2023-05-25 14:49:49
In the presentation of the Cyclops 2023 report, sub-Saharan Africa was little mentioned. Asked regarding this by CommodAfricathe specialist Philippe Chalmin who co-leads the report, recalls that “ if raw materials are important for Africa, Africa is not very important for raw materials. He explains this in an exclusive interview.
CommodAfrica: What is your analysis of the cards at stake for Africa in the field of raw materials?
Philippe Chalmin : I don’t like to sink into afro pessimism. Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of good reasons to be very optimistic given the destabilization of a number of regions: the Sahelian arc in the broadest sense, part of East Africa Ethiopia to Mozambique, the DR Congo which remains relatively unexemplary… So, we have many more question marks today in Africa than we really have certainties.
While Africa’s dependence on raw materials remains significant, unfortunately, Africa is not totally on the most important raw materials. Admittedly, it has significant mineral potential, but unfortunately we know that mining is not a vehicle for economic development. Africa is increasing its food dependencies and continues to import: Nigeria has become one of the world’s leading importers of wheat even though it has just been overtaken by China.
Somewhere, we cannot say that there are miracles of African governance. The two African giants, South Africa and Nigeria, are, on the contrary, examples of poor governance. And things are not improving whether it is in Nigeria with the monetary crisis linked to the limitation of cash, or whether it is in South Africa with the inability to solve the Eskom problem.
So I don’t want to sink into Afro-pessimism. But I admit that I don’t see many points of optimism. So, yes, there are countries that are doing better like Côte d’Ivoire, but Ghana is under the IMF’s block; Senegal, meanwhile, is entering a period of uncertainty with the elections as in Rwanda with the succession of Paul Kagame. And I’m not talking regarding the situation in Sudan. Quite frankly, God knows if Africa should be the major continent of the 21st century, quite simply because it is she who will bear the brunt of the demographic shock of the 21st century. But for now, I don’t see much that makes me feel optimistic.
Is the European Union doomed to adopt a food aid policy or to restructure its agricultural markets to enable Africa to cope with its growing food insecurity?
Food insecurity in Africa is linked to civil wars!
Weather conditions too…
Yes, but if you take two of the potentially wealthiest countries in Africa, like DR Congo and Nigeria, they don’t really have climate causalities but bad governance causalities to their malnutrition. Ethiopia, on the other hand, has climatic reasons with the drought in the Horn of Africa.
I have been saying for years that we can provide emergency food aid, but the real aid would be aid for the financing of a real agricultural policy and I would almost say, on the model of what was the policy common European agricultural sector of the 1960s. But this was brushed aside by the liberals with the liberal and structural adjustment policies put in place. Today, even the administrative structures would not allow a return to systems that guarantee prices to producers. If we want Africa to be able to feed itself, it must be able to guarantee prices to producers. It is unfortunately as simple as that. However, we keep adding constraints.
The impact of European directives on deforestation is unfortunately likely to have a more negative than positive impact. Knowing that part of the deforestation in Africa is largely behind us and was done to produce fuelwood. It should not be forgotten.
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