The global recession threatens to wipe out a decade of progress in Africa, boosting poverty and political tension, although the crisis is not of the continent's making, the head of the African Development Bank said on Friday.
AfDB President Donald Kaberuka urged the forthcoming G20 summit to look at the broader impact of the crisis on developing countries and not focus solely on financial issues.
Policymakers were tending to concentrate on issues such as regulation, executive pay and hedge funds, he said.
"But for us in low-income countries the crisis is reaching us and hitting very hard," he said.
Kaberuka said hopes that developing countries could decouple themselves from the crisis had evaporated and the International Monetary Fund had now downgraded its forecast for economic growth in the continent this year to 3.5 percent.
With the population increasing by 2.5-3.0 percent that would leave little or no economic growth per head, he said.
"It means there will be a massive increase in poverty," he said.
POLITICAL RISK
This would wipe out the gains of the past 10 years, when Africa was one of the world's fastest growing regions with many states starting to wean themselves off aid, he said.
The result would an upsurge in political risk in the region.
"There's no doubt that this crisis will increase social tension," Kaberuka said.
"On this side of the world, jobs and homes are being lost… but in the poorest countries… it's about lives being lost, children not being able to go to school, children not being able to access medical treatment," he said.
Kaberuka said he hoped the G20 summit on April 2 would see rich countries standing by their pre-crisis commitments to double aid to Africa, as well as finding extra resources to help the continent cope with the downturn.
Africa will be represented at the G20 summit in London by South Africa, and two African organisations — the African Union Commission and New Partnership for Africa's Development — have also been invited.
Rich countries had also committed to conclude the World Trade Organisation's (WTO) Doha round, he noted.
Doha is a development round, which meant that measures vital to developing countries such as the reduction or removal of rich-country subsidies on farm produce, must take priority.
Kaberuka said the African Development Bank could draw on its triple-A credit rating and step up borrowing to raise funds for African states that are now unable to tap the market.
But the bank, like other international financial institutions, will need a capital increase to help it shoulder increased demands put on it by the G20 leading nations, he told a news briefing.
Kaberuka declined to specify how much extra capital the bank needs, noting this was a matter for shareholders, but said: "I welcome very much the indications that the Asian Development Bank might be going for a 200 percent capital increase, and the countries of Asia are pushing very hard for this increase."
"I imagine the needs in Africa are larger," he added.
Kaberuka said that the AfDB had raised more than $1 billion in December, and had to be ready to mobilise more resources as the crisis hit Africa. "As it increases we are able to go to the markets and borrow money," he said.
