Have We Forgotten Africa?
Excerpt from Speech to the Council on Aging
April 6, 2005
Ottawa Congress Centre
David Pratt
Since joining the Red Cross five months ago, a lot of people tell me they didn’t know the organization was involved in conflict prevention, war affected children or international humanitarian law. And by the way, they ask, what is “International humanitarian law?” Well, IHL, as it is known, goes right to the heart of our raison d’etre. The Red Cross was founded as a result of a little-known battle at a place called Solferino in northern Italy in 1859 in order to provide assistance to the wounded. IHL, is also known as the Laws of Armed Conflict and encompasses the Geneva Conventions, its protocols and a host of other international covenants touch upon everything from the use of poison gas and chemical agents in warfare to the anti-landmines treaty.
But for many of you, the most current impression of the work done by the Red Cross has been its recent efforts during the Asian tsunami disaster. When Al asked me to speak to you on the subject - “Have we forgotten Africa?” – tsunami relief work was very much dominated in the news. Al’s suggested topic couldn’t have been more timely. The disaster that occurred in South Asia – which I had the opportunity to visit in late January - was as immense and tragic, as it was unexpected. The response to that tragedy was awe-inspiring in its generosity. On a per capita basis, contributions to the Canadian Red Cross exceeded those of all other Red Cross societies around the world - something we should all be proud of.
But, as horrible as those three minutes of utter destruction by Mother Nature in South East Asia were, there has been a much larger, much more profound and much more deadly tragedy unfolding in Africa. Silent tsunamis far more destructive are happening everyday and these are largely preventable.
I made my first trip to Africa about fifteen years ago. I dearly wish I could say that the Africa I knew then was a better, more secure and more prosperous one than it is today, but I cannot.
The sad reality of the last decade and a half is that Africa has not made progress. It fact, it has moved backwards not forwards. From 1981 till 2001, the number of Africans living in poverty doubled to 314 million from 164 million. The combination of conflict, disease, debt, poor governance and inadequate aid have produced human misery on a scale that is truly staggering.
Conflict has left some 15 million Africans displaced in their own countries and another 4.5 million refugees in neighboring countries – more than ten times the amount of people affected by the tsunami. The scourge of AIDS now affects over 25 million people in sub-Saharan Africa. Last year, it killed 2.3 million. It is a monstrous impediment to progress. It undercuts income. It contributes to food scarcity and forces families to exhaust savings and pull children out of school. AIDS is destroying the skills base Africa will need to grow, and is stretching social systems to the breaking point. If we don’t tackle the threats posed by the AIDS pandemic, by violent conflict, poor governance, aid and trade, our efforts to create a new future for Africa will produce depressingly meager results.
I ’m sure you know instinctively, that it doesn’t have to be this way. When we look around the world at the dawn of the 21st century, what do we see? We see a Europe that is enlarging to the east, pushing in its wake economic prosperity and political stability. We see south-east Asia witnessing tremendous economic progress. Many parts of Latin America have been transformed. And the world’s two largest countries – China and India – are growing by as much as 9% per year – taking over 20 million people out of poverty every twelve months.
Sadly, in Africa, most countries are still as poor as they were 40 years ago. In some countries, life expectancy, having improved for many years, has fallen back to where it was in the 1960’s as a result of AIDS. It is an affront to humanity that more than 1 in 6 African children die before their fifth birthday. Only half the lucky ones that survive are able to complete their primary education before they have to join the work force. It is a moral outrage that 12 million children in Africa are orphans because of AIDS – an entire generation has been lost. While in Zambia a number of years ago, I was introduced to the concept of child-led families. This is where both parents had died of AIDS and where the eldest child, often very young themselves, was now responsible for the care of even younger siblings. Unfortunately, this is too often the reality of Africa today.
There are some things about Africa that I will never forget – ranging from the sublime to the sinister. I remember with great clarity a visit I made four years ago to a hospital in Kenema, Sierra Leone in an area known for its diamonds. We associate diamonds with wealth and glamour, but I can tell you neither was in evidence the day I visited that hospital. There was just overworked medical staff with outdated equipment in shabby, dirty buildings trying to save the lives of young children that were hanging by a thread because of dysentry and malaria.
I also remember a visit to another hospital in Freetown, Sierra Leone where amputees from that country’s brutal civil war were being treated. I arrived three months after a brutal attack on the city left 5,000 people dead and huge sections of Freetown in ruins. The rebel war in Sierra Leone which has a population of 5 million, cost the lives of 75,000 people. The war produced thousands of amputees, victims of terror tactics – some as old as 80 years – others, mere infants. Among those who are continuing victims of the war are the “child soldiers.”
Despite the brutal genocide in Rwanda and the terrible conflicts that continue to rage in the Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, glimmers of hope do exist. Indeed, in some places, the symbols of the Red Cross and Red Crescent help inspire hope by providing desperately needed food, medical assistance and shelter.
The Darfur region in western Sudan is experiencing one of the world’s worst more severe humanitarian emergencies. Close to one million people have fled their homes because of the ongoing conflict and sought refuge in makeshift camps in Sudan. Another 150,000 refugees have crossed the border into Chad. In response, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Sudanese Red Crescent are stepping up their humanitarian operations. They are constructing camps for displaced people, providing clean water, sanitation services and medical assistance. They are also helping to reunite family members separated because of the conflict.
But a true picture of Africa is not one that is filled with death, disease, poverty and destruction. This is cause for some optimism. Fifteen countries in Africa, including Uganda, Ethiopia, and Burkina Faso, have averaged growth of over 5% per year since the mid-1990s. Many countries have increased exports by more than 8% a year in the same period, despite falling prices in some of their primary commodities. Foreign Direct Investment in Africa rose to $8.5 billion in 2003, from $7.8 billion the previous year. South Africa is becoming a significant investor in parts of sub-Saharan Africa, while China is leading a wave of interest from Asia. Finally, debt burdens have eased in the last decade, with total external debt down by 30%, debt service down 60%.
Even war torn Sierra Leone is making a valiant effort put its violent past behind it and move towards a brighter future. And if ever the Canadian Red Cross was living up to the high ideals of it mission statement of “mobilizing the power of humanity to assist the most vulnerable,” it is in Sierra Leone where some of the most vulnerable can be found.
We run a program called the Child Advocacy and Rehabilitation Program which responds to the need of the thousands of children who were directly affected by the war in Sierra Leone. These children were abducted or forcibly conscripted to be soldiers, labourers or sex slaves. Others witnessed loved ones being killed, raped or maimed. Their formal education was either interrupted or never begun. Through our program, they are provided with basic education, employment training and family counselling. Currently, in Africa, the Canadian Red Cross is running a variety of programs or providing assistance in about ten countries.
In addition, last December, the Canadian Red Cross, working with CIDA, other Red Cross societies and other international agencies provided almost 750,000 insecticide-treated bed nets to households in Togo. These bed nets were provided to houses with children under 5 years old or expectant mothers—considered the most vulnerable victims of malaria. In sub-Saharan Africa, one million children die of malaria every year. Data from UNICEF shows that very few children are protected from malaria—in fact only 15% of children under 5 sleep under a bed net, and 2% sleep under an insecticide-treated bed net.
Importantly, this anti-malaria program partners us with volunteers from the Togolese Red Cross to follow up in communities to ensure the bed nets are properly used. And this program marked the first time an entire country was covered for bed net distribution.
So, to answer the question: “Have we forgotten Africa?” I can tell you that if “We” is Canadian Red Cross, the answer is a resounding “No, we have not.” The same applies to the international Red Cross and Red Crescent movement. We have been in Africa and will continue to be in Africa assisting those affected by conflict, poverty and disease. Tomorrow, I leave for a conference in Nairobi where I will represent our Secretary General at a meeting intended to forge a new partnership between African Red Cross and Red Crescent societies and those national societies from the developed world. It is called NEPARC, which as you can imagine, is a take off from NEPAD, the New Partnership for African Development.
But has the world forgotten Africa? The short answer is “I hope not.” Africa will be the focus of considerable global attention this year with the U.K. Commission on Africa, the G-8 Summit, which will put Africa squarely on the agenda and progress reports on the Millennium Development Goals.
But it is not enough to just remember Africa, what’s needed is will to act and to mobilize people and politicians around Africa’s desperate needs. African development is not an impossible task if we look at the spectacular growth of other regions that a few decades ago were considered virtually hopeless. As we saw with the generosity that flowed from the tsunami, “the mobilization of the power of humanity to assist the most vulnerable” can be a great and wonderful thing.” We have shown the world that we can act. It is now important to continue this humanitarian momentum which started in South-East Asia to address even greater challenges facing Africa. This is the great moral and strategic challenge of the 21st century. But as you learn in any Red Cross First Aid Course, first you have to stop the bleeding. Only then you can start the process of healing.
Thank you for inviting me today.
