In February last year, Britain’s Prime Minister, Tony Blair, wrote an article titled The World Must Judge Us on Africa. This moralistic statement followed his decision to make African development a key objective of Britain’s 2005 presidency of the Group of Eight (G8) industrialised countries and the European Union.
Blair will step down from his premiership on June 27, just after the German-hosted G8 summit at which, encouraged by Britain, there will be a discussion and summit declaration on Growth and Responsibility in Africa. Blair is also due to make a farewell prime ministerial trip to Africa, including South Africa, shortly.
Blair’s personal commitment to Africa should not be doubted. During the Labour government’s first term, he authorised British troop support for the United Nations and regional peacekeeping efforts in Sierra Leone in May 2000. He began promoting Africa’s causes at international gatherings, starting with the G8 summit in Genoa in 2001. By the beginning of Labour’s second term in 2001, a discernible United Kingdom policy on Africa was emerging — and, at the Labour Party conference in September 2001, he announced that Africa was a ”scar on the conscience of the world” that would become ”deeper and angrier” unless something was done to heal it. In his Labour Party conference speech last year it was references to Africa policy that got the greatest applause.
Commission for Africa
Irish pop star and anti-poverty campaigner Bob Geldof convinced Blair in 2003 that he should create a commission to re-assess the causes of African poverty. The Commission for Africa was established in February 2004 and dissolved at the end of September 2005. Its report was a cogent summary of existing ideas on what is required to boost growth and good governance across Africa. Its main prescription was to emphasise the importance of governance and aid for African recovery, something the World Bank has already been promoting for a decade.
Interestingly, the most visible follow up has been Business Action for Africa and Business Action Against Corruption in Africa — efforts that focus on practical issues such as preventing and treating HIV/Aids, improving customs regimes and reducing corruption. These efforts have been supported by companies such as Shell International, AngloÂÂAmerican and SABMiller.
Policy coherence
The coherence of British policy on Africa during the Blair years needs some scrutiny. Blair had vision, but seemed less interested in fine detail. It was always going to be difficult for high aspirations to be matched by Britain’s ability to deliver on Africa, especially with multiple other global and domestic demands. While Africa was officially a government priority, government departments working on it were downsized and diplomatic missions in Lesotho, Swaziland and Madagascar were closed.
At the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), the Africa department has not enjoyed much leadership stability under Blair. Since 1998, six ministers have been responsible for overseeing policy and this high turnover has not permitted time for proper ministerial expertise to develop. Indeed, the first minister for Africa, Peter Hain, badly mishandled the Zimbabwe issue by making emotive outbursts that President Robert Mugabe turned to his advantage. The rapid turnover of Africa ministers may also have contributed to the vulnerability of the Africa departments to financial and personnel cuts — although other regions, such as Latin America, have also suffered. The FCO is no longer designed to house expertise but is rather tasked with implementing policy.
The result is that British capacity to develop a more subtle and differentiated understanding of Africa was eroded further during Blair’s tenure. Increasingly country policy is decided by the diplomatic missions on the ground, except where there are strategic interests, such as energy security, or a domestic angle, such as Zimbabwe.
The cuts at the FCO need to be understood in the context of the growth of the department for international development (DFID) under Labour. Its establishment in 1997 as a separate ministerial department at Cabinet level signalled a powerful and not entirely unwelcome shift for Africa, given past foreign office priorities there. By 2001 the ÂÂdepartment had a larger budget than the foreign office and much more ÂÂinfluence. But the shift has gone too far, downplaying the role of traditional diplomacy and politics and exaggerating the humanitarian and development agenda in Africa, an agenda with which politicians are more comfortable as it emphasises the role of aid and de-emphasises the need to understand politics, history and context. Although the department for international development has lots of money, the trend has been to increasingly outsource work to consultants by cutting core staff. This results in variable project delivery and overstretched and under-ÂÂqualified staff, who lack basic skills such as language.
Aid and debt relief
There are positive legacies too. The UK’s offer of additional debt relief for Mozambique and Tanzania are examples of how well debt relief can work. Mozambique’s debt relief has enabled the government to immunise half a million children. Tanzania eliminated fees for primary school. Uganda, the first country to benefit from debt relief, used money freed from debt cancellation to double primary school enrolment and invest in its national HIV/Aids plan.
This needs to be carefully looked at. British officials, aid agencies and African activists remain deeply divided over the legacy of Blair’s Africa campaign. The NGO Data has just blasted G8 members for collectively being badly off track with their development assistance to Africa. In total, G8 assistance to sub-Saharan Africa has increased by $2,3billion since 2004, when it should have increased by $5,4billion according to commitments made.
In the end, the most hopeful legacies of Blair’s emphasis on Africa are signs that there may be an added push to improve the quality of aid by channelling it through multilateral organisations and more recognition that conditions attached to aid can be counterproductive. Blair’s successor, Gordon Brown, is likely to continue the trend that Blair began late in his premiership, of attempting to stay clear of political entanglements. But poverty reduction and support for economic growth and development in Africa are likely to remain central to the UK’s engagement there.
Alex Vines is Head of the Africa Programme at Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs, in London