D+C Development and Cooperation (No. 5, September/October 2002)

The urbanisation in developing countries continues unabated. Within the next 30 years, the urban population in those countries is predicted to double from 1.9 billion to almost 4 billion. At the same time, the rural population will hardly increase anymore. Especially dramatic is the emergence of giant agglomerations in so-called megacities of ten million inhabitants and more. 17 of the 27 of such megacities are in Asia where more than half of the population will live in urban areas by the year 2025.

The rapid growth of the megacities on the one hand creates enormous problems for the provision of the people with housing, infrastructure and social services, but its also offers chances for an accelerated development through increased trade, industrial investments, and the use of modern technologies. It is certainly not by accident that the majority of megacities are port cities which can more easily profit from cheap sea traffic and the dynamics of globalisation.

The megacities with their sprawling slums, their traffic problems, their deficient water and electricity supply, the high crime rates and environmental pollution are, therefore, on the one hand a horror scenario pointing to the consequences of unrestricted population growth and migration; on the other hand, they are in a better position to develop solutions to these problems than rural or remote areas.

"Megacities - Horror Scenario or Chance for Developing Countries" was also the question which was asked in the heading to a specialist conference jointly organised by the Konrad-Adenauer Foundation (KAS) and the Foundation World Population (DSW) in Hanover in June. More than 220 participants - architects, city planners, development experts - heard the renowned sociologist, Prof. Dr. Saskia Sassen, migration expert Prof. Rainer Münz of Berlin’s Humboldt University, and representatives of five of the biggest megacities - Shanghai, Mumbai (Bombay), Manila, Lagos and São Paulo - who between the five of them have a population of no less than 72 million inhabitants.

Saski Sassen (University of Chicago) showed that not all megacities are included in the network of globalisation and are not ‘global cities’ as defined in her main book. Frankfurt, for instance, was a ‘global city’ on account of its integration into international transport and financial networks, but not a ‘megacity’ by size. On the other hand, Beijing is no ‘global city’ despite its enormous size, and in other megacities, too, only parts of the inhabitants are integrated into the network of global cities. Globalisation, therefore, reaches people in very different ways and brings advantages as well as devastations for them, she explained.

In a panel discussion, the representatives of the five megacities, surprisingly, drew a rather positive picture of development in their respective home cities. Particularly impressive was Prof. Zheng Shiling’s account of city planning in Shanghai where one of the most modern cities in the world is being built and which does not project a further growth of the city’s population beyond the present figure of 13 million. However, Prof. Zheng could not explain satisfactorily to the audience how China will deal with the 3 million so-called ‘floating migrants’ who are building the new city as temporary labourers but who have no permanent right to stay in Shanghei once the job is done.

Nirmala Samant Prabhavalkar, the first female Lord Mayor of the megacity of Mumbai (from 1994 to 1995), described how the city administration intends to stop the growth of new squatter areas through a policy of zero-tolerance of illegal housing construction, and how the city succeeded to cope with the problems of traffic congestion and crime .

Jilmar Tatto, Member of the State parliament of Sao Paulo, Brazil, pointed to the successes with decentralising local government as an important step towards democratisation at the lowest level. Agricultural reforms in the rural areas and the decentralisation of the economy are intended to lessen the migration pressure on the city - a policy which seems to work in Sao Paulo, because its annual population increase has dropped to merely 1.3 per cent.

Decentralisation is also the key word to solve the problems of the megacity of Manila although success still seems out of reach, according to Dr. Gaudioso Sosmeña of the Philippines. But Lagos, the biggest city of Nigeria, sees itself well placed to profit from the benefits of globalisation, according to State Housing Commissioner, Lanre Towry-Coker. The city government hopes to control the unhampered influx from the rural areas by introducing identity cards; and its crime rate was not worse than that of Johannesburg, said Towry-Coker.

In general, the panel discussion reflected a much more positive outlook on the future of the five megacities than expected by the German and international participants - a surprise for those who have the horror scenarios of crime, pollution, and congestion before their inward eyes.
Dieter Brauer

Structural Adjustment under Fire

The final report of the Structural Adjustment Participatory Review Initiative (SAPRI), published in April, does not have one good word to say about the World Bank’s structural adjustment policy. The World Bank and NGOs from around the world launched the joint initiative five years ago to investigate the impact of the Bank’s structural adjustment programmes (SAP) in 10 countries of Africa, Asia, Latin America and Central Europe. The report’s judgment is scathing: it says that instead of reducing poverty in the countries affected, the World Bank programmes have aggravated it.

The initiative’s main criticism is that in blind faith in supposedly development-promoting market forces and one-sided concentration on export-oriented growth, local industries in the countries affected have been disadvantaged or even destroyed. That means the most important engine for independent development has been stalled. World Bank President James Wolfensohn was to meet representatives of the civil society SAPRI network in July to discuss the findings. During the course of the investigation the World Bank increasingly distanced itself from the initiative when it appeared that its structural adjustment policy would come off badly.

The report says the opening of the markets as part of the export-oriented growth strategy propagated by the World Bank has above all resulted in a sharp rise in imports in the affected countries. The imports have displaced local goods and led to a decline in domestic production and a rise in unemployment. True, exports have increased, but in general not so strongly as imports. In addition, export growth focuses on a few raw materials and on finished goods which transnational companies produce with cheap, low-skilled labour. The SAPRI report says: "Trade policy should serve to create a strong processing sector and support agricultural and industrial production instead of devastating these sectors with a flood of cheap imports in the name of combating inefficiency."

Another main SAPRI criticism is the privatisation of public services such as electricity and water supply which was promoted in the context of SAP. It says privatisation has not improved public access to these assets. Rather, in most cases the prices for them have risen sharply - with far-reaching consequences. In El Salvador, the increase in the price of electricity after privatisation has led to, among other things, the poor people being forced to fall back on other sources of energy, such as wood. And that in turn has accelerated the cutting down of the country’s forests, which were already under great pressure anyway. Where following the privatisation of a utility an increase in efficiency can be measured in monetary terms, this s due usually not to better work but simply to a better ratio between income and expenditure on the back of price increases. SAPRI concludes that suppliers of basic services should remain in public hands "in order to guarantee the best possible supply for all sections of society with high-grade performance at affordable prices".

The SAPRI study’s third main point of criticism targets the cuts in public spending made as part of SAP, such as in education and healthcare. It says these, too, affect mainly poor people. The cuts usually are justified by citing the affected countries’ high indebtedness. In cases such as Uganda, where the government had maintained its level of spending on social services or even aimed to increase it, this was financed mostly by development assistance. Says the report: "The value of education and healthcare - going beyond their benefits for individuals - for society and future generations was neglected in favour of servicing creditors." Tillmann Elliesen

New Dam for Mozambique

On 30 May, 2002, the Mozambique government announced that the Mepanda Uncua dam is to be constructed in the central province of Tete at an estimated cost of $1.3 billion. It will be the third major dam on the Zambezi River, only 70 km downstream of the existing Cabora Bassa dam.

But the proposal to further alter the flow of the Zambezi for electricity is causing some experts to worry. It was only last year that massive flooding killed some 100 people and displaced thousands in Tete Province. The death and destruction was blamed on poor dam management - specifically, the simultaneous opening of the floodgates on the Cabora Bassa dam and the Kariba dam further up river in Zimbabwe.

"I am appalled at the decision to go ahead with the dam," says Professor Bryan Davies, an ecologist and Zambezi expert at the South African University of Cape Town. "I have received the Environmental Impact Assessment on it, but basically the decision on Mepanda Uncua is ill-advised, expensive and is probably politically motivated," he says.

Davies believes the government is looking to score political points by showing off a major project that they claim will help the economy. Generating more hydroelectricity, they say, will mean more jobs and more income. Davies disagrees: "It would be better to spend the money for more hydro-power [by] upgrading the north bank of Cabora Bassa. I do not see who is going to buy the power, unless it is used to make Coca-Cola tins at the new aluminium smelter (in Maputo). That, in my opinion, is an inappropriate development if ever there was one," he said.

Government sources, who did not wish to be named, argued that the construction of Mepanda Uncua is necessary because it will break the dependence of some towns in the central part of the country on motor engines and coal for electricity. The government says most of the 2,000 megawatts to be generated from the dam will be consumed locally, with the rest sold to neighbouring countries.

Mepanda Uncua will also break a monopoly on Mozambique’s hydroelectric power currently enjoyed by the South African company, Eskom. Of Cabora Bassa’s 3,750 MW output, Eskom controls 82 per cent while only 18 per cent is in the hands of the Mozambican government.

Scientists say that no matter who is operating the dams along the Zambezi, they will have to do a better job in regulating the flow, as improper management of the existing dams has caused problems along the Zambezi for years. Any consequences of future dam mismanagement will not be limited to the immediate area. It is estimated that prawn and other marine life industries could be worth $30 million at the mouth of the Zambezi if the release of the Cabora Bassa dam was managed properly. With the addition of the new dam, that possibility is all but erased.
Frederico Katerere/Gemini

Peace Prize for Chinua Achebe

The Nigerian author Chinua Achebe will be awarded this year’s Peace Prize of the German Book Trade - one of the most prestigious awards in Germany, the highlight of the annual Frankfurt Book Fair. The 71-year old novelist is one of the best-known writers in Africa and called "the father of modern African literature". His early work on the clash between colonialism and traditional society in Nigeria - "Things Fall Apart"(1958) - became of the most widely read books on the continent. Other novels like "No Longer at Ease" (1960), "Arrow of God" (1964), and "A Man of the People" (1966) took the story further into the post-colonial era and the emergence of one-party states all over the continent. The tragedy of the Biafran war which devastated his Ibo home region in Eastern Nigeria was reflected in his stories with the title "Girls at War" (1972). All these works left a deep imprint on the literary development in Nigeria and throughout Africa.

However, after the Biafran war, Achebe’s voice as a novelist became silent. It was only in 1987 that his last novel - "The Anthills of Savannah" - appeared. In the meantime, Achebe had become professor at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, but he also taught and lectured frequently in the United States. Since a car accident in 1990, Achebe has been partially paralysed and confined to a wheelchair. He now lives permanently in the USA.

The jury which nominated Achebe for the prize called him "one of the most powerful but at the same time most subtle voices of Africa in the literature of the 20th century, an unrelenting teacher and moralist and, above all, a great narrator. He is undisputed as the founder of the tradition of the authentic, English-language novel in West Africa. Achebe’s central theme is how to create peace in regions which are exposed to a permanent conflict of cultures".
D.B.

35 Years Andheri- Hilfe

The Andheri-Hilfe Bonn e.V." (Andheri Aid), a non-governmental organisation focusing its work on the Indian subcontinent, celebrated its 35th anniversary with a ceremony in Bonn, the headquarters of the NGO. Founded in 1967 on the initiative of a Bonn teacher of religion, Rosi Gollmann, and some of her pupils and friends, the organisation was first set up to aid an orphanage in Andheri, a suburb of Bombay (today: Mumbai) and other orphanages in Karnataka. It was soon realised that if root causes of child neglect were to be attacked work had to be carried to the home villages of the children to initiate a development process there.

In 1974, the first project was started to finance cataract operations for blind people in Bangladesh. Since then, aid for the blind remained one of the most important activities of Andheri-Hilfe: this year, the number of people whom they helped to regain their eyesight in Bangladesh will probably reach the one-million mark.

But the organisation, which over the years spent a total of DM 175 million on 2000 projects, mainly in India and Bangladesh, also engaged itself on other issues. Support for local programmes against child labour in factories and quarries in India lead to the freeing of at least 100,000 of these poor children; a programme against the practice of killing unwanted female babies in India helped to save the lives of many girls; and village, womens’ and watershed programmes contributed to social development and the protection of the environment.

Throughout these 35 years, Andheri-Hilfe was supported at home by a growing flow of donations and, from 1981 onwards, by grants from the Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and the EU. Andheri-Hilfe also succeeded to get prominent support from television and other media which raised public awareness of the development work and achievements of Andheri-Hilfe.

After 34 years of voluntary work at the head of her organisation, the founder president Rosi Gollmann last year put the operative business into the hands of her long-term colleague, Elvira Greiner, but remained the honorary chairperson and board member of Andheri-Hilfe and very much active and committed to its work.

On the occasion of the anniversary celebrations in Bonn, former Federal President Richard von Weizsäcker who had himself visited an eye camp of Andheri-Hilfe in Bangladesh, said the work of the NGO was an example for what can be achieved by private initiative, if people do not wait for big political decision, but take things in their own hands in the service of our fellow human beings in developing countries.
D.B.

Last Annual Report of Carl Duisberg Society (CDG)

In its last annual report for 2001, the Carl Duisberg Society (CDG) looks back at a successful programme of training and dialogue for junior managers and multipliers from around the world. CDG is being formally merged with the German Foundation for International Development (DSE) on 1 July 2002 to form the new organisation InWEnt. Around 37,000 participants benefited from last year’s programmes, among them 16,800 young Germans who took part in various forms of international professional and practice-oriented training. Almost 7,000 executives and junior managers came from 120 developing countries and attended long-term programmes in Germany, local advanced training programmes, and seminars, conferences, and workshops in Germany and worldwide. These programmes were funded with DM 44.1 million in support funds from the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

The total budget for international training and human resources development was Euro 97 million, mainly provided by public funds.

Trends in cooperation last year were intensification of gender mainstreaming, the extension of the close cooperation with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), and training in water management.

A new programme series "Information technology in African and Asian industry" aims to develop regional consulting skills for small and medium-sized enterprises. In addition to "classical" training, CDG jointly develops internet-based IT-networks of all partners that are involved for an exchange, joint learning, and the development of new IT solutions.

An important part of CDG’s activities was the support for training of skilled and managerial staff from the transition countries of Eastern Europe. In 2001, 6,405 staff participated in these programmes which focused on the restructuring of Eastern European enterprises, training of trainers, lecturers, and multipliers, and preparing for the accession to the European Union.

Special programmes were also offered for Russia and the Balkan countries in the context of the Stability Pact South-East Europe.

New Bribe Payers Index

Transparency International (TI), the international corruption control organisation, has published its latest Bribe Payers Index 2002. 835 business experts in 15 emerging market countries were asked: "In the business sectors with which you are most familiar, please indicate how likely companies from the following countries are to pay or offer bribes to win or retain business in this country?" The answers led to the following ranking (a perfect score, indicating zero perceived propensity to pay bribes, is 10.0)

TI’s Chairman Peter Eigen commented in TI’s newsletter that the new index "leaves no doubt that multilateral corporations from the richest countries, particularly Italy, the United States, and Japan, are perceived to be using criminal means to win contracts in emerging markets - and with impunity". Eigen said the message to OECD countries was that it is not enough to pass legislation to outlaw bribery abroad. Despite the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials adopted by three years ago, outside the United States, not a single foreign bribery case has yet been filed, and in many countries there is no indication that investigations are even underway. "It is crucial that governments back that legislation up with proper law enforcement", Eigen wrote.
(TI)

Successful IDA Replenishment

Representatives of 39 industrial and threshold countries have agreed on the replenishment of the International Development Association (IDA) - a soft loan fund administered by the World Bank. For the coming three years - from 2003 to 2005 - the IDA fund can now dispose of 26 billion for the fight against poverty in 79 of the poorest countries. Around 50 per cent of the funds are earmarked for Africa.

The German Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, welcomed the agreement as a proof for the determination of the international community to reach the Millenium Targets in the fight against poverty. "This is an important and positive sign for the functioning of multilateral action and a building stone of the new global partnership agreed upon in Monterrey", she said. "This is also clear from the fact that for the first time, representatives of the developing countries participated continuously in the negotiations." The minister pointed out that for the first time between 18 to 21 per cent of the available funds will be given as non-repayable grants to support the poorest states in the fight against AIDS, for disaster relief, or reconstruction after conflicts. Germany’s contribution to the IDA 13th replenishment will be Euro 1.4 billion.

IDA is the World Bank affiliate specially set up to aid the poorest developing countries. Countries are eligible for IDA credits if their per-capita incomes do not exceed $885 a year. This applies to about 2.3 billion people worldwide in 79 countries.
(BMZ)

German Africa Prize 2002 for Olara Otunnu

Olara A. Otunnu, UN Special Representative for children and armed conflict, was awarded this year’s Africa Prize of the German Africa Foundation by German Federal President Johannes Rau. In a ceremony in Berlin, Rau paid tribute to the commitment of Otunnu since his appointment in 1997. "You are an advocate of the universal validity and implementation of human rights", Rau said.

Uganda-born Olara Otunnu was a prominent opponent of former dictator, Idi Amin, and later the foreign minister of Uganda. In this capacity he played a leading role in bringing peace to his war-torn country.

"With this award we appreciate the commitment of Otunnu for children’s rights in Africa, for more justice, peace and democracy on the African continent", said the chairman of the Africa Foundation, Christian Democrat MP Karl-Heinz Hornhues. With the awarding of the prize, the Foundation also wanted to set a sign for the continuing dialogue between Germany and the African countries.

The German Africa Foundation has set itself the task to strengthen and promote relations between the peoples of Africa and Germany. In particular, it supports efforts at crisis prevention, democratisation, and crisis management in African states.

VW Introduces Social Charter

Volkswagen company (VW), the world’s fourth largest automobile producer, has adopted a "Declaration on Social Rights and Industrial Relations" which will go a long way towards equal treatment for its 320,000 employees in 42 locations and 18 countries all over the world. Although wages and working hours will remain different, important fundamental rights will be granted to all VW staff. This applies to the right to form labour unions and workers representations, and the banning of forced and bonded labour as well as child labour. Wages and working hours as well as health and industrial safety regulations must at least conform to national laws in the respective countries where the VW plant is located. VW wants to convince its sub-contractors to apply the same standards.

According to VW, the company is first in the automobile industry to adopt a charter of this kind. Klaus Zwickel, chairman of the German metalworkers union (IG Metall) and president of the International Association of Metalworkers Unions, said "The world is becoming a global village. But while the globalisation of the markets for goods and capital progresses, the international community has not succeeded to introduce even a minimum of globally valid social rules for trade and investments."