THE decade that began on January 1 will be Africa’s decade. Unprecedented opportunities are opening up for India-Africa cooperation in Africa’s rise in several areas, notably higher education, industrialisation and agriculture.
There is a new awakening in Africa about its place in the fast-changing world of the 21st century. There are breakthroughs in several areas — a remarkable decline in the incidence of AIDS and malaria, a tangible reduction in poverty, a substantial increase in longevity, a rise in primary school enrollment from 58 per cent in 2000 to 74 per cent in 2008, and a general decline of violence. Provision of fertiliser and new varieties of seeds by governments to poor farmers in countries like Malawi has increased agricultural yields, and surpluses of tropical crops are finding markets abroad.
In the continent as a whole, 2010 was exceptional in the number of elections. Burundi, Guinea, Ethiopia and the semi-autonomous region of Somalia had elections early in the year; Tanzania and Chad followed. The referendum in Kenya was another successful democratic exercise giving that country a new constitution, which is helping to resolve ethnic tensions. Increasingly, the voters are holding politicians accountable, and that bodes well for Africa’s future progress.
The economy of the continent has shown much strength in a period of global recession. According to an IMF report, Sub-Saharan Africa grew at more than 5 per cent during the period 2000-2009. The spike in commodity prices contributed only a quarter of the growth. Even countries without mineral resources grew at a healthy rate of more than 4 per cent.
The consumer spending of the continent, with less than 1 billion people in 2008, was $860 billion, more than that of India with a population of 1.2 billion. As many as 316 million mobile phones were added between 2000 and 2008. There are likely to be shortfalls in the achievement of Millennium Development Goals, largely because of the shortfalls in financial support promised by rich Western countries; but the broad picture is one of dynamism, hope and the promise of continuing advance in the years ahead.
n the success stories coming out of Africa, there are lessons to learn for the world, and a message for India in particular — Africa looks to India, not for patronage, not for roads and railways enabling exploitation and export of its vital resources, but for cooperation in activating its indigenous talent and in harnessing Africa’s resources for Africans.
Happily, some limited but impressive Indian engagement with Africa of the kind that the Africans want already exists. For example, the Pan-African e-network, an idea of Dr Abdul Kalam, is helping in e-medicine and e-education. Some of India’s better-known corporate houses — Tatas, Bajaj, OVL, Essar, Sanmar, Ranbaxy and Reliance — have their presence in Africa. The acquisition of Zain telecom by Bharti Mittal has made it the biggest telecom company in Africa.
There is good, though rather small, cooperative activity in agriculture also. Karuturi Global has taken a large acreage in Ethiopia for horticulture, and Punjabi farmers in East Africa are growing high-value crops, including pulses and maize, for local consumption and for export. The rice cultivation project in Senegal by Kirloskar is often cited as an example of South-South cooperation. NIIT has done pioneering work in IT training in countries like Nigeria.
An African leader said recently that, in Africa, China was doing more, but India was doing better. We can and should be doing more, especially by way of cooperation in higher education — in engineering, business administration and medicine — and in the development of indigenous industry. And with an improved record of performance, we can do even better than we are doing now.
Indian universities, think-tanks and the media have a great role to play in increasing awareness in our country about a new wind of change blowing across Africa. Our government, on its part, should give a much higher priority in India’s foreign policy to diplomatic relations with African countries. An African Head of State should be the chief guest on the occasion of Republic Day, 2012.
India’s engagement should move away from sporadic events to a continuous activity and engagement, and the implementation of identified projects should be carried out as scheduled.
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