Three Obstacles for Africa to Realize Sustainable Development

African asks two permanent seats in the UN Security Council

Yara Prize To Prime Minister Meles Zenawi

Yara International is a Norwegian-based global company and the worlds largest supplier of mineral fertilizers established in 1905. Based on its unique heritage, Yara leads an industry that helps feeding people and solving environmental challenges around the world. At the beginning of the last century, Yara invented nitrogen fertilizer and spurred a revolution in agriculture. Today, Yara is a global company with a particular strength in mineral fertilizers and indu-strial solutions like chemicals and gases. Yara’s range of products has numerous positive effects on peoples’ lives: ferti-lizers essentially help farmers increase quality food prod-uction intact with popu-lation growth and with minimal environmental impact; Yara’s environmental solutions reduce emissions from power plants and trucks.   

Today, Yara is the world’s leading provider of mineral fertilizers, with operations in 50 countries on five continents. A century of innovative tec-hnologies, commercial daring and strategic partnerships has equipped it with financial strength and leading know-ledge. But does it have a 21st-century agenda, beyond making profits for shareholders? President and CEO of Yara, Thorleif Enger says, “We aim to use our strength and resources to partner with our customers in realizing sustainable food production for the world’s growing population, and in safeguarding the environment. And we aim to take the leading role in shaping the fertilizer industry into a model of sustainable business. In this way, by embracing change and ensuring continuity, we will build a solid future for ourselves, our partners and the community.”   

Yara is the only global fertilizer-industry player with a presence in Africa, where it has been active for 25 years. It has joined forces with the UN Millennium Project to help create an African version of the green revolution that changed the lives of hundreds of millions of Asians during the 1960s and 70s. Yara’s commitment in Africa encompasses three interrelated projects: The Yara Foundation and Prize, The Yara School Project and The Yara Smallhold Farmers Project. Each project links to measures proposed in the UN Millennium Hunger Task Force’s action plan – free school meals, developing local agriculture and markets, and supporting local initiatives to realize an African green revolution.   

The Yara School Project draws on its long experience of African fertilizer markets and knowledge gained through participation in the UN Millennium Project’s Hunger Task Force.  It is part of the first Millennium Villages pilot project, located in the Bar-Sauri region of western Kenya.  

Yara is guaranteeing annual donor funding of USD 200,000, including co-sponsorship from its employees, for three years, with an option to continue for the full five-year pilot period. Yara’s contribution will ensure free school meals to encourage attendance and stimulate learning, purchase of food from local farms, creating a local market for poor subsistence farmers, knowledge transfer to support the development of local agriculture and scholarships for secondary school education.

Yara’s Smallhold Farmers Project is developing a business concept for providing mineral fertilizer to small farms and stimulating a move from subsistence farming to commercial farming. A forward stocking point in Tanzania will help to maintain fertilizer supplies and stabilize prices, making fertilizer more affordable for smallhold farmers. Yara is seeking cooperation with donor agencies to develop the project.   

The Yara Foundation and Prize is another important project of the Yara International. The Yara Prize will be bestowed annually, by the Yara Foundation, upon an individual or group that has made a key contribution to the creation of sustainable agriculture in Africa. It will recognize efforts that increase food production and value creation in any field related to African agriculture. An international Board of experts chaired by the President and CEO of Yara will select candidates. The Yara Prize, consisting of a bursary of US $ 200,000, a diploma and a work of art, will be presented by a prominent figure from the world of international development. In connection with the Prize, the Yara Foundation will generate publicity and help to disseminate the work of the Prizewinner.

The Board members of the Yara Foundation are drawn from a vast array of professional experience in different parts of the world. Following is the brief resume of the Yara Foundation Board Members:  

Thorleif Enger, Yara President and CEO (Chair)  

Before assuming his current position, Dr. Enger acted as Executive Vice President of Hydro Agri Company from 1999 to 2004. He was employed by Hydro from 1973, serving as President of Hydro’s Exploration & Production Division from 1987 to 1996, and Project Director of the Oseberg oil field from 1982 to 1986.  

Prior to 1973, he worked as a senior research engineer for the Shell Development Company in the United States. Dr. Enger has a Doctorate degree in engineering from the University of Colorado USA. Dr. Enger currently serves as the Chairman of the Board of Telenor ASA.   

Dr. Pedro Sanchez Ph.D., Director of Tropical Agriculture at the Earth Institute, Columbia University, New York.   

A U.S. citizen born in Cuba, Dr. Sanchez is a leading expert in the field of soil science and a pioneer of agro forestry. His professional career has been dedicated to improving the management of tropical soils through integrated natural resource management, to achieve food security and reduce rural poverty while protecting and enhancing the environment. He has solid international experience having lived and worked in parts of the U.S., the Philippines, Peru, Colombia, Kenya, and having supervised in the Cerrado of Brazil, the Amazon of Peru and in 15 countries in Africa and Southeast Asia.   

Dr. Marco Quinones Ph.D., Regional Director for Africa, Sasakawa Global 2000, Ethiopia.
 

Mexican born Dr. Quinones was part of Nobel Laureate Dr. Norman E. Borlaugs 1960s Rockefeller Foundation team whose wheat research sparked the Green Revolution. This collaboration led to a succession of leading research posts at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) and the National Institute of Agricultural Research, both in Mexico.

Dr. Quinones also spent seven years as a commercial farmer and agricultural extension consultant for farmers’ cooperatives in Mexico, before commencing nearly twenty years working for the Sasakawa Global 2000 initiative a joint collaboration of the Sasakawa Africa Association and the Carter Centre devoted to raising the productivity of African farmers.   

Joan Holmes, President of the Hunger Project, USA.  

U.S. born Joan Holmes is one of the foremost experts on the link between women and hunger, and created and launched the African Woman Food Farmer Initiative in 1999. She has been President and CEO of The Hunger Project since 1977, and has built the organization into an influential worldwide movement for the end of hunger. 

Joan Holmes is renowned for her ability to mobilize and bring together leadership at all levels and all sectors of society. She has worked with numerous heads of state, and was invited by the Planning Commission of India in 1990 and the President of Senegal in 1991 to organize and lead National Strategy Conferences for the end of hunger in those countries.   

Dr P. Hartmann Ph.D., Director General of the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture, Nigeria (IITA) 

A U.S. citizen born in Tanzania, Dr. Hartmann has gained a unique perspective on development initiatives and their implementation through an international career spanning Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America.    

Dr. Hartmann’s current position reflects his life-long commit-ment to the development and administration of agricultural systems and institutions, and the provision of technical assistance and agricultural education in the developing world. The IITA’s main focus is increasing African food security using a research for develop-ment approach that involves farmers, villagers and public-private partnerships.    

Following is the full text of the Yara Foundation’s statement issued upon honoring Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi African Green Revolution Yara Prize:  

Oslo (2005-14-07): The Board of the Yara Foundation has chosen to award the first African Green Revolution Yara Prize, to the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Meles Zenawi, for his contri-bution to improved food security and human nutrition in ways that also protect the environment. The Yara Prize will be presented by Professor Jeffrey Sachs, director of the United Nations Millennium Project at an award ceremony in Oslo, Norway on September 3. 

The Yara Foundation Board recognizes Prime Minister Meles’ decisive steps towards increasing food production and reducing poverty in one of the poorest countries of the developing world. He has brought about political change in Ethiopia, and placing the rural poor first in the country’s development strategies.   

Ethiopia sees agriculture as the entry point for investments in rural development, with particular focus on women, and the creation of agro-industries. Budget allocation to the agricultural sector in Ethiopia is above 15 %, exceeding the goal of 10% established by the African Union.

The Yara Foundation has evaluated and emphasized the progress to date, and realizes that there are still many unsolved challenges and shortcomings to be addressed. A 21st Century African Green Revolution is much more than just producing more food. It also involves providing an enabling policy environment, securing ownership rights, improving child nutrition, making markets work for the poor and doing all this in ways that protects and enhances the rural environment. It is a revolution to end hunger that also empowers people with a voice, and the opportunity to create their own future.   

Ethiopia has reformed its public sector, has strengthened its human resource capital, has trained over 45,000 paraprofessional “barefoot” extension workers who now live and work in over 15,000 villages across the country, and has provided micro credit to over 4.5 million smallholder farm families.  

The results are among the most promising for achieving the Millennium Development Goal of cutting world hunger in half by the year 2015.During the past decade Ethiopia has more than doubled its food production from 6.3 million metric tons in 1993, to 14.3 million tons in 2004.Ethiopia’s GDP grew at an average of 5.8 % annually, with agriculture growing at an average rate of 3.1% in spite of the severe droughts of 1998 and 2001.     

During the last three years, agricultural production has grown at 8 % per annum. In spite of the fact that about 40% of the population is chronically malnourished, Ethiopia’s food security programme aims at enabling 4-5 million chronically food insecure to attain food security within 3-5 years, a major step towards accomplishing the Hunger Millennium Develop-ment Goal.   

Meles Zenawi has, as one of Africa’s young leaders and senior statesmen, made major contributions also on the international arena, including his membership in the Commission for Africa.   

The Yara Prize 2005 is awarded to Meles Zenawi, for his dedication and inspirational leadership, for the results achieved in improving food security for his people, and for Ethiopia’s response to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s call for a uniquely African green revolution for the 21st Century.

Three Obstacles for Africa to Realize Sustainable Development

Li Zhibiao  Reasearch Fellow, IWAAS, CASS

In the contemporary economic development theories prevailing all over the world and in the policy practices pursued by every country, sustainable development of social economy is becoming a focus.  What is sustainable development?   

The United Nations defines it as “to satisfy the needs of this generation, without doing any detriment to the ability of the coming generations in satisfying their needs.”   

According to the UN’ definition, the balanced sate of population growth, resource exploitation, and ecological protection is certainly the basic requirements for the realization of sustainable development.  Africa is an area abounding in natural resources in the world; however, a lot of African countries don’t realize the significance of the balanced state of this kind in their economic development, and therefore this has not only become a cause of under-development, but also has evolved into main obstacles on the way to realizing sustainable development.  

Obstacle One:  Population Problems 

Since human beings conduct all economic activities, the sustainable development of a social economy cannot be divorced from a balance in population growth.  The balance between resources and environment cannot be realized unless population growth is brought under control.  Form national independence through the early 1990s, economic growth in African countries has continued to slide, while populations have leapt form 275 million in 1960 to 680 million in 1993.  With the population explosion, a series of phenomena have emerged, such as a younger population, abnormal urbanization and the low quality of the work force and low education of the population. 

A.   Younger Population 

Among the aggregate African population, nearly half are under the age of 15, and only 5% are over 65 years of age.  Generally speaking, a younger population may provide ample labor resources for economic development.  However, for the African countries, where economic development is under-developed, a large number of the young only pose a potential threat to economic development. 

First, the large number of the young in population is a potential factor for further population explosions.  Facing a series of many, African countries have put forward varied solutions to control population growth.  By the later 1980s, some three-fourths of African countries had laid out family planning programs.  Nevertheless, the programs were for the most part just words, never going into effect.  Consequently, human reprod-uction has been left in an uncontrolled state.

 Second, a large number of young population challenges the education system in each nation.  Due to the poor based and shortage of fund, education in Africa is comparatively backward.  The most conspicuous fact can be observed from the universal lack of educational infrastructure in every nation.  Consequently, the rates of enrollment, both in basic and higher education are very low.  Although one thing is not deniable that many African countries have made some progress in education, compared with the levels before independence, Africa’s limited education resources are now faced with increasing numbers of school age children and adolescents.  

And third, this group will intensify the employment crisis in Africa.  The long-term economic depression in Africa has made Africa one of the regions with the highest unemployment rate.  Since the 1990s, job opportunities have only increased b a modest 2.4% annually, keeping the urban unemployment rates at an average 30%.  With the passage of time, the younger population will flow into the labour market, making the already bad employment situation worse. 

B.   Abnormal Urbanization 

Urbanization should have been a mark of industrialization and modernization in a country or region, and therefore of a developed economy.  However, in Africa the case is different.  The swift developments of African cities are not the result of the development of productivity, but of the influx of a large rural population into cities along with the population explosion.

 The abnormal expansion of urban populations has greatly surpassed the capabilities of cities.  Increasing populations create difficulties for cities in housing, employment, food supply, transportation, and environmental management.   Since most of the rural population that flows into the cities are either illiterate or with poor work skills, many certainly face unemployment. 

In addition, the abnormal expansion of urban populations has done tremendous harm to the development of rural economies in Africa.  Among the flow of rural groups into the cities, the largest portions are laborers.  Their migration has reduced the human resources available to rural construction.  Agriculture in Africa is being drained of its vitality.  A vicious cycle has begun.

 C. Low Quality of Population

 The quality of the population directly affects the level of economic development in any nation.  A high rate of adult illiteracy means a low quality of laborers.  In the modern high-tech world, social production has required increasingly higher quality from laborers.  The large number of poor-quality laborers in Africa will definitely lead to low productivity, incompetent enterprises and the weak development of the continent.   Furthermore, since most low-quality laborers can only be engaged in simple work, it has increasingly posed a major obstacle to the introduction of foreign capital to African counties. 

 When foreign investors look for new homes for their capital, they certainly consider the factor of cheap labor costs.  But they also emphasize the quality of the labor force, especially those involved in high-tech industries.

 Obstacle Two:

Resource Problems 

Natural resources are the material base for human sustenance and social development, and the material base for the realization of the sustainable development of a society.  Even though nature has bestowed upon Africa unusually abundant resources, the problem of unbalanced  resource exploitation exists in every African country, and the reasons are as follows:

 First, the economies in Africa, based on the production and export of unfinished products, are characterized by a consumption of raw materials; Second, the population explosion adds to the pressure;  Third, there are many small countries in Africa, and natural resources are dispersed in an imbalanced state.

 A.    Over-Exploitation of Mineral Resources 

The African continent is famous for its abundant mineral resources.  Africa boasts deposit of all the 50 most important minerals in the world.  What’s more, the minerals in Africa occupy a very important status in terms of both explored deposits and outputs. Unluckily, with the ex caption of South Africa, most African countries export minerals in order to gain foreign currency deposits, instead of transforming them directly into effective resources for developing their national economies.   

Such use of resources is not only affected by fluctuating prices on the international market, but also not suited to the reform of the single item economic structure in African countries.  

More importantly, mineral resources are non-regenerated ones, or their regeneration rate is too little to count, the more use of this kind or resources, the less deposit of them.  At present, there are already some African countries where resources are exhausted because of over-exploitation. 

B.  Shortage of Energy

 In the economic development of contemporary nations, energy has been playing a very important role.  Even though Africa abounds in minerals, it belongs to the areas with scare energy, and this has certainly affected the normal development of African economies.  

One obvious sing of the shortage of energy in Africa is that the energy consumption in most African countries depends on imports.  The oil and gas output in Africa accounts for 10% of the gross output of the world, not at all a low percentage.  But the few countries with rich oil resources are export-oriented.  In addition to oil, Africa also boasts reserves of coal, with the deposits mainly in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. 

 This kind of unbalanced distribution of energy resources lead to many African countries relying on imports for commercial energy.  This has placed great pressure on the budgets of these countries.

 Cue to the shortage of energy, many African countries turn to firewood as an important energy sources, especially so in the daily energy consumption of the common Africans.  But this only serves to destroy the limited forest resources, and it is against the strategy of sustainable development.

 Luckily, there are numerous rivers in Africa, which provide abundant hydroelectric poten-tial.  Water resources that can be developed in Africa amount to 450 million kilowatts, accounting for 19% of the total in the world.  Actually, Africa takes second place in this regard, following Asia. 

 Driven by the lack of energy, many African countries go out of their way to develop and use hydroelectric power.  But due to a variety of restraining factors, less than 5% is currently being developed.  Among the numerous hydro-electric power stations in Africa, most are small, large ones are r are. 

Hydroelectric power is an energy supply characterized by easy regeneration.  If the African countries that are short of minerals can overcome the difficulties in capital, technology, and materials to develop hydroelectricity, not only will the shortage of energy supply be relieved, but also sustainable development of social economy can be enhanced.

 Obstacle Three:  Ecological Problems

 In the operation of a society, a balanced ecological system will allow for sustainable development.  If the balance is not realized, sustainable development is hard, if not impossible.  In Africa, the underdeveloped economies, exploding populations, and the serious harm done to the environment have formed one important factor working against the sustainable deve-lopment of the social economy. 

One obvious sign that the environment in Africa is being destroyed is the increasingly serious situation of deserti-fication.  Over 20% of the continent is now covered by deserts, and another 60% is threatened with such a fate.  During the 1980s, this phenomenon forced 10 million people away from their homes, causing an annual economic loss of some US $ 9 billion.  Experts warn that if no measures are adopted to stem the tide of desertification, the per capita land occupied will be reduced by two-thirds in the coming three decades.

 To understand the increasingly serious formation of wasteland, we must consider the global climate.  Still, we cannot undervalue the effects of the felling of large tracts of trees and the widespread slaughter of wild animals in Africa in order to enlarge exports.

The destruction of forests and plants and the slaughtering of wild animals do not occur naturally, but are the result of human economic activities.  So, under the pressure of popu-lation explosions, environ-menttal destruction will directly affect the operation and quality of sustainable development in Africa.  The situation will revolve around whether the African nations can improve the deteriorating environment, restore, and maintain it with their own efforts, while catering to the growing necessity of production and demands for living materials.

 Conclusion 

The sustainable development of a social economy is mainly based on proportional population, necessary resources and suitable environment, and among them population is the most important factor.  On the other hand, population, resources and environment are some changeable parameters, which can be adjusted by the social and economic deve-lopment. 

 Africa’s social and economic development level is quite low compared with other areas, and its various contradictions existing in the aspects of population, resources and envi-ronment are heavily restrain-ing the operation of sustain-able development.  Therefore, the need for African countries to control population growth, protect natural resources and maintain ecological balance during their realization of sustainable development has become an urgent task.

Quotes 

- Mistakes are part of the dues one pays for a full life. Sophia Loren 

- The bigger seller is cookbooks and the second is diet books – how not to eat what you have just learned to cook. Andy Rooney 

-Trust in your won untried capacity.  Ella wheeler Wilcox 

-You are always a little disappointing in person because you can’t be the edited essence of yourself. Mel Brooks  

- Every man believes that he has a greater possibility. Ralph Waldo Emerson 

-Before I speak, I have something important to say. Groucho Marx  

-There’s a better way to do it.  Find it! Thomas Edison

African asks two permanent seats in the UN Security Council

Heads of African States have asked for Africa’s represent-tation with two permanent and five temporary seats in the United Nations Security Council.

The summit has asked for Africa’s representation in the Security Council with five temporary and two permanent seats with a veto power.
Seyoum also said Africa is the only continent that does not currently have representation in the UN Security Council.   

Seyoum also indicated that a 10-member committee has been set up by the summit that includes two member countries from the five African regions represented by Heads of States.

According to Seyoum, the Committee will hold discussions with representatives of other continents to promote Africa’s position concerning UN’s reform.  

The Committee is expected to present its report for the current AU Chairperson after the next general assembly summit, the minister said.
UN’s structural reform is an essential and timely issue, which involves development, human rights and democra-tization of developing countr-ies, which are also essential for Africa.    

Meanwhile, opening the session officially, by the current Chairperson of the AU and President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo said: “The main issue before us is to decide either that Africa will join the rest of the world in bringing to a conclusion the demand for UN Reform in which our continent has played an important role in the last two decades or if Africa will stand on a non-negotiable position which will certainly frustrate the reform efforts.”

Arising from our persistence, 2005 is now generally considered as Africa’s year, the chairperson said, adding that this has resulted in a conjuncture of international consciousness that is more propitious for greater attention to Africa and the conclusion of UN Reform which he said the continent stands to benefit the most from it.   

Obasanjo further said that encompassed in the reform is the issues of development, which has already goaded the G-8 at their meeting in Gleneagles to take the important decisions for the acceleration of international cooperation for Africa’s development.    

“If all the elements of the decision are to bear full fruition, we should recognize that UN institutional reform should enable the organization to play an important policy and coordinating role,” Obasanjo said. “The reform also touches on security issues including conflict resolution in Africa. This obviously demands appropriate UN institutional updating, so that our continent can play a more significant role in decision-making. Issues relating to Africa’s conflict occupy about 70 per cent of Security Council agenda and time. To have Africa’s representation on that council to be increased from three to six will be a quantum leap forward.”  

The decision on other issues such as a Peace Building Commission, the Right to Protect and Human Rights, are of cardinal importance to our continent, he said, adding that these issues were also addressed in the Ezulwini consensus and subsequent meetings of the Follow-up Mechanism that considered the report of the UN Secretary General and the Draft Outcome Document of the President of the General Assembly.   

It is obvious that Africa with its 53 members in the UN is a sizeable group, but so is Asia with 54 members, he said and went on as saying: “We Africans in isolation cannot impose our wish on the 191 members of the UNGA. We need to negotiate with other groups, unless our objective is to prevent any decision. If that happens, let us be under no illusion, Africa stands to lose more than any other region.”  He further stated the objective of the meeting was to confirm the understanding reached between the AU Follow-up Mechanism on the one hand, and the G-4 acting on behalf of the co-sponsors of the other draft resolution initiated by them so that both sides can jointly submit a common resolution to the General Assembly. 

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