African finance ministers press conference: Rich countries urged to provide more aid, trade, and debt relief and less hypocrisy

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All four participating ministers cited shortfalls in development aid as the main reason African countries are not making sufficient progress toward the MDGs. Elhassan said that "African countries are committed to stay the course of adjustment and reform, but they need the full support and the commitments made in the Monterrey Consensus to increase concessional aid and debt relief and to foster technology transfer." Futa added a request that the Bretton Woods institutions, together with the Group of Eight and Group of 15, reconsider the amounts of aid that need to be disbursed in order to "start development with multiplier effects."

Expanded trade was also cited as a critical priority for Africa to diversify its economies, increase growth, and make progress toward achieving the MDGs. Mwiraria and Futa echoed Elhassan's lament that rich countries' highly discriminatory trade barriers pose a continuing impediment to development. Notably, the systematic escalation of tariffs on higher-value imports from developing countries impedes private sector development and export diversification in low- income countries. Mwiraria singled out agriculture as a sector in which African countries are competitive yet nevertheless face severe constraints that make it difficult for them to compete fairly in world markets.

Incoherence and hypocrisy

The finance ministers also raised a concern about the lack of coherence in developed country policies. All too often, contradictions in policies mean that support for development provided in one area is defeated by actions in another, noted Elhassan, citing the example of the $58 billion in aid pledged by Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries that is undermined by five times as much protection provided to these countries' domestic agricultural producers. These subsidies by developed countries lack any economic rationale, Futa argued, and a dialogue "based on true partnership" would require that developed countries stop this "hypocrisy."

"Many African countries are implementing reforms to strengthen their macroeconomic frameworks and ensure that economic decisions are struc- Page 128tured and based on policies that are truly adapted to today's world," remarked Futa, responding to a journalist questioning whether foreign investors are deterred by conflict on the continent and a poor business environment. But...