OPINION:
Leaders from 140 world nations will gather in New York City this week for the meetings of the U.N. General Assembly, to sit still to be “inspired” by the theme of “Delivering on and Implementing a Transformative Post-2015 Development Agenda.” Translated from bureaucratese, the official language of the U.N., that means, “We want you to raise your taxes and impose more regulations — for your own good.”
This is advice to be roundly ignored. Africa, for generations known as “the dark continent,” has come a long way toward the light over the past half-century. The Economist says its study of Africa finds that six of the world’s 10 fastest-growing economies are in sub-Saharan Africa, and Forbes magazine calls the region the third-fastest growing in the world.
The bureaucrats at the U.N. would have you think that all that success is their work, coming from an abundance of handouts and aid programs. The facts are that the freebies have stifled Africa’s potential by encouraging complacency and sloth, discouraging governments from taking necessary steps to develop effective policies to spur growth.
Worse, it buries Africa in debt, putting them on the hook for $20 billion a year in repayments. Even the International Monetary Fund has figured that out; It once published a report titled “Aid Will Not Lift Growth in Africa.”
Three years ago, Zambia elected a president from outside the country’s statist and corrupt establishment party. Taxes were soon trimmed. A newly drafted democratic constitution will address serious corruption problems. The gross domestic product responded with a 6.5 percent jump last year, and Zambia’s economy is expected to grow 7.1 percent this year. Zambia remains a poor nation, but if it continues on the right track, it won’t be poor for long.
Zambia’s growth is similar to what South Africa saw in the 1990s. South Africa is now the most robust country on the continent. Along with Brazil, China, India and Russia, South Africa is considered one of the five most powerful emerging economies in the world.
South Africa’s neighbor Botswana has watched per-capita income rise steadily since the 1970s, the result of low taxes and relatively transparent government. Botswana holds the No. 1 spot among continental African countries on the Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom, which ranks countries based on how they advance prosperity, entrepreneurship and opportunity.
The leading nations of the world have a natural stake in Africa’s climb from poverty to prosperity, and merely giving them lots of money won’t help. Nor do these countries need nannies telling them to turn down (or up) the thermostat to prevent the imaginary scourge of global warming and its bureaucratic manifestations. The growing nations need cheap electricity to warm and cool houses and operate efficient factories. High-fashion windmills are luxury adornments only for the indulgent Europeans and Americans, who can afford them.
What African nations need most from the rest of the world is the dismantling of protectionist trade barriers that block their products from European and American markets. They need an end to the dependency-forming handouts. They need help in times of natural disasters and plagues, such as combating Ebola, because Africa lacks the advanced medical capabilities of America and Europe. Sending teams to eradicate the plague is in everybody’s interest.
The Heritage rankings show nine African nations eclipsed the world average in economic freedom, and it’s not the result of speeches and harangues at the General Assembly. Aspiring African nations need only to listen to the neighbors who are trying to do everything right.
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