We must craft alternative strategies 
for Africa’s development, says Meles Zenawi, Prime Minister of Ethiopia

Political unrest linked to the financial crisis


In preparation for the G-20 summit, I got in touch with African leaders and my worst fears were confirmed. The President of Liberia [Ellen Johnson Sirleaf] said that one of the sources of instability has been the high rate of unemployment among the youth… The president of southern Sudan and vice-president of Sudan [Salva Kiir Mayardit] indicated that because oil prices had collapsed he may not be able to pay the salaries of his armed men, and that was dangerous. In the Democratic Republic of Congo’s mining areas, something like 300,000 people have been laid off since the recession began – that is a very dangerous thing in a fragile peace.



The role of rich countries and the IMF and World Bank 


At a meeting between the IMF and the World Bank, our ministers followed up on the promises of the G-20 summit, and it appears that something like $20bn dollars will be made available very soon from the IMF. The rest we had hoped would come through the African Development Bank and the World Bank. I am happily surprised that substantial money was promised, and delivery has been better than I had expected.



African strategies to counter the crisis


We have to devise our own strategies for overcoming the current difficulties but also engaging in economic transformation so that we will be able to withstand future shocks of a similar kind. The British Prime Minister [Gordon Brown] has declared that the Washington consensus is over and that we needed a new development consensus. I doubt whether any African would quibble with that. It is now up to us to come up with alternative strategies of development and to recognise that the policy orthodoxy that has been imposed over the past three decades has not delivered.

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