the middle of the 17th century, Cape Verde’s status as a slave centre declined as the traffic moved to the Guinean port of Cacheu. Thus deprived of its principal source of revenue, Ribeira Grande suffered its final blow in 1712 when Jacques Cassard, the French pirate, sacked the town. The capital was moved to Praia, 15 km from Ribeira Grande, now known as Cidade Velha (‘old town’). The 1866 Abolition of Slavery Treaty and the separation of Guinea-Bissau from Cape Verde was the death knell for the islands’ economy and sparked mass voluntary emi gration to the United States and – under constraint of the Portuguese – to planta tions in their colonies of Angola and So Tom and Principe. The departure of the Portuguese colonialists enabled the Creoles and the Blacks to accede to senior posts in both religious and secular institutions. Following the serious droughts of the early 20th century the archipelago entered one of the darkest periods in its history, with the Estado Novo (‘New State’) of the Portuguese dictator Antonio de Oliveira Salazar (18891970 and who ruled from 1933 to 1968). It was under his regime that the ‘greenshirts’ of his political police repressed any voices raised in opposition, whether in Portugal or in the colonies. Torture and deportations to the ‘death camp’ of Tarrafal, on the island of Santiago, became common. Despite the ban on emigration, thousands of Cape Verdeans managed to flee during the 1950s and 1960s, mainly to France, the Netherlands and Belgium. It was in these countries that most of the leaders of the Cape Verdean independence movement were educated. > Amilcar Cabral’s dreamIn 1956 in Bissau, along with four Cape Verdean and Guinean patriots, the agricul tural engineer Amilcar Cabral, a native of Santiago, founded the PAIGC, the African Party for Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde. Four years later, disregarding UN General Assembly resolutions, Salazar refused any dialogue on independence for Cape Verde and Guinea. February 1963 saw the start of the armed struggle for national liberation in Guinea-Bissau. The Cape Verdeans and Guineans joined forces in the resistance movement. Tarrafal prison was soon full of African nationalists from Cape Verde, Guinea and Angola. On 20 January 1973, Amilcar Cabral was assassinated in Conakry by traitors from within the PAIGC. The perpetrators were probably in the pay of the PIDE, the politi cal police of the fascist regime, although this was never confirmed. In 1973 GuineaBissau proclaimed its independence, fol lowed two years later, after the ‘carnation revolution’ in Lisbon and the end of the colonial war, by Cape Verde. The adoption of the First Constitution, which confirmed the PAIGC as the single party, came in 1980. The coup d’etat in Bissau in November saw the end of the plans for a union of Guinea and Cape Verde. A year later the PAIGV became the PAICV (African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde), with Marxist allegiances. In February 1990, the PAICV announced that it would be opening up to democracy. A year later, the Movement for Democracy (MpD), a party of more liberal persuasion, demanded free elections that it went on to win, appointing Antnio Mascarenhas as president and Carlos Veiga as prime minis ter (currently leader of the opposition). The PAICV was returned to power in 2001 with Pedro Pires as president and Jos Maria Neves as prime minister. Mr. Pedro Pires was re-elected in February 2006, beat ing former Prime Minister Carlos Veiga, the PAICV retaining a majority in the National Assembly. In his inaugural speech, Mr. Neves restated his government’s priorities: to encourage the growth and competitive ness of the economy, to modernise the state through civil service reform, to provide training and jobs, to improve the health system and, finally, to recognise the family as “the cornerstone of society”. To facilitate its vital relations with international financial institutions, in 2006 Praia launched an aus terity programme and, moreover, appointed Cristina Duarte, previously president of Citibank in Angola, finance minister, and Jos Brito, a former oil engineer, economy minister and then foreign minister in 2009. M.M.B. Keywords Diego Gomes; Cidade Velha; Amilcar Cabral; Tarrafal; Salazar; Carlos Veiga; PAICV; Pedro Pires; Jos Maria Neves. 42 Report Cape Verde In Porto Novo (Santo Anto island). Marie-Martine Buckens The artistic village of Porto Madeira (Santiago island) founded by the Cape Verdean artist Misa. Marie-Martine Buckens

PAGE 45

43 N. 15 N.E. – JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010 Setting the standard for developmentThe special partnership – dating from November 2007 – with Cape Verde sets the standard for the way forward for every signatory of the Cotonou Agreement keen to strengthen its cooperation with the European Union, states Josep Coll i Carbo, head of the European Union Delegation in Praia. The partnership”, Coll i Carbo explained, “was set up at the request of Cape Verde in the belief that the Cotonou Agreement could be further developed. Cape Verde sought to link up with the closest, most prosperous and most cultur ally familiar area of stability, the European Union. The EU was not the only organism to respond positively to this initiative, and member states have also shown commitment to the initiative, although for historical rea sons Portugal, Spain, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Austria have shown the greatest involvement” (primarily due to the large numbers of Cape Verdeans living in these nations, Editor’s note ). What is the added value of such a partnership in addition to the Cotonou Agreement, which brings together ACP countries and the European Union? Let us make it clear that the partnership was based on the Cotonou Agreement, which makes it possible to set up new initiatives for cooperation which had not previously been envisaged. We work together as equals, putting our common interests on the table. The European Union clearly has strategic interests, both economic and commercial, to defend, but in Europe there is a tendency towards a certain conceptual distortion of our relations with Africa. The Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) that we are in the process of negotiating with the ACP group form part of this initiative, and involve bringing these economies up to date and making it possible, through win-win agreements, to go beyond the donor rela tionship. Cape Verde is a true bridgehead for continental Africa and benefits from a strategic presence in the middle of the Atlantic, helping create a zone of stability between the three continents. This stability, The end of 2007 marked Cape Verde’s arrival on the international stage, and its promotion from the group of Least Developed Countries to the status of a middle-income nation, according to World Bank criteria. The country also became the 153rd member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), and, more importantly, signed a special partnership with the European Un ion, which should eventually en able Cape Verde to deal with Euro -CONFOR MIT Y WITH EURO PEA N STA N DAR DS“Cape Verde Report So Vicente Island seen from Santo Anto. Marie-Martine Buckens

PAGE 46

44 Report Cape Verde however, is currently seriously endangered by illicit trafficking, in the form of illegal emigration, arms or drug smuggling and money laundering. Major players have set their sights on this region to enable them to get closer to the West, but fortunately Cape Verde has reacted to this danger with fore sight, and the government has, with the help of our funding, set in motion a thorough awareness-raising campaign and overhauled its security systems. This partnership is also – and I would like to stress this point – an excellent exercise in improving coordination between member states and the European Union, imbuing the action of each with greater coherence. As such, a framework has been created which benefits all parties, and the EU Delegation in Praia, with its newly-acquired status of a Delegation in its own right, is now also able to play a full part in this process. You’ve talked about relations between the European Union and Cape Verde, but what about relations between the latter and the rest of Africa? Cape Verde can bring to West Africa and ECOWAS (the Economic Community of West African States) an Atlantic dimension which compensates in part for the difficul ties posed by being part of a continent, and adds a new dimension to the notion of territoriality. In terms of the EPA negotia tions, Cape Verde has concentrated on the services sector, while other members of ECOWAS are more raw materials-focused, which may in the long run enable a variablegeometry agreement. Let us not forget that Cape Verde also enjoys a strong relation ship with the Outermost regions (OR) of Macaronesia, in particular the Canaries, with which the archipelago shares impor tant synergies. The Frontex mechanism has made it possible to significantly reduce the illegal flow of emigrants via the Canaries. What are Cape Verde’s weak points? Access to water and sanitation, on the one hand, and on the other energy. These are two areas in which the European Union is providing support. Improvements in eco nomic performance have also resulted in a greater divide between rich and poor, and the Cape Verdean government is very much aware of this. And its strengths? The ability of the Cape Verdean people to function effectively anywhere, at home and abroad. On a political level, I would high light the insight with which the government has managed to ‘de-ideologise’ its foreign policy. The political class is equally at ease with representatives from the United States and from China, to mention just two major countries, and the fact that US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and the Deputy Leader of the Chinese Communist Party have recently visited Praia is proof of the importance that these countries, in particu lar, attach to Cape Verde. M.M.B. pe an operators on an equal footing. “Instead of piecemeal actions, this partnership makes it possible to better organise our technical and normative convergence with EU leg islation on the basis of six pillars,” explains Jos Luis Monteiro, Deputy National Authorising Officer for the European Development Fund (EDF) in the Cape Verde government. Al though normative convergence is one of these six pillars, Praia prefers to view it as forming part of the other five pillars, namely good govern ance, security cooperation, regional integration, the information and knowledge society and the combat ing of poverty. “This strategy is fun damentally political in nature, and, in addition to enhancing political, cul tural and social cooperation, aims to achieve greater economic integration with the outermost Atlantic regions of the European Union in particular.” One disappointment, according to Monteiro, is that “we were expecting additional funds for this partnership*, but the only resource earmarked for this is the EDF, which has not been increased. Despite that, we will man age.” Cape Verde is also watching with great interest the EU-Morocco Association Agreement, the last meeting of which resulted in a true qualitative leap that Monteiro be lieves should eventually give Moroc co a form of semi-membership of the European Union.* The provisional programme of European Community aid to Cape Verde provides 11.5 million for the special partnership, out of a total of 51 million for the period 20082013 (corresponding with the 10th EDF). For details of the 10th EDF, see the follow ing article. Left to right: Stefano Manservisi, European Commission Director General for Development, Jos Brito, Cape Verde’s Foreign Affairs Minister and Josep Coll i Carbo, Ambassador and Head of the EU Delegation to Cape Verde, during a reception organised in Praia for Europe Day, May 2009. EC Keywords Jos p Coll i Carbo; Cotonou Agreement; EPAs; ECOWAS.

PAGE 47

It comes as no surprise to hear, by way of introduction, Jos Brito explain that against this background foreign policy “represents a key instrument not just in terms of development, but also with regard to implementation of the strategy to transform the country”. Outlining his approach, the Minister of Foreign Affairs said: “Our nation has a stable political sys tem underpinned by a judicial system, which is consistent and perfectible, and a public administration which, due to the absence of corruption, is an asset rather than an obstacle to investment.” The government is focussing on its good management qualities, widely recognised by the international com munity, to win over future partners. This is because, in other respects, the country hardly has an abundance of riches. “Human resources are our only natural resource”, conceded Jos Brito. Are you aiming to turn Cape Verde into an international service centre? What is Cape Verde? An archipelago with a surface area of 4,000 km and a maritime area of 550,000 km located at the cross roads between various continents. We want to take advantage of our geostrategic loca tion. Cape Verde was one of the first nations to embrace “globalisation” in the days of the slave trade. The level of technology at the time forced ships – and later aircraft – to make a stop in Cape Verde. We would now like to revive this historical situation in a modern context. Look at maritime trans port, for example. Ports, in particular those on the African continent, face increasing difficulties receiving large containers. Our country could act as a transhipment hub. We also plan to make increasing security levels a priority. This will serve us well, particularly in trading with the US, which demands that goods pass through secure ports. This strategy also covers the fishing sec tor. I would like to turn the country into a regional base for fishing services. We don’t have a continental platform and the species of fish are essentially migratory. Pre-catch is therefore not a profitable activity. Instead, we aim to focus on upstream activities like freezing and marketing. Essentially doing “We want to become a bridgehead for continental Africa” Interview with Jos Brito, Cape Verde’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Cooperation and CommunitiesCape Verde has decided to deploy substantial funds to attract investment. But where, exactly? Primarily in infrastructure – ports, airports, high-speed communications – to transform the country into a bridgehead for investors attracted by the nearby continent of Africa, which has a predominantly young population and is underequipped. Such investors will come from the Americas, with Brazil leading the way, as well as from Europe and Asia.45 N. 15 N.E. – JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010Cape Verde Report Marie-Martine Buckens

PAGE 48

what Iceland has done – buying, packaging and re-selling fish products. The Chinese, in particular, have a strong presence in this sector. If we were able to sell our services to their fleets and they were able to make my strategy profitable, then why not? New information and communications technology (ICT) is another key element of the strategy. There is already extensive fibre optic coverage between the islands, and new cables to South Africa, Europe and America will be laid by the end of 2010, providing us with access to a wide range of databases. I have just returned from a trip to India, where I put forward a strategic partnership in ICT. There was interest in this. In this context, our human resources – our only natural resource – are vital in providing added value for Cape Verde products. It is essential that we strengthen our capacities in this area to achieve our aim. Is that to become a bridgehead for the sub-region? Cape Verde only has a population of half a million. That is not going to attract much interest. The continent of Africa is therefore of great importance to us strategically. We are close to the West African market, which has enormous potential for future growth. Our integration into the sub-region is based on this vision, which is actually nothing new. It is something that Amilcar Cabral under stood. Achieving victory in Guinea Bissau automatically meant independence for Cape Verde. In this sense, the stability of the sub-region is of fundamental importance. Investors are not interested in regions where there is unrest. This is where Cape Verde’s diplomacy plays a major role. Don’t forget that most of the agreements concerning southern Africa – such as those on Angola and Namibia for example – were negotiated here. At the time of Apartheid, Cape Verde allowed the aircraft of South African Airlines to land in spite of the embargo. The same for the Cubans en route to Angola. Lots of issues have been resolved amicably in the hotels of Praia, where everyone would meet. We are now applying this experience to combating drug trafficking. Cape Verde was the first African nation to successfully tackle mafia networks. We have made this experi ence available to other western African countries. This has produced an action pro gramme, which has become a ‘bible’ in the fight against drugs. African countries are more aware of the dangers of drug traffick ing. While they are transit countries today, they risk becoming consumers in view of their young populations. It is this way of being ‘useful’ – also with regard to the issue of people trafficking – which is of interest to the European Union in the context of our special partnership. However, this opening up to the continent is only possible now that Brazil has adopted a genuine African policy, which will allow it to diversify its exports. Cape Verde does not have any natural resources, but it could obtain some. You started your career as an oil engineer, what is your view of oppor tunities in that sector? Has prospecting already started along your coasts? As far as that is concerned, I prefer to adopt a prudent approach and tell myself that “our human resources are our oil and these are what should be refined.” In view of environ mental issues in the developed world, there will also be increasingly less demand for polluting activities. Finally, what about your relations with China? As elsewhere in Africa, China has a pres ence here. Whatever one might say, China offers Africans an alternative option. The days when only French or UK companies operated here have gone. Today, options are beginning to open up for Africa and it must protect its interests. M.M.B. Keywords Jos Brito; Cape Verde. 46 Report Cape Verde Mindelo harbour (So Vicente island). Marie-Martine Buckens

PAGE 49

47 N. 15 N.E. – JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010 Located in a remote area of the Atlantic Ocean, with very lit tle fresh water, Cape Verde is heavily dependent on the outside world, both financially (direct foreign investment accounts for 14 per cent of GDP, money sent home by emigrants 12 per cent and development aid 10 per cent), as well as for its supplies. With limited fishing and agriculture resources, this country made up of a group of islands is forced to import food to cover more than two-thirds of its needs. The service sector – 72 per cent of its economy – relies heavily on tourism, while infrastructure depends on public concessionaries, who them selves rely on external aid, while it is hoped that recently announced priva tisations will have a positive impact. In spite of all these handicaps, and thanks to sound management of its finances, the country has been able to retain the confidence of major donors, who are crucial to its immediate survival. How has Cape Verde been affected by the financial crisis? Cape Verde is a small country with an open economy. As such, it was bound to suffer from the effects of the crisis, namely through lower revenue in the key sectors of direct foreign investment, tourism and exports. Still, we have managed to weath er the storm by maintaining our strategy, adopted in 2001, of rigorous management of public funds. Before then, our finances were in a dire state. In 2001, we put in place conditions that favour growth, allowing us to achieve sustained economic growth over the past three years. What did you do? We took action on several fronts. We safe guarded the budget, in particular by align ing internal prices – namely fuel and food – with international ones. We also protected vulnerable populations by doubling social pensions, salaries and reducing the tax burden on families. In addition, we imple mented a very ambitious public investment programme, doubling it in three years. In 2009, we significantly reduced business taxes. We took several steps to offset this loss in tax revenue, notably by harness ing additional resources by launch ing an appeal to our partners in the international community, in particular the European Union, who responded by providing budgetary aid. All these measures are bolstered by comprehen sive management of public finances and a stable monetary policy, allowing money to be sent home to families by those who have left the country, which is vital for our economy. How do you see the short term future? Our policy has certainly borne fruit. In 2009, all disbursements were achieved. As far as 2010 is concerned, we have a budget which is both prudent and ambitious. Prudent, as we foresee an increase in current expenditure (+3.2 per cent) within manageable limits. And ambitious, as our public invest ment should increase by 26.4 per cent compared to 2009. Public debt should hover around 12 per cent. This is high, agreed, but sustainable, as it arises from investment programmes and not from operating budgets. As far as fund ing goes, we aim to profit from ‘conces sionary’ borrowing conditions, from which we will continue to benefit for another few years (even though the country has gone from being an officially poor country to a ‘middle income country’ [MIC] Ed. ). M.M.B.“It was our sound management that got us through the crisis”Cape Verde Report Meeting with the Finance Minister of Cape Verde, Cristina Duarte Keywords Cristina Duarte; Cape Verde; finances; crisis. Marie-Martine Buckens

PAGE 50

To optimise its strategy, the government has set up an agency, Cabo Verde Inves timentos, headed by the Cape Verdean Ministry of Economic Affairs. Its mission is to attract potential investors by extol ling the archipelago as a safe destination. “Our assets”, explains Carlos Rocha, head of the agency, “are good macroeconomic data and a currency, the es cudo, that is pegged to the euro”. The objective, he continues, is to “develop a major industrial centre, the key parts of which are in the process of being put in place: a major transfer port on the island of So Vicente along with a new interna tional airport to supplement those on the islands of Boa Vista and Sal”. The latter are primarily destinations tourist, another sector the government is building on. “In this particularly thriving sector, the bulk of investments are European.” Europeans are also appearing in another expanding sector, ICTs.AN A G E N C Y FOR P RO M O TI NG I NV ESTME NTS Nearly 90 per cent of the development aid allocated to Cape Verde by the European Union (through the European Develop ment Fund; EDF) is budgetary support. This record rate is proof of the confi dence Europe places in the economic and budgetary management of the Cape Verdean authorities, and deservedly so. “It is above all thanks to the European Union, and also the Netherlands, that the government has been able to improve its system of governance and its budget”, explains Jos Luis Monteiro. “This was a fundamental action. If Cape Verde is better managed, it is thanks to this fully computerised, transparent system that is also directly linked to the Court of Audi tors. Even the United States would like to have it!” The bulk of this budgetary aid is to sup port Cape Verde’s Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS) and its good governance programme. The key objec tive of the GPRS is to ensure access to basic social services such as health care, education, water and sanitation for the very poor, to reinforce vocational training and to develop a social welfare strategy. At least 32.6M were set aside for the GPRS and the governance programme under the 10th EDF for 2008-2013 (the total of which amounts to 51M). The 11.5M allocated to the special part nership should enable Cape Verde to improve its security system in order to deal with the new rise in illegal trafficking (drugs, people, money laundering, etc.) and to identify cooperation projects with the other Macaronesian islands (Madeira, the Azores and the Canaries). A total of 1.1M must go toward funding good governance initiatives in the five Portuguese-speaking African countries (PALOP) and Timor Leste. Two million euros will help support the non-state sector and 1.8M should help fund research and technical assistance not included in the projects, not to men tion the 2M in reserve.O RG A N ISED M OB I L IT YIn June 2008, the European Union and Cape Verde signed a mobility partnership, the first of two agreements (the second one being Moldova) to be signed by the Euro pean Union with a third country. The aim of the partnership was to strengthen legal migration and better manage illegal emi gration from Africa to Europe, notably via Frontex , the agency for the management of the European Union’s external borders. In parallel, a Schengen visa centre should open in Praia in February. Managed by Portugal, it should initially represent coun tries such as Belgium, Slovenia, Luxem bourg and the Netherlands (as France and Spain have signed bilateral agreements). The visa facilitation centre should make it possible for those, Cape Verdeans prima rily, such as sports people and artists, to travel easily to Europe on short trips.PR ED O MI N A NT LY BU D G ETA RY AID Report Cape Verde 48 On the Praa 12 de Setembro, Praia. Marie-Martine Buckens New road on Santo Anto (funded by the EU). Marie-Martine Buckens

PAGE 51

“The government is a long way from achieving its objectives”Meeting with Carlos Veiga, leader of the Movement for Democracy (MpD), the principal opposition party. When it comes to the objec tives, Carlo Veiga has no complaints. He advocated them himself when he was prime minister, between April 1991 and July 2000. It is how to achieve them that is the problem. And the man who narrowly lost the 2001 and 2006 presidential elec tions is determined to apply his methods if the people give him their backing in 2011, as he believes they are ready to do. Carlos Veiga sees proof of this in his party’s victory in the 2008 municipal elections, in which his MpD also won control of the capital Praia. But the man who gracefully accepted defeat at the hands of the PAICV in 2001 – “political peace” is a reality in Cape Verde – acknowledges that positive results have been achieved “since the country’s inde pendence”. “That is clear”, he says, “but we want to go further”. For example? “A fair allocation of funds between central and local government. At present 90 per cent is controlled by the former and 10 per cent by the latter, when it is to the local council that most people go with their problems. We want to reverse present government policy that focuses on consumption, public aid or indebtedness and imports, and concentrate on production, investment and exports. Even though much has been done to guar antee basic education, we must also promote high quality education and create an envi ronment conducive to private investment.” One particularly urgent issue is to ensure the viability of Electra , the public water and electricity company, by setting up a publicprivate partnership. M.M.B. “The government has set itself clear objectives for the fight against unemployment and poverty as well as for growth. But it is a long way from having achieved them.” The reasons, according to the leader of Cape Verde’s main opposition party, essentially lie in distrust of the private sector on the part of the governing party, the PAICV. Cape Verde Report 49 N. 15 N.E. – JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010 Most of the water consumed by the Cape Verdeans comes from desalinated seawater. This is a major burden on the Electra budget that is 100 per cent de pendent on crude imports to produce its electricity. Yet the archipelago does have water reserves, even if the groundwater is confined to small and heterogeneous de posits trapped within a complex network originating in former lava flows. Over the past year Cape Verde has started using energy produced by solar panels to pump the water from these underground depos its, storing it in water towers prior to distri bution to the villages. A number of such projects have been carried out, thanks to EU support, in the interior of the island of Santiago and on Sao Nicolao. Another promising option is the building of dams to retain runoff. A dam has been built on Santiago with the help of the Chinese, and others are planned with the assistance of Portugal. The ECOWAS Centre for Renewable En ergy has just set up its headquarters in Cape Verde, at a time when this energy is slowly starting to make its appearance in the archipelago. Four wind parks have been built or scheduled (Santiago, Sao Vicente, Sal, Boa Vista) for the produc tion of around 28 megawatts, equal to 18 per cent of the archipelago’s total energy production. SOL A R CE LL S FOR WATE R T O WE R S Marie-Martine BuckensDam, Santiago island. Marie-Martine Buckens Water tank, Santiago island. Marie-Martine Buckens

PAGE 52

In February 2007, the local authority launched a pilot project in the unofficial districts of Praia with the help of the Italian NGO, Africa’70, supported by the European Development Fund (EDF). The unemployment rate here is high, illegal buildings do not have sewage systems, and access to water and other services is at best arbitrary. The project is based on three approaches: social integration – with the support of the highly active district associa tions – support for urban management, and infrastructure – Africa’70’s field of activity. Gian Paolo Lucchi of Africa’70 said: “After carrying out a diagnosis of the social and technical requirements, we concentrated our efforts on construction of retaining walls, which enables all kinds of other infrastructure work, such as construction of access roads and routing of water. They also help hold back flood waters in the rainy season”. Africa’70 is a member of Cape Verde’s NGO platform. With 220 members, this platform also receives EDF support. Mrio Moniz, the platform’s executive secretary, said: “With a presence on all the islands, the NGOs work with the 700 highly active community associations. Working together – ‘djunta m’ – is a deeply embedded tradi tion in Cape Verde”. What is the platform’s role? Mrio Moniz said: “To provide the NGOs with the tools to identify and set up projects. We have just approved the 20102015 agenda, and have adopted a code of ethics for the first time”. What are its priori ties? Mr. Moniz explained: “Healthcare and education, with the emphasis on professional training”. In the field of healthcare, the plat form is the main recipient, together with the Ministry of Health, of a US$12M project from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS. This scourge has so far spared the archipelago, which has an HIV rate estimated at 0.8 per cent in 2005. M.M.B. Dengue fever hit Cape Verde for the first time in November 2009, infecting 12,000 people, six of whom died from this mos quito-transmitted virus, which thrived after a particularly heavy rainy season. The measures taken by the healthcare authorities held the epidemic in check. The opening of five healthcare centres in the capital a year ago – funded by the EU, for which healthcare is a priority in its cooperation with the country – provid ed relief for overrun hospitals. Margarita Cardoso, Director General at the Min istry of Health, explained: “Apart from the epidemic, these centres enhance primary healthcare in particular, which is extremely important for rural immi grants confronted with urban life. This enables us to tackle the problems of the least advantaged directly. Around 3,000 people visit these centres each month”. Similar centres are planned for other is lands, a measure, which together with the improvement of the education sys tem, aims to settle the population on the islands. What are the main challenges to be overcome? She said: “The renewed outbreak of transmissible diseases at a time when we are starting to curb nontransmissible diseases. A lack of human resources, in particular specialists”.T HE EME RG E N CE OF DE NGU E F E V E R Keywords Praia; least advantaged districts; Africa’70; NGO platform; healthcare centres. 50 ‘Working together’. In less than 20 years, Praia has seen its population more than double, and is today home to almost 140,000 people, a quarter of the archipelago’s population. The constant arrival of people from the countryside, leaving behind what is essentially a form of subsistence farming, presents certain problems. The main social challenges, which the Cape Verde government is attempting to overcome with the support of the EU, are concentrated in the ‘unofficial’ districts springing up along the dried up river beds.Margarita Cardoso (second from the left) with the team of a health centre in Praia. Marie-Martine Buckens “Djunta-M!” Report Cape Verde Informal settlements, Praia. Marie-Martine Buckens

PAGE 53

‘The bare-footed singer’ had to take Lis bon, and then Paris, by storm in order for the West to discover ‘morna’, the music inspired by the Portuguese fados. But Cesaria Evora is not the only performer to sing it. All Cape Verde islanders talk with great feeling about Ildo Lobo, who died in 2004 at the age of 51. He was regarded as the islands’ greatest singer. ‘Coladeira’ emerged in Mindelo, Cape Verde’s ‘capital’ of song in the 1930s. An upbeat version of ‘morna’ mixed with polka, it is often played at carnival time. ‘Funana’ comes from the island of Santiago, and has a much more African sound. It was the music of the slaves, and of rebellion. Probably the archipelago’s oldest musical genre, ‘batuque’ comes from African music and dance rituals, and is mainly performed by women. Lots of young singers have been captivated by its charm, including Mayra Andrade, Lura and Tchak.F RO M M ORN A T O B AT UQU E The volcanic island of Santo Ant o rises majestically opposite Mindelo, the capi tal of Sao Vicente. Arriving by boat in Porto Novo, the island seems to be noth ing but steep and arid ridges. From the port, you take the new road (photo page 48), which was opened with great cer emony on 9 May 2009 in front of a crowd which even included members of Cape Verde’s diaspora who had returned for the occasion. Funded by the European Union, and with the support of Luxem bourg, Italy and the Cape Verde gov ernment, the road runs along the coast, which is wild and magnificent, connect ing the north and south of the island. The long-term benefits it offers are twofold. Firstly, it enables farmers because once you leave the coast, there is a fertile hin terland where sugar cane, bananas and lots of other products are grown to ex port their products to the other islands. Secondly, it will attract tourists inter ested in natural surroundings. Some are already here, travelling the roads that criss-cross the hinterland, alongside the old dormant craters at the island’s cen tre. Manuel Veiga explained: “People do not just come here for the sunshine. Through culture and meeting the people, we can strike the right balance and turn tourism into a development tool.”S A NT O AN T O THE MA G ICA L IS L A N D51 N. 15 N.E. – JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010Culture is everything, Manuel Veiga, Minister of Culture, tells us. We have no other natural resources. An interview.What do you understand by ‘culture’? Culture is essential, not just as art, but as a way of life, a way of seeing things, and a means of making contact, which is vital in our part of the world. It’s extremely impor tant because we have emerged from great cultural dialogue. The fact that Cidade Velha was recently given world heritage status by Unesco says a great deal. A new anthropology has been born out of the ongo ing exchange between Africans, initially as slaves, and Europeans. We stay true to our Creole culture, but remain open-minded. We never show contempt for other people, provided they conform to certain values, because we are, in one way, ‘other people’ too. Conversely, foreigners love us because they find a thread here that leads them back to their own culture. Would the music be the thread? Yes, it may well be, even though music came after our language. Cape Verde Creole devel oped from Portuguese, and what I would call an underlying structure of African lan guages, as the black slaves were ethnically dispersed across the Portuguese colonies to prevent them from communicating. But all human beings possess an internal strength, when faced with constraints, which enables them to display creativity, with the need to communicate being the strongest. The Creole language is the fundamental char acteristic of our identity. Having said that, we are renowned for our music and Cesaria Evora is our ambassador. M.M.B. “Saudade” and natural beauty Keywords Culture; Manuel Veiga; morna; batuque; coladeira; funana; Santo Antao; Mindelo. Cape Verde Report Santo Anto. Marie-Martine Buckens On Mindelo beach. Marie-Martine Buckens

PAGE 54

Bulgaria joined the EU in January 2007 but five of its six planning regions* hover in the bottom ten of the EU’s regions ranked by Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita. Following a change in Bulgaria’s government in July 2009, now led by Prime Minister Boyko Borisov of the Citizens of European Development Party, it is anticipating that much-needed pledged EU funds, in particular for infrastructure, will flow to the country more readily after various EU funding, including some during the preaccession (PHARE) process, was halted due to a number of difficulties ranging from the procedural to administrative mismanagement in Bulgaria. According to the President of Sofia’s independently-run Chamber of Commerce**, Georgi Chernov, the country has been less affected by the financial crisis than some other EU countries, largely because Bulgaria has a lot of foreign banks. He predicts, however, that his country’s Gross National Income (GNI) will fall by another two percentage points this year on top of the 6 per cent drop in 2009. The financial crisis has pushed up interest rates and diminished the availability of credit in Bulgaria which could lead to unemployment rising this year, says Chernev. “But in spite of everything, the situation is not too bad compared to that in some other eastern European countries. Bulgaria does not have big debts and we still have more than bn of reserves”, says Chernov, which he puts down to 5-6 per cent growth rates in previous years as a result of Bulgaria’s construction boom. Our various interviewees for this report are now expecting EU funds. During a visit to Bulgaria in mid-November 2009, EU Commissioner for Regional Policy, Pawel Samecki, announced that the country would receive .5bn (2007-2013) under the EU’s cohesion policy which aids EU regions with a per capita GDP below 90 per cent of the EU average, in particular for building infrastructure. Commissioner Samecki pinpointed Bulgaria’s cities as “engines of growth”. We put the spotlight on one of these, Plovdiv, to the south east of Sofia and Bulgaria’s the second largest city. With the accolade of being Europe’s oldest inhabited city, over its 6,0008,000 year history, Plovdiv has constantly adapted to change and is now taking on both the challenges and opportunities of EU membership. *www.ec.europa.eu **www.scci.bg52 PlovdivNew ventures for Europe’s oldest inhabited cityDebra PercivalRoman amphitheatre, Old Town, Plovdiv. Reporters D iscovering Europe

PAGE 55

From Thracian times to the Bulgarian revival of the 19th Century, Plovdiv, which lies astride the banks of the river Maritza, has changed its name more times than it has hills. It was originally known as ‘City of the Seven Hills’ although one has since subsided. Archaeologists have discovered fine pottery and other everyday objects dating back to the Neolithic age and it was already an established settlement in the 7th Millennium BC. The Thracians called the city Eumolpias; it was known for its production of wine and honey and jewellery crafting. In 342-341 BC, the town was conquered by Philip II of Macedonia and given the name Philippopolis and subsequently Pulpudeva. The Romans conquered the city in the first century AD and renamed it Thrimonzium (referring to the fact that it then lay on three hills). The excavated Roman amphitheatre now incongruously overlooks a busy highway. In the hot summer months (winters can be bitingly cold), it stages open-air concerts, opera and classical drama. A Roman stadium is also partially visible in the city centre. The Huns ruled the town in the 447 AD and in the 6th Century the Slavs settled in the Balkan peninsular and gave the city the names Pulden and Plundiv. In 815 AD, Khan Krum of Bulgaria seized the city’s fortress and it was fully incorporated into the Bulgarian Empire in 834 AD, only to be reconquered by the Byzantine Empire. The five centuries that followed saw it change hands between Bulgaria and Byzantium. Plovdiv was also on the path of the crusades, the city demolished and plundered by crusaders on their way to Mecca. In 1385, the town fell to the Ottoman Empire and the city was known as Phillibe. It was to remain part of the Empire for the next 500 years. At that time, the city had over 55 mosques. The Dzhumaya Mosque which still stands in the centre is one of the oldest Ottoman buildings in the Balkans. > B ulgarian R enaissanceIn the 19th century, Plovdiv was at the heart at the Bulgarian renaissance from the Ottoman’s cultural oppression, including the opening of the first Bulgarian publishing house in 1855 from which printed books, newspapers and magazines were circulated Waiting to be discovered Plovdiv Discovering Europe Name Europe’s oldest inhabited city. Athens, Thebes (Greece), Cadiz (Spain) or Larnaca (Cyprus)? Few would pick Bulgaria’s second city, Plovdiv, which lies 150 km south east of capital Sofia, also listed as the sixth oldest inhabited city in the world in the Time Out Guide*, The World’s Greatest Cities. All its fascinating layers of history which date back between 6,000-8,000 years await your discovery. 53 N. 15 N.E. – JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010Remains of Roman Stadium, Plovdiv. D. Percival Mural, Plovdiv, depicting Ottoman presence. D. Percival

PAGE 56

around Bulgarian lands. The Bulgarian revolutionist, Vassil Levski, organised a revolutionary committee in Plovdiv. During this period, wealthy merchants built houses in a Bulgarian Renaissance style with unique ceilings carved in wood which have been exquisitely restored, and are breathing life into Plovdiv’s Old Town. The ethnographic museum, in the house of A. Koyumdjioglou, gives an insight into the city’s riches at this time. The city was liberated from the Ottomans by the Russians in the battle of Plovdiv, 1878. The Treaty of San Stefano of the same year founded the Principality of Bulgaria, gathering all lands with a predominantly Bulgarian population. Plovdiv was declared the capital of the new state and the centre of the new Russian temporary government. However, the Treaty was subsequently modified in Berlin and the newly liberated country was divided into Bulgaria with Sofia as its capital and Eastern Rumelia Province with Plovdiv as capital – under the military and political control of the Turkish sultan while Macedonia was returned to Turkey. This carve-up was short-lived. The Unification of Bulgaria was proclaimed on 6 September 1885. In 1892, the first international fair Bulgarian exhibition was held in Plovdiv with international participants. This tradition has kept on and Plovdiv International Fair now has a permanent building in the city and each year hosts many exhibitions attracting international participants. During the Second World War (19391945), the pro-Nazi Bulgarian government announced in 1943 the deportation of all Bulgaria’s 50,000 Jews. Thanks to the courage of a number of indivduals including Archbishop Krill of the Orthodox Church, the government finally backed down. The bulk of the country’s Jews chose to emigrate to Israel following the war.** When the Nazis left Bulgaria in 1944, the country came under Communist power and formed a very close relationship with the former Soviet Union. A monument of a Russian soldier still starkly sits on one of the city’s peaks. Another layer of Plovdiv’s history was laid when it staged a major antiCommunist demonstration, one of the events which led to the toppling of the Communist regime in November 1989. This is why city is sometimes referred to as the ‘blue’ (democratic) capital of Bulgaria. Another layer of the country’s history is now being laid post-Communism and since Bulgaria’s membership of the EU in 2007**. D.P. * Time Out Guide, The World’s Greatest Cities. September 2009, 350 pages, Edition 1. ** ‘Beyond Hitler’s Grasp: The Heroic Rescue of Bularian Jews’ by Michael Bar-Zohar, 1998. The Sofia-based European Institute was set up in 1999 with the financial support of the founder of the Open Society Insti tute, George Soros. It was one of the first non-governmental bodies campaigning for Bulgaria’s European integration. Now financially independent, it is working on a number of projects to pass on its experi ence of the process of accession to the EU – good and bad – to its Balkan neigh bours, explains its Director, Lubov Pa nayotova, who is a former deputy finance minister in her country. Its website www.Europe.bg is one of the most consulted in Bulgaria on European matters. “At the beginning, the idea was to collect all sorts of information about the negotiation process”, says Lubov Pana yatova. With the European Parliament’s (EP) financial support, the Institute has also set up an interactive website link ing up Bulgarian and other members of the EP in contact with the public: www. europarliament.europe.bg It is also providing technical support to Bulgaria’s Ministry of Regional Coopera tion under a cross-border cooperation project with Macedonia* which is giving assistance and training to its neighbour on how to generate projects ideas and apply for grants. New projects in the pipe line include “job maps”, explains Borislav Mavrov, the Institute’s Director of Interna tional Programmes and Projects, to make it easier for Romanians and Bulgarians to find jobs in the market of its neighbour through the help of a website. The Institute has a long experience in anti-discrimination issues and is currently working on a project to counter growing vi olence in schools. Lubov Panayatova says that violence is especially incited through message sent by mobile phones. She partly puts this down to recent transfor mations in Bulgarian society: “Everything is changing but not only for the good”, she says.For more see: www.europeaninstitute.bg *Macedonia is known in the EU as the former Yu goslav Republic of Macedonia, following a protest from Greece.S HA R I NG E U MEM B E R SHIP E X PE R IE N CE Keywords Plovdiv; Bulgaria; Thracians; Ottomans. 54 Discovering Europe PlovdivHouses of wealthy merchants, Plovdiv. D. Percival Detail on 19th century merchant’s house, Plovdiv Old Town. D. Percival

PAGE 57

55 N. 15 N.E. – JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010 From Dionysus to the damask rose – Plovdiv’s richesThe province of Plovdiv is historically a vibrant commercial centre and at a trading crossroads between the European Union and to the east, Turkey and the Middle East. It has gained a repu tation for the manufacture of non-ferrous metals, fertilisers, pharmaceuticals, food and wine and rose oil. Over the past 20 years, like the rest of Bulgaria, the region has adapted from a staterun economy and since 2007, to the more exacting production and import standards as a result of EU membership, says Angel Hronev, Head of the Information Centre of Plovdiv’s privately-run Chamber of Commerce and Industry, in an interview with The Courier. Traditional industries such as food, wine and tobacco are all adapting to the EU market. Due to a huge amount of cheap diesel from the former Soviet Union, in the late 1980s, Bulgaria was the number one in Europe for the production of greenhouse vegetables.“We had a very good state-run cooperative system prior to 1989 especially concerning the planting of vegetables and grain”, explains Angel Hronev. Pre-accession to the EU, Bulgaria received funding from the EU from SAPARD (Special Accession Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development) which has helped the country adapt its agriculture to new EU rules and regulations, to enhance efficiency and competitiveness and boost employment in the sector. “Although there were a few shortcomings with the programme, it brought new cultivation and introduced new technologies, especially in irrigation”, says Hronev. Even so, there has been a rural exodus and 1.5M of Bulgaria’s 7.5M population now live in the capital, Sofia. A phenomenon of EU membership is that young people do not stay and farm in Bulgaria but now go to other parts of the EU, where wages are higher, to work as seasonal farm labourers. > V alley of the R oses‘The Valley of the Roses’, north of Plovdiv, is planted with rose bushes which produce the rosa damascana (damask rose), traditionally picked in June. As many as 3,000-5,000 kg of flowers (more than a million flowers) are needed to produce just 1 kg of rose oil. “Because of very specific conditions, the quality of rose oil can be found nowhere else in the world”, says Hronev. A variety of local rose products include shampoos and rose jam! Also rapidly gaining an international reputation are wines of the Thrace valley in Plovdiv province. During the era of the state-run economy, one or two state-run companies had a monopoly and produced cheap wines, Plovdiv Discovering Europe Valley of the roses near Plovdiv. Reporters Angel Hronev, Head of the Information Centre, Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Plovdiv. D. Percival

PAGE 58

South Africa is to participate as an organising partner country in Plovdiv’s annual International Exhibition of Vine-Growing and Wine Production (VINARIA), 14-17 March 2010, to be held in premises of Plovdiv’s international fair. South African wines are increasingly popular in the Bulgarian market. Wine is currently third in the list of South Africa’s global exports and ranks ninth in the list of top wine producing countries in the world with an an nual production of 10M hectolitres.VINARIA is expected to boost relations between Bulgaria and South Africa. The organisers say that VINARIA-goers will be able to taste the wine chosen by South Africa for the FIFA World Cup. www.fair.bg/en/events/vinaria, www.bessavalley.comV I N A R IA – CE L E BR ATI NG SOUTH AFR ICA N WI N E Wine industry is adapting to conquer new markets. Reporters especially for the market of the former Soviet Union, explains Hronev. In the late 1980s, Bulgaria was the second largest exporter of wines. The country now faces strong competition from Chile, Argentina and South Africa which are even found on supermarket shelves in Bulgaria – particularly ‘whites’ since Bulgarians still prefer domestically-produced ‘reds’. “The issue is to improve quality”, explains Hronev. Recent years have seen a glut in Bulgaria’s wine production since making your own wine has been in vogue and is almost second nature to Bulgarians. “Wines were produced for which there was no market”, says Hronev. To improve the quality of wines for the EU and other markets, experts were sought and now some very good local wines are produced in Plovdiv province in the -8 bracket. They include the Castra Rubra winery’s Via Diagonalis, developed with the help of French wine consultant, Michel Rolland. The Bessa Valley winery, just 40 kilometres from Plovdiv, has developed the Enira label with German investment and technical expertise. With the added cachet that Dionysus, God of wine, was from the Thrace valley, Hronev also sees the provinces huge potential for wine tourism. The profile of the typical investor in Plovdiv has changed since Bulgaria’s became part of the EU in 2007. Whereas in the 1990s, investor money largely came from neighbouring Greece and Turkey, Hronev notes more interest from EU member states further to the west, largely because overheads and labour still remain cheaper in Bulgaria. “Italy is one of the few countries that have a special nationally-funded programme to transfer business from one region of the EU to another”, says Hronev. “Italians feel comfortable here and invest in cosmetics and perfumery, food, coffee, ice cream and machinery”, he adds. Under a similar German government programme, one businessperson is producing machine building parts for German industry. With its huge historical interest (see article on history), Plovdiv’s tourism potential remains relatively untapped but its expansion will depend on improved infrastructure such as better road connections inside Bulgaria and with the rest of the EU, and improved frequency of low-cost flights into Plovdiv if it intends to grab the EU short vacation destination market. A new road crossing with Greece has just opened up which puts the Greek coastline within two to three hours reach of Plovdiv but there is still no fast highway between Plovdiv and Bulgaria’s coastline to the east, popular with holidaymakers from other parts of the EU. The Rhodope Mountains in the south of the province have both ski and spa resorts. Despite the financial crisis having affected Bulgaria’s construction industry which was booming two to three years ago and resulted in unemployment below zero per cent, at just 6.76 per cent, the city nevertheless still has one of the lowest rates of unemployment in Bulgaria. “Plovdiv is going to develop. If we manage to take advantage of all the opportunities we have, it will do very well”, says Hronev. D.P. www.pcci.bg Keywords Plovdiv; Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Plovdiv; Angel Hronev; Plovdiv International Fair; VINARIA; Michel Rolland; FIFA World Cup. Tobacco growing. Reporters Discovering Europe Plovdiv56

PAGE 59

How to integrate and end discrimination of the Roma? The most common Roma group in Bulgaria is the Local Roma or yer lii divided into Bulgarian gypsies (Daskane Roma) and Turkish gypsies (Korhane Roma), although there are other groups as well. Roma were thought to have arrived in Bulgaria as early as the 13th century and particularly in the 14th and 15th centuries with the Ottoman conquest. Bulgaria is one of 12 European Governments with Roma minorities participating in the Decade of Roma Inclusion (2005-2015) www. romadecade.org* which aims to improve the social economic situation and social inclusion of Roma into societies, and receives both European and international funding. But NGOs working with Roma say more action is required. Angel Gestov is a consultant for the NGO Roma Together (www.romatogether.com). Although working with grassroots communities in villages in the central-north part of Bulgaria (around Polski Trambesh), he says Roma face the same discrimination issues in all parts of Bulgaria. “In the past two years Romas who have sought to take advantage of the economic boom – especially in construction are now without jobs due to the economic crisis”, he told The Courier.> U nemploymentA lack of employment opportunities, he says, means that Roma are “disproportionately dependent on the social care system to maintain their minimum living standard but their access to social services is restricted by both a discriminatory attitude and prejudices among government officials and legislative requirements which constitute barriers to access to social services”. “State policy towards the Roma minority in Bulgaria should consider using incentives to encourage public and private actors to change their attitudes and behaviour in relation to Roma, or penalise them in case of non-compliance”, he adds. He says that intergovernmental declarations on Romas are not implemented in practice because of a lack of political representation. Lubov Panayotova, Director of Sofia’s European Institute, a non-governmental thinktank on European policy which works on a range of non-discrimination issues, says there are at least 16 Roma ‘clans’ in Bulgaria, each with its own strong hierarchy which is sometimes opposed to more integration into Bulgarian society. She says that changes will come through educating Roma children to find jobs and stresses the need for “best practices” to manage diversity. D.P. The Roma in Bulgaria make up the country’s second largest minority or 4.7 per cent of the population. According to official figures, the Stolipinovo area of Plovdiv has one of the largest concentrations of Roma. Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) claim discrimination against the Roma, whereas other commentators say that feeling of antagonism between Roma and the Bulgarian majority population derives more from a Romani reluctance to integrate into modern society. The European Roma Rights Cen tre (ERRC) aims to combat Romani racism and human rights abuse of Roma at an international legislative level. A recent ruling of Strasbourg’s Court of Human Rights found in fa vour of a case brought by the ERRC on behalf of the Romani Baht Foun dation and Bulgarian attorney, Alex ander Kashurnov, over the inhumane and degrading treatment of three Bulgarian nationals of Roma origin who had been detained in police custody in Bulgaria. ERRC was also recently awarded an NGO prize, the SOLIDAR Silver Rose award for “in creasing public attention, condemn ing abuse and developing EU policy documents and influencing human rights aspects” in favour of the Roma. www.errc.org www.solidar.orgEURO PEA N R O MA RI G HTS C E NT R ERoma children, Bulgaria. Attitudes to Romas must change, say NGOs. Reporters 57 N. 15 N.E. – JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010Plovdiv Discovering Europe * Countries taking part all with Roma minorities are: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Macedonia, Montene gro, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Spain.

PAGE 60

Bulgaria’s development programme on the launch pad Along with all EU newcomer states, on joining the EU in 2007, Bulgaria took the commitment to strive to achieve the Monterrey devel opment goals and the amount of Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) allocated to the goals to reach 0.17 per cent of Gross National Income (GNI) in 2010 and 0.33 per cent of GNI in 2015. (Council of the European Union, Presidency Conclusions, 10255/05, Brussels, 18 June 2005, p. 8, para. 27) Boyan Belev heads the Department for Development Policy in the Directorate of the United Nations and Global Affairs in Bulgaria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs which has drafted the new policy. He explains that the “ordinance paper” is to be adopted in tandem with the setting up of a fully-fledged development unit in the Ministry of between 8-10 persons. The six countries picked out to receive the initial assistance, all of which are Bulgaria’s close neighbours are, to the west, Bulgaria’s government was poised to give the go-ahead to its first-ever bi-lateral development strategy when we visited the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Sofia midJanuary 2010. Going to press, an “ordinance paper” was awaiting the approval of Bulgaria’s Council of Ministers at the start of 2010. This is expected to lead to approval of funds by the country’s Ministry of Finance for pilot development projects in six countries bordering Bulgaria, earmarked to be the initial beneficiaries of the country’s new policy. 58 Discovering Europe BulgariaBulgarian Parliament, Sofia. D. Percival

PAGE 61

Macedonia*, Kosovo and Serbia; and to the east, Moldova, Armenia and Georgia. Boyan Belev told us that thought had been given to including a sub-Saharan African country on the list – Angola, with which Bulgaria has former ties – but this plan has been dropped for the moment, partly because Angola is seen to be an “aid darling”, and partly because at this kick-off stage, Bulgaria does not want to spread its funds too thinly, believing that it can be more useful in coun tries which whom it has special cultural affinity and experience such as the transfor mation of state-run economies. > Specialised U nitWith a limited number of personnel, the country’s Development Department cur rently has its work cut out. Since becoming an EU member, it has to prepare and partic ipate in the EU’s Ministerial meetings with the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP), in EU Development Ministers’ meetings and those of General Affairs as well as relat ed working parties, meetings on the EU’s neighbourhood policy** and on the stability instrument***. Presently Bulgaria commits just 0.06 per cent of its GNI (figure for 2008) to develop ment aid. Boyan Belev indicated that the country would be unable to meet the target of 0.17 per cent of GNI by 2010, although the GNI level is expected to rise this year since the country will be a first-time con tributor to the 22.682bn 10th European Development Fund (2008-2013) for ACP states. The total estimated contribution of Bulgaria to the 10th EDF is 31,754,800, to be staggered over the next three years. The country’s bi-lateral policy may still be awaiting lift-off, but it does provide some funding currently to the EU’s general devel opment activities through the amount paid into the EU’s overall budget. Bulgaria pro vides 4.5 per cent of the EU kitty. Boyan Belev says that venturing into the bilateral development field is a “learning exer cise” for his country. The “ordinance paper” on the table of Bulgarian Ministers follows a draft stategy paper on development policy, published in the same year that the country joined the EU. The draft highlights that the country’s development policy should based on achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in poorer countries and that Bulgarian international development coop eration be consistent with political com mitments made in the framework of both the UN and the EU. It states Bulgaria’s support for poverty eradication and sustain able development and the strengthening of developing countries’ economies. Boyan Belev says that his country does not lack experience in development policy. In the mid-1980s, it was an important donor to over 40 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America and the country’s stateowned companies were present in all three continents. Sub-Saharan Africa and other countries may eventually join an expanded list of recipients, particularly given the EU’s com mitment to steer 50 per cent of the increased development aid to the continent, indicated Boyan Belev. D.P.* On the concerns of Greece, the European Union recognises the Republic of Macedonia as the “former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”. ** The neighbourhood policy covers co-operation with: Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Egypt, Georgia, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Moldova, Morocco, Occupied Palestinian Territory, Syria, Tunisia, and Ukraine. Find out more: http://ec.europa. eu/world/enp/index_en.htm *** The EU’s instrument for stability was adopted in 2007 and provides support for conflict pre vention, crisis management and peace building. Find out more: http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/what/ index_en.htm To find out more about BPID: www.bpid.org Dimitar Sotirov is the very committed part-time head of the Bulgarian Platform for International Development (BPID) set up at the beginning 2009 for Non Gov ernmental Development Organisations (NGDOs). The BPID was originally fund ed by the EU’s former Presidency Fund and TRIALOG, the umbrella NGO plat form for EU newcomer states. Its current financial support, until April 2010, comes from the European Non Governmental Organisation Confederation for Relief and Development (CONCORD), of which Bulgaria is seeking membership. Dimitar Sotirov fully supports the aim of Bulgar ia’s development policy in not “aiming too big” at the start, but adds that a strategy in place and a specialised development policy with more personnel to direct it, are both vital. The burgeoning BPID currently numbers 20 members. They include; CARE Bul garia, Caritas Bulgaria, the Bulgarian Red Cross, and the Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation. Dimitar Sotiriv says that the Bulgaria can impart a lot of knowledge to its developing nations such as the processes involved in merging with EU economies. The platform works on such issues as development educa tion, health, gender issues, environment and sustainability. In October 2009, the BPID organised a round table on the ‘Participation of Bulgarian Civil Society in EU Development Cooperation’ where other countries such as Japan and the UK were invited to share with Bulgarian participants details of how they organise bi-lateral development policy.See more: www.bpid.orgAN E X PA N DI NG NGO P L AT FOR M Keywords Boyan Belev; Bulgaria; TRIALOG; CONCORD; Presidency Fund. 59 N. 15 N.E. – JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010Bulgaria Discovering Europe Dimitar Sotirov, head of the Bulgarian Platform for International Development. D. Percival

PAGE 62

A Meeting Place for African Culture CAN* is a puma.creative initiative, and is sustained by this famous sport-lifestyle factory. It is based on 2.0 technology and is one of the most lively, up-to-date and frequented of all of the virtual platforms on African culture. The project aims to connect the African creative world to an interdiscipli nary network, which extends throughout Africa and beyond. Through the principles and technologies of today’s information society, it also aims to provide shared and free self-produced content and information. This social networking website has an intel ligent and intuitive structure which allows users to create their own profiles, with text, photos and links. In this way the website is producing itself and is growing every day. It is interesting to see who is there, who is not there, and who is a fan of whom. When consulting the profile pages of projects, institutions, individuals or exhibitions, the viewer can “become a fan”. The “calendar” section is one of the most useful, featur ing news of events, art and film festivals, awards, reviews, calls for artists and other opportunities, as well as providing profes sional information and updates on cultural liaisons, which are valuable to both estab lished and emerging artists. The ‘library’ section contains information on 300 important books and brochures, as well as the profiles of around 200 ‘librarians’ They add their names to the page dedicated to the books they own. The website aims to create a true “shared, non-centralised library”, through the “lending and borrow ing (of books) by members”. It is not clear, however, how well this works. Christine Eyene (former Publishing Director of the French journal Africultures ) is the edi tor of CAN. She updates the site with infor mation on the main cultural events and, along with Mark Coetzee, Chief Curator of puma.creative , promotes collateral ini tiatives. One important project promoted through Creative Africa Network is “The puma.creative Mobility Awards”, which aims to facilitate the participation of both emerg ing and established artists, art professionals and arts organisations in major national and international art events. Amongst the numerous winners of the 2008 and 2009 Mobility Award are important art ists such as Barthelemy Toguo and Goddy Leye from Cameroon, the Nigerian curator Bisi Silva and the two most important AfroAmerican artists: Kara Walker and David Hammons. * CAN is a partner of the Creative Caribbean Network. http://www.creativeafricanetwork.com/Creative Africa Network (CAN) provides a virtual platform which connects creative operators both within Africa and throughout the world, giving visibility to talented people in the fields of architecture, dance, design, fashion, film, fine art, literature, music, new media, performing arts and photography. Keywords African Culture; virtual platforms; contemporary art; Christine Eyene; Mark Coetzee. Sandra Federici60 Right: Christine Eyene (2nd left), giving a Creative Africa Network workshop with Malian art students at the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers Multimedia during the 8th Bamako Encounters – African Photography Biennial. November 2009. Middle: Guests at the PUMA.Creative / Creative Africa Network Dinner Party. Photo by Christine Eyene.Left: Musicians performing and journalists documenting the PUMA.Creative/Creative Africa Network dinner party hosted at the National Museum of Mali during the 8th Bamako Encounters. Nov. 2009. Photo by Christine Eyene. C reativity

PAGE 63

A Window on Contemporary Photography The 8th Bamako Encounters This year, the theme of the Biennial of African Photography was “borders”. In this edition the co-curators invited artists to explore the issue of borders, looking at how borders affect peoples, identities, religions, territories, economic resources, sociopolitical contexts, movements and migrations. In Africa, more than anywhere else, borders represent complex issues, whether they are natu ral barriers or artificial lines drawn by man. But borders also arouse ethical concerns in Western countries. Almost every day the news is full of reports on the problems faced by young people seeking better living conditions in Europe. As Victor Hugo notes: “The border is the first slavery. Remove the border () Peace will follow”. The Biennial’s new leadership team, made up of the artistic directors Michket Krifa and Laura Serani, has prioritised the removal of boundaries between the event and the general public, ensur ing that the public is more involved. Borders can also represent places for encounter and exchange. For this reason, in addition to the awareness-raising work carried out in schools and universities, around ten exhibits will be displayed in working-class neighbourhoods as well as in important places in Bamako. These include the National Museum, the Palace of Culture, the District Museum, and the National Institute of Arts (INA). But while the attention of the major players in the art world is fixed on the Bamako Encounters, the local public does not appear to be particularly The 8th Bamako Encounters – the Biennial Exhibition of African Photography, which took place from 7 November to 7 December 2009 in Bamako, were organised by the Ministry of Culture in Mali, in collaboration with Culturesfrance (Paris), with finan cial, technical and media support from many local and international corporate bodies.Elisabetta Degli Esposti Merli C reativity 61 N. 15 N.E. – JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010 B. Mouanda (Congo Brazzaville), ‘S.A.P.E’ series, Congo Brazzaville, 2008. Baudouin Mouanda

PAGE 64

involved, showing little interest in the various activities going on in the city. Mr. Samuel Sidib, Managing Director of the Biennial, declared that mobilising the interest of the local public has been a big challenge. But these difficulties haven’t stopped the “Encounters” from emerging as one of the most important stops on the global biennial circuit for exploring contemporary photog raphy. The programme contains a number of dif ferent sections: the Pan-African exhibi tion (including 40 selected photographers and 13 video artists), a section on mono graphs (including work by Angle Etoundi Essamba, Hassan Hajjaj, Patrizia Guerresi Mamouna, Baudouin Mouanda, and Fazal Sheikh), thematic exhibitions (including The Maghreb Connection, Living Under One Roof, Albinos, Goudron-Tanger/Le Cap, and Nord Kivu), “Focus on Mali” (an exhibition presenting a selection of con temporary Malian photographers), a guest gallery (featuring Michael Stevenson, The Arles Encounters in Bamako), and a section on photo memoirs. The jury was made up of Malick Sidib (the Chairman), Els Barents (Director of the Huis Marseille Museum for Photography, Amsterdam), Annie Boulat (Director of the Cosmos Agency, Paris), Manthia Diawara (Writer and Director, New York University, New York), and John Fleetwood (Director of the Market Photo Workshop, Johannesburg). This jury assigned the Awards as follows: The Seydou Keta Prize (the grand prix of the Encounters of Bamako, awarded by the Malian Ministry of Culture): Uche Okpa Iroha / Nigeria; The European Union Prize (Best Work of Press Photography or Reportage by a Photographer from an ACP Country): Jodie Bieber / South Africa; The Jeune Talent Prize (offered by Bollor Africa Logistics, rewarding the creative work of a young photogra pher): Baudouin Mouanda / CongoBrazzaville; The Jury Prize (“Special Favourite” by Culturesfrance): Berry Bickle / Zimbabwe and Abdoulaye Barry / Chad; The Prize of the International Organisation of la Francophonie (Best Francophone Photographer): Guy Wouete / Cameroon; The Elan Prize (awarded by the French Development Agency): Salif Traor / Mali.For more information on the artists and their work, and to view the events programme and press release, please visit the following website: www.rencontres-bamako.com. Keywords African photography; borders; art; culture; exhibition; award. C reativity 62 J. Bieber (South Africa), ‘Going Home’ series, 2001, Pan-African exhibition. Jodi Bieber S. Traore (Mali), ‘Rve non ralis’ series, 2008, Pan-African exhibition. Salif Traor U. Okpa-Iroha (Nigeria), ‘Underbridge Life’ series, 2009, Pan-African exhibition. Uche Okpa-Iroha G. Wouete (Cameroon), ‘Volcano’, 2008, Pan-African exhibition. Guy Wouete Z. Muholi (South Africa), ‘Miss Divine 2008’ series, Pan-African exhibition. Zanele Muholi

PAGE 65

63 N. 15 N.E. – JANUARY FEBRUARY 2010Haiti in black and white and colour Haiti is a small Caribbean country struck on 12 April by an earthquake that killed over 200,000 people. In the previous two years, it was hit by four hurricanes. The events hap pened at the very moment that its population was beginning to see an improvement in their country’s general situation. It is this same hope, perhaps, that has enabled Haitians to lift their heads and immediately get down to reconstructing their country. H.G. F or younger readers

PAGE 66

64 We are interested in your point of view and your reactions to the articles. So do tell us what you think. Agenda MARCH-MAY 2010 Address: The Courier 45, Rue de Trves 1040 Brussels (Belgium) email: info@acp-eucourier.info website: www.acp-eucourier.infoScience can have a place in the economic development of ACP countries. It is not possible to continue saying that sci ence is out of reach of developing countries. Investments, funding and science are the rights of ACP countries. Juan Antonio Falcn Blasco Dear Sirs, You wrote “It [the Ishango rod] would become the darling of archaeologists”. The opposite is true: the rod was kept on the 19th floor of the archaeology museum for about 50 years, and nobody paid attention to it. Until mathematicians revealed it and it was finally put in exposition. Furthermore, on his death bed in 1998, the discoverer revealed he held another Ishango rod. It was only in 2007 this second Ishango rod was made public. And still few people know about it. It certainly is not a "darling". Dirk Huylebrouck Dear Sir/Madam, This is to comment on Eritrea, my country of origin. I also have UK citizenship and I live and work in London. I strongly oppose any interference on the internal matters of my country by any outsider for any reason as the ambassador of Eritrea to the EU countries rightly said that Eritrea is the most stable and peaceful country in the whole of Africa. Now, what are the problems with religion, race and human rights in Eritrea? None. Human rights are abused widely by the superpowers such as USA and the UK in Iraq, Afghanistan and many other places Please do not try to blame Eritrea for any thing as the country is trying to build its life back from ruin to recovery as priority. Thank you, Kelati Measho (Eritrea) Words from Readers March 2010 > 265th Meeting of Spanish 28/3 and African Women World for a Better World Socio-cultural event to be held in Valencia, Spain. www.eu2010.es/en > 27/3 18th session of the ACP-EU 1/4 Joint Parliamentary Assembly Magma Confernce Centre, Costa Adeje, Tenerife, Spain http://www.europarl.europa.eu/ intcoop/acp/ > 23/4Edition II ‘Africa lives’ June Festival celebrating the 50th anniversary of the independence of African countries. Opening ceremony in Barcelona, Spain. www.eu2010.es/en> 21Africa-EU Energy Partnership: 23/4 Ministerial High Level Meeting Vienna, Austria> 27/4 14th Africa-EU Ministerial Troika Luxembourg, Luxembourg > 28/4 Workshop on employment, social protection and decent work in Africa Organised jointly by the European Commission and the African Union Commission, in cooperation with interested EU and AU member states, Nairobi, Kenya. April 2010 > 19Better Training for Food Safety 23/4 regional workshop Kampala, Uganda> 19IST-Africa 2010 Conference & 21/5 Exhibition Fifth in an annual ICT conference series bringing together senior representatives from leading commercial, government & research organisations across Africa and from Europe, Durban, South Africa. http://www.ist-africa.org/ Conference2010/default.asp May 2010

PAGE 67

and European Union countriesCARIBBEAN Antigua and Barbuda The Bahamas Barbados Belize Cuba Dominica Dominican Republic Grenada Guyana Haiti Jamaica Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Suriname Trinidad and Tobago P ACIFIC Cook Islands Federated States of Micronesia Fiji Kiribati Marshall Islands Nauru Niue Palau Papua New Guinea Samoa Solomon Islands Timor Leste Tonga Tuvalu Vanuatu AFRICA Angola Benin Botswana Burkina Faso Burundi Cameroon Cape Verde Central African Republic Chad Comoros Congo (Rep. of) Cte d’Ivoire Democratic Republic of the Congo Djibouti Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Ethiopia Gabon Gambia Ghana Guinea Guinea-Bissau Kenya Lesotho Liberia Madagascar Malawi Mali Mauritania Mauritius Mozambique Namibia Niger Nigeria Rwanda Sao Tome and Principe Senegal Seychelles Sierra Leone Somalia South Africa Sudan Swaziland Tanzania Togo Uganda Zambia Zimbabwe EUROPEAN UNION Austria Belgium Bulgaria Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Hungary Ireland Italy Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Malta Netherlands Poland Portugal Romania Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden United Kingdom The lists of countries published by The Courier do not prejudice the status of these countries and territories now or in the future. The Courier uses maps from a variety of sources. Their use does not imply recognition of any particular boundaries nor prejudice the status of any state or territory.

PAGE 68

Not for sale ISSN 1784-682X