Statement of Mr. K.Y. Amoako, Executive Secretary, ECA
13 December, 1996
Addis Ababa

Dr. Salim Ahmed Salim, Secretary-General, Organization of African Unity

The Representative of the International Peace Academy Hon. Mr. Ole Moesby from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark,

Mr. F. P. Liu, (Former UN Assistant Secretary General) Special Political Affairs Officer

Members of the Diplomatic Corps,

Invited Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Welcome to the United Nations Conference Centre and to Addis Ababa the seat of the Organization of African Unity and the Economic Commission for Africa. My compliments to International Peace Academy President Ambassador Olara Otunnu, who regrettably is not be able to join us today, and his staff for responding to the urgent and pressing need for trained professionals in Africa to manage and prevent conflict, and to establish and maintain peace.

His organization has not only stimulated meaningful discussions on peace, but has implemented programmes that support the achievement and maintenance of peace on the African continent. I wish also to take this opportunity to thank the Danish government for financing this seminar and for its continued support of our endeavors at the ECA.

(silence)

Pause with me for a brief moment. Allow your mind to flash through the images it has catalogued of societies without peace. The bedraggled, eight-year old boy barely able to hold his AK-47 semi-automatic machine gun ready to shoot anything that moves. A young mother mourning the death of her children. The famine, the hunger, the thousands of people walking away from war-torn areas on a journey which may lead them to death or a life with no promise.

Anyone who watches the news can conjure up these images. The gory details of senseless destruction of life and property, destroyed infrastructures and destroyed institutions, the warring factions which seem to lack the ability to distinguish between right and wrong.

The media has given us an intimate and detailed knowledge of the devastation and destruction, the displacement and the immense suffering. Consequently, I do not need to stand before you today and cite a litany of cold, hard statistics to define the economic and social woes caused by conflict or to convince you we need urgent solutions.

Solutions to peace must be devised in a context that takes into account the following: the high cost of conflict and the economics of peace, the importance of peace to development, the role of civil society in promoting peace, why women should be involved in the peace process, and the challenges for the future.

Peace-building is one of the major components of the UN System-wide Special Initiative on Africa. Give Development a Chance, one of four cross-cutting themes, features peace-building as a key focus area. ECA has initiated a series of activities to fulfil its commitment and play a significant role in peace-building in Africa.

The cost of conflict has taken a great toll on this continent - the economic, the human, the political, the social, and let us not forget the psychological. So many aspects of conflict have major economic consequences. An economic and conciliatory role for all, is less costly than military involvement. Must we wait for wars to vanish out of exhaustion or vanish because of debilitating economic and social woes?

Throughout its post-colonial history Africa has been wrecked by conflicts and civil wars. In the past three decades, there have been nearly 30 cases of civil strife in sub-Saharan Africa alone. War and conflict have destroyed economic infrastructure, caused severe damage to the environment, and ruined education, health, and other social service facilities.

Since the early sixties, an estimated ten million people, the vast majority of whom are civilian, have lost their lives as a result of armed conflict. Nearly as many people have been handicapped for life. Presently, over half of the world refugees are found in Africa. In Rwanda, the humanitarian costs of the refugee relief operation during the first two weeks of the emergency was nearly $2 billion dollars. Comparatively, the net disbursed amount of official development assistance in 1992 to Rwanda was $333 million, about one sixth of the amount spent on the relief operations.

Once conflict is over, in many countries, the costs associated with the massive and indiscriminate use of anti-personal land mines is phenomenal. According to the International Red Cross, land mines kill 800 people each month, with thousands being severely maimed. The cost for removal of the over 100 million uncleared land mines throughout the world will be well over $4 billion.

In the interest of economic and social progress, the use of public resources must emphasize efficiency and equity. Broad reviews of government expenditure are needed to help governments restructure and make tough choices about the allocation and reallocation of their public expenditures.

Governments incur huge opportunity costs when resources are allocated to the military. The budgetary trade-offs lead to ineffective use of resources in terms of raising a society's welfare -- the neo-classical economists' "guns versus butter" debate. Spending extremely scarce capital on defense involves substantial sacrifice of other economic opportunities for growth and development.

In Africa, governments are channelling far too many resources to the military and countries are losing their ability to bear the costs of defense. Defense spending is a major user of a country's scarce resources, crowds out valuable civil investment, and renders adverse effects on an economy's development and growth potential.

In Sub-Saharan African alone, military spending rose from less than 1 percent of GNP in 1960 to more than 3 percent in 1990 -- consider this in the context that most of these countries could not provide adequate immunization coverage for children or universal primary education. Military spending as a percentage of the combined education and health expenditures increased from 27 to 43 percent during 1980 and the early 1990s, respectively, for Africa as a whole. In contrast, it declined for both the developing and the industrial countries during the same comparable period.

Massive militarization and continued war squander away valuable and scarce resources. Continental demilitarization and cuts in military are preconditions required for reviving civil society, reducing poverty, and sustaining development. Successful demilitarization requires disarmament, demobilization of forces, the reduction of the arms flow, and reintegration programmes, in addition to a reallocation of resources, a re-configured public expenditure mix, and a rehabilitiation of critical infrastructure. The peace dividend is high.

Military downsizing can increase security, build confidence, and reduce public fear. The complementary reintegration programmes that involve training and employment schemes for ex-combatants can also jump-start the economy. Macroeconomic reform programmes should be linked to the reintegration programme. In the short-term, the economic dividends may be small, but in the long-term, these types of programmes and the resulting public expenditure mix will lead to enhanced production of civil goods and services.

In African countries where the civilian sector of the economy has been neglected and suppressed by military priorities, a successful conversion will require public policies supporting demilitarization. These policies can assist the change and the resource allocation needed to minimize the costs of the process. And, in the long term, the reform of spending on the military promises greater benefits for the poor. Resources released from defense will be available for alternative uses in the economy. Public expenditures in the social sector can be increased. In the final analysis, investiments in basic social services can yield higher payoffs than investment in the military.

Herein lies the importance of broad-based growth and poverty reduction. Poverty is the root cause of the social and political chaos we are witnessing throughout Africa. As noted in State of the World's Refugees, "A hungry society is an angry society, and angry people are often driven to destructive activities." Governments have an important role to play in poverty reduction.

Investments must also be made in institutions of governance. The three decades of conflict have left much of the structures of civil society in ruin and most institutions of governance discredited. The Special Initiative counts governance as one of five broad areas of highest priority to Africa. The governance cluster, under the leadership of ECA and UNDP, will provide strategies and support for peace-building, conflict resolution, and national reconciliation.

Without proper governance or confidence in the governance structure, our best and brightest leave Africa. Some further blame the migration of educated and entrepreneurial Africans to Europe and the United States on the absence of peace. The resulting brain drain. I hope I don't have to use that word for much longer has hampered Africa's ability to accelerate socio-economic development and has made the continent perennially dependent on foreign technical assistance and expertise.

The answer to Africa's quest for peace does not lie in the past. The complications of the present must be dealt with by all of us. As Hadjor notes in his book On Transforming Africa, "...involvement in the struggle for a new Africa can only redeem the intellectual. (This involvement) represents the transformation of an irrelevant observer into an active contributor to social development."

Secondly, without enduring peace in the region, there can be no economic development and vice versa. Stability and security are prerequisites to sustainable development, and when you ensure sustainable development, you guarantee peace. Years lost on conflict are years lost on development.

As observed by UN Secretary-General Boutrous Ghali, "There can be no peace without economic and social development, just as development is not possible in the absence of peace." He stressed the importance of post-conflict peace-building as an integral aspect for securing durable peace, development, and nation-building. This indeed, is the essence of the Agenda for Peace, which is currently shaping the vision in the UN.

Persistent political and armed conflicts constrain economic development. They have also resulted in making the region the least developed area of the world. But most importantly, they have resulted in missed opportunities. When the lives of human beings are threatened, productivity is minimized, if not totally abandoned. The result - unparalleled human disasters rendering the region's population chronically vulnerable and dependent on international charity.

Economic development may be further constrained by the diversion of donor funds that support economic development to disaster relief. Critics of aid to Africa suggest that disaster relief aid may be seen as a substitute for development aid. If that is the case and donors decide to reduce their development assistance because of contributions to relief efforts, economic development slows and dependency on relief aid increases.

In essence, the more that is spent on disaster relief, the less effective aid is seen in solving the fundamental development problem, a compelling reason to accelerate our programmes to resolve conflicts and maintain peace.

Thirdly, an enduring peace requires a strong, viable, and assertive civil society - a society which widens democratic space and facilitates opportunities for citizens to participate in political and social life. The will of the general public is one of the most powerful forces in securing peace, democracy, and good governance.

The civil society has a special responsibility for supporting and building alliances with civic institutions, for fostering practices that encourage people to take responsibility for their own destinies, and for educational activities aimed at sensitizing and mobilizing the general population about peace and good governance. Peace education should encourage harmonious living, nurture a willingness to cooperate, and build constituencies for peace.

Further, civic education in the formal school systems can build positive social values and promote democratic governance at the mass and community level. Educators should be encouraged to integrate these concepts into school curricula and teach our African young people about the political histories of their communities, principles of peaceful co-existence, and even negotiation skills.

Teachers and community leaders, should develop booklets, other printed materials, and audio-visual aids that will inform students about the importance of good governance, respect for human rights, and peaceful means of conflict resolution.

ECA is well-recognized for promoting development of civil societies. In it's renewed effort to serve Africa better, ECA has included the strengthening of civil society organizations an integral component of its programme focus. Beginning in 1997, ECA, in collaboration with leading members of African Civil Society organizations, will establish and operate a Regional Resource Centre for strengthening the capacity of NGOs and civil society organizations to promote peace-building.

The Centre will prepare studies on potential sources of conflict in Africa; organize national workshops to foster dialogue and cooperation between governments and organizations of civil society; and help government representatives improve the policy and legislative environment for the Civil Society Organizations.

When and where possible, the mass media should be mobilized to promote the concept of peace and facilitate consensus-building. UNESCO, under the Special Initiative, plans to use radio broadcasting to convey messages to promote tolerance, democracy, respect for human rights, and peace-building.

Similarly, ECA plans to build and strengthen our partnerships with both domestic and international media to promote peace-building in the context of economic development. In a two-year plan, called Engaging the Public through Mass Media, we will disseminate development information via radio, train Africans to produce development-oriented radio programmes, and develop pilot radio programmes.

Under this plan, ECA and its partners will also demonstrate ways in which new technologies can enhance existing broadcast facilities in a cost-effective manner. This Conference Center will be upgraded with digital audio and video equipment to facilitate state-of-the art production.

Allow me to be bold and visionary in my next statement. We can achieve peace if we consistently involve women in peace negotiations, peace-building, and peace management. Women are inherently peace makers, imbued with a style of negotiation and arbitration which includes open communications and a willingness to compromise for a peaceful co-existence.

Women rally for problem solving, if given the chance. We can benefit from their positive socialization and their fresh perspective on decisions needed to bring about peace.

In the last decade, a significant body of research shows consistently that women are less supportive of the use of military force than men. In a 1996 study of attitudes toward the Persian Gulf War, for example, women were significantly less likely than men to favor the initiation of armed hostilities, more emotionally distressed by the onset of conflict, and more likely to favor limits. We should support research that explores gender differences in interpretation of events leading to crises, the use of force, and strategies for creating stable peace.

These are not lofty or unrealistic recommendations. Women are stakeholders in the peace process. Disproportionately affected by conflict, women have had to pay the price of a failing African leadership. More often than not, women are the ones displaced, women are the refugees, women are the violated. They, with children, are our most vulnerable.

Africa needs the participation, energy, and commitment of its women in peace-building. There is no justification for not including them. Women and men leaders, together, can anticipate and prepare for a peaceful society of the present and of the future.

Finally, what are our challenges for the future? First and foremost, we must remember that there is an economic dimension to peace. Peace-building is a process - a process inseparable from sustained democratization and economic development. We need to recognize that politicians, civil servants, and civil society organizations each have a critical role to play in the success of any peace-building effort. Conflict effectively shuts off citizens from the economic development sphere and traps them in a vicious cycle of poverty.

Rapid economic growth and poverty reduction can contain and eliminate conflict. Governments need to commit to poverty reduction and stimulate patterns of economic growth so the benefits of economic development can be widely shared.

We also need effective, fair, and accountable political institutions, equitable access to political power by all citizens, full and genuine participation, free flow of information, and a reduction in the size of defense budgets. Civil societies organizations, indeed, have the potential to support the peace-building process and take on a wider role in development.

ECA plans to facilitate dialogue between civil society actors and governments and help foster networks of Civil Society Organizations within and between countries.

Additionally, ECA, with its development partners such as the World Bank, will support demilitarization efforts by designing and implementing macroeconomic reform and reintegration programmes. These activities will complement the OAU's work in conflict resolution, prevention, and management and will further guarantee the maintenance of peace on this continent.

In summary, achievement and maintenance of peace on the African continent will require a different kind of determination and an inexhaustible energy. As soldiers for peace, we must support preventive diplomacy. We must create conditions for development and support solutions that contribute to the continent's socio-economic health, and we must strengthen institutional capacities to deal with conflict.

Conflicts drain precious resources. How much longer can Africa bear the cost of conflict? Two years? Five years? Ten years? Peace should no longer be a stranger to Africa.

Each of us has the potential and the civic duty to contribute to peace and resolution of conflicts. We must continue this important work and empower others to assist in gaining and promoting sustainable peace in Africa.