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         Report: Africa's Economic Prosperity at Risk From Instability

   by Mariama Diallo

   The head of the African Development Bank, Donald Kaberuka, says
   achieving economic progress does not just depend on having impressive
   numbers of GDP growth, high-rise buildings or first-class highways.
   For development institutions like his and others looking to promote
   growth, they must also consider political factors.
   When recent fighting erupted in South Sudan, the African Development
   Bank had just approved a $25 million electricity project.  Neither Bank
   President Donald Kaberuka nor his staff saw the conflict coming.

   Kaberuka says when conflicts erupt in countries, the bank's financing
   of development projects has to start all over again.
   "We did finance development in Somalia.  We built roads, hospitals, but
   the country went back to shambles.  I had an office in Bangui.  We had
   offices in Juba, but when we go back to square one, I'll be going
   further than my traditional mandate of economics and development.  I'll
   be looking closely at the political economy of the countries," said
   Kaberuka.
   In a recent report on the so-called fragile states of Africa, Kaberuka
   said Bank managers have not taken political risks into account when
   making development decisions.
   "We [the report] concluded that fragility is a big risk for Africa.  We
   looked at stable countries which suddenly erupt either because of bad
   elections, corruption," he said.  "We found that each one of our
   countries is at risk and by extension, Africa's own prosperity at the
   moment is at risk."
   That sustainable development cannot be achieved without security was
   one of the key themes of the EU-Africa Summit that took place recently
   in Brussels.
   Since 2004, the EU has provided more than $1.6 billion to support
   peacekeeping missions like AMISOM in Somalia and MISCA in the Central
   African Republic.
   EU institutions have also pledged almost $39 billion for development
   assistance for Africa in the next seven years.
   Andris Piebalgs, the EU Commissioner for Development, says 70 percent
   of those funds will go to less developed nations, based on specific
   criteria, including a measure of per capita income.
   "So if a country is richer, it gets less.  For example, Gabon.  The
   second is vulnerability, meaning if the country is more landlocked or
   has some structural weaknesses and also gets more," said Piebalgs.
   The commissioner also says that some countries are doing better.
   "I would take Ethiopia and Rwanda where basically our support managed
   to bring countries to new levels of development," he said. "They are
   still very poor countries but they are moving.  Are there risks? Yes
   there are, but I think in these politics [political situations], no one
   is safe. Let's take Europe."
   Piebalgs points to what is happening now in Ukraine, which he says no
   one foresaw.
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/report-africas-economic-prosperity-at
   -risk-from-instability/1894256.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/report-africas-economic-prosperity-at-risk-from-instability/1894256.html