Put Africa into a court-room !

Perspectives on the "Economic renewal" of Africa are far from new: already in 1996 it was well recognised that "For a few decades now, Sub-Saharan Africa has been devastated by a pervasive economic crisis, manifested by stagnant economic growth, declining quality of life for a large majority of its people, and increasing stress on the continent's political structures."(3) Nearly a decade later, we have yet to step beyond square one. Likewise, with regard to the practicalities of enhancing aid effectiveness, it seems that donors are treading water. At the recent Paris high-level forum on aid effectiveness of OECD donors, important points were raised and examined.(4) Yet again, apparently nothing particularly new came up and any immediate action still seems remote. Decentralisation, more resources, capacity building, managing for results, while important they are rather mundane issues. It is possible that the OECD-DAC has reached the limit of what it can accomplish as an institutionalized donor-club? Lacking an integral civil society component with a distinctly global outreach, the DAC is constrained by donor preferences and priorities when laying out policy guidelines for development aid.

Internationally, amongst donor and developing countries alike, the smallest common denominators for aid are of course the UN Millennium development goals (http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals) short, the MDGs.

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The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are the world's time-bound and quantified targets for addressing extreme poverty in its many dimensions-income poverty, hunger, disease, lack of adequate shelter, and exclusion-while promoting gender equality, education, and environmental sustainability. They are also basic human rights-the rights of each person on the planet to health, education, shelter, and security.

Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women Goal 4: Reduce child mortality Goal 5: Improve maternal health Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development

---------------------------------------------- Meeting them as anticipated by 2015 is getting more unlikely day by day, if no breakthrough is achieved still in 2005. In September at the UN general assembly, a review of progress made to date will take place. Certainly there are many important success stories to report on, but in particular in Africa, there will be far too few. Taken together, the "Common Interest" report, the DAC aid effectiveness recommendations as well as the discussions and actions taken in working towards the MDGs do constitute positive momentum for new progress in meeting development

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