For the well-being of today's families and for future generations, how important is investment in education and other forms of human capital? This report analyzes the potential for investments in education--by individual households, by government, and by donor agencies--to reduce poverty in postwar Mozambique. It provides an assessment of the existing stock of human capital and examines the association between human capital and both monetary and nonmonetary dimensions of household welfare. It also explores the factors that influence the decision to send children to school, and how long children remain in school.

Normal business ground to a halt in Benin on Tuesday as the country's main trade unions began a three-day general strike to demand higher pay for government employees, better pensions and lower university fees. Only senior managers turned up for work at government offices, schools, banks and most businesses were closed in the economic capital Cotonou, health centres were short staffed and the city's normally busy streets were empty of traffic.

Nigeria angrily rejected the results and methodology of the world's best-known corruption study on Wednesday after being named the third most corrupt of the 145 countries surveyed. Nigeria, the oil-rich but socially poor West African giant, has been anchored at or around the bottom of Transparency International's annual Corruption Perceptions Index since it was first published 10 years ago.

UN peacekeepers in Liberia used teargas to disperse a demonstration on Wednesday by parents and pupils who want their primary school in the capital reopened. Hundreds of demonstrators, including schoolchildren in uniform, disrupted traffic to protest the closure of the Early Learning Foundation School, which has not opened its doors since the new term started on October 5. UN troops clad in riot gear lobbed tear gas into the crowd after local youths joined the initially peaceful protest.

Sexual violence and rape of women and girls in the western Sudanese region of Darfur should be considered a war crime, Pamela Shifman, a United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) adviser on violence and sexual exploitation, was reported as saying on Tuesday. "The perpetrators must be held accountable. There are Sudanese laws against rape and there are Sudanese courts, and they have to be used," Shifman, who visited the region last week, said.

More than 90% of Africans are proud of their continent, a new survey conducted for the BBC shows. While many people in the rest of the world see Africa as plagued by war and poverty, many Africans are far more positive about their lives. The majority say their family will be better off, or the same, this year compared to last. This survey of African attitudes is a rare event. More than 7,500 people were interviewed in 10 countries.

An alternative to the current industrial food production system exists: one where food quality and variety are valued, rural regions thrive, and links between producers and consumers are strong. Terra Madre is a forum for those who seek to grow, raise, catch, create, distribute and promote food in ways that respect the environment, defend human dignity and protect the health of consumers. Terra Madre is a gathering of an unprecedented scale, drawing 5000 people from dozens of nations. Every participant will represent a 'Food Community' - which means they are part of a chain of production, linked by a common product, ethnic identity, region, history, or approach. There are more than 167 African communities represented. Terra Madre will rediscover the links that connect the primary producer to the vendor: the grain grower, the baker, and the bread shop. Participants in Terra Madre will exchange ideas and solutions about how to promote a healthy, dynamic, and diverse food system.

Uganda loses between Shs200 billion to Shs350 billion a year in corruption, the Executive Director of Uganda Debt Network, Mr Zie Gariyo, said yesterday. He was speaking at a two-day workshop on the role of the media in fighting corruption. He said corruption is in the form of outright fraud and embezzlement, illegal payments, payment of ghost employees, false declaration of customs entries, poor contracting systems and fraudulent procurement.

Former prime minister Pascal Affi N'Guessan of the President Laurent Gbagbo's Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) party has urged Cote d'Ivoire's independent prime minister, Seydou Diarra, to resign, following the refusal of rebel forces to start disarming on 15 October as planned. N'Guessan said the broad-based government of national reconciliation headed by Diarra should be dissolved because it had shown "no concern whatsoever" at the rebels' failure to disarm.

The Paris Club of mainly western creditor nations have agreed to cancel US $758 million of Ethiopian debt to help cut poverty and stimulate growth. The debt write-off is part of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative (HIPC), launched in 1996 to ease the burden on the world's poorest countries. Ethiopia's external public sector debt was estimated in 2003 by the International Monetary Fund at $6.8 billion, of which the Paris Club nations were owed $1.89 billion as of April 2004. The write-off came as the Ethiopian government launched concerted efforts through its diplomats overseas to gain greater debt relief.

The European Union (EU) on Tuesday said negotiations with Mozambique's electoral commission to open up the one remaining part of the counting process in upcoming general elections to observers were progressing well. While election monitors may be present at counting stations at the local level, they are excluded from the final provincial and national stages of the count. The final tabulation is seen as crucial, because it is at this stage that spoiled ballot papers are considered, and both provincial and national elections commissions make decisions about polling station results sheets.

World-famous Nigerian author Chinua Achebe has rejected an award from his home country, criticising the "dangerous" state of affairs. "The situation is getting worse and worse," he told the BBC, saying that President Olusegun Obasanjo bears primary responsibility. Achebe told the BBC's Network Africa programme that he hoped that rejecting the Commander of the Federal Republic - Nigeria's second highest honour - would serve as a "wake-up call". He also said that he hoped the recent wave of strikes and protests would continue until there is "change".

The conference is to be held from 26 - 28 November 2004 at the University of Cape Town, in the spirit of the World Social Forum and its methodology of openness, plurality and respect for a diversity of views within popular movements of civil society, will create a space where activists, progressive social theorists and academics can discuss the successes, failures, strengths and weaknesses of the transition from apartheid. The conference will represent one of the voices of civil society that is celebrating and critically evaluating the new period our country has entered since the end of apartheid.

'The agency keeping the South African government on track is Britain's Department for International Development (DFID). This year it is giving £6.3 million to the Adam Smith Institute – the ultra-right wing privatisation lobby group – for "public sector reform" in South Africa. Staggeringly, the Institute has been given its own budget – £5m of British aid money – to disburse as it pleases. By this means, DFID can generate all the support it likes for privatisation and public-private partnerships, while avoiding direct responsibility for the decisions the institute makes.'

Durban businessman Schabir Shaik wanted to discuss "damage control" with his company's French partner after one of South Africa's foremost corruption busters threatened to start investigating the arms deal. This was one of the things a former personal assistant of Shaik's, Bianca Singh, remembered as she gave evidence in Shaik's trial in the Durban High Court on Monday. Shaik has pleaded not guilty to two charges of corruption - related to his relationship with Deputy President Jacob Zuma - and another of fraud.

President Bingu wa Mutharika's drive to rid Malawi of high-level corruption has opened up deep divisions within the ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) party, according to political observers. Since assuming power in May this year, Mutharika has made good on his election promise to tackle graft, earning praise from donors and opposition parties for his efforts. His role as a corruption buster was underlined when his administration recently arrested three top ruling party officials.

This year marks what many activists have dubbed the unhappy birthday of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. It is 60 years since the creation of these institutions in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, and in that time period both have come to have a profound and controversial influence on the world.

These institutions claim to be acting in the interests of the global good, with mission statements such as the World Bank, which says that its "mission is to fight poverty and improve the living standards of people in the developing world". But critics slam both institutions for their lack of democracy and for creating a system of modern day colonialism that does nothing to advance the interests of the poor.

Over the last eight weeks in the lead up to the annual meetings of the WB and IMF in early October in Washington D.C., Pambazuka News has carried a series of articles looking at various aspects of the involvement of these institutions in Africa. Below is the contents list and website addresses of these articles.

1. Recalcitrant reformers require tougher tactics

PATRICK BOND examines how the Bretton Woods Institutions have responded to criticism over their democratic credentials, their particular approach to development policy, their ongoing support for mega-projects and their failure to cancel debt. Boardroom tactics to reform the bank have not been successful, he shows, and it is in the grassroots movements to decommodify the goods and services which the World Bank and IMF increasingly put out of reach, that the only feasible alternative strategy can be found.

Full article: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?issue=170#2

2. The rains do not fall on one person's roof…

Throughout the Global South, public goods or services such as water, electricity, education and health care have become the subject of privatization under a free market ethos pushed by international financial institutions. This ethos dictates that allowing private companies free rein is the only sure way to 'development'. The privatization of water is one of the hotly contested areas where activists who argue that water is a human right have squared up against water barons represented by powerful transnational companies. In Ghana, the National Coalition Against the Privatization of Water has fought against a major water privatization project backed by the World Bank in a campaign that has wide resonance for movements against water privatization worldwide. In this question and answer article, RUDOLF AMENGA-ETEGO from the National Coalition Against the Privatization of Water, answers questions from Pambazuka News.

Full article: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?issue=171#2

3. The Lesotho Highlands Water Project: Bribery on a massive scale

FIONA DARROCH charts the dogged battle the tiny mountain kingdom of Lesotho has fought against multinational corporations in the World Bank-funded Lesotho Highlands Water project. The legal trials have set a precedent when it comes to corruption in mega development projects and focused attention on how the World Bank deals with corruption in the projects it funds.

Full article: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?issue=172#2

4. Global Apartheid continues to Haunt Global Democracy

Debt, argues CHARLES MUTASA from the African Forum and Network on Debt and Development (AFRODAD), is the new face of colonialism and slavery. It is an instrument used to plunder and exploit indebted countries' resources and ultimately is at the heart of the unequal power relations between the North and the South. The international community urgently needs to negotiate new measures to resolve Africa's debt crisis and end global apartheid.

Full article: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?issue=173#3

5. Ignoring the EIR: How industry, government and the bank chose profits over people

Mining always seems to have had an exploitative nature, representing massive wealth for some and grinding poverty for others. The World Bank's Extractive Industries Review (EIR) was supposed to change all of this, but any hope that it would fizzled out in August with a few outraged NGO press releases. Bank management had met and failed to adopt recommendations that would have placed people over profit. ABDULAI DARIMANI from Third World Network Africa explains some of the political machinations that conspired against the adoption of the review's recommendations.

Full article: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?issue=174#3

6. The IMF and WB in Africa: A Disastrous Record

The International Monetary Fund and World Bank have "utterly failed" in reducing poverty and promoting development in Africa, says DEMBA MOUSSA DEMBELE of the Forum for African Alternatives. "In fact, they are instruments of domination and control in the hands of powerful states whose long-standing objective is to perpetuate the plunder of the resources of the Global South, especially Africa," he says, concluding that the fundamental role of the Bretton Woods Institutions in Africa is to promote and protect the interests of global capitalism.

Full article: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?issue=175#2

7. A happy birthday?: The Chad/Cameroon oil pipeline one year on

While the Chad/Cameroon oil pipeline has been hailed as a model of how development projects can be instituted, oil corporations cannot be transformed into development agencies even with the best of intentions and monitoring mechanisms, writes AKONG CHARLES NDIKA from Global Village Cameroon. The flawed contention of the World Bank when it comes to development projects, he says, is that "one cannot eat omelettes without breaking some eggs''. But in the case of Africa the eggs are more often the poor who end up with no livelihood opportunities and become even poorer.

http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?issue=175#3

8. Zambia: New report reveals: Zambian children paying the price for IMF policies

While the Zambian government will be expected to give up to $156 million to the IMF in debt payments this year, it does not have the resources to help solve the teacher crisis which has put thousands of Zambian teachers out of work, and even more students without an adequate education. The Global Campaign for Education report has made a number of recommendations to the IMF, all without any positive response. Co-author Lucia Fry from VSO said "Zambia shows us the need for a radical change in the way the IMF does its business.

http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?issue=178

The North-South economic and political divide is the overriding concern in international trade relations, with the rich North creating conditions that allow for the pillaging and primitivisation of the poor South. Combined the International Financial Institutions (IFIs) and World Trade Organisation (WTO) adopt a coherent and comprehensive neo-liberal paradigm for trade and economic management, and this free trade ideology is imposed on developing countries.

There are serious deficiencies in this ideology, which are rarely given any credence, or receive at best grudging acknowledgement. The North uses the free trade ideology as a means of domination over the resources and livelihoods of the people of the South. One does not have to be a radical or a revolutionary to question the merits of their policies; simply looking at the economic history of rich countries is instructive. Do as I say and not as I did is the North's mantra.

The neo-liberal, free trade, Washington Consensus ideology is used as a tool to maintain resource flows from the South to the North. Militarily the colonisers were kicked out of African countries after bloody and horrific struggles. Neo-liberalism replaced military colonial occupation and ensures that resource flows from the South to the North continue. Instead of rule by the gun, it became: rule by trade policy. Free trade was used as the ideology to continue to maintain colonial economic relations with the South.

Trade is regulated primarily by the WTO. After the collapse of the WTO Cancun Ministerial, where developing countries refused to be bullied into accepting onerous trade and development terms, the United States of America (USA) and the European Union (EU) indicated that they would pursue Regional Trading Arrangements (RTA's) with countries.

The failure of the economic superpowers to achieve what they desired at the multilateral level must inform our analysis of what they hope to achieve at the regional negotiations level. Since many issues the North hoped to impose on the South through the WTO were rejected, it is imperative for the South to maintain this consistency in RTA negotiations simply because the issues are not in our interest. However, Southern governments, especially in Africa, are much weaker in regional and bilateral negotiations with the North than they are at the WTO simply because of their extreme (and increasing) dependence on the North.

The rational for African countries entering into RTAs are complex. There is the overriding perception that RTAs improve a country's economic development because of the alleged link between liberalisation and economic growth. However, a United Nations Development Programme longitudinal study of least developed countries found indications that liberalisation leads to de-industrialisation. One of the main reasons for entering RTA's is that regional bodies have greater representative and market power and may improve parity in bargaining. In order to benefit from the consolidation of representation, one can, wrongly, presume that there is an African regional integration plan that guides efforts in this regard.

The WTO establishes the framework for the implementation of free trade values: liberalisation is the aim of international trade. For an RTA to be WTO compliant it must result in higher levels of economic integration within a reasonable period of time, cover substantially all trade and be more liberalised than the WTO regime. This means that RTAs extend liberalisation commitments even further.

International trade is also impacted upon by the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The IFIs actively promote Washington Consensus values of neo-liberal economics. The principle ideology they impart is that the market allocates resources best and the state should not interfere by creating market distortions. They also promote tariff reductions and trade liberalisation generally, forcing the South to give for free what the North should bargain for in negotiations.

In the context of RTAs it is important to recognise that the combination of these factors indicates that trade policy (and development policy) is externally determined by participation with the IFIs and the WTO. These agreements regulate the development path that is open for countries to follow. The control in many instances is indirect and in many more it is quite direct.

But free trade and liberalisation were not used as policies by the North to reach their current stage of development. The Now Developed Countries (NDCs) used different sets of policies (almost the exact opposite of the Washington Consensus). Free trade and liberalisation are now mantras prescribed under the guise of being pro-development. The North used state power to regulate markets, increased the social wage, created public services, used tariffs as a means of industrial development and controlled investment flows amongst other measures.

For evaluation of African policies and global engagement, it is therefore revealing enough for us to begin our analysis in comparing the IFI/WTO prescriptions with the policies used by the North previously (historic capitalism), in order to understand what is happening to the South presently, within this form of neo liberal globalisation. One need not be a revolutionary to see that things in our countries are getting worse or that the policy prescriptions used are so divorced from reality as to be positively harmful.

Neo-liberalism treats all economic activities alike, whereas the North developed by not treating all economic activities alike. Simply put, the North recognised that investing in a casino would have a different developmental impact from say housing construction. This is a distinction the neo liberal system does not allow governments to make, so for instance subsidies under the WTO can be made to general sectors and not specific industries. Or, the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) treats basic health and water services the same as tourism and gambling, when there are clearly qualitative differences.

The neo-liberal ideology also pushes for perfect competition, which is a utopian ideal that has never existed! In the early stages of development, the Northern countries actually pursued anticompetitive policies to assist with their development. Practically Northern countries followed the principle of protection of industries including infant industries and only opened their markets once a particular level of market dominance/ economies of scale were achieved. This is in direct contradiction with the arguments against infant industry protection and in favour of consumer welfare effects of liberalisation based on efficiency, which are being shoved onto African developmental agendas. Tariff liberalisation is promoted by the WTO and the IFIs when high tariffs were the primary tool used to develop manufacturing capacity in the North. In other words, the system forces African governments to prefer cheaper imported goods over job creation at a time when unemployment is rife. The recognition that imported goods contain labour is not obvious, and we continue to import labour contained in our imports and make them cheaper by liberalising tariffs.

By using the economic analysis toolbox that the Northern countries themselves used to develop, we see a world that is violently intent on keeping us in poverty in perpetuity. The term violently is not used lightly because at present even an analysis of Africa's chances of pursuing Schumpertarian increasing return activities is heavily constrained by our international commitments, our so called level of global integration.

Since regional integration is a reality that must be dealt with, national and regional development agendas should, at the very least (but not only), incorporate the view that different economic activities have different impacts on the economy as Schumpeter pointed out.. Some activities generate positive returns (manufacturing), others are return neutral (tourism) while resource extraction and primary commodity production (after a point) generate negative/diminishing returns. In order to generate additional revenue for the state, so that it can serve its distributive function to improve the conditions of citizens, any international trade engagement must prioritise increasing return economic activities to promote revenue generation occasioned in part by tariff income losses due to imposed trade liberalisation. The impact of these losses is not discussed adequately in the public domain and there is a presumption that everything will be alright.

The WTO for instance allows tariff escalation. This means that it is cheaper and easier for Africans to export coffee beans than it is to export processed coffee. Therefore Africa does not develop beyond being coffee growers. It also allows for tariff peaks that are used to keep out goods where African countries have particular advantage like leather goods. So any move by Africans to develop manufacturing capabilities or to exploit comparative advantage to benefit meaningfully from their products meets with enormous obstacles and disincentives in Northern markets. These obstacles are legal and continue the colonial legacy of forbidding manufacturing in the colonies.

To bring about a change in the developmental pathway for Africa a number of obstacles have to be overcome, the first being the ideology of free trade that contaminates every level of policy making in many countries. Most officials and ministers do not know they do not know or are politically helpless in the face of free trade ideology.

The principles of free trade which are presented as inherently good are unsurprisingly absent in the North's approach to agriculture. In agriculture free trade is turned on its head, because the WTO allows the North to use trade distorting subsidies - state intervention that distorts the market: the ultimate free trade sin. So the system is schizophrenic, it prescribes a host of ideologies to govern trade in our countries (and thereby our development) but fails to apply it consistently in areas of interest to the South.

Because our governments are being pragmatic, they do not see the systemic and structural violence it creates and unleashes on our people. Over 70% of Africans rely on agriculture as a means of living, yet they are prevented from using this comparative advantage. South Africa in particular is giving the land back to black people but is forcing these farmers to compete with subsidised European and American imports. This is a recipe for disaster.

Many governments in Africa, however, are adopting the view that the more RTAs they belong to, the more beneficial it will be to their economies. But, for instance, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is estimated to reduce Namibia's revenue by between 31 and 50 percent over the next twelve years (and these exclude the dynamic effects!). A plethora of agreements would further reduce income. This is not simply a matter for trade negotiators; it has serious implications for governmental stability especially at a time when debt levels are rising exponentially. Money for much needed social welfare is simply not going to be available because most governments rely heavily on international trade taxes for revenue.

At present though, the international trade context within which African countries operate is skewed against them because increasing return activities: - Do not enjoy meaningful market access in export markets (especially in areas where we have comparative advantage); - Do not have sufficiently protected domestic markets to promote entrepreneurship and local development; - Suffer from supply side constraints; - Face continually declining commodity/primary goods prices and unfair competition in agriculture; - Are prevented through whimsical barriers to market entry in foreign countries.

Africa's openness to foreign goods and services within the domestic market is a problem. Africa is the continent that is most open to global trade. This means that even in the domestic market, local manufacturers must compete with Transnational Corporations. African manufacturers are expected to survive without protection from the State. We are trying to compete through exports in highly organised foreign markets while surrendering our home turf and losing out in both. The policies imposed on us simply do not make sense.Africa has slavishly followed most of the prescriptions of the former colonial powers with a spectacularly tragic outcome. If most of what we are doing is so different from what the North did and things are getting worse, then it is time to look at alternatives. There are other views on development that are simply not canvassed at all by our governments. If African governments are to prosper economically and politically, we need to at least begin to look at the policies used in the past by the now rich countries. If our governments fail to even consider some of these alternatives, then democratic government or not, it is a sad day. It is even sadder when these free trade conditions are imposed by many honourable and dedicated leaders who suffered greatly to bring us liberation (Nelson Mandela included), only to compound our people's material destitution.

* Riaz Tayob works for the Southern and Eastern African Trade Information and Negotiations Institute (Seatini) in South Africa

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* Editorial: Violently intent on keeping us in poverty: Riaz Tayob on interenational trade policy
* Breaking eggs and eating omelettes: africa's experience with the Bretton Woods institutions
* Comment and Analysis: Gerald Caplan on the genocide problem (Part II)
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* Refugees and Forced Migration: 1,618 refugees return home to DRC
* Elections and Governance: Predictions for Cameroon Election 2004
* HIV/AIDS: Pandemic filling African cemeteries
* Corruption: Which are the most corrupt countries in Africa?
* Education: IMF policies squeezing Zambian education system
* Media and Freedom of Expression: AU intellectuals campaign for freedom of expression

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Recent trends seem to suggest a shift away from strengthening of regional cooperation not only but also in Southern Africa. But such regionalism has been hitherto a declared priority on development agendas. Hampering factors presently include political differences such as the controversy over Zimbabwe. It escalated into a sharp division of views also among the member countries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). It is hardly an exaggeration to state that the inability to agree on a common approach has an almost paralysing effect. The following analysis is however concentrating on socio-economic factors of concern, which divide the region further instead of bringing it closer together.

Strategic shift towards NEPAD The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) seems to emerge increasingly as a type of mega-NGO to channel aid-funds into developmental projects, which at best claim but in reality fail to be driven by a desire towards enhanced regional collaboration. The programmes and policies funded under NEPAD are implemented mainly by countries and not by regional bodies. Hence NEPAD in effect more undermines than strengthens an agency such as SADC (or any other regional institution). This is a trend notwithstanding the fact that NEPAD attributes substantial relevance to regional bodies when identifying ways and means to achieve the defined socio-economic goals. NEPAD claims that its agenda is "based on national and regional priorities and development plans", which ought to be prepared "through participatory processes involving the people". So far, however, no visible signs in the SADC would indicate that the collective (multilateral) efforts aim at a united approach of the region in its relations with the outside world. Nor does NEPAD so far translate its noble aims into practical steps for implementation. The blue print emphasises sub-regional and regional approaches even under a separate sub heading. It stresses "the need for African countries to pool their resources and enhance regional development and economic integration … to improve international competitiveness". But the crux of the matter lies there: the emphasis on international competitiveness comes at the expenses of strengthening the local economy and the local people. Instead, integration in Africa should as a priority meet the socio-economic and environmental needs of its citizenries and not seek to turn even more into an export platform. NEPAD claims further to enhance the provision of essential regional goods as well as the promotion of intra-African trade and investments, with another focus on "rationalising the institutional framework for economic integration". But again, such an approach neglects the local/internal in favour of the global/external orientation. The implementation of NEPAD will hence most likely have the adverse effect and assist in an increased outward orientation of a regional bloc at the expenses of internal consolidation. It is interesting to note in this context, that notwithstanding the decisive role of South Africa within NEPAD, SADC has so far hardly acknowledged and certainly not embraced the initiative.

Divisive Free Trade Agreements The Free Trade Agreement between the European Union and South Africa (EU-SA FTA) negotiated since the mid-1990s, had a similarly divisive effect on the Southern African region by entering into a preferential trade relation with one country and thereby enhancing differences within the region resulting from existing conflicts of interest among the national economies. South Africa herself, the monetary zone, the South African Customs Union (SACU) and SADC are already not in harmony at any time and less so given the effects of the FTA on regional economic matters. Hence the EU intervention adds more friction. The new Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) negotiated between the countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific Islands (ACP states) on the one hand and the EU on the other hand not only seek to replace the previous Cotonou Agreement by means of sub-regional separate negotiations but also aim towards compatibility between EU-ACP trade relations and the World Trade Organisation (WTO). They are hence dependent upon the settlement of the Doha Development Agenda's controversial and yet unresolved issues. Interesting enough, the draft European Constitution makes no reference to cooperation with ACP states. It is only fair to assume that the EU enlargement shifts interest even further away from the neighbouring continent towards more collaboration closer to Brussels. In addition, the negotiations by the EU aim at separate accords with each region, and no country may negotiate in more than one bloc. As such, SADC is reduced to seven member countries (half of the 14 SADC states) under the EPA negotiations. It is not far fetched to see that there is an in build conflict between regionalism as it exists and the negotiations of new multilateral processes. Countries might differ over the advantages between benefits from the continued protection of regional arrangements or the creation of individual preferential access within other trade agreements. But if regionalism is considered as a problem or obstacle towards further global harmonisation under the WTO, it stands little chances of being a viable point of departure for strengthening in particular the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) in the South within the global trade arrangements. Instead, the predictable outcome of the current negotiations under the WTO related agreements will be a shrinking of "development space". To avoid such in-egalitarian pseudo-partnerships, a shift in balance from the drive to homogenize trading commitments to other states towards granting states reasonable scope to choose appropriate levels of national protection is required. A development strategy would therefore have to operate in a zone where both internal as well as external integration reinforce than rather undermine each other. Instead, issues of internal integration (including issues of regional integration) have largely dropped out of the development agenda as the gospel of the free trade paradigm dominates the discourse.

EU and US as partners? The same limiting effects can be expected from the Free Trade Agreement between SACU and the USA. The SACU-US FTA seems to promise nothing different from the US-American African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which tends to separate and divide instead of bringing African economies and interests closer. The benefits from AGOA differ among African countries according to their resources. Ironically, within those countries having been allocated a LDC status under AGOA (receiving additional preferential treatment), external capital (from mainly East Asian countries) has managed to exploit the opportunities created for supplying the US market under preferential tax regimes with cheap textiles from these countries. The by and large unqualified and underpaid workforce in the local sweatshops is hardly reaping any benefits from the super exploitation. Nor does the fiscus in these states, as initial investments and running costs for operations are substantially subsidised with public revenue instead of providing any tax income from the profits generated. Such recent trends indicate towards less than more regional cooperation and integration, at least in macro-economic terms along the official membership in such bodies like SADC. The political and security interests might provide with increased support by the G8 (the group of 8 most industrialised countries of the Northern hemisphere) the strengthening of initiatives towards closer regional collaboration in reducing armed conflicts and securing more stability. Such stability continues however to be perceived as regime security, in contrast to a concept of human security. The latter would give primacy to human rights in favour of the citizens and not preference to the governments in power Even if there would be achievements in this direction, the multidimensionality and heterogeneity of a region like Southern Africa is likely to persist and may eventually increase. This does not prevent external support towards further positive regional interdependence. But this requires more than merely the opening up to the global economy. More so, it would have to re-visit matters of regional economic collaboration and seek involvement of the majority of the African population in these countries. - The current initiatives by the EU and the US under the WTO offer little to no promise to contribute to such a desirable tendency, neither in SADC nor elsewhere.

* Henning Melber is Research Director at The Nordic Africa Institute in Uppsala/Sweden and has been Director of the Namibian Economic Policy Research Unit (NEPRU) in Windhoek between 1992 and 2000.

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