The challengeof globalization in Africa:The trade union response

Labour Education 2001/2No. 123

Editorial V

African women in the front line, by Mamounata Cisséand Natacha David 1

Regional integration in Africa: Getting it right,by Mohammed Mwamadzingo 7

The challenge of the informal economy, by Emile Delvaux 13

A new approach to adjustment, by Lawrence Egulu 18

Multi-speed globalization, democratization and conditionalities,by François Misser 23

AIDS: Prevention and tritherapies – no contraindication for the South,by Jacky Delorme 28

Building an IT-richer Africa, by Marc Bélanger 31

The impact of globalization in Africa and the response of trade unions:The case of South Africa, by Shermain Mannah 35

African press and globalization: An unfinished transformation,by Jean-Paul Marthoz 42

The brain drain: Losing one’s head, by André Linard 47

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Contents

The global market has largely been out of reach for Africa. But many ofthe ill-effects of globalization have already hit that continent, where

most of its 780 million people, or more than 10 per cent of the world’spopulation, are afflicted by poverty, inequality, exclusion, discrimination,war and disease, as well as bad weather and climate changes.

Many of Africa’s woes are, however, man-made. While good gover-nance, democracy, respect for human and trade union rights, social dia-logue and a strong independent voice for labour have been in short sup-ply for too many years, the international community also has to sharesome of the blame. The structural adjustment programmes of the Inter-national Monetary Fund and the World Bank, designed to help borrowercountries put their economies in order and encourage investment andgrowth, have not only failed to address poverty, they have in many in-stances deepened it.

Education and health budgets have been drastically reduced, de-priving a majority of people of access to basic public services. Millionsof people have been thrown into the precarious informal economy. De-prived of social protection, they just manage to survive. The essentialsocial needs of the people have been ignored when African governmentsand aid donors struggle to stabilize crisis-torn economies. Worse, recentchange in labour laws in certain countries have undermined whateverlabour protection these were supposed to guarantee to working peopleand their families. Export processing zones were able to flourish at theexpense of long-fought-for workers’ rights and international labourstandards.

What one-party states and other undemocratic regimes have left hasbeen a huge foreign debt, which not only signed the future of generationsof Africans away, but in fact has never even benefited the populations.

The HIV/AIDS pandemic has also hit Africa hardest and while povertyis among the key spreading agents of the disease, prevention, care andcure largely depend on political, economic and social priorities, includingthose that should figure prominently on top of the agenda of the inter-national community.

All this is dramatically true. Africa has for too long been a forgottencontinent and a battleground for vested interests that go much beyond itsborders. Natural resources have been stolen, international aid has shrunkand development brought to a halt.

Yet, another Africa is emerging, forward-looking, determined to bringabout a better future. Trade unions are part of that future and they shouldhelp to shape it for the coming generations.

While much has been written about these African problems, LabourEducation looks at Africa from a different perspective. Africa has resources,

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Editorial

both human and natural, it has potential markets and it has moved to-wards strengthening democracy. How can all this meet the challengesposed by globalization, how can Africa make globalization deliver to itscitizens and how can unions contribute to this process? Many answers tothese questions can be found in this issue, even if it does not claim to beexhaustive.

Special tribute is paid to African women who, with the help of thetrade union movement and other sectors of civil society, are leading theway to a prosperous Africa based on growth, sustainable development,democracy and human and trade union rights. Despite economic, cul-tural, institutional or even physical hurdles, African women organizeand struggle. Africa’s prospects will depend on their input and on theplace they will be given in shaping the future. Women are not only tobenefit from development, they should be recognized as key actors inthe process.

Experience also shows that the informal economy is no longer out ofreach for organized labour. Efforts by trade unions and other groups, withsupport from the International Labour Office and its Bureau for Workers’Activities are achieving positive results. Workers in the informal econ-omy are increasingly able to make their voices heard and improve theirsituation.

Regional economic integration processes are in place and could pro-vide an entry point to making global markets at long last paying socialdividends. While strengthening their presence at national level, tradeunions have a central role to play to ensure that economic integration in-deed delivers in terms of improving living and working conditions.

The digital divide could also be overcome, not from one day to thenext, but likely as a mid-term objective, enabling Africans themselves todesign technologies made for Africans and compatible with the rest of theglobal network.

Democratization is leading to a better political environment in manycountries and democracy has taken solid roots in others. Like the tradeunion movement, the media have found new freedom to act as indepen-dent and contributing players to progress and debate.

Success will, however, require support from the international com-munity. Initiatives on reducing or abolishing the debts of Africa’s poorestcountries need to be looked at more generously by international financialinstitutions, along the lines long suggested by the international tradeunion movement.

Assistance in combating the HIV/AIDS pandemic, including makingdrugs accessible to victims of the disease and support for local preventiveaction, is urgently needed. Increased foreign aid should go to Africa, andthe donors should insist on good governance, democracy and respect forhuman and trade union rights. High priority should be given to invest-ments in infrastructure and agriculture. The World Bank and the IMFshould keep their promise to listen to the views of local actors, in partic-ular those of trade unions, in devising, implementing and assessing ad-justment programmes.

African governments, employers and trade unions also have a majorcontribution to make in promoting an environment conducive to growth,social justice and democracy. Social dialogue should be a central pillarof the new Africa. It could provide a sound basis for a large consensus

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on policies that will put Africa’s best resources in the centre stage: itspeople. Education, health and social development are basic needs thatshould be addressed now. They also represent the best investment for aprosperous Africa.

Manuel Simón VelascoDirector

ILO Bureau for Workers’ Activities

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Special thanks go to ACTRAV’s representatives in the field, Ibrahim Mayaki (Abidjan),John Fallah (Addis Ababa), Francisco Monteiro (Dakar), Mohammed Mwamadzingo(Harare) and to Abdoulaye Diallo and Ditiro Saleshando (ACTRAV Africa desk of-ficers in Geneva) who helped identify issues and contributors and helped designthe concept of this issue of Labour Education.

Traditionally there is no role for Africanwomen in society. They usually find

themselves relegated to second-class citi-zen status. Laws and customs make itmuch harder for women to access the fac-tors of production (land and credit), andto obtain education, training, informationand health care in order to play a full rolein the economy and in society in general.All too often they are unaware of theirlegal rights and even if they are, they areunable to claim them. Their daily grind in-volves them toiling under a wholly unfairburden of family and household chores.What is more, in the home, but also atschool, in the workplace, in the street andthroughout society, African women areoften subjected to physical, sexual andpsychological abuse. In most Africancountries this gender-related violencegives rise to a social, religious and culturalcontext that gives men a superior statusand a de facto monopoly on all sources ofpower.

The failings of the education system

The discriminations that women are preyto condition their view of themselves andtheir future chances from a very early age.They are trapped by a poor image based

on dependency, subjugation and subordi-nation to men. In traditional African so-cieties, women are like shadows, with noreal existence. In many of the continent’scountries, girls are given less to eat thantheir brothers, are forced to work harderand have much more limited access toschools and health care.

Even though most regions of the worldhave seen major advances in primary ed-ucation in recent decades, a report pub-lished last year by the United Nations Pop-ulation Fund (UNFPA) condemned theslowdown in compulsory schooling inAfrica which, it says, “is resulting fromhigh costs for parents and the poorer qual-ity of teaching”.1 In sub-Saharan Africa,only 60 per cent of children complete theirprimary education. This training deficit isof particular concern for future womenwhen we consider that in 22 African statesthere are 80 per cent fewer girls than boysin full-time education. The UNFPA notesthat “a lack of education, especially forwomen, plays a bigger role in reducing in-fant deaths than the combined effects of ahigher income, better hygiene and work inthe modern sector”. For example,Botswana, Kenya and Zimbabwe, whichhave the highest levels of female enrol-ment in sub-Saharan Africa, also have thelowest infant mortality rates.

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African women in the front lineAfrican women are subject to any number of crushing constraints,ranging from economic to social, cultural, institutional, legal andphysical. And yet, despite all these obstacles, which could so easilyresult in a passiveness dictated by their traditional roles, Africanwomen are remarkably dynamic and combative.

Mamounata CisséAssistant General Secretary

International Confederation of Free Trade Unions

Natacha DavidEditor in Chief of Trade Union World

International Confederation of Free Trade Unions

Where work is concerned, Africanwomen are too often confined to “unpro-ductive” tasks which are poorly paid (or,more commonly, unpaid) such as lookingafter the children, performing domesticchores, caring for the sick and the elderly,providing informal education, workingthe family’s land, fetching the water andwood, etc. Many women work in the agri-cultural sector and in the informal sectorwhere conditions are appalling, the work-force coefficient high, the degree of tech-nicality and qualification low and the paymediocre. In West Africa, women sell be-tween 70 and 90 per cent of all agriculturaland fishing products. Women street sellersform part of an informal economy thatgenerates around 30 per cent of the wealthof urban centres. The United Nations De-velopment Fund for Women (UNIFEM)reported last year that while women workin strategic sectors such as agriculture andfood production, the financial instrumentsand services offered by the banks and fi-nancial institutions (insurance companiesand lenders) are channelled first and fore-most to export sectors and urban, non-agricultural activities, thereby excludingmost women from these circuits. 2 This sit-uation explains many of the problems ex-perienced by women as they try to getmore out of the land they farm. For exam-ple, UNFPA estimates that if women farm-ers in Kenya were given the same level ofsupport as their male counterparts in theexport sector, they could increase landyield by more than 20 per cent.

The weight of tradition and crises

Those rare women who do manage toovercome the education barrier are stillfaced with gender equality issues. The In-ternational Federation of Journalists (IFJ)recently reported that women still repre-sent only a small minority of African jour-nalists, whereas in the industrialized na-tions nearly 50 per cent of journalists arewomen. “Culture always keeps womensubordinate, even in South Africa wherethe end of apartheid led to the creation of

a black male elite, but no female elite,” re-marks South African journalist and seniorIFJ official Farahana Ismail.

In 1994, the World Bank estimated thatwomen accounted for 44 per cent of theworkforce in Africa, but more recently theInternational Labour Office noted that theactivity rate for women on the continentwas statistically in decline, probably be-cause more women are now working inthe invisible, informal sector.

The situation created by tradition isfurther exacerbated by the serious econ-omic and social crisis that Africa is facing,together with a series of bloody conflictsand fresh epidemics that are sweeping thecontinent. Women are suffering from all ofthese things to a much greater extent thanmen.

Aggravated by the unfair burden ofdebt, the structural adjustment policiesimposed by the international financial in-stitutions (the IMF and the World Bank)have had disastrous effects on employ-ment (structured and informal) and on allbasic public services such as educationand health care. These structural adjust-ment policies have greatly contributed tothe process of advanced dilapidation in allthe key sectors of African society, punish-ing women in particular. They have beeneven more affected by a wave of privat-izations: first, because formal employmentamong African women is often limited justto the public sector, making them primetargets for streamlining programmes; andsecond, because it is the women who haveto counter on a daily basis and as best theycan the failings or even total absence ofbasic services previously provided by thepublic authorities. The deficiencies or eventotal disappearance of the social securitysystems also account for the growing im-poverishment of African women.

Health care is increasingly overlookedin national budgets. As a result, oneAfrican woman in 13 dies in the courseof her pregnancy or during childbirth,whereas in the industrialized worldUNICEF reckons that the same ratio is oneper 4,085 births. A survey reports that inthe United Republic of Tanzania, the say-

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ing among future mothers is: “I’m goingto sea to find a baby. But the journey is longand I may never return.”

African women are also in the frontlinewhen it comes to the bloody wars that reg-ularly tear African societies apart. Theirsacrifice is all the more unfair because theyrarely initiate these conflicts. And yet, in themidst of all this fighting they continue toplay an essential role, ensuring the survivalof their families. Doubtless women, too,will have to bear the brunt of the rebuild-ing process. In Rwanda, after the genocide,women constituted 70 per cent of the pop-ulation and half of all households wereheaded by women, most of them widows.With no work, no home and often the vic-tims of serious physical and psychologicaltrauma, they nevertheless continue to fightto survive and build the future.

Victims of AIDS twice over

African women are also paying the cost ofthe epidemics that are decimating Africanpopulations, and especially HIV/AIDS.They are both direct victims (more than12 million African women have alreadydied of AIDS, often because they wereforced into having unprotected sex), andindirect victims as they care for the sick ortake care of the 11 million-plus orphanswho have lost their parents to the disease.According to UNAIDS, women accountfor more than half of all Africa’s HIV-positive adults and AIDS sufferers (see thearticle by Jacky Delorme on page 28). Morespecifically, the UNFPA report indicatesthat there are 2 million more HIV-positivewomen than men in Africa.

Gender discrimination, resulting fromtradition and the current socio-economiccontext, leads to major discrepancies in theway in which resources are distributed,with a significant negative impact for thedevelopment of women, but also ofAfrican society as a whole. Discriminationhas a cost. As the UNFPA says: “Promot-ing gender equality means promotinggrowth and the stable development ofeconomic systems with all the social and

(strictu sensu) economic benefits that thisbrings.”

However, despite all of these con-straints, much credence in Africa is stillgiven to the idea that “women manage toget by”. And it is true, they clearly are “get-ting by”, be it in rural agriculture, thecrafts or even micro-commerce. Today,African women know that they can rely onnobody but themselves, and increasingnumbers are gaining greater confidence intheir own abilities and finding ways ofachieving autonomy. While they remain inthe minority, these women are fightingagainst prejudice and for their freedomand are not afraid of taking risks to achievetheir ends. A gradual change is takingplace in the attitude of women towardstheir traditional social subjugation. Thisdoes not necessarily mean that they are re-jecting tradition, but it does demonstratea desire to place the emphasis on the pos-itive aspects of traditions, such as solidar-ity for personal development for the goodof all.

While African societies are fighting torise to the challenges of modernity, Africanwomen have become the central force be-hind this drive for change. They have de-veloped a technical capital based on know-how and the skills acquired throughassociations. They have also developed asocial capital based on community life andthe principles of solidarity and reciprocitywhich are demonstrated by the famousAfrican women’s tontines, among otherthings. They choose solidarity as theirstrategy for collective action and prefer so-cial and knowledge capitalization to fi-nancial accumulation.

United Nations Secretary-General KofiAnnan said: “Gender equality is more thanan end in itself. It is a precondition for lead-ing the fight in favour of poverty reduc-tion, promoting sustainable developmentand building good governance.”

Many women’s associations and or-ganizations have grown up, driven by theaims of peace, economic prosperity, socialjustice, democracy and human rights.

The trade union movement is alsoincreasingly present in these circles. It is

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calling for the inclusion of a gender per-spective in the approach to structuraladjustment and the fight against debt.Similarly, the international trade unionmovement is fighting for the inclusion ofthe ILO’s fundamental standards, and inparticular the concept of equality, in thearea of international trade. While thisglobal struggle may be far removed fromthe central concerns of the women work-ing their fingers to the bone in Africanfields, workshops or marketplaces, it isnevertheless closely bound up with theimprovement of their general situation.

On the ground, many African unionshave developed programmes to raisewomen’s awareness of their rights and tohelp them gain their freedom through lit-eracy schemes, general education andtraining. This awareness-raising work istargeting both union and non-union mem-bers. The trade union world was once con-sidered to be the sole preserve of men, andwomen were completely marginalized.Gradually, however, the African unionshave developed special programmes toencourage women to assume their re-sponsibilities at every level of trade unionstructure, and attitudes are starting tochange too.

Changing mentalities

However, all too often there is a gulf be-tween the theory and reality of politicalresolutions. There are still relatively fewwomen on the governing bodies of tradeunion organizations. Women’s officer atthe Ghana Trades Union Congress Veron-ica Kofie believes that union managementremains too distant from the real concernsof women. She maintains: “We have to goin on the ground and oversee the work ofthose people who come into contact withwomen workers. We have to get womeninterested and take greater account of theproblems related to their specific situa-tions, such as the fact that more of themtoday are single mothers.” The GTUC hasalready begun to adopt a more gender-neutral language in the collective agree-

ments it has negotiated and, to raise theprofile of its work, its women’s committeehas created a trust that has launched an in-surance scheme, a taxi service and otherpractical support.

In order to combat sexist stereotyping,the trade unions are not only keen to raisewomen’s awareness but they are also seek-ing to change male mentalities. This has re-sulted in training programmes addressinga mixed audience, more suited to the dailysituation of women trade unionists and inparticular taking account of the constraintsrelating to the disproportionate burden offamily and domestic responsibilities.

The trade union response

So what are the unions actually doing torecruit more women? Firstly, there are nowmore women in the recruitment teams.Secondly, they are laying more emphasison themes of importance to women, suchas health care, security, and family plan-ning, and focusing more on young femaleworkers.

The fight for increased private sectorunionization remains a priority objectiveas a way of increasing the union power ofwomen: severe cutbacks in the public sec-tor have led them to seek alternative em-ployment in the private sector. The mainstumbling block here is increased job pre-cariousness and anti-union harassment.Mariatou Coulibaly, a woman unionleader in Côte d’Ivoire, reports that in hercountry “the coup d’Etat did much to gal-vanize workers, especially women whowere directly affected by the wave of massredundancies. These women all contactedus and we have been able to help them,most notably by calculating with them (inplace of their boss) the exact amount of re-dundancy money they were entitled to.This has proved a worthy investment ofthe union’s time: before the coup we had10 female members, now we have 67.”

Of course, the African women’s fightalso involves the traditional trade unionbattle for better working conditions.Women unionists now have no hesitation

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about voicing their demands. In June inLagos (Nigeria) the nurses came out onstrike to demand higher wages at a timewhen doctors’ pay had been increased. InBamako (Mali), workers in the drinks andice creams industry, one of that country’sleading sectors, stopped work in April inprotest at what they described as near-slavery conditions. In particular, they werecomplaining of eyesight problems relatingto the unprotected use of caustic soda.

The challenge of the informaleconomy

If there is one area that the trade unions re-ally need to enter in force to defendwomen’s rights in Africa it is the informaleconomy. To that end, the unions must de-velop new methods of approach and or-ganization, taking account of the ex-tremely low incomes of these femaleworkers and the very limited time they candevote to trade union activities because oftheir family duties. The unions also needto find ways of overcoming the isolationof many female workers in the informaleconomy, especially those who work athome or in remote rural areas. In Zambiaand Ghana, the ICFTU and its African re-gional organization (AFRO) are thereforefunding special projects in favour ofwomen in the informal economy (see thearticle by Emile Delvaux on p. 13).

In many cases these workers have al-ready organized themselves into associa-tions or cooperatives, so the unions can de-velop collaboration and networkingstrategies with all of these actors alreadyactive on the ground. Other examples in-clude the unions’ support for women’s co-operatives in Senegal.

The trade unions are also looking toprovide immediate and tangible benefits,such as the creation of social funds to makeup for the absence of a social security sys-tem, facilities for accessing credit and land,administrative and legal aid, educationand training, and the provision of basic in-frastructures (electricity, water, transport,sanitation, storage areas, crèches, meals,

etc.). The unions are also in a position tohelp improve the income of these womenby simplifying collective sales and acqui-sitions, encouraging the exchange of ex-periences, offering protection against vio-lence (in particular for street sellers), andby making the subcontracting chain visi-ble in order to negotiate with employerson basic protection for homeworkers. Theunions can back micro-projects, in partic-ular those that assist with rural develop-ment, and facilitate access to the new fairtrade networks for the goods produced bywomen, as is being done in Benin andBurkina Faso.

New lines of action

Another major challenge facing theAfrican unions is to find a way of organ-izing female workers in the continent’srapidly developing free export zones. Thecountries that host these zones offer for-eign investors a cheap workforce and anenvironment free of industrial unrest,generally by cracking down hard on allunion action. As a result, these free zones,which mostly employ women, all too oftenfail to recognize any trade union rights andexploitation is commonplace (very lowwages, precarious employment contracts,sexual harassment of female workers,abominable working conditions, etc.). InMorocco, despite the fierce anti-tradeunion repression, the unions are fightingto organize the workers in textile plants inindustrial zones. In Mauritius, the unionshave set up a crèche for the children ofwomen working in the sugar plantations.

Where the fight against HIV and AIDSis concerned, the unions also have a cen-tral role to play to ensure a gender per-spective in all awareness-raising and vic-tim support programmes. They are alsoplaying an active role in the internationalcampaign in favour of making pharma-ceutical products financially accessible toAfrican AIDS sufferers. In many Africanunions the women lead the way in the bat-tle against this pandemic. Florida Mukan-damutsa of the Rwandan CESTRAR union

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told Trade Union World recently: “Womenare more subject to the consequences of thedisease. They are more resistant to thevirus and therefore live longer with AIDS.They must look after the children. We haveset up an association of AIDS sufferers inRwanda. It is a mixed association, butwomen represent a large majority.” 3

To bridge the technological gulf that di-vides Africa from the rest of the world andto foster sustainable development, theunions are calling for better access to thenew information technologies for allAfrican workers (training and infrastruc-ture). Here again, the gender issue must bestressed, for it is essential that women,who are already discriminated against onevery front, do not find themselves at thebottom of the digital divide that separatesthe more educated from the less qualified,the richer from the poorer.

All of these lines of trade union action,already being tackled with imagination,courage and success by the various

African trade unions, are converging onthe same overall goal: taking better ac-count of the specific needs and prioritiesof women and their role in the economyand society in general. This is a key factorin the future of the continent, a question offairness, but also a question of survival. Aseverywhere in the world, but perhapseven more in Africa given the special partthat women play in development there de-spite immense difficulties, the future willdepend on the role that is given to women.

Notes

1 UNFPA: The state of the world population, 2000(New York, 2000).

2 UNIFEM: Gender dimensions of the financing fordevelopment agenda, working document for the UnitedNations Conference on financing for development,scheduled for 2002 (New York, April 2001).

3 Trade Union World, monthly publication of theInternational Confederation of Free Trade Unions(ICFTU), (Brussels, December 2000).

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Development requires the organizationof social and economic activities on a

much larger scale than is currently foundin individual countries in Africa. Mostcountries in Africa are relatively small, notonly in population, but also in terms ofeconomic output. This has led to efforts topromote regional and subregional inte-gration as a major strategy for promotingintra-regional trade and accelerating de-velopment and structural transformation.In spite of the very modest resultsachieved so far in this ongoing process, thestrategy remains a major instrument forhelping the region to overcome the prob-lems of economic fragmentation, and pro-moting economic diversification and inter-linkages between production units invarious countries.

Regional and subregional structuresin Africa

Undoubtedly, the first argument for re-gional integration is that of efficiency:when producers and countries specializein goods that they can produce morecheaply, the whole region gains. Second,economies of scale that cannot be made onthe domestic market can often be achievedon a larger regional market. Third, re-gional integration can provide experience

and the benefits of competition for gener-ally high-cost producers with less risk thanin the wider world.

There is a long history of regional inte-gration arrangements in Africa, beginningwith the customs unions in 1900 betweenKenya (then known as the East AfricanProtectorate) and Uganda. At present,there are broadly two kinds of regionalgroupings in Africa: those sponsored bythe United Nations Economic Commis-sion for Africa (UNECA), and those re-sulting from other initiatives. The UNECAhas promoted three subregional arrange-ments: the Economic Community of WestAfrican States (ECOWAS), the CommonMarket for Eastern and Southern Africa(COMESA), and the Economic Commu-nity of Central African States (ECCAS).

At the Pan-African level, the treaty es-tablishing the African Economic Commu-nity (AEC) agreed upon in Abuja in 1991was the culmination of previous declara-tions by African Heads of State and Gov-ernment and their ministers regardingtheir desire to create an Africa-wide econ-omic community (such as the KinshasaDeclaration of 1976, the Lagos Plan of Ac-tion and the Final Act of Lagos of 1980).

At the 37th Summit of Heads of Stateand Government in Lusaka, Zambia (July2001), the OAU was formally transformedinto the African Union (AU) after 50 of the

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Regional integration in Africa:Getting it right

Economic integration can be more successful if members of civil so-ciety, especially trade unions, are involved in the decision-makingprocess and if their rights are enshrined and respected. How best cantrade unions play a more meaningful role in promoting regional in-tegration, and how can they ensure that human and trade unionrights are respected?

Mohammed MwamadzingoRegional Specialist in Workers’ Education

ILO Office in Addis Ababa

OAU’s 53 member States ratified a newtreaty. The new Secretary-General of theAU has been ask to transform the OAUinto the AU within a year.

In western Africa, the Economic Com-munity of West African States (ECOWAS)came into existence in 1975 with the aimof eventually becoming a customs unionand then a common market, while inte-grating states in the West African sub-region. It comprises 15 member States(Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Côted’Ivoire, the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea,Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, the Niger,Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo),ten of which have allegiances with othersubregional groupings. The revisedECOWAS Treaty, signed in 1993, seeks toconsolidate and expand the achievementsof ECOWAS and to tackle the excessivenumber of intergovernmental organiza-tions (IGOs) in the subregion, strengthenthe executive capacity of the ECOWAS sec-retariat and expand the political functionsof the community. It also accords supra-national status to ECOWAS as the sole rep-resentative institution for the West Africansubregion. Among other things, it addedpeacekeeping to the ECOWAS list ofobjectives.

Presently, the West African subregionhas the largest number of IGOs (about 40 inall). These include the Union économique etmonétaire ouest-africaine (UEMOA, com-prising Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire,Guinea-Bissau, Mali, the Niger, Senegaland Togo), ECOWAS and the Mano RiverUnion (embracing Guinea, Liberia andSierra Leone). The UEMOA was estab-lished in 1994. A major difference betweenUEMOA and ECOWAS is that the latterhas a functional monetary integrationcomponent.

On the basis of the agreement reachedat the ECOWAS Council of Ministersmeeting in 1993, all remaining IGOsshould have been transformed into spe-cialized agencies of ECOWAS by 2005.

Numerous activities aiming to estab-lish cross-border initiatives in eastern andsouthern Africa in order to increase trade,investments and payments among collab-

orating countries have been launched.This subregion now has the second high-est number of IGOs after West Africa.

The Preferential Trade Area for Easternand Southern Africa (PTA) was created in1978 and laid the groundwork for the cre-ation of the Common Market for East andSouthern Africa (COMESA) in November1993. COMESA now embraces 21 coun-tries, after the United Republic of Tanza-nia withdrew its membership in 2000. ThePTA embarked on five main areas of co-operation: monetary, fiscal and financial;trade development and customs; trans-port and communication; industry, energyand the environment; and agriculturaldevelopment.

The COMESA treaty calls for the estab-lishment of a customs union through theremoval of all trade barriers and the es-tablishment of a common external tariffand rules of origin. The treaty anticipatesthe coordination of macroeconomic pol-icies as countries move towards the freemovement of services and capital as wellas currency convertibility.

Unlike the PTA, COMESAnow stressesa commitment to the redistribution of thebenefits of integration, through special re-gional programmes to promote the devel-opment of the least-developed countriesin the region to achieve balanced develop-ment within the common market. Specificareas of cooperation have been identified,such as trade liberalization and customscooperation; transport and communica-tion; industry and energy; monetary af-fairs and finance; agriculture, and econ-omic and social development.

Within the same subregion there arealso the Southern African DevelopmentCommunity (SADC) and the SouthernAfrican Customs Union (SACU). SADC(which includes ten of the COMESAstates)replaced the Southern African Develop-ment Coordination Conference which wasperceived as an organization whose goalwas to reduce the subregion’s dependenceon apartheid South Africa. SADC seeksgreater coordination of external tariffs andthe promotion of the free movement of cap-ital and labour. It also has an interest in set-

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ting up regional infrastructure authoritiesand a development bank.

SACU was only established in its pre-sent form in 1969, but it stems directlyfrom the 1910 agreement between SouthAfrica and the three British High Com-mission Territories of Basutoland (nowLesotho), Bechuanaland (now Botswana)and Swaziland.

The East African zone remained ratherdormant for much of the period followingthe demise of the East African Communityin 1977. On 22 November 1991, the threeEast African presidents met in Nairobi andagreed to reactivate and deepen coopera-tion between the three countries (Kenya,Uganda and the United Republic of Tan-zania). At the second tripartite summit onEast African Cooperation (EAC) in Kam-pala in November 1993, a protocol wassigned establishing the secretariat of thePermanent Tripartite Commission for EastAfrican Cooperation in Arusha, Tanzania.Since the signing of the Treaty for the Es-tablishment of the East African Commu-nity in 2000, the Commission has beentransformed into the East African Com-munity.

The Inter-Governmental Authority onDevelopment (IGAD), grouping togetherEritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, the Sudan, theUnited Republic of Tanzania and Uganda,is another IGO. On 18 April 1995, anextraordinary summit of IGAD Heads ofState and Government decided to launcha new initiative involving the revitaliza-tion and restructuring of IGAD as an in-strument for expanded cooperation andsubregional economic integration amongIGAD member States.

Other groupings in the same subregionare the Kagera Basin Organization (KBO),and the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC)consisting of Mauritius, Madagascar, theComoros and Seychelles. The IOC recentlyestablished its secretariat in QuatreBornes, Mauritius. In addition, in early1995, the possibility of building a platformfor regional cooperation in the wider In-dian rim was initiated. Australia, India,Kenya, Mauritius, Oman, Singapore andSouth Africa all participated in a meeting

clearing the ground for future cooperationin the region which led to the creation ofthe Indian Ocean Rim Initiative (IORI).Areas of cooperation were identified. Theyinclude trade facilitation, trade and in-vestment promotion and cooperation inthe fields of science and technology andhuman resource development.

In North Africa, the Arab MaghrebUnion (AMU), consisting of Algeria, theLibyan Arab Jamahiriya, Mauritania, Mo-rocco and Tunisia, is one of the oldest sub-regional cooperation bodies in Africa. AMaghreb Common Market and CustomsUnion was to enter into force as of 1995.Progress has been rather slow, however, asthere are still a number of tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade. There are differ-ences in economic models as well as lackof coordinated political decisions (e.g. dur-ing the Gulf War). The countries of the sub-region import their oil from the UnitedArab Emirates rather than from Algeria orthe Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (which inci-dentally produce about three-quarters ofthe subregion’s oil requirements).

In Central Africa, intra-subregionaltrade among Central African States is stillminimal. The treaty establishing the Uniondouanière des Etats de l’Afrique centrale(UDEAC) was signed in 1964. The Com-munauté économique des Etats de l’Afriquecentrale (CEEAC), based in Libreville, andUDEAC have separately embarked on co-operation in the areas of food and agricul-ture, industry, transport and communica-tion. The third economic grouping – thecommunauté économique des pays des GrandLacs (CEPGL), consisting of Rwanda, Bu-rundi and the Democratic Republic of theCongo, is inactive.

Achievements and constraintsof integration

Despite the existence of these regionalgroupings, the African region remainsbeset by weak cross-border economiclinks. Nonetheless, there is ambiguousempirical evidence on the achievements ofregional integration efforts in Africa.

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While there have been improvements inintra-regional trade flows, very littleprogress has been made towards inte-grated infrastructure development de-spite the potential for very high benefits.

Numerous problems have continued toimpede the progress of regional integra-tion in Africa. The production structuresof most African countries are the same andhence exportable products tend to be com-petitive rather than complementary. Inad-equate transport and communication havepartly contributed to the disjointed natureof African economies and severely re-stricted the movement of goods, personsand capital. In addition, the lack of cur-rency convertibility, the continued exis-tence of tariff and non-tariff barriers, a fearof losing out to more developed memberState(s) of subregional groupings, and dif-ferences among political leaders have re-mained obstacles to closer integrationthroughout the continent.

Regional integration:Trade union structures

There is almost a one-to-one transpositionof trade unions alongside the creation of aregional integration process in Africa. Insouthern Africa, the Southern AfricanTrade Union Coordination Council(SATUCC) was formed in March 1993 atits inaugural congress held in Gaborone,Botswana. With 12 affiliates, SATUCCcampaigns for the development of strong,independent and self-reliant nationaltrade union centres across the subregion.

In November 1991, SATUCC adoptedthe Social Charter of Fundamental Rightsof Workers in Southern Africa. The char-ter is a solemn declaration and lays downthe broad principles of a model southernAfrican labour law and, more generally,the place of the worker in society. In March1992, the Southern African Labour Coun-cil (SALC), a tripartite structure, adoptedthe Social Charter.

In East Africa, the East African TradeUnion Council (EATUC) is an umbrella or-ganization bringing together the national

trade union centres within the East AfricaCommunity member States: Kenya,Uganda and the United Republic of Tanza-nia. EATUC was established in 1988 and iscurrently composed of the Central Organ-ization of Trade Unions (Kenya), the Na-tional Organization of Trade Unions(Uganda), and the Tanzania Federation ofFree Trade Unions. The EATUC’s broad ob-jective is to integrate workers’ interests andefforts in the East African region with aview to developing a common approach to-wards enhancing social and economic jus-tice, through the participation of workers’organizations at every level of regional in-tegration. The organization is also aimingto promote cooperation among workers inEast Africa through the joint developmentof workers’ education programmes, re-search activities and integration of the gen-der dimension in trade union work.

As a regional workers’ body, EATUC isinstrumental in ensuring that the EastAfrican Community involves labour in allissues regarding regional integration, in-stitutes tripartism as a method of work,promotes the ratification of internationallabour standards by the member Statesand the harmonization of labour laws andpolicies in East Africa, and encourages theconcept of free movement of the factors ofproduction in the region. In addition, theEATUC has also adopted an extended listof objectives such as the elimination ofhunger through food security, the creationof productive employment, and the pro-motion of conflict resolution in East Africa.

In West Africa, despite its revitalizationin 1999, the Organization of Trade Unionsof West Africa (OTUWA) currently has nomajor activities. In Central Africa, the sub-regional trade union body, Organization destravailleurs de l’Afrique centrale (OTAC), stillhas a long way to go. In North Africa, theUnion des syndicats des travailleurs duMaghreb arabe (USTMA) brings togethertrade union federations in the subregion.On 1 May 1991, USTMA issued a Charterof Fundamental Social Rights of Workersin the Maghreb. The charter welcomed thecreation of the AMU and emphasized theneed to make the social dimensions part of

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integration efforts. There is also the Inter-national Confederation of Arab TradeUnions (ICATU) which groups trade unioncentres from the Arab world.

Union responses to integration

Many countries in Africa, as is the case inother parts of the world, are taking greaterinterest in regional economic integrationand have developed programmes for thepromotion of this cause. Workers’ organ-izations, for their part, have not draggedtheir feet in supporting the emergence andstrengthening of regional integration. Infact, trade unions are on record as havingcalled for increased government efforts tobring about faster regional economic inte-gration. Trade unions have been reliablepartners in various activities of such econ-omic and social interest groups.

Of concern to the trade union organ-izations is the fact that the resultingregional integration agreements havemainly concentrated on capital and nat-ural resource mobilization and havetended to ignore the critical role of humanresource mobilization and other social as-pects. Trade unions have reiterated that,for integration to be successful, the stake-holders, of whom workers and their orga-nizations are a major component, must beinvolved in the design process, decision-making machineries and implementationof all programmes and project activities.Social aspects such as poverty eradication,human and trade union rights, the creationof decent jobs and the observance of inter-national labour standards, should alwaysbe among the main priorities.

A further challenge to trade unions isthe fact that modern industrial relationssystems in most countries have primarilyinvolved the national arena, with employ-ment regulation rooted in agreements be-tween national unions and employers’ or-ganizations, and legislation enacted by thenational States.

The liberalization of internationaltrade, the globalization of financial mar-kets and the growing importance of multi-

national companies appear to threatensuch nationally based systems. The emer-gence of regional labour markets (the EastAfrican Community, for instance) impliesthat key decisions affecting nationallabour markets are taken outside the coun-try concerned. Cross-national compar-isons of labour costs affect national com-petitiveness and also shape corporateinvestment decisions; this jeopardizes theconduct of national collective bargaining.The stability of national currencies seemsto require that governments adopt defla-tionary economic policies, often againstthe interests of labour.

Pessimists argue that internationaliza-tion completely undermines the effective-ness of trade unions. More cautious ana-lysts suggest that, at the very least, theirroom for manoeuvre has become muchnarrower than in the past. The implica-tion is that the unions must strengthentheir own international organizations inresponse.

Consequently, trade unions are calledto play a more active role in achieving asocial dimension of globalization and re-gional integration. In addition to cam-paigning for their right to be consulted,they are instituting mechanisms tostrengthen subregional workers’ organ-izations through which they can presenttheir views. The formulation of social char-ters of fundamental workers’ rights andtheir incorporation and adoption by the re-spective regional groupings call for stepsto be taken towards ensuring that humanand trade union rights are enshrined andrespected.

The trade union position is that presentefforts to foster economic cooperation andregional integration are doomed to fail ifthey continue to focus on the narrow areasof international trade and customs union.Although the current schemes of regionalintegration address broad issues such asresource mobilization, they have generallyoveremphasized capital and natural re-source mobilization, and have tended toignore the critical role of human resourcemobilization in regional economic inte-gration efforts.

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Conclusions: Getting integration right

Despite the constraints on effective regionalintegration, many advisers and researchersin Africa suggest that the need for regionalintegration still exists and may even bemore pressing now that market fragmenta-tion – which remains a problem in Africa –is being eliminated in other parts of theworld and as capital mobility continues torise. It is important to emphasize that re-gional integration cannot properly succeedin the absence of a sense of belonging andidentity of those most affected within theproposed community of countries.

In order for trade unions to benefitfrom regional economic integration, theyshould increase their role by ensuring that:� they are involved in the design stages

of any regional integration effort anddemand of their governments the rightto be involved and consulted, togetherwith other stakeholders, on all mattersof regional concern;

� labour and other social issues take cen-tre stage, as there cannot be any econ-omic development devoid of a socialdimension;

� they form or revitalize subregionaltrade union organizations in parallel to

the subregional economic groups, en-abling them to mobilize their member-ship and lobby effectively;

� subregional trade union organizationsformulate social charters of fundamen-tal workers’ rights in Africa akin tothose of SATUCC and USTMA and en-sure that they are adopted by the re-spective economic grouping;

� together with other stakeholders, theyspearhead civil education on the at-tributes of regional integration in orderto enhance everybody’s participation;and

� they continue drawing attention toareas of violations of human and tradeunion rights.

Regional integration is not just aneconomic issue but is a process of com-munity-building or social construction,not limited to the expansion of regionaltrade. It requires a holistic and multi-dimensional approach and should acquirecredibility and identity of purpose. Tradeunions have a major role to play in ensur-ing that the process is given a social di-mension and that it obtains legitimity.These two elements have been sorely lack-ing so far.

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One direct consequence of globaliza-tion is the surprisingly extensive

growth of the informal economy in Africa.The informal economy – an offshoot of this“parallel”, multiform “economy” – has de-veloped alongside conventional sectors ofthe economy as a kind of negative imageof the modern sector. The informal sectorhas long been a tradition in African coun-tries, especially in rural areas. One exam-ple would be seasonal workers. Followingthe implementation of structural adjust-ment programmes (SAPs) during thecrises in the 1970s and 1980s, the phenom-enon invaded the continent’s towns andcities at an exponential rate. Since thattime, globalization and capital develop-ment have been grounded in policies fo-cusing on liberalization and deregulation.Such policies sought to dismantle mecha-nisms used by governments as a means ofstaving off crises (anti-cyclical policies)and to transfer the key components ofeconomic, social, cultural and even politi-cal power to the market under the pretextof ensuring greater efficiency. As the mar-ket is not egalitarian, this policy mainlyfavoured the differences in terms of tradebetween the developed and developingcountries.

Today, entire regions have been side-lined from the global economy (sub-Saharan Africa, southern Asia, the MiddleEast, North Africa, etc.). Flows of capital

focus on the “triad”, i.e. the United States,the European Union and Japan. In fact,globalization is having a catastrophic im-pact on the economy and especially on em-ployment in the majority of countries inthe South. The frantic quest for competi-tiveness is leading to ever-increasing re-dundancies and wage cuts, while the econ-omic fabric of the formal sector of theeconomy – public and private – is deteri-orating dangerously. Financial and econ-omic crises have followed one after theother at an increasing pace since the 1970s,further aggravating the employment situ-ation and pushing a large number of work-ers into the informal economy. The inter-national crises experienced today areaccentuating this trend, causing a slow-down in the global economy and forcingthe major powers to withdraw into them-selves.

Explosion of the informal sectorin sub-Saharan Africa

The informal economy has spread consid-erably in sub-Saharan Africa, explodingover the last decade. The economic re-forms pursued by governments in theregion in a bid to cope with foreign debt andbudget deficits have included measuresdesigned to streamline public expendi-ture, cut government subsidies to public

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The challenge of the informal economyThe exponential growth of the informal economy in sub-SaharanAfrica is both a challenge to trade unions and an opportunity for theirrevival. A project backed by the International Labour Office (ILO) hasshown that it is possible to organize workers in this sector.

Emile DelvauxChief Technical Adviser

“Trade Unions and the Informal Sector” ProjectBureau for Workers’ Activities

ILO

companies and privatize state-ownedcompanies. This has prompted a dramaticcut in the number of wage-earning jobs inboth the public and private sectors. InBurkina Faso, for instance, civil serviceposts, which accounted for 54 per cent ofjobs in the modern sector in 1975, plum-meted to a level of 33 per cent in 1985 andthen 24 per cent in 1993 – and the situationthere is continuing to deteriorate.

Apart from these direct causes of theemployment crisis in the formal sector,there are also more remote causes linkedto stagnation in the private sector and thelow level of entrepreneurship in thesecountries (faulty management of largeproduction units, lack of support for smalland medium-sized businesses, too mucheconomic dependence on the developedcountries, lagging technological develop-ment, low standards of living and con-sumption, small domestic markets, and soforth), not to mention inadequate techni-cal and vocational qualifications amongthe workforce, which is in turn leading toa deterioration in the supply of education.All this has blocked the rapid develop-ment of a competitive private sector thatis capable of standing in for the public sec-tor in its role as a creator of modern jobs.

While the number of jobs in the privateand public sectors was falling, growingnumbers of young people were enteringthe labour market – especially in the townsand cities – due to the rural exodus and de-mographic growth. The emergence of aninformal economy is also the result ofstructural causes, such as the failure of “of-ficial” commercial logistics, especially indistribution, and the low capacity for im-porting the latest products for which thereis a high level of demand. To this shouldbe added the corruption of and actionstaken by certain “decision-makers”, whohave had no hesitation in sabotaging localindustrial projects in order to give prefer-ence to much more lucrative informal im-ports – all within a context of persistentcivil wars and unstable government.

Accordingly, the informal economy hasflourished in most countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Today it accounts for nearly

80 per cent of urban assets in Burkina Faso.In the Niger, it accounts for between 70 and80 per cent of commercial GDP and in 1988accounted for nearly 60 per cent of non-agricultural employment. In that country,the informal economy’s contribution toGDP rose by a factor of three between 1960and 1997, whereas the contribution madeby the modern sector halved over the sameperiod.

The predominance of the informaleconomy is a common feature of BurkinaFaso, Mali, the Niger and Senegal. Thereare, however, differences from one coun-try to the other. In Mali, the majority ofpeople working in the informal economyare women (59 per cent), while in the Nigerwomen make up just 27.6 per cent of theinformal workforce. In 1991, in Senegal theinformal economy accounted for 58.7 percent of the active urban population, com-pared to 17.8 per cent for the modern sec-tor. Three out of five businesses in the in-formal economy had just one employee.

Towards a social catastrophe?

Despite the shortage of reliable statisticaldata, it is estimated that the informal econ-omy absorbs around 60 per cent of urbanlabour in sub-Saharan Africa. Accordingto a study conducted by the InternationalLabour Office, 93 per cent of the urban jobscreated during the current decade will bein the informal economy. The process ofglobalization, in its current form, seemsunlikely to provide opportunities for turn-ing this trend around.

However, the much vaunted merits ofthe informal economy, specifically its sup-posedly “stabilizing” role, are increasinglybeing challenged. Some people are evenquestioning its long-term viability.

According to World Bank estimates,employment in micro-businesses in sub-Saharan Africa should rise by an averageof 6 to 7.5 per cent annually over the next20 years. During the same period, the in-formal economy’s contribution to the GNPof the countries in question could reach 35per cent, while the annual increase in

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labour productivity in this sector is set tostagnate at 1.5 per cent.

This kind of outlook raises a series of ur-gent economic, social and political prob-lems, in that the foreseeable rise in unem-ployment and poverty poses a serious threatto democracy and the future economic sta-bility of these countries. In fact, we are ona collision course for economic and socialdisaster. The deterioration of employmentis likely to weaken productivity and tragi-cally increase the wage gap between theformal and informal sectors. Moreover,precarious employment, unfavourableworking conditions, the lack of and igno-rance about social welfare and health caremeasures, and the absence of any collectiveorganization of labour are all factors whichare blocking the growth and competitive-ness of the informal economy and couldencourage the continued survival ofabuses and discriminatory policies target-ing workers in this sector. Lastly, political,religious and ideological pressure on eco-nomically and socially fragile groups canlead to humanitarian crises and civil wars.

Since 1972, the International LabourOffice (ILO) has had to intervene in coun-tries in this part of the world in order toprovide support and advice on policiesand actions aimed at boosting the perfor-mance and organization of the informaleconomy. Several projects have been pur-sued, for example, to help craftsmen in anumber of French- and English-speakingAfrican countries.

However, in the absence of a favourablemacroeconomic environment, all these ac-tions will remain limited. Back at the 78thSession of the International Labour Con-ference in 1991, the ILO emphasized theneed to integrate informal economies intonational economies. Implementing thiskind of strategy will, by definition, meanadopting or bolstering economic, fiscaland social policies that encourage changesin the informal sector. One of the best waysof achieving this objective is to give work-ers in the informal economy an organiza-tional and institutional framework en-abling them to become credible dialoguepartners with decision-makers.

Due to their vocation, the trade unionswould seem to be the ideal partners inhelping to define and create just such aframework. This would judiciously in-crease the institutional, economic and so-cial impact of trade union organizationsand workers in the informal economy.

It is within this context, and with thesekey objectives in mind, that the “Tradeunions and the informal sector” projectwas devised by the ILO’s Bureau for Work-ers’ Activities (ACTRAV) and the DanishInternational Development Agency(Danida). Implemented from June 1998 toAugust 2001, the project focused on fourFrench-speaking countries in West Africa:Burkina Faso, Mali, the Niger and Senegal.

To date, it is patently obvious that inthese four countries trade union organiza-tions do not yet have the institutional ca-pacity to defend the interests of workersin the informal economy. On the one handthere are historical reasons for this, sinceunions in these countries have tradition-ally focused exclusively on workers andcivil servants in the modern sector.

Nevertheless, some confederationshad already been working with certain oc-cupations in the informal economy for sev-eral years and could approach these work-ers. Yet they only rarely defended thespecific interests of these workers but in-cluded them in the demands and generalagreements covering the modern sector.These experiences, however, show that theunionization of workers in the informaleconomy is an achievable goal, and that itcan have mutual benefits for workers andunions alike. It allows the former to im-prove their standard of living, workingconditions and social protection, and thelatter to bolster their negotiating power asa force that truly represents the interests ofall workers nationally.

This kind of approach entails the orga-nizational and structural transformationof trade unions and the political determi-nation to include the various occupationsfound in the informal economy. In fact,the aim is to return to the very first formsof worker organization and to find a wayof getting workers from the informal

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economy and workers from the modernsector to cohabit within the same organi-zations, leaving behind the corporatismand certain protectionist attitudes whichotherwise threaten to paralyse trade unionorganizations up against the explosion inthe informal economy. Opening up to in-clude female trade unionists is also a pre-condition for the structural developmentof unions, since women form the majorityof those working in the informal economy.

Given the diverse trade union land-scape in these four countries, the “tradeunions and the informal sector” projectaimed to support the efforts of 14 nationalunion organizations, four in Burkina Faso,two in Mali, two in the Niger and six inSenegal.

The project faced two challenges. Thefirst challenge was to promote the solidar-ity and organization of workers in the in-formal economy so that they can establisheffective institutions collectively to defendtheir interests and be recognized as validdialogue partners by the decision-makers.The second challenge was to encouragethe trade union organizations to bolstertheir operational resources and train theirtechnical officers to diagnose the problemsand needs of players in the informal econ-omy. A participatory approach was se-lected with a view to achieving these twoobjectives.

To limit the scope of the project to itsown human and financial resources, fiveprofessions or occupations in four regionswere selected per country for the pilot pro-ject (there are some 250 different occupa-tions in the informal economy in thesecountries). More than 2,000 facilitators, amajority of whom were women, weretrained by trade unionists during theproject.

These trade union facilitators weretransformed into veritable on-site devel-opment officers. In this way, they helpedwith the creation of professional associa-tions, the creation of mutual benefit soci-eties and cooperatives, and the establish-ment of micro-credit funds. All in all, some43 new professional structures were cre-ated in Burkina Faso, 14 trade union fed-

erations and credit funds were set up inMali, 18 new trade union structures of fed-erated occupations were established in theNiger, and four cooperatives and four mu-tual societies have seen the light of day inSenegal.

The recruitment and unionization ofworkers in the informal economy was sup-ported by a campaign to raise awarenessabout health protection at work and acci-dent prevention. A parallel informationcampaign on sexually transmissible dis-eases and HIV/AIDS was also carried out.During the period in question, the major-ity of trade union organizations were re-structuring in order to take in workersfrom the informal economy according totheir profession and region. A special ef-fort was made to give women a represen-tative place in these new structures.

Conclusions

The pilot project initiated by ACTRAV andDanida could not encompass the entire re-ality of the informal economy in the fourcountries in question, but it did achievesome major progress, including:

� raising awareness of union organiza-tions involved in the project countriesto the need to organize and unionizeworkers in the informal economy;

� an undertaking by union organizationsto henceforth take account of the con-cerns of such workers by setting up,within their own organizations, secre-tariats and/or departments respons-ible for issues concerning the informaleconomy;

� improving relations between tradeunion organizations in a given country;

� bolstering the capacities and skills oftrade union organizations by trainingfacilitators;

� arousing the awareness and enthusi-asm of workers in the informal econ-omy about their rights and freedoms,and the ability to exploit their potentialoffered by the informal economy;

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� creating unions and associations ofworkers in the informal economy andthe establishment of mutual benefit so-cieties in the health sector, social wel-fare institutions, savings and credit in-stitutions, and various cooperativesmanaged and run by workers from theinformal economy;

� the enlargement of structures in thetrade union movement in the countriesparticipating in the project and the en-trance of women into the trade unionstructures of the informal economy;

� the change of attitude and mentality onthe part of the public authorities, whichhenceforth undertake in several coun-tries to give favourable consideration tothe concerns of workers in the informaleconomy, such concerns being broughtto their attention by trade union organ-izations and by the new trade unionstructures in the informal economy.

These achievements during the pilotphase easily fall within the project objec-tives, i.e. helping workers in the informaleconomy to organize into representativestructures capable of defending their ma-terial and moral interests, while ensuringa better standard of living and workingconditions in their sector of activity.

However, there is no circumventing thefact that, for the time being, the tradeunions and the newly created structures inthe informal economy lack both the sizeand resources to consistently defend thematerial and moral interests of their mem-bers. Measures aimed at consolidation, ex-tension and financing have to be taken to

ensure the continued development ofthese still fragile organizations in the in-formal economy.

However, these few shortcomingsshould not make us lose sight of the veryreal existence of these trade unions and as-sociations in the informal economy. Afterall, this is a key achievement and consti-tutes a framework for solidarity and mu-tual assistance serving workers in the in-formal economy, which itself entails thecertainty of a revival of the labour move-ment in the four countries in question. Thedecline of trade union membership andthe difficulties they face in representing allof a country’s productive forces can beturned around thanks to the determinedsupport of workers from the informaleconomy.

This will totally change the trade unionlandscape in these countries, breathe newlife into democratic values and revive so-cial consultation based on the renewed po-tential of unionism. Proof of this has al-ready been seen in the internal changeswithin the respective union organizations,the transformation of professional associ-ations in the informal economy into tradeunions, and the renewed determination ofgovernments to look into the reality of theinformal economy.

On 1 May 2001 in Ouagadougou, Burk-ina Faso, all the informal economy associ-ations paraded alongside the trade unionsand expressed common demands to theGovernment in a show of mutual aware-ness on the part of workers in both themodern sector and the informal economyof their shared interests in dealing with theglobalization of the economy.

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In their first decade after gaining politi-cal independence, many African coun-

tries recorded relatively impressive econ-omic indicators. However, the era of theneed to adopt structural adjustment andeconomic stabilization programmesemerged in the early 1970s when the con-tinent was hard hit by the quadrupling ofthe oil price in 1973. The 1973 “oil shock”generated an abnormally large current ac-count deficit and reduced the rate of GDPgrowth. To many analysts, this crisis hasbeen referred to as structural, althoughthere are many causes (both internal andexternal) which contributed to the situa-tion. The external factors – including re-peated droughts, declining trade termsand the growing debt burden – have hada significant impact. Internal factors aris-ing from inappropriate policies, institu-tional weaknesses, administrative short-comings, and political instability have alsoplayed a major role.

What are structural adjustmentprogrammes (SAPs)?

Structural adjustment programmes (SAPs)consist of reform policies that combineshort-term stabilization measures withlonger-term adjustment measures. Whenand how such policies are implemented de-pends on the way the structural problems

of a particular country have been perceived.Implementation could be sequential orsimultaneous.

Adjustment in most economies wasnecessary. Overspending was common,the civil services were often bloated, biggovernment was the order of the day andthere was unnecessary red tape. Usually,the first steps have involved “stabilizing”the economy through fiscal, monetary,wage and exchange rate policies. Owingto their difficulties, most African countrieshave been compelled to seek support fromthe Bretton Woods institutions, which arebehind the creation of SAPs. SAPs entailfreeing the markets of all “distortions” andtherefore letting supply and demandforces take control. Diagnosing a country’sstructural problems usually brought to thefore weaknesses in the macroeconomic pa-rameters, mainly balance of paymentsdeficits, high inflation, budget deficits andlow or negative growth rates. Stabilizationmeasures were therefore seen as the magicpill. The social component was almost al-ways ignored as it was assumed that aslong as there was stability, other thingswould be corrected automatically.

SAPs involved limiting the growth ofgovernment budget deficit to levels thatcan be sustained by foreign and non-inflationary domestic financing, budgetrationalization through containing publicsector employment, liberalization of

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A new approach to adjustmentAfrica enters the twenty-first century comprising some of the world’spoorest countries. Average per capita income is lower than at theend of the 1960s, making poverty widespread and severe. In sub-Saharan Africa, 52 per cent of people live on less than US$1 a day.A turnaround is required if Africa is to take the path towards growthand development.

Lawrence EguluSenior Economist

African Regional OrganizationInternational Confederation of Free Trade Unions

labour, money and capital markets, andmaintenance of an appropriate exchange-rate policy. These objectives normally en-tailed price reforms, removal of subsidies,foreign exchange and internal and exter-nal trade liberalization, introduction of“cost-sharing” for government-suppliedservices, privatization, restructuring ofgovernment institutions, and legal re-forms aimed at providing an “enablingenvironment”.

The effects of adjustment policies

The experience with SAPs in the 1980s inmany countries has been mixed. Theimplementation of SAPs in some countriesin Africa has brought to the fore importantissues which were not well articulated atthe beginning of the programmes. Whilein some countries the success of these pro-grammes in terms of positive economicgrowth has been reported, importantissues pertaining to the social dimensionsof adjustment have made many peopleconcerned about the “true” benefits ofthe SAPs in relation to the welfare of themajority of the people. For instance, inZambia in 1987 and in Algeria in 1988, theimplementation of adjustment and liber-alization policies caused political unrest.A recent report – entitled Can Africa Claimthe 21st Century? – suggests, however, thatwhere countries such as Mozambique andGhana have made key economic reforms– liberalizing markets and trade, improv-ing economic management and promotingprivate sector activity – growth and per-sonal incomes have risen and povertyhas declined. Uganda, the United Repub-lic of Tanzania, Mauritius, Côte d’Ivoireand Mali have also been cited for certainpositive aspects.

Yet, SAPs have led many countries intothe debt trap, with debts continuing tosoak up a major portion of the least devel-oped countries’ budgets. Poor countrieshave been compelled to adhere to the con-ditionalities imposed by the internationalfinancial institutions (IFIs). This has oftenled to more financial haemorrhage from

poor countries to rich countries. The mas-sive debts contracted by African coun-tries have created a fiscal crisis that hasnegatively affected the continent’s econ-omic growth and threatened the sustain-ability of reforms. Moreover, huge ex-ternal debt stocks have deterred invest-ment, encouraged capital flight andseriously undermined economic growthand employment.

Besides, the IFIs’ paternalistic approachalienated other stakeholders since theychose to deal with central banks, heads ofstate and senior officials at the financeministries. The conditionalities had anumber of “moving targets” whose pri-mary focus was not on attacking povertyat the design stages. No wonder manyAfrican governments have failed in thepast to meet such adjustment and reformconditionalities, especially macroeco-nomic targets set by the World Bank andthe IMF – indeed, in recent years three outof four ESAF programmes (EnhancedStructural Adjustment Facility) have bro-ken down because their conditions weretoo tough to be met. Important parametersdetermining the effectiveness of the pro-grammes – such as how many jobs wouldbe created, the question of internal corrupttendencies, governance issues, account-ability and the effects of adjustment onfundamental human rights – were largelyignored.

Developing countries were under in-creasing pressure to offer incentives inorder to attract investments, leading tolowering of labour standards, as is thecase in Africa’s export processing zones(EPZs), and resulting in a destructive raceto the bottom. In the end the beneficiarieshave been foreign investors, further com-promising African countries’ national sov-ereignty. Besides, African countries havelimited exportable products as they aremainly producers of primary commodi-ties that are particularly vulnerable tolarge price swings. The focus on open mar-ket policies has not produced many posi-tive returns, as African countries still donot have sufficient access to internationalmarkets.

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A trade union approach to adjustment

The general objective of trade unions – todefend and improve the living standardsof their members – has been made in-creasingly difficult by structural adjust-ment programmes. Of particular impor-tance has been the degeneration of livingstandards, job loss and economic recession– caused by the massive devaluation of na-tional currencies, reduced public spendingand higher external debt payments –which have led to declining trade unionmembership. Some governments have ar-gued that social adjustments needed aflexible labour market and have gone tothe extent of rewriting labour laws. Insome countries, the World Bank is onrecord as providing “assistance” to effectchanges in the labour law, without con-sulting the International Labour Organi-zation or the ministries responsible forlabour, social dialogue and human devel-opment issues.

According to the International Confed-eration of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), theimpact of the economic reforms goes be-yond macroeconomic factors. A recentICFTU publication summed up the moodas follows: “The Bretton Woods institu-tions are not solely responsible for the fail-ure to fulfil their stated mandates to reduceworld poverty, promote human develop-ment, or assure international financial sta-bility, but they can make no claim of hav-ing achieved a system of economic justicein which the entire world community canparticipate.” Economic reforms have to in-corporate democracy and equity into ad-justment and development. Trade unionsshould therefore be involved in theprocess of developing and implementingSAPs so as to build in the social develop-ment aspects and to make sure that short-term economic gains are not regarded asmore important than long-term social andsustainable economic development.

The policy of the ICFTU has been to en-sure that the international financial insti-tutions and African governments listen tothe views of trade unions. On this front,the ICFTU has held meetings with the

World Bank and the IMF, in both the in-ternational and national arenas. SeveralInternational Trade Secretariats (ITS) andICFTU-affiliated African unions havetaken part in these meetings. The WorldBank, in its World Development Report 1995,reiterated that “…free trade unions are acornerstone of any effective system of in-dustrial relations … can help raise work-place productivity to reduce workplacediscrimination … have contributed totheir countries’ political development …”.The International Monetary Fund (IMF)has also expressed concern about the so-cial dimension of SAPs and demonstratedwillingness to meet and discuss its policieswith trade unions.

In order to support trade unions indealing with SAPs, the ICFTU adopteddialogue as the best option towards ef-fecting change in the policies of the Bret-ton Woods institutions. Several regionaland national conferences and meetings onthe subject of economic reforms have beenorganized. These forums had a major im-pact at both national and international lev-els in terms of impressing upon govern-ments, the IMF and the World Bank theneed to introduce a social dimension intotheir programmes.

People-centred development:The core for adjustment

Social dialogue is necessary to build con-sensus over national social and economicdevelopment goals and means of action.There have been calls for the institutional-ization of high-level national stakeholderstructures in which major economic andsocial policy issues are articulated and de-cisions arrived at through consensus anddialogue. Such structures could be instru-mental in checking the excesses of corrup-tion, the allocation of tenders, nepotism,and so on. The experience of the NationalEconomic Development and Labour Ad-visory Council (NEDLAC) of South Africacould be exploited (see the article byOmano Edigheji and Karl Gostner inLabour Education No. 120/2000).

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Social development should be pursuedsimultaneously with economic growth.Sound macroeconomic policies are crucialfor sustaining high per capita growth ratesbecause they increase national savings andinvestment rates and reduce high rates ofinflation and financial instability. Econ-omic growth is an important prerequisitefor development. But too often it has beenpursued by the blunt tools of austerity. Themost successful countries will be thosewith institutions that are able to balanceand rebalance constantly the market pres-sures for flexibility and dynamism withthe social pressures for security and dig-nity. The Copenhagen Declaration on So-cial Development and the Action Pro-gramme of the World Summit for SocialDevelopment, which established a newconsensus and pledged to eradicatepoverty, promote full and productive em-ployment, and foster social integration toachieve stable, safe and just societies,should be pursued by all.

Efforts to build productive capacity inAfrican countries should be underpinnedby strong employment and labour marketpolicies with investments in employment-intensive sectors such as agriculture andinfrastructure development and by sup-port measures for enterprise develop-ment. Development of infrastructure is es-sential for enhancing productive assets,expanding markets, and attracting foreigndirect investment (FDI). A structurally di-versified economy is important because itwill generate higher levels of income andwill be better able to withstand externalshocks such as droughts, floods and shiftsin the terms of trade. As a result, thechances of breaking out of poverty aregreater.

The international community shouldhave the political will to write off or sub-stantially reduce foreign debt. An over-haul of the Highly-Indebted Poor Coun-tries Initiative (HIPC) is needed, with theaim of quickly making debt relief availableand increasing the number of countrieseligible for such relief. In this respect, theconditionalities for sound macroeconomicfundamentals as required by the Bretton

Woods institutions in the HIPC initiativeneed to be relaxed if the goal of poverty re-duction is to be achieved. Effective do-mestic resource mobilization is also neces-sary for economic growth and povertyreduction. The goal of closing the savingsgap requires a range of action, includingmeasures to stem capital flight and to at-tract savings held overseas back to Africancountries. These in turn require reforms toincrease the returns on domestic invest-ment and reduce risks.

Growth with redistribution should bepursued. Development requires not onlyeconomic activity but also a reduction inthe inequality in the distribution of wealthand more equitable distribution of the ben-efits of economic growth within andamong nations. More resources should beused for social expenditure on education,health, water provision and housing. Thedevelopment of long-term infrastructurelike roads and telephone facilities is an-other positive move. Military spendingshould be curbed to a minimum, while atthe same time the international commu-nity should take part in the peaceful reso-lution of the many serious internal and in-ternational conflicts.

HIV/AIDS is now considered “themost formidable development challengeof our time”. HIV/AIDS is found every-where in the world, but the hardest hit re-gion is sub-Saharan Africa. Africa is hometo 70 per cent of adults and 80 per cent ofchildren living with HIV, and to three-quarters of the people worldwide whohave died of AIDS since the epidemicbegan. In 2000, an estimated 3.8 millionpeople became infected with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa and 2.4 million peopledied. What sets HIV/AIDS apart is its im-pact on development. It undermines fiveof the foundations of development,namely economic growth, good gover-nance, development of human capital, theinvestment climate and labour productiv-ity. Deliberate actions should be taken totarget awareness campaigns to eliminatethe disease; fight the culture of denial ofHIV/AIDS; campaign for the provision oflow-cost life-saving drugs; and approach

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UN institutions such as the ILO, WTO,WIPO and UNAIDS to urge them to com-mit more resources to programmes relatedto fighting HIV/AIDS (see also the articleby Jacky Delorme, p. 28).

African countries need to make maxi-mum use of regional economic integrationin order to escape from economic isolation,expand their markets and sustain exportdevelopment. Regional integration is oneway to help these countries diversify theireconomies and reverse deindustrializa-tion and marginalization. Regional inte-gration also induces backward and for-ward links and thus contributes toregional value added. More importantly,regional integration promotes diversifica-tion and exports to regional markets thatbuild experience before entering globalmarkets. An integrated market also pro-vides a framework for African countries tocooperate in developing a common infra-structure – such as in financial services,transport and communications – andmechanisms for the joint exploitation ofnatural resources. The limited size of themarket in most African countries meansthat African countries could greatly raisetheir growth prospects by increased intra-regional trade. Access to markets in theNorth should be guaranteed just as thereis need for more effective internationalmechanisms to stabilize prices and to com-pensate African countries in the event ofsudden falls in the value of exports.

The maintenance of peace and securitywithin and among nations, democracy, therule of law, the promotion and protectionof all human rights and fundamental free-doms, including the rights to develop-ment, effective, transparent and account-able governance, gender equality, fullrespect for fundamental principles andrights at work and the rights of migrantworkers are some of the essential com-ponents in effecting social and people-

centred development. Africa needs to takeserious steps to eliminate crony capital-ism, corruption, monopolies and unsus-tainable investments.

Conclusions

A turnaround is required in the “Wash-ington-Consensus” if Africa is to take thepath towards growth and development.Structural adjustment programmes mustincorporate the principles of transparency,consultation, adequate levels of socialspending, good governance and respons-ible financial management. An active in-volvement of civil society, including tradeunions, in the elaboration, implementa-tion and evaluation of more socially ori-ented and long-term policies is a necessaryfirst step. Such policies should includeanti-poverty programmes and address is-sues like primary education and healthcare, gender equality, social protection, fullemployment, sound industrial relations,and respect for core labour standards.

Ideally, Africans should devise theirown solutions to their own problems. Inrecent years, consensus has emerged onthe essential elements needed to increasegrowth and couple it with policies thatspecifically seek to alleviate poverty. InAfrica today, accelerated economic perfor-mance requires both the better use of ex-isting resources and increased investment.Specifically, macroeconomic reform mustcontinue, particularly efforts to restructurepublic finance and to open up economiesto trade and private investment. Butgrowth will not be sustained unless un-derpinned by investments in human andsocial infrastructure, in particular in therural areas and mindful of the needs ofwomen in Africa. The capacity of Africangovernments to manage their economieseffectively must be enhanced.

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Everyone must be convinced that devel-opment is impossible unless we have

genuine democracy, respect for humanrights, peace and good governance.” Thatis the credo of the six heads of state pro-moting the “New African Initiative”. Theyhave also announced their determinationto see Africa participate “actively” in theglobal economy and global politics. Aglance at the facts, however, gives rise toreservations about the correlation betweendemocratization, economic developmentand globalization.

There is no doubt that those countriesdeemed to offer the best investment risksare the same nations that have democraticinstitutions: Botswana, Mauritius andSouth Africa lead the way in Africa (seebox). These countries feature a higher de-gree of openness to the rest of the globaleconomy, one example being the 1996 sig-nature of a partnership and free-tradeagreement between Pretoria and the Eu-ropean Union (EU). In addition, over thepast two years, in several sub-Saharancountries, the quality of democratizationhas improved in that the freedom of ex-pression and opinion has now taken itsplace alongside a multi-party system. InSenegal and Ghana, this was a rather for-tunate first. The consolidation of democ-racy in Senegal, combined with greateropenness of the market and with progressin the privatization programme, helpedimprove the rating of this country by in-vestors according to Nord-Sud Export, a

specialist French review published by theLe Monde group. Côte d’Ivoire could havefollowed suit, had it not been for one of theleading political players – in this case Alas-sane Ouattara, a northerner and Muslim –being excluded from the race, and the riotsthat this unleashed.

However, this should be viewed in per-spective. The correlations between de-mocratization and investment are not au-tomatic – far from it. Whatever effortshave been made in certain countries, thedividends of democratization and anyprogress made in the sound managementof public affairs and consolidation of therule of law have not necessarily resultedin an immediate inflow of foreign capital.The potential of the African markets hasbeen damaged by instability in the termsof trade. For instance, the price of robustacoffee stood at roughly US$470 by metrictons in September 2001, just one eighth ofits selling price seven years ago! What ismore, a recent World Bank study notesthat, over the past 20 years, there hasbeen a net transfer of resources from sub-Saharan Africa to the rest of the world. For-eign direct investment, for its part, plum-meted 13 per cent in the year 2000 alone tojust 0.4 per cent of global trade, down from1 per cent in the period 1989-1994.

In addition, it must be admitted thatTunisia, which is considered one of thebest “risk countries” in Africa (see box)and has a higher degree of openness totrade following the signature of a partner-

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Multi-speed globalization,democratization and conditionalities

In contrast with public statements, conditionalities imposed on aidby donor countries are still often driven by their economic and stra-tegic interests rather than by the criteria of democracy, human rightsand good governance.

François MisserJournalist

“

ship and free-trade agreement with the Eu-ropean Union, combines remarkablegrowth and almost unfailing Western sup-port with repeated human rights viola-tions. One of the champions of free tradeand growth in East Africa is Uganda, whichenjoys indisputable freedom of expression,albeit limited to the right to criticize. Forthe rest, Uganda’s “no-party system” doesnot provide many opportunities for oppo-nents of President Yoweri Museveni, whowon the recent presidential election –amidst accusations of irregularities –against the opposition candidate KizzaBesigye.

Conversely, the leading pack of coun-tries with the lowest indicators of humandevelopment includes countries that arepoorly governed by authoritarian regimes,which are often at war, and which, byrejecting any and all dialogue, have seengrowth in the ranks of the armed opposi-tion, greatly benefiting the ruling elites inpredator countries. In the DemocraticRepublic of the Congo (DRC) – where thecollapse of the State, poorly governed bya corrupt elite, was the primary causeof the 1997 downfall of the Mobuturegime against its adversaries supported

by Rwanda and Uganda – freedoms havetaken a major step backwards under theKabila regime. The international commu-nity’s lax attitude in letting foreign armies(from Rwanda, Uganda and Angola) cometo the aid of the hurriedly selected rebelleaders and allowing them to take root inthis country and trample on freedoms, hascreated a dangerous feeling of impunity.This has only whetted the appetites ofother budding dictators, who are just asinclined to enlist support from foreignpredators so that they can play God.

But here too, the correlations are notautomatic. Just look at Angola, a countrywhich is also at war but whose main ex-port products – oil and diamonds – had al-ready been integrated into the cogs of theinternational economy well before “glob-alization” became a watchword. A disas-trous risk for many investors wishing todo business in the manufacturing andagricultural sectors, Angola, along withNigeria, the other “black gold” sponge,soaks up nearly half of foreign investmentin sub-Saharan Africa. Unfortunately, alarge proportion of this manna returns tothe industrialized countries in the form ofarms purchases and secret investments in

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Classification of “risk countries” for investments in 35 African countriesThe following classification is based on four parameters (business environment, political risks, mar-ket risks and sovereign risks). The risk is deemed prohibitive if below 160 points, very high if below270 points, high if below 320 points, rather high if below 380 points, moderate if above 430 pointsand low if above 540 points. For instance, the best risk for investors in emerging countries isSingapore (608) and the worst is Yemen (103). Afghanistan, as well as a number of small marketssuch as Gambia, are not rated in this table, which covers 100 countries.

Source: Classification of emerging markets (Nord-Sud Export) 2001-2002.

Botswana 514 pointsMauritius 511South Africa 427Morocco 426Tunisia 426Namibia 421Burkina Faso 407Egypt 406Senegal 401Gabon 398Ghana 397Cameroon 397Mali 390

Benin 380Togo 376Kenya 361Uganda 333Madagascar 330Mozambique 323Niger 319Côte d’Ivoire 319Chad 313Algeria 312United Republic

of Tanzania 305Mauritania 298

Libyan ArabJamahiriya 298

Zambia 288Zimbabwe 284Congo 282Ethiopia 275Nigeria 269Guinea 250Sudan 189Angola 156Democratic Republic

of the Congo 105

tax havens, all against a backdrop of wide-spread indifference – and without even aminimum increase in the well-being of thepopulation.

Lack of democratization +globalization = danger

There are also cases where the lack of de-mocratization or dialogue encourages per-verse effects of globalization. For instance,the way in which genetically modified or-ganisms (GMOs) are being distributed onthe continent leaves a great deal to be de-sired. “While civil society is mobilizing inEurope, America and Asia to engage in acitizens’ debate on the issue of GMOs andintellectual property rights, the oppositecan be seen in Africa: no public involve-ment in decision-making”, lament the con-clusions of a pan-African workshop onGMOs held in Yaoundé (Cameroon) in Oc-tober 1999. In Kenya, “President Moi, whoseems to be a permanent fixture, does notleave much room for public opinion. In1999, local movements unsuccessfullytried to oppose shipments of geneticallymodified corn from the United States andCanada as food aid for countries ravagedby famine”, adds the French magazinePolitis.1 After all, while biotechnologieshave serious potential, how they are in-troduced – which includes banning the re-sowing of harvested crops – and theprospects for multiplying crops of plantsthat include new genes (transgenic var-ieties of rapeseed) could lead to a total col-lapse of the market for certain tropicalproducts, a prime example being palm oil.There are also fears that exports to Africaof crops from the North, which have be-come more productive thanks to GMOs,will rise and weaken the production sys-tems of Africa’s local farmers.

Another type of danger in a countrylike Zimbabwe is that increasing abuses ofpower as the economy nosedived (uncon-trolled invasion of farms by commandosfrom President Mugabe’s party, persecu-tion of opposition leaders, ruinous war inthe DRC largely paid for by the taxpayers,

etc.) are going hand in hand with practicesthat are having a harmful impact on pub-lic finances. One good example of this isthe awarding of public procurement con-tracts. One of the many reasons that inter-national aid to this country has dried up isthe privileges awarded to Malaysian com-panies, whereby they are exempted fromhaving to make transparent bids to wincontracts in the energy and telecommuni-cations sectors.

In Nigeria, which has had an electedpresident and parliament since 1999, glob-alization is weakening economic and socialstability. In September 2001, the inability oflocal industry to cope with competitionfrom imported products prompted theHouse of Representatives to set up a spe-cial committee to assess the impact of be-longing to the World Trade Organization(WTO). There is even a risk that Nigeriacould pull out of the WTO, warding offpotential investors keen to establish afoothold in the country, and bolstering fur-ther the ranks of the unemployed. Thecountry is already gripped by chronic vio-lence perpetrated by criminal organiza-tions – who are using Islam for their polit-ical scheming and have imposed the shariain 13 of the country’s states – and by theequally chronic sabotage of oil facilities byautonomist activities in the delta region.

In a more general vein, the risingawareness that globalization has unfortu-nately not led to an improvement in thehuman rights situation is largely respon-sible for the sea change in Amnesty Inter-national’s doctrine. In Dakar in August2001, the human rights organization de-cided to broaden its mandate to includeeconomic, cultural and social rights. Afterall, globalization “has led to riches forsome and to decline and despair for manymore”, notes former AI Secretary-GeneralPierre Sané of Senegal.2 His words areechoed by French Cooperation MinisterCharles Josselin, who, in a speech on“Africa and the development of the franczone”, on 25 September 2001, said that “in-equality in the world, far from being re-duced by globalization, is actually beingincreased by it”.

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Inconsistent use of the carrot and stick

For several years, the Europeans, the mem-bers of the G8 (the group of the leading in-dustrialized countries plus Russia) and theBretton Woods institutions have beendemonstrating a doctrine that tends to re-ward, in terms of economic and trade-basedsupport, those countries that best meet thecriteria of respect for human rights, the ruleof law and the sound management of pub-lic affairs. As a result, due to repeated vio-lations of political and trade union rights, acountry like Swaziland was not allowed tobenefit from the Generalized System ofPreferences and the African Growth Op-portunity Act, which is opening up theAmerican market to African producers.

In an interview, Senegalese PresidentAbdoulaye Wade, one of the backers of theNew African Initiative, clearly states hisopinion that the provisions on democracyin the Cotonou Partnership Agreement be-tween the European Union and theAfrican, Caribbean and Pacific countries“should be reinforced” and that “thosecountries that do not meet certain democ-ratic standards should not be eligible”. Mr.Wade says, in effect, that he fully supports“the setting of democratic conditions” atthe risk of not making many friendsamongst what is called the “syndicate” ofAfrican Heads of State. Addressing the USCongress and French President JacquesChirac, President Wade called for more se-rious monitoring of elections. “I’m sorry,but sending in observers the day before theelection is just a big joke. I fell victim to itmyself. I was the first one to call for out-side observers. President Diouf took me atmy word. He called some foreign ob-servers. They arrived on Saturday. Theyvisited two or three polling stations. Theysaw people voting and afterwards theysaid: ‘Nobody’s dead so everything wentreally well’. That is no election. Prepara-tions must be made one year in advance:registration on election lists, printing bal-lots, free expression. Today, I am fightingto have the election process observed, notjust the casting of votes! If the absence ofdead or wounded becomes our only cri-

teria for fair election, then where are weheading? In 1993, I was naive enough to be-lieve that Africa would enter the new mil-lennium with democratic governments. Iexpressed my hopes for this by organizingthe conference of political parties in 1993.Unfortunately, we have not made it yet, al-though we have made progress. Neverthe-less, there are several governments inAfrica whose leaders were elected withoutdispute. But sadly this is still not the casefor the majority of countries.”

Mr. Wade also makes it clear that as faras trade is concerned, the developed worldmust not build false barriers to exportsfrom his country by misusing health stan-dards to block imports of Senegaleseground nuts or phosphate.

But there can be no denying that theway in which conditions in terms ofdemocracy, human rights and good gover-nance are applied is disconcerting at thevery least, and seems to be driven by otherparameters. Consistency in European pol-icy is particularly hard to grasp. Togo, forexample, has been targeted by sanctionsfor years because of election fraud and therepression of opposition parties. ButGuinea has not been subjected to sanctions,even though Alpha Condé, the rival toPresident Lansana Konté in the December1998 elections, was imprisoned for twoyears. In Central Africa, the World Bankand the European Union have partly re-opened the flow of funds to the Democra-tic Republic of the Congo, even though therecord of that country’s regime in violatinghuman rights and freedom of expression,bears no comparison with that of the gov-ernment of Kengo wa Dondo, Zaire’sPrime Minister from 1994 to 1997. Manypolitical parties are banned and summaryexecutions are commonplace. By the sametoken, the IMF has tried for years, but invain, to force the Government in Luandato open the books of the semi-state-ownedcompany, Sonangol, in order to halt theplundering of oil revenue, which goesmissing in the “Bermuda triangle” be-tween Sonangol, Futungo (the presidentialpalace) and the Banco Nacional de Angola,and ultimately ends up in offshore ac-

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counts. It is common knowledge, asdemonstrated by the “Angolagate” scan-dal in France involving arms supplied toAngola, that this money is recycled intotanks and phosphor bombs. However, theEU, its Member States and other donorshave all continued sending aid to the Lu-anda Government. In this case, as withother countries in the region, such asUganda and Rwanda, it is clear that, in thebest-case scenario – as the French Cooper-ation Minister stated with remarkable clar-ity – international aid allows these regimesto free up funds for military purposes.

Recently, the international communityset itself the mission of attacking the evil ofwar at the roots by imposing embargoes onarms and fuel shipments and on exports ofdiamonds by Angola’s UNITA rebels andSierra Leone’s Revolutionary United Front.But, in October 2001, after three years of thisfruitless exercise, the UN experts chargedwith monitoring the sanctions were forcedto admit that they were not effective. It willbe noted, however, that the exercise focusedon a non-strategic commodity, since theworld can get by without African diamonds“of dubious origin” for industrial applica-tions. Moreover, the embargo, which is theabsolute antithesis of free trade, unques-tionably benefits alternative output fromsouthern Africa, largely controlled bySouth African mammoth De Beers, and theCanadian Far North, where the “cartel” hasinvested massively and used sanctions topromote “politically correct” gems. It is alsoworth noting that the embargo was decreedwithout even the slightest consultation ofAngolan civil society, which finds it point-less and advocates negotiations aimed atending the war, even though it is finding itvery difficult to make itself heard.

Curiously, the sanctions weapon losesits edge if belligerent parties or states guiltyof violating human rights happen to har-bour large oil reserves. There has never beenany question at all of imposing embargoeson Angola, which supplies 8 per cent ofAmerican imports of crude oil and whichtherefore falls within the national interest ofthe United States. For the same reason, the

regime of Nigeria’s General Sani Abachanever had to fear sanctions. As for Sudan,whose army continues to bomb civilians inthe South but which is a leading producerof black gold, the UN Security Council hassoftened its stance, so much so in fact thatin October sanctions on Sudan were lifted.The sanctions had initially been imposed inthe wake of the attempted assassination ofEgyptian President Hosni Mubarak in 1996in Ethiopia. It is worth pointing out thatSudan has not stinted its efforts to promptWashington to display a more understand-ing attitude by hiring the lobbying skills offormer CIAemployee Milton Bearden, whohas been paid more than $200,000 to achievethe lifting of sanctions against Khartoumand re-establish good relations with theUnited States.3 According to a survey by Al-Ahram Hebdo (Egypt), other petroleum-pro-ducing countries in the Gulf of Guinea, suchas Angola and Gabon, have been even moregenerous, respectively paying $2 millionand $1 million a year to public relationsagencies and lobbyists. Setting conditionson aid and sanctions may sometimes ap-pear to depend on reasons which the nobleprofessions of faith by political leaders pre-tend to overlook. However, let us look at theomen formulated by European Develop-ment Commissioner Poul Nielson at themeeting in Brussels on 10 October 2001 be-tween the EU Presidency and the backersof the New African Initiative. In Mr. Niel-son’s view, the determination of the sup-porters of the New African Initiative to es-tablish a propitious environment for foreigncapital while at the same time meeting stan-dards of law and good governance wouldmake it possible to maximize the impact ofthe 4-billion euro Investment Facility pro-vided for under the Cotonou Agreement.

Notes1 “Un mirage pour le tiers monde” (A mirage for

the Third World) in Politis (Paris), 28 June 2001.2 “Economie et droits de l’homme” (The economy

and human rights) in Libération (Paris), 23 August 2001.3 “Lobby pour l’Afrique: folie ou nécessité?”

(Lobby for Africa: Madness or necessity?) in Al-Ahram Hebdo (Cairo), 15-21 August 2001.

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No war in the world is more impor-tant.” To avoid any misunderstand-

ing it should be pointed out that these war-like words uttered by US Secretary of StateColin Powell date from before the militaryresponse to the terrorist attacks perpe-trated on 11 September 2001. In fact, theUS general said them back in May whenhe was heading up a mission to severalAfrican countries and they refer to the bat-tle against HIV/AIDS, which is ravagingsub-Saharan Africa. In view of the currentinternational crisis, there are fears that hiswords may end up serving as the epitaphto millions of forgotten victims.

The figures are enough to make yourhead spin. With the statistics released at theend of 2000 still proving hard to digest – 36million infected individuals around theworld, 25 million in Africa alone; 5.3 mil-lion newly infected people, 3 million fatal-ities, 22 million since the outbreak of theepidemic – UNAIDS is now shaping up tofeed us even more catastrophic numbers.

Nonetheless, on the basis of the twostriking events of the year, the prospectswere rather encouraging. Firstly, back inMay, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annanannounced the establishment of a globalfund to fight AIDS. Secondly, the Pretoriatrial several weeks later saw the rout ofpharmaceutical companies that hadsought legal action against the SouthAfrican Government for its failure to re-spect patents. In the face of increasinglyhostile public opinion, they ended upwithdrawing their complaint.

Lowering the cost of drugs

Patents, that is what this is all about. Thestory began back in 1994 with the estab-lishment of the World Trade Organization(WTO) and the agreements on aspects oftrade-related intellectual property rights(TRIPS) which all its member countriesundertook to respect by 2006 at the latest.In theory TRIPS are fine; but in practicethey are a front for excesses of all kinds,such as the “patenting” of living organ-isms which often goes hand in hand withthe shameless pillaging of resources in theSouth by companies based in the North.As far as drugs are concerned, access tovarious treatments is rendered even moredifficult by the de facto monopolies exer-cised by the major companies and the pro-hibition of generic copies.

All the same, the WTO has provided forcompromises that are integrated intoTRIPS. In a nutshell, a country may manu-facture generic copies at the lowest possi-ble price “in situations of national emer-gency or other circumstances of extremeurgency” (Article 31). Several governmentsare trying to leap into the breach, despitethe fierce opposition from pharmaceuticalcompanies, which are crying piracy. It is aclash between two different outlooks: prof-its and the universal right to health. TheUnited States, where the pharmaceuticallobby is all-powerful, is threatening severalcountries with economic retaliatory meas-ures. The escalation is both verbal – for ex-ample the laboratory of GlaxoSmithKline

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AIDS: Prevention and tritherapies –no contraindication for the South

The urgent need to take a variety of global and concerted actions tocontain the AIDS pandemic makes the ILO initiatives aimed at com-bating HIV/AIDS crucially important. However, any such action mustinclude access to anti-AIDS treatments.

Jacky DelormeJournalist

“

has been dubbed “Global Serial Killer” bysome of its opponents – and legal, with nu-merous complaints lodged by laboratoriesfor “violating” TRIPS.

So what’s the situation today? In SouthAfrica, anti-AIDS activists, members of in-ternational NGOs such as Doctors With-out Borders (Médecins sans frontières) andOxfam, associations of persons living withHIV/AIDS, and trade unions, are rapidlygrowing disillusioned. Following the Pre-toria trial, the South African Governmentannounced that it lacks the financial re-sources to resort to the large-scale produc-tion of generic drugs to treat its infectedpopulation, which amounts to nearly 5million persons, a world record. So any ini-tiatives taken will be few and far between.In the townships on the Cape, DoctorsWithout Borders has just launched an anti-AIDS programme which includes multi-therapies based on imported genericcopies. In May, the mining giant Anglo-American announced that it was negotiat-ing the provision of generic copies of anti-retrovirals to care for its HIV-positive staff.Migratory movements and the sex tradewhich such movements induce mean thatmining areas constitute major centres ofinfection. However, early in October thecompany back-pedalled, stating that itwas unable to provide anti-AIDS treat-ment for all its infected workers andwould have to limit itself to executive staff,a discriminatory move that was immedi-ately condemned by the National Union ofMineworkers, especially since the major-ity of the company’s managers are white.

On the other side of the Atlantic, Brazil,for which epidemiologists predicted a con-siderable surge in the numbers of HIV-infected individuals, is containing thescourge. In addition to an aggressive pol-icy of prevention at all levels of society, theBrazilian Government decided, in 1998, toproduce the main molecules effectiveagainst HIV/AIDS so that it would havethe means of providing the latest treat-ment free to all those who needed it. Today,the country is producing treatments forUS$3,000 per patient per year and it seemslikely that before long it will succeed in

bringing that figure down below the$1,000 barrier, as one Indian manufacturerhas already succeeded in doing. Brazil isvery far removed from the cost of multi-therapies used in Western countries,where prices range between $10,000 and$15,000 per patient per year. The burdenon the social security system remains en-tirely bearable: there are fewer sick peopleand fewer deaths linked to HIV/AIDS.

Whether or not multitherapies are takenin hand by the governments of countries inthe South, their revolt has somewhat de-stabilized the pharmaceutical lobby in theWest. Competition from generic copies hashad a major impact on the current pricesproposed by the major laboratories. Theirhumanitarian marketing of the 1990s, whenthey contributed to each and everyHIV/AIDS summit, no longer fools any-body. While not equivalent to the offersmade by manufacturers in the South, thediscounts they are currently offering areconsiderable, giving an idea of the tremen-dous profits made by this sector of industryand thereby contradicting the argument putforward by the laboratories, that high pricesare needed to fund their costly research anddevelopment programmes. In fact, publiclaboratories actually did most of the workinvolved in discovering molecules that areeffective against HIV/AIDS, before leavingthe private sector to take up the running andpatent these lucrative discoveries.

Increasing financial resources

Bearing in mind these price cuts, the cre-ation of an international fund to combatHIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria is animportant event. The man behind the in-itiative is UN Secretary-General KofiAnnan and the fund is to become opera-tional by the end of 2001. The objective isambitious: US$7 to 10 billion must be col-lected each year to finance the pro-grammes which will not only cover pre-vention, but also include treatment for allinfected individuals and more strenuousefforts to find a vaccine. According to KofiAnnan, this fund must come from fresh

29

allocations, rather than from existing re-sources that would be diverted from theiroriginal purpose. National programmeswill be the main beneficiaries but they willhave to respect guarantees of transparencyif they are to prove efficient.

There is no longer any secret as to howthese programmes can be made to work.The main lesson learnt over the last 20 yearsis that AIDS should not merely be consid-ered an epidemic, but also a multidimen-sional challenge, with social, economic andpolitical impact as well as consequences forcompliance with human rights. In the ab-sence of a global response, it will prolifer-ate and become “uncontrollable”, as is thecase today in several regions of the world.All too often the battle against AIDS re-mains fragmented. Yet what it needs is suc-cessful coordination among all the partiesinvolved. Sub-Saharan Africa offers a fullspectrum of different levels in preventionprogrammes. Senegal is the shining exam-ple of a country that has succeeded in pre-venting a major HIV/AIDS epidemic bymobilizing all the social players: teachers,employers, trade unionists, tribal chiefs, re-ligious leaders, healers, etc. Uganda is an-other country often mentioned at inter-national conferences for the remarkableresults it has achieved, albeit alas at a laterstage, when the epidemic was alreadyfirmly established. On the other hand, inSwaziland, one of the three most affectedcountries in the world, there is a lack of po-litical will. The country does have a nationalprogramme, as do most others, but the onlyreally effective action is being taken by afew local associations.

When focusing on the world of work, itis easier to understand both the need for so-cial dialogue and the importance, in thatcontext, of having a reference tool like theILO’s Code of practice on HIV/AIDS and theworld of work.1 Providing decent work, fight-ing discrimination against infected individ-uals, promoting social security systems, en-suring equal treatment of men and womenand protecting high-risk groups such as mi-grants or sex industry workers, are all at theheart of efforts to combat HIV/AIDS.

Prevention is a priority. It is already anextraordinarily efficient tool, but it is notsufficient. In sub-Saharan Africa alonenearly half the population live on less thanUS$1 per day. For them, buying condomsis not a priority. Nor is changing their habitsbecause they are supposedly “at risk”.Their lives are precarious. Drinking water,electricity and basic educational and healthresources are not accessible to them, or atleast not readily so. It is illusory to imaginea general mobilization without giving somehope to the disadvantaged sectors of thepopulation and it is cynical to claim to behelping the people affected by HIV/AIDSif this entails preventing them from havingaccess to the drug they so vitally need.

Coupling lower prices for anti-AIDStreatments with the creation of an inter-national fund must make it possible towork out strategies that combine preven-tion and treatment. The example of Brazilshows that the argument put forward bythe major laboratories, namely that multi-therapies are too sophisticated for theoverly fragile health systems of the coun-tries in the South, can be dismissed. Ofcourse, such treatments must be availablecheaply. In this respect, the ongoing debatein the WTO on a reform of the TRIPS agree-ments is fundamentally important. AsWTO Director-General Mike Moore saidin reference to the exemptions: “... thecountries must be guaranteed the meansto take advantage of this flexibility”. Whatremains is the nub of the conflict, i.e.money. Even with cheap generic drugs, theformula of prevention and treatment eatsup considerable resources, and without in-ternational aid it cannot function. So far,the international fund initiated by KofiAnnan is, however, a long way fromamassing the expected $7 to 10 billion.

Note

1 ILO: HIV/AIDS and the world of work: ILO code ofpractice. (Geneva, 2001). The full text of this code ofpractice is available on the ILO web site: http://www.ilo.org/public/english/protection/trav/aids/pdf/acodeen.pdf.

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In a graphic metaphor, Cuban PresidentFidel Castro, speaking at the South Sum-

mit in April 2000, captured the current re-ality of globalization for the vast majority:“Globalization is an objective reality un-derlining the fact that we are all passengerson the same vessel, that is, this planetwhere we live.” But, he argued, the pas-sengers are “travelling in very differentconditions”. Small minorities, he stated,“are travelling in luxurious cabins fur-nished with the Internet, cell phones andaccess to global communication networks.They enjoy a nutritional, abundant and bal-anced diet as well as clean water supplies.They have access to sophisticated medicalcare and to culture.” In contrast to this, hesaid, “Overwhelming and hurting major-ities are travelling in conditions that re-semble the terrible slave trade from Africato America in our colonial past.” He wenton to state that, “85 per cent of the passen-gers on this ship are crowded together inits filthy hold suffering hunger, disease andhelplessness. Obviously, this vessel is car-rying too much injustice to remain afloatand it pursues such an irrational and sense-less route that it cannot call on a safe port.”He concluded this description with a cau-tionary note, “This vessel seems destinedto crash into an iceberg. If that happened,we would all go down with it.”

According to Mohamed and Vally(Kenton, 1999), it is unlikely that global-ization will lead to the development ofmost of Africa for the following reasons:

� Africa’s low threshold of resources andincome.

� World prices and demand for Africancash crops (the major earner of foreigncurrencies) have fallen since the 1960s.In addition, competition from intensivecapitalist agriculture in Asia and LatinAmerica has further exacerbated theplight of Africa’s farmers.

� The middle-income countries in Africaderive their wealth mostly from min-eral exports, which tend to benefitmainly transnational corporations anddeveloped countries that convert rawmaterial into consumer products. Theirony is that they then sell these prod-ucts back to developing countries forhigh profits.

� The majority of Africans live in ruralareas where the economic cycle is de-pendent on unpredictable weatherconditions.

� The increase in population, togetherwith very limited employment oppor-tunities result in a rapidly growinglandless labour force, which ekes out

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The impact of globalization in Africaand the response of trade unions:

The case of South AfricaFrom a South African trade union perspective, neoliberal-driven glob-alization is entrenching existing inequalities between regions, na-tions and the rich and poor, rather than improving the lot of all theworld’s citizens. Yet, there is a need for trade unions and civil societyto engage critically in the globalization process, and combat its neg-ative aspects.

Shermain MannahEducation Desk

South African Democratic Teachers Union

an existence on the margins of the econ-omy. This also leads to high levels ofmigration towards middle-incomecountries such as South Africa.

� Notwithstanding the call for an AfricanRenaissance, global capital finds fewopportunities for new investments inthe continent – reflecting political in-stability and negative perceptions inthe market place.

� In the information age, Africa is poorlyplaced to compete on an internationallevel due to its lack of new technologyand adequate education provision.

The authors conclude, “The prognosisis that Africa’s development and the dy-namics of global capitalism, or globalismgenerally are not convergent and will notbe in the foreseeable future.”1

A new and deadly enemy now stalksAfrica – HIV/AIDS. None of Africa’s ear-lier challenges have been as daunting or ascatastrophic as the HIV/AIDS pandemic.Disease spreads within a context ofpoverty, ignorance and subordination ofwomen and children. Much of Africa liesparalysed by the shackles of poverty,caused by a history of colonialism, misruleand the continued exploitation of the multi-national corporations, supported by themajor international financial institutionssuch as the International Monetary Fund(IMF) and the World Trade Organization(WTO). Globalization hampers the devel-oping world’s response to the HIV/AIDSpandemic in the following ways:� Multinational pharmaceutical compa-

nies retain control over research, thesupply and pricing of drugs and med-icines.

� Embracing neoliberal philosophy, gov-ernments are reluctant to take full re-sponsibility for public health. This is in-creasingly clear in South Africa, one ofthe best resourced countries in Africa.

� The low level of national resources andincome and lack of infrastructure –the results of years of colonialism andunderdevelopment.

Hence there is a need for civil societyand trade unions to take the lead in pres-suring governments to urgently addressthe pandemic (see the article by Jacky De-lorme, p. 28).

Education and globalization

When defining our vision for education inAfrica we must be guided by the follow-ing principles and conventions:

� The right to education is laid down inthe Universal Declaration of HumanRights.

� The principle of social justice, which isclosely bound to the objectives of edu-cation.

� Education in particular is tied to the re-medial principle that requires it to worktowards compensating for inequalitiesof birth and social conditions.

� An education and training system canonly be judged to be fair if it is inclu-sive.

However, lack of resources and currentneoliberal economic policy have pre-vented the realization of these principlesin education. The bare statistics for educa-tional provision in the sub-Saharan regionas captured by David Johnson in the SouthAfrican Mail and Guardian emphasise theenormous challenge facing the developingworld.

� “Eleven percent of the world’s popu-lation live in sub-Saharan Africa, butreceive only 1 percent of the global ex-penditure on education, whereas the21 percent of the world’s populationwho live in the developed world re-ceive 84 percent of the global expendi-ture on education.

� Forty million children of school-goingage in sub-Saharan Africa do not at-tend school, fewer than one thirdprogress to secondary education, andonly 3 percent receive any form of ter-tiary education. By comparison, formal

36

education in the developed world last15 to 17 years, nearly 100 percent ofchildren in the developed world re-ceive a secondary education, and morethan 50 percent tertiary education.

� A child in sub-Saharan Africa has onaverage $49 spent on her/his educa-tion, whereas $4,636 is the average ed-ucation expenditure for a child in theindustrialized countries.

� Since 1994, western aid for sub-SaharanAfrica has been reduced by $3.7 billion,and African governments have trans-ferred four times more to northern cred-itors in debt repayment than they havespent on health and education.”2

The International Monetary Fund andthe World Bank’s structural adjustmentprogrammes (SAPs) for African countrieshave contributed to crippling debt. In ad-dition, high interest rates and rising oilprices continue to exacerbate the situationand paralyse development. This severelycurtails the capacity to deliver social ser-vices and public education for all in Africa.

Globalization has seen the ascendancyof neoliberal economic theory, which in-cludes the notion of a reduced role for theState and the reduction of public spend-ing. This doctrine is supported by the ar-guments that public spending “crowdsout” private initiative and that privateprovision is more efficient. The result,however, is more and more to shift the re-sponsibility of financing public educationfrom the State to individuals. In theAfrican context, where the majority of thecommunities are desperately poor, the re-sult is the stagnation or near collapse ofpublic education.

The extension of WTO and GATS (Gen-eral Agreement on Trade in Services) reg-ulations to cover issues of intellectualproperty and education services furtherthreatens public education, especially indeveloping countries. There is a real riskthat public provision of education – espe-cially higher education and vocational ed-ucation – will be turned over to privateproviders. The implications include the

homogenization and commercialization ofeducation, the undermining of nationaland local cultures and languages, and un-employment for educators in the affectedsectors.

South Africa

South Africa differs from sub-SaharanAfrica in certain ways. The South Africaneconomy is more diversified, operates at ahigher level of industrialization and playsa more pronounced role in the global econ-omy as compared to the rest of the conti-nent. As a consequence, a democraticallyelected government in South Africa ac-cepts the hypothesis of the “incorporationof Africa into global capitalism under new,more favourable conditions via the SouthAfrican connection”.

The South African Government’s ac-ceptance of neoliberal macroeconomic pol-icy in the form of GEAR (Growth Employ-ment and Redistribution policy), which ismarket driven and supports an export-competitive strategy, has been likened to aform of self-imposed structural adjust-ment. In this sense, South Africa exhibitsbroad similarities to those sub-Saharancountries that adopted structural adjust-ment policies in the 1980s. This is clearlyevidenced by the financial pressures ex-perienced by the public sector since 1994.

GEAR promotes the marketization ofeducation, public–private partnership, fis-cal austerity, budgetary constraints, cost-containment and cuts in education.Schooling is now differentiated less by“race” than by “class” as a result of theuser-fee model and market competitionbetween schools. Parents now bear muchof the costs of education and the Stateseems to be shedding its responsibility forthe provision of education and transfer-ring it to school governing bodies, furtherincreasing funding by parents. The strati-fication of schooling in South Africa is sim-ilar to patterns of schooling at a globallevel. Policy in South Africa views educa-tion and training as a key determinantof long-term economic performance and

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income redistribution. However, the Gov-ernment seeks to achieve these objectiveswithin the context of its neoliberal econ-omic policy. This has resulted in educationbeing increasingly commodified ratherthan seen as a right or a common good.

Education budgets have fallen in realterms between 1996 and 2000, resulting ina maintenance budget – with nothing leftover for genuine transformation. SouthAfrica, newly liberated from the shacklesof apartheid, has been unable to addressthe worst inequalities which continue toplague its public education system. In-deed, after seven years of democracy,South Africa remains – after Brazil – themost unequal society in the world.

The further consequences of GEAR foreducation include the following:

� the rationalization of colleges whichhas led to retrenchment and demotionof staff;

� further threats of retrenchment inteaching and non-professional staffacross all sectors of education;

� proposals for the employment of un-qualified staff in teaching in the school-ing sector. This is already being imple-mented in other parts of Africa, forexample, in Senegal;

� attempts to reduce collective bargain-ing rights and proposed decentraliza-tion and fragmentation of bargainingunits in the public service;

� poor infrastructure in public schools,coupled with lack of learning materialsand teaching resources;

� the imposition of school fees, tendingto further marginalize the poor and actas an exclusionary tool to keep the dis-advantaged out of well-maintainedschools in middle class areas;

� universities are outsourcing many oftheir services due to financial pressurein higher education and government isencouraging private sector partner-ships. This inevitably leads to reducedlabour standards, employment in-security and “casualization”. The same

process has been proposed for supportservice in the public schooling system;and

� increasing fees in higher education re-sults in student debt and the exclusionof less privileged students from thesystem.

In education, there is a crisis in termsof non-delivery on the expectationsaroused by democratization in 1994. Thismanifests itself in disillusionment andconflict within the tripartite alliance (al-liance between the African National Con-gress, South African Communist Partyand the Congress of South African TradeUnions). Once again, trade unions and or-gans of civil society are leading campaignsto make the government more accountableand to demand, among other issues, im-proved education and social provision.

The role played by trade unions

At an international level, education unionsmeeting at the Education International (EI)Third World Congress (Thailand, 2001)have come out strongly and clearly againstthe introduction of market mechanisms ineducation, stating that “our schools are tooimportant to be left to the market”. EI haslaunched a campaign against GATS aimedat stopping the WTO from adding educa-tion to a long list of services which are tobe opened up for market competition andcommercialization. EI is pooling its re-search capacity with other organizationssuch as Public Services International (PSI)to monitor and challenge privatization inthe education sector.

Massive retrenchments and outsourc-ing break down large scale concentrationof employment where traditional unionshave been based and find their power. Theeffect of globalization is to atomize resis-tance, seeing workers and communities aseither consumers or individuals – never asa collective. Therefore one of the most ef-fective ways of taking on globalization isfor organized labour to develop links withother sectors of civil society in order to

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build strong alliances. This is analogous tothe social unionism movement of the1980s. The Congress of South AfricanTrade Unions (COSATU) in the 1980s wasa prime example of this kind of collabora-tive approach. This was based upon an al-liance of labour, communities, student andpolitical organizations with an agenda thatwent beyond traditional trade union is-sues to include the democratization andradical transformation of society.

Similar alliances are now being formedin post-apartheid South Africa. Examplesof this include COSATU’s Anti-Privatiza-tion Campaign. In a show of solidaritynon-governmental organizations (NGOs),other organs of civil society and workersfrom all sectors recently downed tools in anational two-day protest against the gov-ernment’s proposals for privatization of“parastatals” and sections of the publicservice. The anti-privatization campaignsare part of an international movement ofunions and civil society which is funda-mentally opposed to the privatization ofpublic services such as education, health,water, telecommunications and electricity.Privatization of these basic services is theoffspring of neoliberal philosophy andWTO and IMF policies.

To state another example of trade unionresponse to the pressures occasioned byneoliberal economic theory, SANGOCO(the South African NGO coalition), thechurches and COSATU jointly embarkedthis year on a programme to draw up a“Peoples Budget”. The “Peoples Budget”prioritizes social needs including publiceducation. This alternative budget processwill be repeated annually to coincide withthe release of the Government’s annualbudget.

Earlier this year, the Treatment ActionCampaign (TAC) forged a powerful coali-tion with COSATU and international orga-nizations such as Doctors Without Bordersand Oxfam to take on the multinationalpharmaceutical giants. This led the Phar-maceutical Manufacturing Association todrop its lawsuit against the South AfricanGovernment and its Medicines and Sub-stance Control Act of 1997. TAC’s activist

base and COSATU’s massive worker basetogether went beyond the objective of ashow of strength in numbers, to includeawareness-raising campaigns and educa-tion for grass-roots participants.

The TAC/COSATU campaign is a crit-ical case study because it drew on key sec-tors within civil society to challenge thepower of huge corporate interests withglobal reach and massive resources. It il-lustrates that it is possible to isolate andtake on aspects of globalization that aredeemed harmful. In respect of the courtcase, the alliance included governmentand international organizations. RecentlyTAC was joined by some of the churchesin jointly calling upon government to de-clare HIV/AIDS a national emergency andto devote necessary resources to ensure ac-cess to treatment for people living withAIDS and rape victims.

The fight against HIV/AIDS is a work-ing class issue and part of the struggleagainst the globalization of capital. Infuture, HIV/AIDS will become part ofnegotiations for trade unions and will be akey policy platform of any political partyendorsed by the labour movement. InSouth Africa, COSATU has become one ofthe major players in the fight againstHIV/AIDS. The last COSATU NationalCongress (2000) witnessed the first majordifference within the tripartite alliancewith the federation challenging the statepresident’s questioning of the link be-tween HIV and AIDS. AIDS activists viewthis as having undermined education andprevention programmes.

Issues for negotiations with employers,now include:

� anti-discrimination;

� right to privacy;

� access to medical aid and a providentfund;

� death benefits;

� increased allocations for HIV/AIDS re-search and medication.

On the education side, HIV/AIDS im-pacts on the country’s ability to deliver

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quality public education in the followingways:� the reduction in the supply of experi-

enced teachers;� an increase in the number of AIDS or-

phans;� an increase in the number of teenagers

infected with the virus;� chronic absenteeism amongst teachers

and learners, especially in cases wherelearners have to be kept out of schoolto take on the role of caregivers for in-fected family members or to take on therole of breadwinners; and

� high levels of learner drop-out wherefamilies cannot afford to pay schoolfees due to reduced household incomeas a result of the death of a bread-winner.

This negative impact undermines keygoals in the Education For All framework –that education provision be inclusive. InSouth Africa, the South African Democra-tic Teachers Union (SADTU) has played acrucial role with government and other keystakeholders in developing and imple-menting anti-discriminatory HIV/AIDSpolicy for learners and educators. SADTUhas gone one step further in conducting re-search on the impact of the pandemic onits membership, the findings of which willguide its response to the pandemic in theeducation sector.

The constraints imposed by globaliza-tion and neoliberalism require the mo-bilization of a multi-strategy and multi-sectorial approach to effectively fightHIV/ AIDS. In the SADC (Southern AfricaDevelopment Community) region EI, to-gether with other international partners,galvanized teacher unions and health andeducation ministries to develop collabora-tive projects to implement EI World Con-gress resolutions and the recommenda-tions emanating out of the Global HealthConference. In South Africa, SADTU isspearheading the EI/WHO collaborativeproject with the Ministries of Health andEducation.

One of the positive aspects of global-ization has been the encouragement of de-mocratization and transparent govern-ment. In Africa, and especially southernAfrica, unions are playing an importantrole in sustaining this. Currently in Swazi-land and Zimbabwe, trade unions are atthe forefront of pro-democracy protests. Inrecent history, trade unions in Zambia andSouth Africa have been the leading forcesfor democracy.

Debt, the legacy of unequal trade rela-tion and colonialism remains a major drainon African economies. In the case of SouthAfrica it is a debt incurred by the oppres-sive racist apartheid regime that now hasto be serviced to the detriment of SouthAfrica’s poor. International campaigns fordebt relief, such as Jubilee 2000, haveattracted support from the InternationalConfederation of Free Trade Unions(ICFTU). The final resolution of the WorldConference Against Racism points to agreater understanding of and agreementon the origins of debt and underdevelop-ment and the need for the world commu-nity to address these issues.

At UNESCO’s World Education Forum,held in Jomtien, Thailand in 1990, a numberof objectives for the basic provision of edu-cation were set. These were not achieved. Atthe second conference held in Dakar lastyear, the following targets were set:� All states will be requested to develop

or strengthen existing national plans by2002.

� Gender disparities in primary and sec-ondary education will be eliminated by2005 and gender equality in educationwill be achieved by 2015.

� By 2015, all children, especially thoseat risk, should have access to and com-plete free, high-quality compulsoryprimary education.

� By 2015, a 50 per cent improvementshould be achieved in levels of adult lit-eracy and equitable access to basic andcontinuing education for adults.

To avoid a repeat of the record of non-performance by governments, the Global

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Campaign for Education was launched asa strategic alliance with EI, Oxfam inter-national, Action-Aid, PSI and many oth-ers. The main objective is to hold govern-ments accountable for the undertakingmade in Jomtien and Dakar and to ensurethat by 2015 quality public education isavailable to all.

Globalization also raises gender issues.In order to fully appreciate the relation-ship between globalization and gender, athorough understanding of the links be-tween women’s economic position, gen-der oppression and the new world econ-omic order is required. It is crucial forunions to develop a gender approach totheir work.

For example, those countries, mainlyin the South, whose competitive edge isstill derived from cheap labour, are stillattempting to attract foreign business byoffering lax environmental and healthlaws. This has been especially true overthe last two decades in the export pro-cessing zones (EPZs), where up to 80 percent of the workforce is female. The com-petitive advantage of these countries is es-sentially based on the socio-economic andpolitical disadvantage of women. Thisraises the issue of how organized labourrelates to sectors like workers in EPZs, in-formal sector workers and sellers, casualworkers, homeworkers, domestic work-ers and farmworkers. These organiza-tional challenges have to be addressed inorder for unions to remain a viable forcein society.

Conclusion

Africa has not coped with the new globalworld order. South Africa is battling to em-brace the new order as a subregional power,but again results have not been promising.In the meantime, the dreams of transform-ing and expanding social services and edu-cational provision are on hold as budgetsbarely maintain present levels. This situa-tion has led to a growing divide betweengovernment and the privileged on one sideand working class communities, the grow-ing ranks of the unemployed and margin-alized people on the other. This manifestsitself, for example, in land invasions,protests against cutting public utilities andresurgent trade union militancy. In this con-text, unions and organs of civil society havecome together to resist the most negativeaspects of neoliberal policy and to pressurethe Government to deliver on the promisesof 1994. In such a situation, which is repli-cated throughout the world and especiallyin developing countries, trade unions andprogressive organizations need to embracenew communication and information tech-nologies to learn from each other’s experi-ences and to coordinate international pro-grammes to combat the negative aspects ofglobalization.

Notes

1 N. Mahomed and S. Vally: “Education andGlobalization”, keynote address (Kenton, 1999).

2 D. Johnson:”Lessons from Africa”, in Mail andGuardian (Johannesburg), 21-27 September 2001, p. 7.

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Newspapers are piling up in themakeshift kiosks of Bamako and Dar

es Salaam. Looking at the variety of head-lines, one might forget that in the decadesthat followed independence, the Africanpress was characterized, with a few notableand intermittent exceptions – such as Ni-geria, South Africa, Kenya and Senegal –by an almost total submission to the State.In the name of an unfortunate concept of“development journalism”, the writtenand audiovisual press mainly engaged inso-called “griotism” – the celebration of the“achievements” of the Head of State – con-veniently leaving out reports on corrup-tion, arbitrary decisions and violence.

News about Africa came from the in-ternational press, which placed the oddcorrespondent in pivotal cities like Dakar,Abidjan, Nairobi and Johannesburg, andwhich regularly dispatched special cor-respondents to the region, most often byreplicating the traditional flows of colonialhistory. The religious press also had its net-work and its special reports were a pre-cious source of information and analysis.The subjugation of the African press alsoexplains the key role played by magazines

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African press and globalization:An unfinished transformation

The emergence of independent media has undoubtedly contributedto the strengthening of democracy in Africa. But economic fragility,attacks on journalists, illiteracy and the digital divide continue tohamper its development.

Jean-Paul Marthoz*European Press Director

Human Rights Watch

* Jean-Paul Marthoz is the author of a book onglobal journalism – Et maintenant le monde en bref (Andnow the headlines from around the world), (EditionsComplexe, 1999) and a former director of the Inter-national Federation of Journalists’ Media for Democ-racy in Africa programme.

published back in the former colonialpowers: Jeune Afrique and Afrique Asie inParis, and New African in London. The in-ternational radio stations – BBC, RFI,Deutsche Welle and Voice of America –rounded off this “African” media system,serving for the most part as sources of sub-stitute and even opposition informationfor African audiences.

In the late 1980s, the winds of freedomsweeping across the communist countriesspread to Africa and, little by little, led tothe birth of newspapers, followed by radiostations that did not have ties to the gov-ernment. The Windhoek conference, or-ganized by UNESCO in 1991, sanctionedand validated this paradigm shift. Thefinal declaration of the conference, pro-claiming the role of an “independent, plu-ralistic and free” press in the advancementof democracy and development, becamethe benchmark for all new press venturesin Africa. In West Africa, the Paris-basedPanos Institute noted in 1994 that “themushrooming of an independent pressplayed a crucial role in the advent of po-litical pluralism. The state-sponsoredpress, goaded by these developments, castoff some of its shackles too. Once the elec-tions were over, these newspapers contin-ued to pursue an unheard-of, ongoing,pluralistic public debate.” 1 At the sametime, in South Africa, the struggle againstapartheid made it into the alternativepress – Weekly Mail, New Vision – while the

French-speaking countries of West Africawere experiencing a proliferation of “ir-reverent” titles such as Le Cafard Libéré inSenegal and Le Messager in Cameroon. InEnglish-speaking countries, the misad-ventures of the press reflected the natureof the transitions under way – gentle inGhana and the United Republic of Tanza-nia, complex in Nigeria and Kenya. In stillother countries, some of the new mediabecame caught up in ethnic and identity-based sensationalism, leading ultimatelyto the deadly phenomenon of the “hatemedia”, of which Radio Télévision des MilleCollines in Rwanda became the frighteningsymbol during the genocide in 1994.

Ten years after the Declaration ofWindhoek, there are wildly varying as-sessments of the liberation of the Africanpress. “In most countries, liberating thepress has undeniably led to the creation ofa new public space and a new sense of em-powerment”, says Marie-Soleil Frère, anexpert in the role of the African press inpolitical transition. “The press legitimizedcriticism and helped the people to be lessafraid to speak their minds. Legislationhas been reformed and professional struc-tures have been bolstered by setting upPress Houses (in Ghana and Burkina Faso)and Free Press Observatories (in Côted’Ivoire).”2

Internationally, the African press hasalso joined many non-governmental net-works aimed at promoting cooperationand solidarity, from the UJAO/WAJA(West African Journalists Association) toMISA(Media Institute of Southern Africa).Moreover, it has enjoyed the support ofmultiple Western, i.e. American and Euro-pean, sponsors keen to promote the ideathat freedom of the press is also a lever inequitable development.

However, the African press still has along way to go before its transformation iscomplete. First of all, the printed press re-mains mainly limited to urban areas andis still the preserve of the wealthiest seg-ments of the population, owing to its costand the fact that it is usually written in the“official languages” (French, English, Por-tuguese) inherited from the colonists. In

many countries, liberalization has stoppedat the doors of radio and television. De-spite access to satellite TV and inter-national radio broadcasts, certain Africangovernments are still trying, albeit withless and less success, to retain their grip onradio – the only African mass media – andespecially on TV.

With the exception of some highly pro-fessional concerns, centred around the Na-tion Group in Kenya, a few press groupsin Lagos and Johannesburg, Groupe Sud inDakar and Fraternité-Matin in Côted’Ivoire, the printed press in Africa re-mains extremely fragile. Most titles sufferfrom multiple ills: a lack of transparencyregarding their funding, focus on the di-rector/editor-in-chief, no job specializa-tion, poor training, politicization focusingon local figures, etc.

Above all, the African press suffersfrom a tough economic environment. Thelack of investment and equipment, thelimitations of the advertising market andtenacious illiteracy are all creating a highlyprecarious environment for titles and ex-plain the “corruptibility” of poorly paidjournalists and the frequent acquiescenceof editors to political groups and financialinterests.

In most countries, the press is also sub-ject to repression. The law is constantlyused to harass the free press, with the re-sult that those newspapers that “do themost stirring” are continually intimidated.Former colonial law on the crimes of sedi-tion and insulting the Head of State, andextremely tough legislation on slander andconfidentiality are regularly invoked tobring journalists to court or put them injail. For instance, in Zambia the Post wassued for slander on more than 100 occa-sions between 1991 and 1996.

“At the end of the day,” says RobertMénard, Director of Reporters withoutBorders (Reporters sans frontières), “thenumber of people going to prison is a goodsign. Whereas far more journalists are inprison in Africa today than was the case10 or 20 years ago, this is because there arejournalists to throw in jail, journalists whoare doing their job. Fifteen years ago, in

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certain African countries, there was no-body to throw in jail because there wasonly one newspaper, only one pressagency, only one radio station and onlyone TV station”.3

In countries at war, the situation of jour-nalists is even more precarious. Forced tochoose sides between government forcesand rebels, in most cases they are unable todo their job. Assassination is the ultimateform of censorship. In recent years, listspublished by international human rightsorganizations have shown that Africancountries such as Algeria, Rwanda andSierra Leone have had the ignominious dis-tinction of leading the pack in terms of thehighest numbers of murdered journalists.

These conflict situations also compli-cate the very job of keeping the public in-formed: “The Congolese press, whichcould have been a key eyewitness toevents, was totally absent from the theatreof war”, said the Congolese organizationJournalistes en Danger in the introductionto its 2000 report on freedom of the pressin the Democratic Republic of the Congo(DRC). “It makes do with official press re-leases and second-hand information. Ofcourse, the Congolese press does not haveextensive resources available for travellingto the sites of operations, but the mainthing is that it has been cowed. It is bannedfrom viewing what is going on and evenfrom talking about it, often to the detri-ment of the country. This is true in the Eastand West. When it does dare to speak out,it is accused of treason.”

Africa and the world

The existence of independent media and ageneration of journalists keen to do theirjobs in a professional manner have cer-tainly helped to improve the quality of theinternational coverage of the continent.Today, texts published in the most inde-pendent newspapers regularly appear ininternational magazines such as Le Cour-rier International and World Press Review.

We are a far cry from the “lapdog press”in the days of the single-party states and,

therefore, a far cry from opaque govern-ment. But it is still difficult to “unscram-ble” information. “Those who live outsideAfrica”, says Africa expert Stephen Ellis,“can find plenty of information in theAfrican press but, like the press in everyother country, it can only be read withinthe context of the dominant culture if wewish to extract from it the maximumamount of information”.4

The African press is the victim of itsown political, cultural and financial con-straints and limitations. Despite the liveli-ness of a press – which is private, if not al-ways independent – crucial events are stillcovered first by the international press andthen picked up by the African press. Thiswas the case, for instance, during the Sene-galese army’s intervention in Guinea-Bissau, and with the Tanzanian pressduring the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.5

The advent of new information andcommunication technologies (the Internetand especially mobile telephones) have alsochanged the situation, not only by givingAfrican journalists global sources of infor-mation, but also by enabling the appropri-ation of information citizens and non-gov-ernmental associations. These technologiesalso allow African journalists to go beyondtheir usual readership and reach audiencesof fellow nationals living abroad as well asresearchers and decision-makers. Accord-ing to the Department of African Studiesat Columbia University in New York,more than 120 African newspapers andmagazines can be accessed on the Web.6

Despite the faster-than-planned growthof the Internet in Africa, the figures are stillmodest compared to countries in theNorth. In 2001, there were just 5 millionpeople surfing the Web (out of a total pop-ulation of 780 million), chiefly due to thelack of phone lines, the low level of elec-trification and the high cost of buying acomputer.7 (See also the article by MarcBélanger, p. 31).

There is still a certain amount of in-equality as far as information is concernedin Africa. In fact, there are several“Africas”. The main imbalance is betweenthe Republic of South Africa and the rest

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of the continent. South African capital hasbeen heavily invested in the continent’stelecommunications and television sec-tors, one example being M-Net, the firstpan-African channel. South Africa ac-counts for more than two-thirds of Africancybersurfers, and even though the end ofthe struggle against apartheid has dimin-ished the level of interest in South Africa,Johannesburg remains one of the contin-ent’s capitals of journalism, especially forthe English-language press. Along withthis continental imbalance there are sub-regional differences. This is the case inWest Africa, where Senegal and Côted’Ivoire play a special role in terms ofFrench-language reporting.

Globally, international radio stationsstand out clearly from global TV stations.The global TV stations provide relativelylittle coverage of Africa, and when they doit is usually dramatic (war, AIDS) or offi-cial (news from humanitarian organiza-tions or organizations sponsored bythem). Radio stations, on the other hand,provide a steady stream of information inline with relevant local journalistic criteria.Even though they face competition in agrowing number of countries from localprivate radio stations, international sta-tions still benefit from their clout amongthe more educated strata of the populationbecause they validate locally obtained in-formation from abroad.

However, Africa still remains a rela-tively low priority in news reports broad-cast or published in the countries of theNorth. The type of subjects covered is alsoconventional: despite occasional efforts toshow that Africa is alive, getting by andbeing creative, most reports cover tragicevents; indeed wars, predatory manoeu-vres, pandemics and refugees are thesteady diet fed to us in reports on Africa.In addition, despite the new technologies(satellite telephones and the Internet), theinformation available on vast regions ofAfrica is fragmented. Access to battlefieldsand zones ravaged by humanitarian crisesis often prohibited by militias or gangs.The quality of reports on Africa is also lim-ited by the lack of knowledge of the his-

torical and cultural complexity of Africansocieties. This phenomenon is fuellingstereotypes and generalizations about thiscontinent that has once again turned to-wards “the heart of darkness”.

Globalization and pluralism

Despite the progress made over the last tenyears in the news and the media, Africa isstill typified by an “unequal exchange” ofinformation. The revival of Panapress, thecontinent-wide press agency, is part of thisdesire to reduce the imbalance and to giveAfricans the chance to cover their owncontinent. But Africa is also widely facedwith the repercussion of media globaliza-tion. “The media are accelerating the glob-alization of African societies by introduc-ing the political, economic, social and evencultural modes of the Western industrial-ized countries,” says André-Jean Tudesq,an expert on African media. “The triumphof the market economy … coincided withchallenges to leaders in many Africancountries and the expression of new aspir-ations … . But the media – and televisionin particular – also portrays the life ofmodern, richer societies, leading to com-parisons, frustration and demands that be-come more violent as the quality of life ofmany groups of Africans deterioratesowing to various crises”.8 How can Africancultural diversity be protected from theonslaught of Western media invading theprogramming schedules of TV stationsthat are often penniless and devoid of anyresources to produce their own content?“Africans see the rest of the world, in-cluding other African countries, throughWestern eyes”, Tudesq concludes.

Notes

1 Panos Institute: Programme d’appui au pluralismede l’information en Afrique de l’Ouest, (Support pro-gramme for the pluralism of information in WestAfrica), 1994-1997.

2 Marie-Soleil Frère: “Presse et démocratie enAfrique francophone” (Press and democracy inFrench-speaking Africa), (Paris, Karthala), 2000.

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3 L’Autre Afrique (The other Africa), 13-19 Janu-ary 1999, p. 16.

4 Stephen Ellis: “Reporting Africa” in Current his-tory (Philadelphia), May 2000, pp. 221-226.

5 Panos Institute: “Médias et Conflits en Afrique”(The media and conflicts in Africa), (Paris, Karthala),2001.

6 Mike Jensen: “Making the Connection: Africaand the Internet” in Current History, (Philadelphia),May 2000, pp. 215-220.

7 Caroline Laporte: Etat des lieux de l’Internet danshuit pays d’Afrique, (Situation regarding the Internetin eight African countries), (Paris, Centre français ducommerce extérieur), July 2001.

8 André-Jean Tudesq: Les médias en Afrique (Themedia in Africa), (Paris, Ellipses/Infocom), 1999,pp. 7-8.

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Last year, Mr Rossi, a senior representa-tive of the International Organization

for Migration (IOM), noted that “each yearbetween 1960 and 1975 some 1,800 highlyqualified Africans left the continent. Thisfigure rose to 4,000 for the period 1975-1984 and to 12,000 by 1990 and currentlystands at 23,000. This means that aroundone third of Africa’s intellectual resourcesnow live elsewhere.”1 He added that thesefigures do not include the students whofail to return home after they have com-pleted their education. In a similar vein,2.7 per cent of Indian graduates now re-side in industrialized countries. The sameapplies to 3 per cent of Chinese graduates;the figure for Egypt is 7 per cent; for SouthAfrica it is 8 per cent; for the Philippines10 per cent; the Republic of Korea 15 percent; Iran 25 per cent; and Ghana 26 percent. In the case of Jamaica, 77 per cent ofgraduates live in the most industrializednations.2 “These flows are extensiveenough to constitute a real ‘brain drain’.”3

This brain drain takes two main forms.4

The first is the result of the magnetic at-traction of training centres in industrial-ized nations to students from developingcountries. The declared intentions arepraiseworthy: young people will betrained and then take their new skills backhome. But in reality the situation is ratherdifferent. Many graduates are deterredfrom returning home by the difficult liv-ing conditions that await them there. As aresult they stay abroad for good or at least

put off their “return home” for as long aspossible.

The other aspect of the brain drain phe-nomenon is the pulling power of North-ern countries for skilled technicians, uni-versity researchers and already trainedintellectuals. This highly selective methodof recruitment is based on the difference(or even the gulf) between working condi-tions in the country of origin and those inthe potential host country. Private firms,international institutions or even univer-sities may be behind this, with or withoutthe collusion of the Northern states.

Trade in goods…

The trade union organizations essentiallyview this phenomenon as reducing labourto the status of goods. Hence, the Frenchdaily newspaper Libération noted on 28February 2000 that: “Germany will import30,000 IT experts”, using the same termthat is employed for animals and objects.Other organizations are concerned aboutthe effects that this form of migration ishaving on development: the IOM noted:“Human resources in Africa constitute thebasis of national wealth. The continent ab-solutely has to hold on to them and createthe necessary conditions for the return ofthose intellectuals who may have left.”

As far as Africa is concerned, migra-tions still follow the old colonial lines.France, Belgium, Portugal and the United

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The brain drain: Losing one’s headAlmost one-third of Africa’s intellectual resources now lie elsewhere,at a time when the continent is in dire need of them. This challengeis bound up with both the development strategies and employmentpolicy. The brain drain must be reversed, but in itself it will not beenough.

André LinardInformation Officer

World Confederation of Labour

Kingdom are all continuing to receive im-migrants respectively from West Africa,the Great Lakes region, Angola, Mozam-bique and other Portuguese-speaking ter-ritories, as well as eastern and southernAfrica. However, the distinction is nowstarting to blur somewhat as a result of thecreation in Europe of the so-called Schen-gen zone and the increase in the number ofillegal immigrants who enter the Euro-pean Union wherever and however theycan. Nor can we overlook the attraction ofNorth America and, of course, intra-African migration. There is nothing newabout the brain drain phenomenon. How-ever, there have been two notable changesin recent years. First of all, the number ofpeople involved has risen. Secondly, theimprovement in communication tech-niques has resulted in some movement inthe opposite direction. Work that used tobe done in the industrialized nations usingtrained immigrant labour has now been re-located to the countries that originallysupplied that labour. The IT skills of In-dian engineers have been widely docu-mented; but it is perhaps less well knownthat, unbeknown to the customer, calls tocertain companies are now automaticallydeviated to call centres in countries of theSouth. The operators there are trained tospeak without an accent and are requiredto monitor European weather and footballresults in order to be able to respond co-herently to any remarks made by the cus-tomer. However, this mainly concerns anunskilled or only marginally skilled work-force.

Individuals and societies

As with any form of migration, the braindrain can be viewed from an individual ora collective point of view. At the individ-ual level, a researcher or an engineer re-cruited by a company, an institution or auniversity to work in an industrializedcountry will probably secure better payand better working conditions. As for allother migrant workers, he/she will alsohave the option of sending money back

home to his/her family, thereby helping toimprove their living conditions. Accord-ing to the United Nations Research Insti-tute for Social Development (UNRISD),“the global volume of remittances (repat-riated wages) rose from US$2 billion to$70 billion between 1970 and 1995”.5 In thebest-case scenario, the money earnedabroad will be invested in job-creation ini-tiatives. Collectively, however, migrationrepresents a short-term gain and a long-term loss for the country of origin. This isnot only true for the brain drain but ap-plies to all migrant workers.

In the short term, migration generatescash thanks to the money sent back homeby the immigrants in question. On occa-sion, this source of income has even out-stripped export revenues. In fact, somecountries have even banked on this influxof capital. Thus, as OECD expert MarioCervantes points out: “In the 1960s, Indiachose to develop its higher technologicalresearch institutes rather than primary ed-ucation. A veritable private training in-dustry for export developed, as also hap-pened in the Philippines. One of theleading applicants for US immigrationvisas for highly skilled labour is an Indianagency specializing in emigration.” 6

However, at the end of the day, says theIOM, “this represents an economic loss.The migratory flows organized by thecountries in the North completely eataway any investments made in training.”Firstly, there are the “brains”: althoughthey have benefited greatly from the raretraining infrastructures available in the de-veloping country, when the time comes forthem to pay back their country’s invest-ment they instead opt to ply their tradeelsewhere. Secondly, there are those formsof migration which, as the World Confed-eration of Labour (WCL) notes, “involvethe most dynamic, the youngest and thebest (or least badly) trained workers; theirloss is a serious blow to their respectivecountries of origin”.7 Indeed, the Indianminister for information technology hasasked openly why it is that a poor countrylike his “is subsidizing the American edu-cation system and economy”.

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Good for companies

For the industrialized countries, too, mi-gration can be viewed in both a positiveand negative light. On the one hand, oneminus is that public opinion tends to note,perhaps too hastily, the presence of “for-eigners, different people, who do not shareour culture…”. People forget that thewhole of human history is made up of mi-grations, the coming together and inter-mingling of cultures.

Another negative point is that the useof migrant workers is exerting downwardpressure on wages and working condi-tions. Simple application of the law of sup-ply and demand should see wages risewhen there are labour shortages in a givensegment. This mechanism is disrupted,however, when foreign workers arebrought in and there is even the risk of alabour surplus, increasing the competitionbetween workers. It is the trade unions’ jobto avoid this pitfall and to fight to ensurethat all workers, migrant and indigenous,are accorded the same status.

This phenomenon affects all immi-grants and shows clearly that while, indi-vidually, these workers do see an im-provement in their living conditions,overall the recipient countries are thebiggest beneficiaries of migration. Evi-dence of this lies in the debates on the“need” for industrialized Western nationsto open their borders to migrant workersin order to compensate for the ageing ofthe active population.8 As an extension ofthis, the idea has been mooted of makinghighly selective calls on migrant labour inline with the specific needs and interestsof the host country, or even of using mi-grant workers for limited periods only.

The brain drain tallies perfectly withthis approach in so far as it constituteshighly specific, almost individual selec-tion.

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A brain drain tax?Is it possible to tax the brain drain? Two con-sultants at the McKinsey Institute in Wash-ington feel that such a tax – redistributed tothose companies in the countries of originwho can hold on to their “brains” or lurethem back home – could certainly help tocounter the losses currently experienced bydeveloping nations. India alone is estimatedto lose out on US$2 billion a year as 100,000IT experts move to the United States of Amer-ica. However, the working and research con-ditions as well as the salaries on offer are stillfar from sufficient to keep these people athome. According to the Financial Times, the au-thors of the study themselves recognize thatthere is little chance of such a taxation mech-anism really working. The tax would have tobe levied in the destination country where the“brain” goes to work, i.e. in the industrializednations, and it is simply not in these countries’interests to agree to this.

Source: InfoSud/Switzerland.

Can we bank on immigrantsreturning home?

Consequently, we may need to examinethe feasibility of voluntary policies en-couraging “brains” to return home. Thisapproach is recommended in bilateralagreements between countries and by in-stitutions such as the International Or-ganization for Migration, which has set upvoluntary return programmes in a num-ber of countries. How effective have theseefforts been?

Former Radio Nederland journalistRoland Ramamonjy told the Agence Syfiathat in Madagascar “they do not fully ap-preciate intellectuals, whereas local engin-eers are highly sought-after elsewhere fortheir expertise”. Many are tempted awayby the lure of cash. Some resist, some re-turn home. Roland Ramamonjy explains:“I took part in the temporary brain drainby only working three to six months in theNetherlands, France and Canada. I couldhave stayed there, but my sense of patri-otism was too strong.”

Sometimes the social status of the ex-émigré is enhanced when he returns home,

but he can just as easily be viewed as a fail-ure: “Whether or not they were driven out,those who return home are called ParisianRejects and are mocked endlessly. The‘reject’ will do anything to cast off thisshame … He is then called an ‘abetela’, aplay on words suggesting that he is a ‘fin-ished man’.” 9 The relationship between re-turn and development is not automatic. Itneeds to be examined in greater detail ifonly to ensure that these programmes arenot, at the end of the day, simply used bythe industrialized nations to get rid of im-migrants who are no longer useful to them.The first factor determining whether or notreturning migrants succeed is the avail-ability of jobs in their country of origin. Thesecond factor is the reduction of the wagegap with industrialized nations, becauseuntil this gap is reduced the temptation toleave will always be there. For example,while the North American Free TradeAgreement (NAFTA) has made it easier toinvest in Mexico, it has not managed tostem the tide of migration to the North pre-cisely because this wage gap still exists.

The problem must therefore be viewedin terms of making development a condi-tion rather than a consequence of the braindrain reversal. Many analyses and tradeunion demands take the same view, call-ing for economic choices to be driven bythe needs of local populations; structuraladjustment programmes that limit coun-tries’ room for manoeuvre to be scrapped;and integration into the global economy tobe viewed as a means for developmentrather than an end in itself.

Contrary to what the Bretton Woods in-stitutions appear to believe, the fightagainst poverty cannot simply entail“helping” the victims of this scourgethrough social welfare mechanisms whichfail to fight the root cause of the problem.

It is only through viable and generalizedemployment policies which respect inter-national labour standards that the causesof poverty can be eradicated.

The brain drain has international reper-cussions and constitutes a challenge at na-tional level. It is related to the issue of in-tellectual property in so far as the currenttrend for concentrating patents in thecountries and companies of the North willfurther deprive developing nations of thenecessary means of research. Because of itslinks with employment and social devel-opment policy, this issue is also of concernto the trade unions.

Notes

1 Speaking at a colloquium organized by AgenceInfoSud, Brussels, 8 December 2000.

2 W. Carrington; E. Detragiache: Finances and De-velopment (IMF, Washington), June 1999.

3 WCL: “Migration in Africa” in Labor-Magazine,97/4.

4 One day we may also be writing an article aboutthe “foot drain” as high-level sportsmen and womenwho go to work abroad end up in dire straits at theend of their careers. But that’s another story …

5 UNRISD: Visible hands: Taking responsibility forsocial development, Geneva, 2000.

6 Le Monde (Paris), Economy supplement, 6 March2001.

7 WCL: Migrant workers, Annual report on work-ers’ rights, 1999. See also André Linard: Migration andglobalization: The new slaves, ICFTU, 1998.

8 These discussions have intensified since the(controversial) publication in 2000 of a report by theUnited Nations Population Division on demographicforecasts: Replacement migration: Is it a solution to a de-clining and ageing population?

9 Mayoyo Bitumba Tipo-Tipo: “Migrations Nord-Sud. Levier ou obstacle? Les Zaïrois en Belgique”(North-South Migration: A Lever or an Obstacle?Zairians in Belgium), in Cahiers Africains, No. 13,1995, quoted in La Revue Nouvelle (Brussels), by J.C.Willame.

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