Debt and Education in Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa carries a debt
burden amounting to three times
the value of its annual exports.
The region spends more on paying its
debts than on health and education combined.
In 1999, African public debt was
estimated at US$235 billion. Annual debt
service amounted on average to US$17
billion-the equivalent of 3.8% of these
countries' GDP, 16% of their annual exports, and 35%* of education spending for all African countries.
These revealing
figures
clearly show
that sub-Saharan
Africa's external
public debt is
the principal
barrier to the
region's development. It holds back
progress in all sectors, including education,
by forcing indebted countries to allocate
scarce resources to loan repayment
rather than to the well-being of their
people. Budgetary belt-tightening-of
which the social sectors are the first victims-
has undermined health and education
systems, slowed progress toward
Education for All (EFA) targets, and hampered
the development of effective measures
for combating AIDS.
Breaking the vicious circle of poverty
The enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor
Countries (HIPC) Initiative-the focus
of this issue of the Newsletter-should
thus be welcomed as a chance for African
countries to break out of the vicious
circle in which they are caught. To date,
18 African countries have qualified for
the HIPC Initiative: Benin, Burkina Faso,
Cameroon, the Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau,
Madagascar, Malawi, Mali,
Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Rwanda,
São Tomé and Principe, Senegal,
Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. Twelve
others are also expected to benefit from
the initiative but have not yet met all the
eligibility criteria: Burundi, Central African
Republic, Chad, Congo, Democratic
Republic of Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Ethiopia,
Liberia, Sierra Leone, Somalia,
Sudan, and Togo.
For the 18 African countries that have
reached the "decision point," it is estimated
that the HIPC Initiative will "release"
a sum equivalent to US $20.3 billion,
or approximately 50 % of public
expenditures on the education and health
sectors. Such debt relief thus represents
a substantial increase in resources and an
exceptional opportunity for the education
sector, at a time when many countries
are drawing up ten-year sectoral plans
with the aim of achieving Education For
All by 2015.
Necessary but not sufficient
While the HIPC Initiative is a source of
hope, it is not a cure-all: it is necessary,
but not sufficient. As Alain Mingat and
Jee-Peng Tan emphasize (see their article,
pp. 3-6), this is a two-pronged issue: "The
sector will, first of all, need to attract the
resources drained by debt, but second and
most importantly, it will need to use these
resources in an efficient and equitable
way." They call on countries to re-examine
the very foundations of their education
systems and carry out the structural
changes needed to "build systems capable
of producing the desired social results
within a financial framework that is sustainable
over the long term."
Julien Daboué (see pp. 9-11) points
out that the financial resources earmarked
for repaying creditors are the same resources
as those that will be used to pay
for social programs, and that although the
HIPC Initiative eases the debt constraint
on poor countries, it does not resolve all
of their economic and social problems.
Mamadou Ndoye, in his account of
the Sahel countries' conference on education
(Bamako, November 26, 2000),
stresses that "the countries' requirements
greatly exceed the resources freed up by
the HIPC Initiative." To reduce poverty,
provide for health needs, and offer quality
Education for All, countries will have
to introduce appropriate policies to
stimulate economic growth, improve
governance, diversify sources of financing,
harness local savings, and attract domestic
and foreign investment capital.
There is also a need to mobilize civil
society in order to enhance its involvement
in the design and implementation
of poverty reduction programs. David
Norman's article (see pp. 7-8) pays tribute
to international NGOs as devoted activists
for increased morality, justice, and
debt cancellation. They are now directing
their efforts to supporting civil society
"in order to ensure that debt cancellation
will indeed serve the interests of
the neediest."
* Source: Progress Reports on the HIPC Initiative
and the Strategic Frameworks for Poverty
Reduction. World Bank. DC/2000-10.
Contents Page | Next Article: The HIPC Initiative
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