Money can also come from an increase in development aid. In 1990, the rich West donated an average of US$32 in aid for each African.
Today, that amount has nearly halved, when it should have doubled. There are conditions, however. We need greater cost efficiency in development aid, starting in the EU.
Credits are divided up among national budgets, which are subject to colonial-era reflexes and to the complaints of those who promote trade. NGOs suffer from too much bureaucracy. Internal resources swallow up a large proportion of funds. Paternalism is often the hallmark of Western NGOs and development authorities.
Today, that amount has nearly halved, when it should have doubled. There are conditions, however. We need greater cost efficiency in development aid, starting in the EU.
Credits are divided up among national budgets, which are subject to colonial-era reflexes and to the complaints of those who promote trade. NGOs suffer from too much bureaucracy. Internal resources swallow up a large proportion of funds. Paternalism is often the hallmark of Western NGOs and development authorities.
Sometimes, they even take over part of the government's role in poor countries, but it is the emancipation of these people that is critical to the achievement of development and prosperity.
That is why we must have the courage to give the poor countries a bigger voice. They urgently formulate their requests, but often they go unheard. My proposal for an international political authority structure based on continental cooperative links creates a democratic, multipolar form of consultation on a global scale, in which the voice of the poorer continents will carry more weight than before.
That is why we must have the courage to give the poor countries a bigger voice. They urgently formulate their requests, but often they go unheard. My proposal for an international political authority structure based on continental cooperative links creates a democratic, multipolar form of consultation on a global scale, in which the voice of the poorer continents will carry more weight than before.
For our part, we in Europe should be able to develop more intensive cooperative links with the African Union. This effort should be based, among other things, on the New Partnership for Africa's Development(NEPAD), which contains all the components of the new development consensus.
World poverty demands a united approach. The line that must be followed - free trade, but not only free trade - has already been traced out for some time. The time has now come for action and intervention in those areas where the free market falls short.
World poverty demands a united approach. The line that must be followed - free trade, but not only free trade - has already been traced out for some time. The time has now come for action and intervention in those areas where the free market falls short.