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Interview with Kofi Annan
 

Nobel Peace Prize-winner and former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan speaks exclusively to Gary Nunn from the See Africa Differently team about transformations in Africa and how we can transform perceptions of the continent. We have republished the interview below, to read the original article click here.

Gary Nunn (GN): See Africa Differently is a campaign to showcase the under-reported progress from Africa. As Chair of the Africa Progress Panel, what do you predict will be the largest area of progress for Africa in the next decade?

Kofi Annan: In the past several years, there has been an enormous leap in information and communications technology (ICT) usage in Africa and I believe what we’ve seen so far is just the beginning.

Over the last decade, internet usage on the continent has increased by over two thousand percent. Africa has gone from having hardly any undersea fibre optic cables in 2000 to having nine that will connect almost all of Africa by 2012, reducing costs dramatically compared to satellite connectivity. At the same time, the continent has become the world’s second largest mobile market behind Asia – and the fastest growing. At present, more than one in three Africans owns a cellular phone.

These numbers are impressive and very promising. What I find even more impressive and promising, though, is how Africans around the continent are making use of these advancements - boosting the continent’s growth and facilitating a social transformation.

Small-scale agriculture and harvesting of natural resources provide livelihoods for over 70% of the African population. Having said this, most African farmers face numerous challenges on a daily basis, most of which have been aggravated by changes in the climate. Ever resourceful, Africans have embraced ICTs, as a means to access timely, appropriate and comprehensive agricultural information to support and improve their productivity.

We see similar progress in other sectors such as health care, where for example SMS codes are used to check for counterfeit drugs, and education, where just this week UNESCO unveiled an initiative to connect cellular phones to the classroom so as to provide additional support to teachers and students alike. In banking, M-PESA, originating from Kenya, is the first mobile money transfer service, anywhere in the world.

With greater access to the Internet, comes greater access to Facebook and Twitter. Never before has the world seen the extent to which these and other social networking sites can impact politics, as was seen this year in Africa. Africans throughout the continent have embraced social media as a way to voice their concerns, encourage and mobilise action, and bring about change. And in doing so, they have given a uniquely African meaning to the phrase ‘social media revolution’.

GN: One of the focuses of the Kofi Annan Foundation is sustainable development. What’s the greatest success story of sustainable development in Africa of the last decade?? ?

Kofi Annan: There are many wonderful success stories to be found across the continent. The change that I am most pleased to see is the green shoots of a uniquely African Green Revolution taking root in many countries.? ?

With the right investments throughout the agricultural value chain and an approach centered on empowering the small holder farmer – many of whom are women - I believe that Africa is now on the road to being able to feed itself. ??

The transformation of African agriculture into an engine of economic development has come about because of changes in government priorities and policies, development of the private sector, the creation of vibrant new partnerships, and an alignment of international aid with Africa’s priorities. ??

I have talked to smallholder farmers in Mali who tell me that high-yielding seeds and fertilizer are making a big difference to their livelihoods. Farmers are growing new varieties of sorghum, maize, and rice that are drought tolerant and disease resistant, and increasing their yields. ??

But more importantly I heard from them about their hopes for the future – that with more support they and their neighbors will do well year after year. ??

Similar aspirations are rising across the continent and African governments are stepping up to the challenge. In Ghana, agriculture has grown at an average of 5% a year for over 10 years. Malawi transformed itself into a net exporter of maize for four years running. Rwanda increased its food production by 15% in 2007 and 16% in 2008. In Tanzania, a government program supporting farmers through vouchers to purchase seeds and fertilizers enabled 700,000 smallholder farmers to produce five million tons of maize. And Mali now dedicates 14% of its national budget to agriculture in a concerted effort to change the future for its farmers.??

Across sub-Saharan Africa, 19 countries have put in place plans to accelerate their annual agricultural growth of 6% a year. ??

I hope that these developments will help to banish the image of Africa as a continent of disease, hunger and despair.??

GN: Recent ComRes polling we commissioned of 2,000 UK adults found that 1 in 5 misidentify Africa as a country and 62% associate Africa with corruption - but only 3% say Africa is 'good for business.' How should we clear up these misconceptions and portray a more diverse and positive depiction of African countries???

Kofi Annan: Africa is a diverse continent of 54 countries with hundreds of languages and cultures, and endowed with plenty of natural resources. Despite this rich diversity, Africa and its people are often reduced to a single sound-bite or image of helplessness. This stems from ignorance or bias. ??

Fortunately, this perception is being challenged. Increasingly, Africans are telling their own story - their voices amplified by new technologies and media. Civil society is growing and demanding more democratic and accountable governance. African entrepreneurs are creating new jobs and business on the continent and abroad. Sub-regional economic integration is increasing growth and opportunity.??

Over the past decade six of the world’s ten fastest-growing countries were African. In eight of the past ten years, Africa has grown faster than East Asia, including Japan. Even allowing for the knock-on effect of the northern hemisphere’s slowdown, the IMF expects Africa to grow by 6% this year and nearly 6% in 2012, about the same as Asia.

The story of Africa today is that of a continent where there are incredible opportunities for growth and investment, where a young and dynamic population is making contributions in the area of business innovation, music, art, sport and social and environmental change. The road will be long and the challenges numerous but Africa has a story that no one can afford to ignore! ? ?

GN: What 3 words sum up a modern, progressive Africa to you? ??

Kofi Annan: Changing. Dynamic. Opportunity.

The Kofi Annan Foundation works to promote better global governance and strengthen the capacities of people and countries to achieve a fairer, more secure world. Find out more here.

The Africa Progress Panel (APP) consists of a group of distinguished individuals chaired by Kofi Annan who generously lend their time to track and encourage progress in Africa, and to underscore shared responsibility between African leaders and their international partners for sustaining it. Find out more about APP here.
Posted by See Africa Differently in Poverty for column Success Stories on Jan 20th, 16:10
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Christmas Appeals 2011
 

This year the Institute for Fiscal Studies found that the income of the average UK household had fallen 1.6% since 2008. Coupled with a slow and fraught global economic recovery, this has led to public disquiet about poverty overseas and a fall in long-term charitable giving. So, we thought it would be interesting to have a look at different charities approached Christmas to appeal to the public.

A recent poll conducted by ComRes, a leading market research agency, found that 69% of the British public say most of the stories they hear regarding Africa are largely negative. However, 63% of them would feel more likely to donate to a charity if they are provided with positive news on the effects of aid in the region.

Over the years, many charity campaigns have featured some notoriously dismal images depicting weary eyed, severely undernourished children who are often close to death. This represents a very real reality for some communities across famine stricken parts of Africa. But, as we’ve blogged about before, long-term exposure to these images runs leaving people desensitised and disillusioned.

Someone who has been giving regularly over many years may begin to ask, ‘What has my money achieved if I am met by these same recurring images year after year?’ Appeals which aim to induce guilt, and draw one-off pity donations do little for creating a culture of long-term donors who are confident their money can secure and sustain development and change.

Save the Children’s Born to Shine campaign made its appearance early this year. It has proved a welcoming and refreshing contrast to some past visual campaigns used charities. The campaign’s televised advert is an endearing tribute to the vast, unlocked potential sitting dormant within every child living in extreme poverty. Save the Children prove there is more to highlight than just their living standards. This approach makes for a far more palatable appeal, while the concluding caption, ‘8 million children under five die needlessly every year’ still highlights the reality of challenges ahead.

Save The Children’s Christmas Wishlist webpage has been well crafted for simple and easy gift giving. On offer for purchase are anything from midwife birthing kits, to chickens and water buffalo. Similarly, ActionAid’s wide ranging Christmas gifts section also proves simple and effective. Gifts that change lives immediately greets you with warm, bright faces - which works well during the festive season. From toys for Rwanda, to funding a programme planting 400 trees in Vietnam, a range of gifts from the sentimental to practical are available for giving. Short clips showing Your Money in Action accompany many of the alternative gifts featured, allowing the donor to engage with personal stories from communities eager to show how their funds are being used.

This was a common feature used by charities in their alternative giving sections. More than half of respondents for the 2010 DFID ‘public attitudes towards development’ survey, felt corruption in developing countries defeated the purpose of donating. These charities are recognizing a new type of donor, who requires a greater level of information on how and where their donations are being spent.

Oxfam’s 50% off sale on all second hand clothing and ethical fashion gifts shows the charity adapting at a time when post-Christmas prices are slashed all along the high-street, and consumers are on the hunt for the right bargain. Christian Aid’s Christmas appeal is another that has caught our attention. 2011’s Christmas campaign centred on awareness building using an inspiring story of 129 children who, in 2008, were successfully reunited with their families after they were separated when rebels attacked their villages in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Resources available for download ranged from church sermon notes, to children’s activity sheets based on the story for Sunday school session.

The Big Christmas sing – one voice against poverty is a unique annual event in which communities across the country can hold their very own singing event to raise money for their projects. Christian Aid have often recruited X factor finalists to launch the events. This serves to keep charitable fundraising current, contemporary and enjoyable. It also has the effect of widening appeal and increasing youth involvement.

Emphasising progress and positivity can have long-term benefits of changing attitudes and donating habits of the public. Continued use of the kind of campaigns led by a purely negative tone, may be damaging by feeding into public perceptions of developing countries – where foreign aid is achieving little. This is particularly unjust when we know of the success vaccination programmes have had in reducing child mortality rates over the past decade. Polio, a disease once rife and endemic in large parts of Asia and Africa, is now close to being eradicated. While we don’t wish to whitewash over the many challenges still facing the developing world, we hope charity appeals can do more to report on the progress that has already been made. 
Posted by Huma Malik in Aid for column Issue Analysis on Jan 19th, 17:00
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Fund the Fund - Our Supporters Tell MPs!
 

Over the past three months Malaria No More UK and the Global Poverty Project have been out and about around the country. We have been working together to raise awareness and inspire action on fighting malaria as part of our joint vision for a world without extreme poverty within a generation.

And those we have spoken to have been inspired!

In the past few months 233 letters have been sent to MPs and more than 700 people have signed our petition calling on the Government to increase its support for the Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria. The Fund accounts for almost 70% of all international aid funding for malaria and is vital to helping prevent, diagnose and treat the disease.

Our supporters have passed on letters they have had back from their MPs and also a response from the DFID Minister Stephen O’Brien who has said the Government is committed to increasing its funding to the Global Fund. But he did not giving a firm timetable for doing so. The British government is working with other governments to try achieve an overall increase in funding for the Fund – something we are keen to support.

So we haven’t finished yet! Keep writing letters and signing the petition.

You still have time to book your own presentation – to learn more about global poverty and about simple, practical actions to end it, including ways students can use their voice to influence national and global policy change and help end extreme poverty.

We hope you will enjoy this short sneak peak version of the 1.4 Billion Reasons Tour and sign up to get more information.

Our Executive Director Sarah Kline says, “We are thrilled that so many people have written to their MPs – and urge them to keep going! It is important to remind the British Government there is support for increasing funding for malaria, HIV/AIDS and TB through the Global Fund. Our letters also call on MPs to continue to support an overall increase in UK aid. This is vital if we are to help make malaria no more.”

Elisha London, UK Country Director of the Global Poverty Project, says, “Our presenters and supporters have made a real difference in the past few months to helping raise awareness about malaria. They have spread the good news that 1.1 million children’s lives have been saved from malaria in the past decade alone. By writing to your MP and signing the petition you are helping British politicians keep their promises to help end extreme poverty. Thank you.”
Posted by Malaria No More in Global Health for column Action Stories on Jan 17th, 15:06
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Famine. Never Again.
 

I can’t count the number of photos of emaciated children from East Africa that I have seen this year. Headlines citing death tolls in the Horn of Africa have become just another part of most of the United Kingdom’s morning commute. The United Nations estimated in September that 13 million people are currently starving in East Africa and that 750,000 people in Somalia are at risk of dying of hunger. It is time that the international community do something to address this grave problem.

On 24 September 2011 several world leaders met at the United Nations in New York to discuss strategies that could be developed to end starvation. Discussions led to the emergence of The Charter to End Extreme Hunger which not only acknowledges occurrences of extreme hunger in East Africa but also provides a succinct list of strategies that, if implemented, will bring real solutions. This charter has already been endorsed by Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga, UN OCHA head Valerie Amos, Norweigan Minister of the Environment and International Development Erik Solheim, UNISDR head Margareta Wahlstrom, and UK Secretary of State for International Development Andrew Mitchell.


One of the most critical elements of the charter is its promotion of local food production. The charter reads, “Failure to act is costing lives every day as people struggle to deal with shocks such as the changing climate and rocketing food prices. This has to change.” In order to achieve this goal the Charter urges signatories to commit to fulfil the pledges made to the l’Aquilla Food Security Initiative (AFSI), to develop a new plan to decrease malnutrition and food insecurity after AFSI expires in 2012, to spend 10% of national budgets on agricultural development, and to implement global and regional policies already in existence to promote food security for all.

Encouraging local food production may be one of the more challenging tasks of the Charter. The BBC reported on 24 September 2009 that South Korea had signed an agreement with Tanzania where 500 sq km of land in Tanzania would be developed to produce processed goods for South Korea. South Korea has signed similar leasing agreements with countries like Madagascar. The BBC explains that leasing land from poorer countries has helped nations like China, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait to ensure food security for their populations but has limited the ability of lower income countries to grow food on their own land. Decreased food yields have led to greater food instability and higher food prices. As prices increase lower income families have been effectively priced out of eating.

In the wake of early moves toward land-leasing for food production the World Food Programme (WFP) indicated that their 2008 target of feeding 73 million people had become impractical and that the WFP would have to either reduce rations or the number of people it attempted to help. In 2011 the WFP was only able to meet around a fourth of the need for food in Somalia. Incomprehensive performance of the WFP should be a signal to us that something is wrong with our food system.

The Charter to End Extreme Hunger affirms that strong local production is key to fighting malnutrition and food instability. Regional and global strategies, such as AFSI, are present but are not being enforced. The East African famine this year should show us the effect that malnutrition a continent away can have on us. We can’t erase the image of the hundreds of thousands of people suffering from starvation in Somalia but we can take preventive action in the short term to ensure that a crisis of this degree never happens again. 
Posted by Judith Rowland in Poverty for column Issue Analysis on Jan 13th, 15:51
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A Milestone Innings In My Lifetime
 

On a personal note, I was struck by polio at the age of five, but through an international cricket career lasting over a decade and a half, that never really worried me.

There were all kinds of theories in my playing days. That I was a contortionist who could rotate his wrist 360 degrees. That my fingers gripped the ball differently thanks to an attack of polio, and therefore confused batsmen. I was usually amused, but occasionally irritated. The truth was more mundane and more painful.

When I came down with a fever in 1951 or so, I could not offer a handshake since I could not raise my right arm. I think I was too young to be particularly worried, but my parents rushed me to the local hospital. I tried to shake the doctor’s hand as I had been taught to, but just could not do it. The doctor looked worried. So did my parents. They went into a huddle. I left the hospital with my right arm in plaster. Nobody told me what was wrong.

I had been struck by polio, and my right arm lacked all strength. When the plaster was removed, the right arm was significantly thinner than the left. But crucially, the disease had been arrested. Thereafter the arm was massaged by cod liver oil. I think I drank some of it too, although I am not very sure now. School children can be cruel – but nobody noticed my problem when I started going to school.

For the first two years, I could do nothing with my right arm. Gradually I reconciled myself to the idea that my right arm would never be the same again, nor would it grow into its normal strength. Even six years later, when I was 11 or so, I struggled to raise my right arm. But still I was taking lot of interest in cricket (I was playing Shuttle and Table Tennis also with left hand) and played for school, college, and my club rarely and I was also enjoying my tennis ball cricket in the backyard, streets and in small grounds At 18, I played my first inter-club match. That was in July of 1963. I hadn’t yet begun dreaming of playing in the Ranji Trophy, our national championship. Yet within six months, I was playing for India! I made my debut against Mike Smith’s England in January 1964. My captain was the great Nawab of Pataudi, and he indicated to me very early that he saw me as India’s main strike bowler, my business to take wickets!

It was incredible! India were led by a player with one good eye and depended on wickets on a bowler with one good arm. I bowled faster than your average leg spinner, and bowled a higher proportion of googlies and top spinners than most. From the outfield I threw in left handed. My right arm was for bowling, and I was happy to finish with 242 wickets from 58 Tests. More importantly, I had a role to play in India’s first wins in England (1971) and Australia (1977-78).

As I developed as a bowler, it was suggested that perhaps the attack of polio had been a blessing, allowing me to bowl ‘freakishly’. This is not true. It only meant I had to work harder to make up for the weakened right arm. Polio can never be a blessing. It is incurable. But it can be prevented. I was one of the lucky ones, given a glimpse of the horror and then withdrawn quickly from the edge. The disease is on the verge of being eradicated, and we must throw all our muscle behind that final push to ensure that it is gone forever.

It is my privilege to be here in Australia to celebrate India's milestone achievement - 12 months without a single case of polio. I know first-hand the impact of polio and I am encouraged to see, in my lifetime, India make significant inroads in the fight to end this paralysing disease.

Please join me in getting behind the heroes who are helping stop the spread of this paralysing disease, by uploading a message of support for India’s polio eradication team at http://www.theendofpolio.com/home/phototool-365no/

- Spin bowling legend, 1972 Wisden Cricketer of the Year and polio survivor, Bhagwath Chandrasekhar. 
Posted by Bhagwath Chandrasekhar in Polio for column Success Stories on Jan 12th, 16:39
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